UAE has stopped issuing visas to nationals of poor countries

When I visited Taiwan in 1991, my hosts were amazed that I had gone to Singapore first. "What's there is Singapore?" one of them asked. "It's all artificial". I agreed, even though I went to Singapore later due to pressure of my family members. The same holds true for Dubai and the rest of UAE. Why do people want to go there? I would like to mention here that I've visited the UAE four times, not because I like it (I don't), but because I have close relatives living there. 

So, I'm not upset over the UAE government's refusal to issue visas to people of poor countries like Pakistan (although, in a sense, Pakistan is a richer country than even UAE, but more of that later). It  seems that Pakistanis under the age of 45 do not stand a chance of getting a UAE visa, unless they have rich relatives there who can sponsor them. 

Despite so many people not getting visas, flights from Karachi to Dubai are full, even though most of the people going there are not the kind I would like to be friendly with. Most of them are laborers working there, but some have invested heavily in real estate in Dubai. Those are the ones who've made their millions in Pakistan, but have no faith in the country's future.

Trump being cordial to Mamdani shocks Americans!

Lo and behold, we saw another side of Trump when he met Mamdani. He even asked Mamdani to say yes when the New York mayor-elect was asked if he still considered that Trump is a fascist. This is definitely not the Trump we know, as we've seen how rudely he treated Zelensky. Let's hope that Trump changes and becomes a really nice and lovable person. 

But the question remains: will Mamdani be able to persuade billionaires like Trump to pay more taxes on their properties? It will indeed be a miracle if that happens.

I can't help comparing the situation of New York with that of Karachi. If only the taxes paid by Karachi residents were used for the city's development, it would not be the world's least livable. That can only happen only if the city is made a province. Unfortunately, that won't happen for a long time.

Heavy rains cause havoc in Karachi again

Even when I was 7 or 8, Karachi  would be flooded every time it rained heavily (which was after every three or four years). I remember Mr. Jinnah saying "Clouds in Karachi have no water". The climate of Karachi, like its people, is very different from the climate in the rest of the country. This year, for instance, except for Karachi, the country has seen rains and floods since June. So we thought this would be one of those years in which Karachi would be dry (like the past two years). But yesterday the rains were the heaviest in years (up to 180 mm in some parts of the city).

In 1977, perhaps the heaviest rains (10 inches) had struck the city. I was then doing construction jobs in the SITE area, one of the many industrial districts in the city. It took me more than four hours to reach my house in Clifton (normally it was a journey of half an hour). Yesterday, I was stuck on the flooded roads for two hours instead of the 15 minutes it usually takes. Many people I know were also stranded for hours, one of them even went back to his office after three hours in the slow-moving traffic. He spent the night in his office and went home at seven in the morning today.

Many people ask why Karachi doesn't have a working drainage system, despite them paying heavy taxes. One reason is that the present drains can sustain rains of two inches maximum. Another reason of course is the pervasive corruption that is threatening to destroy the country. 

Building collapse

Published in DAWN on July 24, 2025

BUILDING COLLAPSE: This is with reference to the editorial ‘Building collapse’ (July 5). I do not understand why some people often blame the Sindh government for such tragedies. It has done a ‘good job’ by taking necessary steps to prevent such incidents in future.

For instance, it renamed the Karachi Building Control Authority (KBCA) as the Sindh Building Control Authority (SBCA). What else a government can do? Anyone can now violate building codes, and construct 15 floors above the permitted 10. This will allow at least some people to earn billions of rupees and send the money into foreign bank accounts. We should all stop blaming the seriously efficient Sindh government.

 

Shakir Lakhani

Karachi

 

https://www.dawn.com/news/1926239/building-collapse

Buildings falling in Karachi: why should we be surprised?

