Bhoja Air crash: Hail to the sound bite addict!
Hours after the fiery death of 127 Bhoja Air passengers, our interior minister, hungering for sound bite-upon-sound bite, raced to the crash site. His getting there was so important that ambulances and rescue vehicles were forced to move aside and clear the route for his motorcade. Fortunately, either good sense or the army told him to turn around halfway, but why he needed his full motorcade to go to a disaster area with him in the first place is beyond me. Why he thought his motorcade should be given priority over emergency vehicles is also beyond me. His presence at the site ...
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Want rescue? Please hold indefinitely
I was standing in the kitchen with my mother when we heard a vehicle come to a screeching halt on the main road we live across. As I peered out of the window, I saw the red car slam into what looked like a pick-up truck. There was a loud bang and then both the vehicles turned upside down on impact. Immediately I grabbed the phone and dialled 15. The recorded voice of a woman asked me to hold and I did. This went on for around five precious minutes before the operator picked up. “Hello Madam, Rescue 15.” “Hello. There has ...
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Video blog: What I saw in Badin
Two hundred people have fallen prey to the devastation that hit Badin and other areas in Sindh by more than 1,000 millimeters of rain in the last month. This is the heaviest rainfall ever recorded in Sindh. Compare this to the 70 odd millimeters of rain that has fallen in Karachi over the past few days and one begins to realize the magnitude of the catastrophe Sindh is facing. I was in Badin earlier this week with a group of volunteers called SA Relief. I witnessed, first hand, what exactly was going on. From our entrance into the Golarchi area ...
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Is the worst over for MV Suez?
It is really hard to decide which side to take whenever a debate ensues on whether the lives of captives on MV Suez should’ve been bought after paying millions of dollars to Somali pirates. But just yesterday I got a chance to speak to the captain of the released ship, Captain Wasi, in one of our broadcasts. His replies were full of zest and there was no sign of disappointment over the delay in reaching Salalah Port in Oman. That truly was indicative that nothing seemed big enough compared to the terror of death that had loomed over the 22 ...
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