New pricing formula of Ariel - 60 gms and 1 kgs packs - interesting indeed.

Recently Ariel pakistan has been marketing 2 packs of ariel detergents.

60 gms for Rs. 10
and 1 kg for Rs. 199

As been the practice, the bigger packs cost lesser , however in this scenario , the smaller pack is costing lesser.

if i buy 20 pack of 60 gms @ Rs. 10 / each
this will make it 1200 gms for Rs. 200

while if i buy a single pack of 1 kg ( 1000 gms)
i am still paying 200

so buying smaller packs is more feasable than buying the bigger pack ?

Seems interesting price calculation to me, or am i missing the point somewhere ?

Check your motor vehicle registration details, online in pakistan

check your car motorcycle / vehicle registration details online.
no need to go to civic center
- but this is for punjab only , for now :)

more provinces may be added , may be :)

http://mtmis.punjab.gov.pk/

Send gifts to Pakistan.Pakistan online florists.

Over the years pakistani online market has seen the emergence of many online gift stores, allowing overseas pakistani to order online and have the gifts delivered to their loved ones back home in Pakistan.

Some of the sites to send gifts to pakistan are:

www.giftshift.com
www.pakistangifthouse.com
www.giftscenario.com
www.madinagifts.com

may be doing a search on "send gifts to pakistan" or pakistan gift, gift pakistan would reveal several search results. Many of the site are pseudo, that is belonging to the same owner, using several names to allow greater search visibility.

Many new sites are coming up day by day, however with recession hitting the west and the competition in the pakistan online gift market, the market is pretty slow and not as it used to be in the early days.

Top 10 richest Pakistanis

1: Mian Muhammad Mansha


Ranking: 1 Worth: Rs 232.4 billion ($2.8billion) Industry: Businessman


Mansha has around 40 companies on board. Mansha, who owns the Muslim Commercial Bank is one of the richest Pakistanis around.

Nishat Group was country's 15th richest family in 1970, 6th in 1990 and Number 1 in 1997. Mansha is on the board of nearly 50 companies.

He could have bought the United Bank too, but then who doesn't have adversaries. Nishat Group comprises of textiles, cement, leasing, insurance and management companies. If Mansha was bitten by Bhutto's nationalization stint of 1970, his friends think he was compensated by Nawaz Sharif's denationalization programme to a very good effect. There is no stopping Mansha and he is still on the move.

Nishat group assets are $4.4Billion. He is sometimes even regarded as the richest Pakistani around by his friends claiming he does not "show it off".


2: Asif Ali Zardari


Ranking: 2 Worth: Rs 190 billion ($2.3billion) Industry: Politics/Business


President Asif Zardari dubbed "Mr 10%" (now Mr 50%) an unknown happy-go-lucky son of a small-time businessman who struck gold by marrying one of the worlds most influential women Former Premier Late Benzair Bhutto.

Taking advantage of his wife's authority he is known to have taken kickbacks from many deals inside and outside of Pakistan. The most famous was a $4 billion deal to buy 32 Mirage jets from the French company Dassault. Documents, which include letters from Dassault executives, indicate an agreement was reached to pay a 5% "remuneration" - about $200m - to Marleton Business, a BVI company controlled by Zardari. Besides these many more kickback deals were taken with companies such as ARY Gold, Société Général de Surveillance (SGS), Cotecna, and ZPC Ursus, a Polish tractor company.

At present, many are claiming that Zardari is getting more than $ 1 billion commission from rental power projects for accommodating his buddy Chairman Associated Group Iqbal Z. Ahmed.

Zardari assets holding amount into hundreds of millions of dollars easily, Having 8 prime properties in the UK, of which once is the famous Rockwood Estate 365 acres in Surrey, worth £4.35m has now been sold and money sent back to the Govt. of Pakistan. Also 14 multi-million dollar mansions in the USA, including owning Holiday Inn hotel Houston, Texas Owned by "Mr 10%" and Iqbal Memon and Sadar-ud-Din Hashwani.