 It was in 1969 or early 1970 that a contractor took me to see what is called a "peer" (pronounced like "peel"). I was not well and he told me that just looking at the "peer" would turn me into a new man. The man lived in a dilapidated building somewhere in Saddar, and at first I hesitated, but the contractor told me not to worry, the building would remain standing as long as the holy man lived there, which was in a poorly constructed shed on the roof. Needless to say, looking at the saint did not have any effect on me, but I'm mentioning this episode to point out that even in those days, violations of the building code were breezily taking place, even though not as frequently as today.

The day before yesterday a building fell in the old city area of Lyari, killing many people (27 bodies have so far been taken out of the rubble, twenty of them belonging to a Hindu family). The authorities had given permission for only two floors, but the builder had constructed another floor, so when it was decided to demolish the third floor, the builder went ahead and made two other floors and a penthouse, further endangering the building. 

Another building (one with eight floors) nearby has developed cracks and is in danger of collapsing, but its residents have refused to leave, even though electricity, gas and water have been disconnected. It is reported that there are about a thousand such structures in the city that need to be demolished. More tragedies are sure to follow. 

Shock-proof

 Published in DAWN on March 22, 2006

RESIDENTS of multi-storeyed buildings in Karachi have been asked to prove that their buildings are earthquake-proof. The only way to find out if a building will be able to withstand an earthquake is to supervise its construction from start to finish and this was supposed to be done by the Karachi Building Control Authority. There is of course another method but I doubt if it will appeal to anyone: explode a high-intensity bomb within a radius of ten fleet and see if the building remains standing. 

Shakir Lakhani

Karachi

PIA's missing wheel

NOT UNUSUAL

Published in DAWN on March 23, 2025

Embed from Getty Images

This is with reference to the report “PIA aircraft’s missing wheel found at Karachi airport” (March 15). It is believed that PK-306 lost one of its wheels after it struck an object on the runway at Karachi. The incident was handled casually by the airline, probably because it takes such things as normal. I hope we do not get to see news items like ‘PIA plane lands with only one engine running’, or ‘PIA crew makes successful landing despite the pilot being fast asleep’.

Shakir Lakhani

Karachi

https://www.dawn.com/news/1899796/going-home-for-eid

There will be no Hindus left in Pakistan

Until recently, Hindus led comfortable lives in Karachi and the rest of Sindh, it was only the Christians and Ahmedis who left the country due to persecution. But now, more and more Hindus are leaving their ancestral lands and migrating to India. Some have even gone to Australia. 

The problem is that most Pakistanis have been brainwashed into believing that the country was made only for Muslims and non-Muslims have no right to live here. If you look at the Pakistan Resolution of 1940, you find that India would be divided into many independent, sovereign states where the minorities of India could live safely. Minorities included Sikhs and Christians, but this is breezily overlooked by our religious bigots.

In Chitral, only a thousand Kafiristanis remain, yet even those are being targeted by our religious parties to convert. In Gilgit Baltistan, there is continuous tension between the Sunnis and Shias, while in Baluchistan, many Hazaras have been forced to migrate. All this is due to the belief that converting a non-Muslim to Islam will get one immediately into paradise.

Unfortunately there is nothing that can be done, apart from closing down our madressahs where many children are being fed this kind of poison.

Karachi contractors

Soluble roads

Published in The News on September 21, 2024

The Sindh government has reportedly decided to spend Rs1.5 billion to repair roads, bridges and underpasses damaged by heavy rainfall. I strongly advise that this money instead be distributed among the poor. The reason is that contractors in Karachi firmly believe that it's a heinous crime to do any work that can last more than a year. This is one reason why Karachi roads turn into potholes after less than half an inch of rain, while roads in Lahore can seemingly withstand 30 inches of rain.

Shakir Lakhani

Karachi

https://e.thenews.com.pk/detail?id=343482

Millionaire beggars

I saw a video clip today which showed an attractive Pakistani woman who became wealthy by begging. She's earned enough to buy two apartments and a restaurant in Malaysia. She's given up begging now, but she did say that most beggars don't need to beg, they have enough to live on for the rest of their lives.

