PESHAWAR, Pakistan - A surge of violence continued unabated in Pakistan’s tribal border region Thursday, with a car bomb blasting a bus filled with Pakistani police and government workers off a bridge and killing eight people aboard.More than 200 people have died in Taliban bombings and clashes since longtime U.S. ally Pervez Musharraf quit as president and triggered a power struggle that caused the country’s ruling coalition to collapse.
U.S. officials have been pressing for more action against insurgent strongholds in Pakistan’s wild border region.Pakistan’s military insists it is doing what it can to contain militants and prevent them from moving against NATO and Afghan troops on the other side of the Afghan-Pakistan border.
Pakistan’s army chief secretly met the chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, and other top American commanders Tuesday on the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln in the Indian Ocean to talk about what else could be done.The meeting was the latest of several between Adm. Mike Mullen and General Ashfaq Kayani.
Click here to read more…
The National Institute of Oceanography (NIO) is located in Karachi. It was established in 1981 by the Ministry of Science and Technology, Government of Pakistan (MoST). The main area of research of the Institute is the north Arabian Sea and beyond. The oceanic and atmospheric processes of the north Arabian Sea modify our climate, offer numerous living and non-living resources, Oceanographic research brings together all the scientific disciplines needed to study the ocean: physics, chemistry, biology, geology & geophysics, ocean technology, coastal hydraulics & coastal zone management
NIO head office
The ambit of oceanography extends from the atmosphere to the ocean floor and below it, and from the coastal region to the great mass of the deep oceans.
Pakistan coast is about 1046 Km long extending from Indian border in the east to the Iranian border in the west. The Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) of Pakistan is about 240,000 sq. km, with additional continental shelf area of about 50,000 sq. km. As such, the total maritime zone of Pakistan is over 30% of the land area. This region is characterized by distinctive oceanic phenomena, that produces rich fisheries, mineral, and hydrocarbon resource.
Click here to read more…
The Baloch tribes from Balochistan and Makran established a small settlement of fishing community and called it Kolachi (the tribe still inhibits in different parts of Sindh). The modern port-city of Karachi however, was developed by authorities of the British Raj in the 19th century. Upon the independence of Pakistan in 1947, the city was selected to become the national capital, and was settled by Muslim refugees from India, which radically expanded the city’s population and transformed the demographics and economy. Karachi has faced major infrastructural and socio-economic challenges, but modern industries and businesses have developed in the city, and the population expanded even after the capital was moved to Islamabad in August 1960.
An old image of karachi from 1889
The area of Karachi has been known to the ancient Greeks by many names. Krokola, the place where Alexander the Great camped to prepare a fleet for Babylonia after his campaign in the Indus valley; ‘Morontobara’ port (probably the modern Manora Island near the Karachi harbour), from where Alexander’s admiral Nearchus sailed for back home; and Barbarikon, a sea port of the Indo-Greek Bactrian kingdom. It was also known as the port of Debal to the Arabs, from where Muhammad bin Qasim led his conquering force into South Asia in 712 AD. According to the British historian Eliot, parts of city of Karachi and the island of Manora constituted the city of Debal.
Click here to read more…
In 1975-6, the Cambridge Archaeological Expedition made a preliminary survey of the Paleolithic sites in the Rohri Hills. According to their findings, the Rohri Hills were a source of chart for the manufacture of the parallel-sided blades used by the Harappan culture of 2300-1750 BC. The most clearly differentiated Paleolithic site in the Rohri Hills at their southern end,
Reference: http://www.trekearth.com/ Copyright: Jaan khoso
Karachi due to its geographical and strategic location is known as the gateway to Asia. Considered as a safe Harbor since time immemorial, Karachi was a small fishing village in early Nineteenth Century. Historians identify it with its proximity to a place from where a part of Alexander’s Army, boarded the Greek Flotilla in 326 B.C.
The first mention of Karachi as a port is found in an Arabic treatise ‘Muhit’ on navigation relating to the West Coast of India and the Persian Gulf. Written in 1558, this treatise warns the sailors of whirlpools and advises them to seek safety in Karachi Harbor if they found themselves drifting dangerously.
It is also significant to mention that the first Muslim Conqueror of India, Mohammad Bin Qasim, landed at Daibal, in vicinity of Karachi in 711 A.D. Karachi also has the distinction of being the birth place of the founder of Pakistan, Quaid-e-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah and was the first capital of Pakistan till 1963. It is now the largest city with a bustling and ever increasing population of over ten million.
Click here to read more…
By Amra Ali, Reference: http://www.dawn.com
It was on a nostalgic note that the Indus Gallery, Karachi held an exhibition last month of the works by students of Ali Imam. Several painters who got their early training from the late maestro have continued to explore and cultivate the visual vocabulary which was vibrant in the 1970s. Imam Sahib, himself a painter, stood like a guiding force and a father figure to the art community in Pakistan, first after his return from Paris in the 60s as the first Principal of the Central Institute of Arts and Crafts, and later as the director of the Indus Gallery.
Click here to read more…
The Kalabagh dam is a mega water reservoir that Government of Pakistan planning to develop across the Indus River, one of the world’s largest rivers. The proposed site for the dam is situated at Kalabagh in Mianwali District of the north-west Punjab province, bordering NWFP.
The dam project is a highly controversial and has been so since its inception. In December 2005, General Pervez Musharraf, who became the President of Pakistan after a 1999 coup, announced that he would definitely build the dam in the larger interest of Pakistan.
History:
The region of Kalabagh was once an autonomous jagir (feudal estate) within Punjab. It was annexed by the Sikhs in 1822. After the British annexed the Punjab, the Nawab of Kalabagh was granted the jagir of Kalabagh, in recognition of his services to the British Raj.
According to the PC-II of the Project, Kala Bagh dam was initiated by GOP in 1953, and until 1973, the project was basically considered as a storage project for meeting the irrigation needs, and consequently, rapid increases in the cost of energy have greatly enhanced the priority of the dam as a power project.
The project’s paperwork was finalized in March, 1984, with the assistance of the United Nations Development Programme; supervised by the World Bank, for the client Water and Power Development Authority (WAPDA) of Pakistan.
Click here to read more…