Zardari also has huge business ventures in the Middle East running into hundreds of millions if not billion mark. He also has huge stakes in sugar mills all over Pakistan, which include: Sakrand Sugar Mills, Nawabshah, Ansari Sugar Mills, Hyderabad, Mirza Sugar Mills, Badin, Pangrio Sugar Mills, Thatta and Bachani Sugar Mills, Sanghar.


3 - Sir Anwar Pervaiz UK


Ranking: 3 Worth: Rs 141 billion ($1.7billion) Industry: Businessman


Chairman of Bestway Group. The Bestway Group started in 1976 with its first Bestway cash and carry warehouse opened in London. Today the have in total around 50 Cash and Carry's. Including their recent takeover of rival group Batleys for around £100m. Bestway Group ventured into Pakistan's huge the cement business in 1995 and set up cement manufacturing plant in Pakistan at a cost of $120 million.

Taking Advantage of Pakistan growing economy they also acquired a 25.5% stake in United Bank Limited in 2002. Today, the Bestway Group has interests in cash & carry wholesale, property investments, retail outlets, milling of rice, lentils and pulses, cement production and more recently into banking. The group's total sales amounted to in excess of £ 2 billion. The group provides direct employment to thousands in the UK and Pakistan. The have many interests in Pakistan too. Sir Anwar Pervaiz and his his partners sheer hard work has bought them to outstanding international levels, which definitely makes him an ideal role model for many young Pakistanis today. He still on the move!


4 - Sharif Brothers Saudi


Ranking: 4 Worth: Rs 132.8 billion ($1.6billion) Industry: Politics/Businessman


Mr Sharif Businessman turned politician the former Prime Minister of Pakistan. He was ousted in a military coup in 1999 and was forced to forfeit $9million dollars and some of his assets including his $5m Mansion is Raiwind near Lahore. Before becoming PM he was a major share holder along with his brother and cousins of Ittefaq Group, having assets well in excess of £50m in the 90's.

However he got richer when he took commissions from foreign companies for construction in Pakistan. He build the first motorway and many new roads and took heavy kickbacks. He then also stole $100m from the Iqra funds, he started a new scheme "Ghar Apna" in which he again looted around $40m, the "Mulk swaaro" scheme involving public & govt. money collections to help pay pf Pakistan's debts also was pocketed.

Today his party is government in waiting, which is looking for apt time to kick the PPP government's ass to get its turn again.


5 - Saddaruddin Hashwani Pakistan


Ranking: 5 Worth: Rs 125b ($1.5billion) Industry: Businessman


Saddaruddin Hashwani is Chairman Hashoo Group is known for his dominance in Pakistan's hotel industry, though Hashwanis are have huge strength in real estate business too.

Hashwanis are involved in trading of cotton, grain and steel and till the nationalization of cotton export in 1974, they were widely being dubbed as the Cotton Kings of Pakistan.

Today, this group has excelled in export of rice, wheat, cotton and barley. It owns textile units, besides having invested billions in mines, minerals. hotels, insurance, batteries, tobacco, residential properties, construction, engineering and information technology.

In 1984, Hashwani defeated the Lakhanis in the bid for Premier Tobacco but was arrested along with his brother Akbar in 1986 for allegedly evading customs duty on cigarettes.

Sadarduddin's brother Akbar and the children of another late brother Hassan Ali Hashwani together manage around 45 companies. Akbar runs the second Hashwani Group. He is one of the most well-known magnates in Pakistan who is a regular invitee at the Diplomatic Enclave. The list of local and international bigwigs known personally to Hashwani is unending.


6 - Nasir Schon & family U.A.E/Pakistan


Ranking: 6 (tied at 6) Worth: Rs 83b ($1billion) Industry: Businessman


Nasir Schon is a prominent business leader of Pakistan and the CEO of Schon Group. Nasir Schon is the son of Captain Ather Schon Hussain, an ex-pilot of PIA.