This reminded me of a millionaire beggar about whom I wrote in DAWN in 1998. He appeared to be blind, deaf and lame, and when I discovered that he was a Memon like me, I collected some cash and went to his house, where I found that he was actually a fake beggar, and a millionaire to boot. In another article for Tribune, I had estimated that there must be more than two million beggars in Karachi, particularly in the month of fasting. 

In Karachi itself, practically every locality has a social organization providing free food to the poor. Yet whenever I've told beggars to go there, they turn away. Apparently they don't want the food, they want the money. One day in Clifton, I was about to give money

to a child beggar when he told me to buy him a burger instead. It turned out that there was a goon watching him and if I gave the kid any money, he would come over and take it from him. Apparently the goon had many such children begging and making him rich.

 

How did this school principal rape more than 25 girls so easily?

Irfan Memon, a school principal in Malir (a suburb of Karachi), is accused of raping more than twenty five women whom he had promised to employ as teachers in his school. Years ago, I had written about Ali Mohammed Hajiano ("Rapist in a white Corolla"), who had kidnapped and raped thirty seven women. I don't know what happened to him. If he was sentenced to a jail term, he's probably free by now (if he ever went to jail, which is doubtful, as he was the son of a civil servant).

I can't understand how Irfan Memon raped these girls so easily. They could have resisted with all their might, they could have yelled at the top of their voices, yet they silently allowed him to undress them and do the unthinkable. Were they very poor and needed employment desperately? Didn't they know that being in a room alone with a man could result in getting them pregnant?

There are reports that he raped forty five women, but only five women have appeared and accused him of raping them. I saw a video clip in which a misogynist claimed that these women agreed to have sex with him when he promised to give them jobs. He also suggested that they were the type who would sleep with anyone for money. I doubt it. The poor girls could have been simpletons who didn't know anything about sex. Let's wait and see how the case develops.

Karachi an unliveable city?

A few months after Ayub Khan seized power in 1958, Karachi was declared the cleanest city in the world. But only a year or so after Bhutto came into power, it was described as the "dirtiest" city in the world. This despite the fact that in those days there were many towns in the country that were much dirtier. 

Since then, Karachi has received a bad press almost every year. Recently the Guardian newspaper published a list of unlivable cities. Only three were worse than Karachi, the worst being Damascus. At the bottom (better than Damascus but worse than Karachi) were Lagos and Tripoli.

I have lived in Karachi for 76 years now. I don't think I can live anywhere else for more than a couple of months than Karachi. I know that parts of Karachi are not safe. I live in a gated community where we have twenty four hour water and electricity. There are parts of Karachi where I have not been for many years now. When I'm outside my gated apartment complex, I'm at risk of being mugged, but this is true of most other large cities as well. 

A relative of mine was in the US some years back on a short visit. He had been invited to dinner and almost all the guests (who had migrated from Karachi) were speaking ill of their home city, particularly about its street crimes. Suddenly they were interrupted by another guest who had just been mugged outside the house. His car had also been snatched. My relative couldn't help telling those present that their city was not much different from Karachi.

Chinese dentists in Karachi targeted by killers

Anyone could have foreseen that this would happen. A Chinese dentist and his wife were seriously injured and their assistant (also Chinese) was killed in Karachi yesterday. Obviously they were targeted by Baloch separatists who have reportedly shot down two helicopters recently. The injured dentist is the brother of another Chinese dentist who used to be my neighbor until 2009 when I lived in Clifton. The brother Anthony Hu has his own clinic near my office in Clifton. For many years I and my wife used to be his patients. He has Pakistani nationality and speaks good Urdu.

Karachi has had Chinese dentists for more than a hundred years now. In fact, I don't think there were dentists of any other ethnicity or nationality in the 1950s. There was an expensive Chinese dentist with an office in the Excelsior Hotel when I was in my teens (in the 1960s). His son Mervyn Hussain is also a dentist. He's a very good writer but for some reason he hasn't written much in recent months. I'm not sure but I believe Adrian Hussain is his brother. He too is a good writer and now writes a weekly column in DAWN.