The Schon family is one of the few striving Muhajir Urdu business families in Pakistan. Starting off in Singapore in 1982, the peek of Schon group was in 1995 when they owned National Fibres, Schon Bank, Schon Textiles and Pak-China Fertizilers.

Famous for the trend-setting roundabout, Schon Circle, Nasir Schon is also known to be one of the first people to have a Rolls-Royce in Pakistan. Directors of Schon group flew to Dubai in 1997 in exile after the dismissal of ex-Prime Minister Late Benazir Bhutto.

The directors of Schon group were known to have close contacts with President Asif Zardari. Many assets of the Schon group were auctioned by the Nawaz Sharif government. Schon Group is the only group in Pakistan who has paid the government over 3 billion rupees ($65m) in order to return from exile. Living in Dubai gave Nasir Schon an opportunity to start businesses there. Currently working on an $830 million real estate project known as Dubai lagoon, Schon group is also fighting to get back the assets they once lost. Currently, the Schon group operates a pilot training center in Pakistan known as Schon Air.


7 - Abdul Razzaq Yakoub & family U.A.E


Ranking: 7 (tied at 6) Worth: Rs 83b ($1billion) Industry: Businessman


Mr Yakoub is a prominent Pakistani expatriate businessman based in Dubai. He is the president ARY group ($1.5Billion turnover) and World Memon Organization (WMO).

He is one of Pakistan's biggest media barons controlling around 7 channels. Besides this he has a huge property holdings in Karachi, Islamabad and Dubai amounting to over $200m. He is major in the gold market also having around 20 outlets in Asia. He has also been involved in paying Asif Zardari $5m in 1990's for allowing him to import/export gold. Which he denies and claim's is government forgeries.


8 - Rafiq Habib & Rasheed Habib Pakistan


Ranking: 8 Worth: £450m ($900) Industry: Businessman


Legend has it that the Goddess of Wealth has been in love with the seasoned Habibs more than anybody else in Pakistan. Most pundits believe that Habibs own at least 100 companies throughout the world, but these content mega-tycoons never boast off, something which has made it uphill for most to predict about their financial standing.

This industrial group was founded by Seth Habib Mitha, born in 1878 to Esmail Ali-a factory owner in Bombay. The financial strength of the Habibs can be gauged from the fact that Muhammad Ali Habib gave a cheque of Rs 80 million to Quaid-e-Azam in 1948 at a time when Pakistan government was penniless owing to delay in transfer of Pakistan's share of Rs. 750 million by the Reserve Bank of India. They had offices in Europe in 1912. They incorporated the Habib Bank in 1941.

They own the Habib Bank A.G Zurich, Bank Al-Habib, Indus Motors assembling Corolla cars and many dozens of units in sectors such as jute, paper sack, minerals, steel, tiles, synthetics sugar, glass, construction, concrete, farm autos, banking, oil, computers, music, paper, packages, leasing and capital management.

Habibs today are headed by Rafiq Habib and Rashid Habib in two distinct groups. What makes them extremely influential players of all times is the fact that for dozens of top businessmen today, Habib were a myth once.


9 - Tariq Saigol & Nasim Saigol


Ranking: 9 Worth: £425m ($850) Industry: Businessman


Hailing from Jhelum. The pioneer of the Saigol dynasty in 1890 was Amin Saigol who established a shoe shop that eventually transformed into Kohinoor Rubber Works. And then times saw them shining literally like the Kohinoor until their progress was halted by Nationalization in which they lost two-thirds of their wealth. Saigols got trifurcated in 1976 and 15 descendents of Amin Saigols four sons got a share.

The name of the Saigols has been used in this part of the world as similes describing quantum of wealth. Yousaf Saigol, along with his brothers Sayeed Saigol, Bashir Saigol and Gul Saigol then nourished an excellent crop.