I can't understand why the police were not able to anticipate the attack on the Chinese couple. Their clinic is in perhaps the most crowded area of Karachi (Saddar) where it's easy for anyone to kill and disappear in the adjoining streets. They should have advised the dentist to employ security guards. But I don't think our agencies are competent and I doubt if they'll be able to find the killer.

Karachi's recent rains may not be due to global warming

Weather is uniform in Pakistan (except Karachi, which has unpredictable weather). This is why, when usually the rest of the country is suffering bitter cold or intolerable heat, Karachi isn't. It's another matter that some of those who visit Karachi say that its weather is intolerable, but I remember the writer Ayaz Amir calling it glorious (this was in November).

Just as rain in other parts of the country is predictable, in Karachi it isn't. I remember some years when there were practically no rains (as in 2021), while there have been years (like this one) when the rains have caused urban flooding and many deaths.

Sometime in the 1950s, my school compound was invaded by some families displaced by rains. They must have been there for many weeks, living in make-shift tents, preventing us from playing cricket and other games.

In 1967, there were heavy rains again, but the one I remember vividly was on 30th June 1977. About 9 inches of rain fell that night, which was a record until then. 

This year, perhaps Karachi has received more rains than any previous year. We'll know when August is over. But since people's memories are short, every time it rains heavily in Karachi, it seems like a record. It is blamed on global warming, but I doubt it. Not many people know that a tsunami struck Karachi in 1946 (it was then a very small town). I doubt if global warming was responsible for that.

A new conspiracy theory about Nesla Towers

People are puzzled about the Chief Justice's urgency to demolish Nesla Towers immediately. There are some who say the judge wants to do it because he has a grudge against the builder, there are others who think it's because he wants to be known as a fearless man who became the only judge to stand up to the powerful builder's mafia. Maybe he wants to be like the Indian judges who have got many buildings (mostly owned by Muslims) demolished in Chennai and Mumbai.

There is, however, a new conspiracy theory spread by Imran Khan's followers and loyalists. It goes like this: most of the public didn't know that the apex court "regularized" two properties owned by Imran Khan, one being in Bani Gala (his huge mansion built on twenty five thousand square yards of agricultural land), the other being an apartment in a high rise (where he got something worth a hundred million for only ten million). Lawyers for Nesla Towers asked the Chief Justice why there are double standards, one for the prime minister and the other for the common residents of Nesla Towers, and why those properties could be regularized on payment while the poor residents of Nesla Towers are being deprived of their dwellings without adequate compensation. The judge said the two cases are "distinguishable", whatever that means. But the publicity made most of the nation aware of how the so-called Mr. Clean (Imran Khan) got away with gross violations of the law. 

So, Imran Khan's loyalists are convinced that it's a plot by the establishment to make Imran unpopular and lose the next elections (as if corruption and inflation don't even matter). 

PPP's surprising victory in Karachi's Baldia (NA-249)

A major upset occurred yesterday when the PPP candidate Qadir Mandokhel narrowly defeated PMLN's Miftah Ismail (whom I personally like and favored, because he is from my community). However, the winning candidate is also likable, being a professor and a social worker in the locality. This, by the way, is the same constituency where a fraudster (Faisal Vawda) won by a narrow margin against Shahbaz Sharif in the massively rigged 2018 elections. At sthat time, the Election Commission flouted all the rules and refused a recount, and if it does so this time as well, people will very likely believe that the establishment has rigged this time as well. And there is plenty of evidence that in fifteen polling booths, there has been rigging. 

Which makes me think, it isn't so difficult to rig elections. In 2018, it was the soldiers and police which "persuaded" people to cast their votes for Imran Khan. Yesterday it was the Sindhi cops and presiding officers who indulged in rigging. 

But whether rigging happened or not, one thing is clear: the PTI can't survive long. In the past ten bye-elections, it has been able to win only one, and yesterday it trailed behind the PPP, the PMLN and even the banned TLP. It also proves that it won the 2018 elections with the massive support o f the military and the establishment, so it really is a "selected" government.

I do think it's good that the constituency has finally got someone in the PPP  to represent them in the national assembly. Let's hope the ruling PPP in Sindh finally spends some of Karachi's huge taxes to improve conditions in Baldia, assuming of course that Imran Khan releases Sindh's share of taxes to the province (which doesn't seem likely).

Rains in Karachi can disrupt life

Embed from Getty Images

One of Mr. Jinnah's quotes I remember is "Karachi clouds have no water in them". I personally believe that we should be lucky that it rarely rains in Karachi (and there have been years without any rain at all).

On June 30, 1977, the city was paralyzed after a 9 inch rainfall. Nursery Market was submerged in water for many days, and after the water receded, the marks left on the walls of shops showed that the water had been so high that short people (and children) would have drowned in it.

Today we had four inches of rain, and we can expect that no one will turn up to work tomorrow at our office tomorrow (it's Saturday, a day on which the staff goes home at three, unless there is a very heavy work-load, which doesn't happen often).

The only time we had heavy rains in winter was on February 18, 1979. I remember the date because the rain had dissolved the entire stock of salt in my open-air salt works located in the coastal area of Karachi. 

In engineering college, we learnt why (in the entire subcontinent), the only airport in the region had been constructed in Karachi. It was because this was the only city that had a stable climate all the year round and the British needed such a place between the two world wars. For many years after independence, all international flights used to depart from Karachi only (even people living in erstwhile East Pakistan had to come to Karachi to go to foreign countries). Now of course, every major city in Pakistan has a large airport, with flights to foreign countries departing from Karachi, Lahore, Quetta, Peshawer, and even Sialkot (where the airport was built by private entrepreneurs).

Government should open Karachi’s beaches for the public

 Published in Daily Times on June 23, 2020

The government recently relaxed restrictions and lifted the lockdown imposed for the past two months. Shopping malls are now open, public transport has resumed, and people made to wear masks and maintain social distancing. As the Great Khan said, it was done to prevent people from starving and revive the economy.

The government recently relaxed restrictions and lifted the lockdown imposed for the past two months. Shopping malls are now open, public transport has resumed, and people made to wear masks and maintain social distancing. As the Great Khan said, it was done to prevent people from starving and revive the economy.

One of the oldest truths I’ve known is that people are usually safe from air-borne viruses in open spaces like beaches. Fifty years ago, there was a vicious flu virus that was making people sick, even though it was not as deadly as Covid-19. I was being posted to the sea shore for construction of an oil terminal and I was worried that I might fall victim to the flu virus. “There’s a greater chance of you getting infected from the virus here in this air-conditioned office building than out in the open,” said my superior.

All the evidence so far suggests that the risk of getting infected outdoors is very low, certainly very much lower than getting infected indoors (In China, only one outbreak of infections occurred outdoors, due to neighbors talking to each other without observing social distancing).

Which brings me to the question of opening Karachi’s Hawkesbay and Sandspit beaches to the public. The simple folk living in villages near the beaches are very poor. Until two decades back, they were mostly Baloch (Makranis), but in the past two decades people from all over the country have settled there.They try to survive by working in salt works, catching fish and working in a few small factories nearby as daily wage workers. But a large part of their income is obtained from supplying cold drinks, fruits and other edibles to picnic goers on the two weekly and other festival holidays. Ever since the lockdown was imposed, this source of revenue is no longer available to them, which has made them poorer than they already were.This is why I think the government should allow people to go to the beaches, considering that there is a very low risk of getting infected there compared to the risk involved in going to shopping malls, markets, mosques and buses. The strong sea breeze would immediately disperse the virus and thus weaken it, preventing people from getting infected if there is an infected person nearby. And there is no evidence that an infected person bathing in the sea can transmit the virus to those nearby, as the swirling water of the ocean would minimize any chance of that happening.

Of course, to minimize the risks even more, the same SOPs should be imposed on people going in cars to the beaches. Those not wearing masks should be stopped and turned back. Patrolling on the beaches is already being done to prevent picnickers from wading into deep waters when the sea is rough. The same staff can be used to enforce the wearing of masks and maintaining a minimum of six feet.