In 1948, Saigols established the Kohinoor Textile Mills with a cost of Rs 8 million and this group happens to be the first to open an LC with the State Bank of Pakistan. They bought the United Bank in 1959 and then witnessed five of their units getting nationalized. They lived in Saudi Arabia during the Bhutto regime.

Today, cousins Tariq and Nasim are holding the family's fort together and have risen to unprecedented heights in individual capacities. NAB did haunt Nasim but Tariq spent more time either accepting or refusing prized slots everywhere. Tariq is the one of the finest business brains around.


10 - Dewan Yousaf Farooqui


Ranking: 10 (tied at 9) Worth: £400m ($800) Industry: Businessman


Mr Farooqui. The mentor of this group has been the Sindh Minister for Local Bodies. Industries, Labour, Transport, Mines & Minerals.

Dewan Mushtaq Group is one of the Pakistan's largest industrial conglomerates in sectors like polyester acrylic fiber, manufacturing and automotives. Six of their companies are listed at the Karachi & stock Exchange and one at the Luxembourg bourse. Dewan Farooqui Motors assembles around 10,000 cars annually under technical license agreement with Hyundai and Kia Motors of Korea.

The Dewan Salman Fiber is the pride of this empire as it ranks 11th in the world in total production capacity. The group owns three textile units, a motorcycle manufacturing concern and the largest sugar unit in the country. Dewans also have business interests in India. They possess dozens of millions of shares of Saudi Cement and Pak land Cement. They also have the franchise licence for BMW in Pakistan and now Rolls Royce showrooms.


10 – Sultan Ali Lakhani & family


Ranking: 10 (tied at 10) Worth: £400m ($800) Industry: Businessman


The Lakhanis are currently having a hard time at the hands of NAB. Sultan Lakhani and his three brothers run this prestigious group and the chain of McDonald's restaurants in Pakistan.

NAB has alleged the Lakhanis of having created phoney companies through worthless directors and raised massive loans from various banks and financial institutions.

NAB had reportedly demanded Rs 7 billion from Lakhanis, but later agreed they pay only Rs 1.5 billion over a 10-year period. Lakhanis, like their arch-rivals Hashwanis, are the most well-known of all Ismaeli tycoons. Their stakes range from media, tobacco, paper, chemicals and surgical equipment to cotton, packaging, insurance, detergents and other house-hold items, many of which are joint ventures with leading international conglomerates.

They have rifts with large business empires despite being known fur their genteel nature. Whether it is any government in Sindh or at the Federal level, Lakhanis have had trusted friends everywhere, though the present era has proved a painful exception.

Unfortunately, our extensive research does not currently include the names of a few stars that shone brightly amidst the galaxy of the influential creed of yesteryear like C.M.Latif of BECO- the Steel Man of Pakistan- who did make a lot of name once, but then got gifted with contentment somehow, although the late business wizard got very badly hit by Bhutto's nationalization of 1970 which had inflicted an astounding thud to everybody in business then. Had it not been the case, many of our tycoons may well have managed to gain the kind of status greeting the likes of Birlas and Tatas in India today, if not the one saluting Bill Gates or Warren Buffet.
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Umpire 0 Umpire - save our empire.

ICC should adopt a new policy of not allowing the umpires whose countries have reached the semi final to umpire in the other semi final. So if four countries have reached the semi finals, then none of the umpires from these 4 countries be allowed to umpire in the semi finals.

Umpires are also human and sometimes favortism and preferences might creep in when making a decision.

This might have also been the case in the Pakistan's semi final against NewZealand. No doubt Simon Taufel is an excellend umpire, but at times umpires may make a decision to favor their own team ?

How Many mobile Connections are Issued against Your CNIC ?

Following service has been launched by PTA. Through this you can get to know number of connections registered in your name with different mobile operators. In case the number of connections is more than you have in mind, then its better to contact the Service Center of the concerned mobile operator, and get the number blocked, to save yourself from any unpleasnt surprise in future.