Opening the beaches to the public will revive the economy of the area, besides providing the citizens of Karachi the much needed Vitamin D from sunshine which they are prevented from getting due to being confined indoors. I hope the people in power realize the importance and necessity of allowing people to go to the beaches and will issue the necessary orders.

Shakir Lakhani

The writer is an engineer, a former visiting lecturer at NED Engineering College, an industrialist, and has been associated with the petroleum, chemical industries for many years. He tweets @shakirlakhani

https://dailytimes.com.pk/630647/government-should-open-karachis-beaches-for-the-public/

Medical treatment in Karachi

In the 1950s, there were very few doctors in Karachi. My sister (six years younger than me) had not yet learned to walk when she was struck by a mysterious illness. I and my mother had to take her for forty days to a doctor whose clinic was four kilometers away from our house in Jodia Bazaar (an old Karachi locality). There were no other doctors nearby except that one in Burns Road (who treated my sister successfully).

When my mother developed diabetes in the 1960s, there were only two or three pathological laboratories in the city. The most frequented one was in Saddar (Saleem Laboratories) where a long queue of people was already present when I and  my mother would go there at seven in the morning. Today, there must be at least fifty such labs in Karachi. 

I was in Lahore with my parents in 1991 when my mother ran out of her diabetic pills. I went to the wholesale medicine market, but couldn't find any shop that sold Daonil. In fact, no one there knew of anyone who sold medication for diabetes. Returning to our hotel, I saw a pharmacist about to draw down the shutters of his shop (it was nine at night). I ran towards him and asked him if he had the medication. It turned out that his was the only shop in Lahore which stocked it. He did charge a good price for it too.

Those who live in Karachi are luckier, The number of doctors has increased phenomenally and I believe we have the best heart and kidney specialists in the world. In fact, I once came across a Saudi woman who was receiving treatment from the kidney specialist who was treating my mother as well. This was more than fifteen years ago.

Take my own case. Nine years ago, when I developed heart trouble, the doctor who inserted two stents in my body was a lady (she is still one of the most well-known heart specialists in the country). I'm again in need of heart treatment, I found there are many hospitals devoted exclusively for treatment of heart and kidney diseases.

I don't think any other city in the country has so many specialists and hospitals as Karachi has. At least in this respect, Karachi has progressed more than the rest of the country.

Religious discrimination in Karachi

The residents of a new building in Clifton (Macchiara Residency) put up a notice that non-Muslims would not be allowed to buy or rent apartments in it. The residents (undoubtedly those belonging to my ethnic group, the Memons) were astonished when there was an uproar in the social media. They hastily removed the notice when media personnel came over to interview them. Apparently they didn't know that it is a crime to prevent those of other religious or ethnic groups buying or renting property in their premises.

It's like what happens in India all the time, where Muslims like Shabana Azmi were not able to buy a house in Mumbai because of their religion. In fact, some Indians don't like having even Hindu non-vegetarians as their neighbors.

There are buildings in Karachi where only the followers of the Aga Khan and Bohras are allowed to live (of course it is not a written rule, but brokers have been told about it). So when the Memons decided to follow suit, they thought it wouldn't be noticed. 

Years ago, a neighbor's son came to me and said he wanted to rent out his flat in Amber Tower. He said he would not allow a Shia to live in his flat, although there were already a couple of Shia families in the building (in fact, when I sold my flat, it was a Shia who bought it). Until that time I didn't know that Sunnis hated Shias so much.

In the building I live in now, there are all kinds of people, not only Shias, but even Hindus and Christians. This was never a serious matter, and in one Bohri locality (Shabbirabad) they had to waive the rule of not allowing non-Bohris living there, so now many Memons have moved into some bungalows there.

It's a pity, this practice of discrimination on the basis of religion. Some of the best people I've known have been non-Muslims. Perhaps one day we'll see our people treating minorities as one of their own.