A well wanted service is being introduced by PTA in collaboration with all companies. Now you can know the amount of connections issued against your CNIC.

Simply write your CNIC (without dashes) and send it to 668

For instance
Write 3749127299334 and send it to 668.

You will get a reply with number of connections issued against this CNIC for 6 companies (Mobilink, Warid, Zong, Telenor, SCO and Ufone).
Service won’t tell you cell numbers, instead it will actually tell you amount of numbers –

for instance, Mobilink 3,
Ufone 3,
Telenor 2,
SCO 0,
Warid 0
Total 8.

DHA Infrastructure Charges

Recently DHA has imposed infrastructure charges on its residents on the pretext of laying new storm water drain, claiming to have spent millions of Ruppees on laying new storm water drains.

DHA has not mentioned the loss its residents had to face when they were putting down these drains.

When DHA started to put the storm water drain in our street ( Q street), the digging and drilling staff was unmindful of the underground utilities like electricity wires, gas. sewerage and water line and kept on digging without caring for the damage the digging would cause to the underground utility. Also the crane and drilling machines was inconsiderate about the overhead electricity and phone wires.

As soon as they started digging the road with the help of the machines, our underground electricity wire was damaged. Just a few meters away from the electricity wires was the gas pipe line which was uprooted. Just overhead was our telephone and cable tv wires, which were being badly stretched and pulled by the elbow / arm of the crane.

The road digging staff was without an engineer and did not have any idea of the under ground utilities that they may damage thru their mindless digging.

It was soon the neighbors intervened that the digging was stopped and the labour was forced to stop work, as they were about to damage every cable and every gas line if they continued to do so.

Till today, my underground electricity is damaged and urepaired, and I have been give a temporary overhead connection by the KESC , and to have a regular over head connection I have to submit a new application with the KESC and have to pay charges for wire and pole which would amount to approximately Rs. 25000.

One of my telephone is still out of order and unrepaired till todate.
Our family had to go thru severe mental torture as result of damaged electricity cable, damaged gas line and damaged phone line.
Who is going to pay for the losses which we have gone thru both financially and mentally ?

kesc and tax due date

The recent electricity bill's due date is 19th September 2009.
This would be the last working day before Eid. It is observed that banks are over crowded and over loaded on the last working day before eid. Also the bank timings are very short during the month of ramzan.

KESC is requested to increase the due date by at least 10 days.

Further, the last date for filing income tax return is 30th September 2009.
Since many people perform umrah, sit in atekaf, and have to offer prayers at night in laila tul qadr
its becoming tedious to file income tax return.

Like last year FBR should increase the date by 15 days to allow effeciently filing of tax.

Control of KESC should be given to the government ?

For all of those people who are the supporters for handing over KESC to the government so that its performance improves should think twice.

How many government run companies and organizations do we know that are being run effeciently by the government machinery ?

Pakistan Steel Mills, Pakistan Railways, Pakistan International Airline (recently privitized) - all are making massive losses and are as good as being bankrupt.

So how can we expect the government to perform any thing extra ordinary to KESC ?
Just like all other government run organizations, KESC, if taken over by the government, could face the same fate after a little while.

Haj - First timer experience

Haj is a spritual journey, which every muslim should perform at least once in his lifetime, providing he can bear the expenses and has the physical strength.

Almost 3 million people perform Haj every year - which is performed between 8th to 12th Zilhaj of the Islamic Calendar.

I had the honour and privilege of performing Haj in the year 2008.
To be honest I was not so excited and was a bit worried as to how the things will go and how i will be able to cope up among the crowd of 3 million people coming from almost from every part of the world with various backgrounds.

The logistics, the transport, the hotels, the people I will have to cope up with.
The time and duration it will take to perform certain tasks as i would be in a crowd
of 3 million people performing the same task at the same time. The tawaf, the Saii, and all other religious duties.

I was to land in Madina , and from there had to go to Mekkah to perform Haj and then back to the country.

I have heard many stories from people who have already performed Haj and Umrah about the problems they faced and delays and people they have encountered.

This added more to my woes, being a first time visitor to the hold place of Mekkah and Medina.

AS i landed In madina, all the things I have heard and listened seemed to be stories only.

ARRIVAL IN MADINA

I was told that as we will land in madina airport, we would have to wait at least 6hours for the immigration and customs and to reach our hotel destination.

This turned to be otherway.
The only wait we had to do was in the immigration line , which was very much usual and normal - the way we would have to wait in any other country -

It took around an hour to clear the immigration process.

After clearing that we were out of the airport , caliming our baggage and waiting for our bus and to board on it.

From landing to reaching our hotel it took almost around 3 hours -
But all the wait was usual and normal - and perhaps we would have to wait the same amount of time , if we were to visit any other country.

The ride from the airport to our hotel in madina was about 25 minutes. Again this was a smooth ride and the city was not showing any hectic sign as at this time around in madina it was estimated to have around 1.5 million people.

We reached our hotel , which was next to haram - movenpick anwarul madinah , which was just next door to haram / masjid e nabwi.

As like in any other country , facing high toruist season with lots of check ins and check outs hapenning every time - WE face the same situation.
As we were in a group of 52 people - and many more people were to check in at the same time - It took us another 30 minutes to check in -

Once we were in our hotel room , it was like anyother 5 star hotel room anywhere in the world - with every thing in order and fixed.

Normally you would experience not so good service in the hotels which are having high toursit season, and at times some fixtures in the room not in order .

But that was not the case - Hotels and rooms were in top mint condition and in order - clean.

Accomodation was one of my big concern , and I was very releaved to have a good nice cozy room, with access to haram just less than 2 minutes walk.

The first picture is the view of the hotel buidlings from inside in the haram - And was taken at sunrise - one of my favorite photograph.

Acessing haram was easy - just walk down the hotel and you are there in the haram - Just a few more steps and you are inside masjid e nabwi.

Finding a nice place in masjid e nabwi is tricky. As people tend to occupy the first available space as soon as they enter the masjid.

This leave the middle section of the masjib empty. So when you enter the masjid, you might find it occupied and filled -this is mainly because majority of the people take their place as soon as they enter the masjid.

So in order to have a nice place for your self , just start walking inside the mosque, as as you will find and feel that you are in the mosque you would be able to locate lots of empty places. So take a nice place for your self -

I had a few difficulties in finding agood place for my self for the same reason , but as i explored more , I was able to find a suitable place for myself.

Just a word of caution is to take an extra ja-e-namaz (prayer mat) in case you still cannot find a place, you can occupy the lobbies.

The market around haram is developed and spacious - you can find every thing you require, from food to medicine to mobile cards and road side shopping.

Since we were in all paid for tour , we did not have to que or wait for lunch and dinner and were provided pre packed lunch / diunner boxes - so this saved us a lot of time from standing in que for lunch and dinners -

Madina has well developed malls which cater all type of items from jewellery , perfumes, itar , dresses etc - so in case you get some time out from prayers - you might want to check the malls which are just next to haram and majority of them in the hotel building.

Madinah it self is stunning, spectacular views, very peaceful.

And yes, once you starts adjusting you will know that it is not very difficult to adjust your self in a crowd of so many , as they are there for the same purpose as you are - and tend to have a soft corner for every one - which makes life very much simpler and easier.

You are easily accomodated in the saf / prayer area - people offering you to sit next to them - Everyone seemed to patient and at ease - it felt as if i was not in the same world :)

The same thing could be seen in the markets and bazars and about -

Madina it self seemed and felt very peaceful and quiet.

Coming up next - Mekkah and Haj Days