Bilal’s personal blog

May Allah (Almighty) bestow HIS peace, mercy and blessings upon all muslims during the sacred month of Ramadan ul Mubarak and always…

When we talk about shopping, every customer tends to find the most easiest, secure & quick way of trading. Yes every one will go for what they consider easy & convenient for him. Online shopping in this regard is the most suitable buying trend that is going popular day by day. It’s an easy practice for buying and selling a number of products via internet. it saves your time as well as money, Particularly when i observe the scenario here at my country, Pakistan. I realized that with the expansion of internet users, the trend towards online shopping is increasing. But however I believe e trade concept yet need to gain public awareness & acceptability. On the other hand there some hurdles that lagging us behind in the race of E- commerce.

The most notable hurdle in the way of online trade is of E-commerce support from Pakistani banks. Unfortunately there is no financial institute in Pakistan that offer account i.e. “paypal” for online shopping or e commerce. So therefore there is no other option for Pakistani online buyers & sellers to trade products online via credit card. Illiteracy & lack of exposure to the internet is also a factor for the low trend in online shopping. But infact who is known about it (e entreprenure) seems helpless due to the non availibility of online bank account. similarly limited sense of trust on online shopping portals is another threat. Here I must say that E-commerce carries tremendous potential at Pakistani market so it’s the great need of time for e bankers as well as government to take necessary measures that likely to open all the ways for internet users to explore & manage their shopping over the web easily.

Yes! Not only the house hold commodities but also the prices of major car assemblers in Pakistan raises the prices of their all models of cars. Although there are cars from various brands available at market here in Pakistan but the three major cars manufacturers are Suzuki (Pak Suzuki Motor Company Limited) Honda (atlas motors ) and Toyota (Indus Motor Company). I came to know about the current rise in prices when a friend of mine ask me to check the price of Suzuki mehran at company outlet here at Peshawar, so as a matter of fact I visit their showroom yesterday & was surprised to see the boom in prices of all the cars, the dealer told me that last week the price of this very model of Suzuki mehran was 20,000 lesser then what it is today. However I inform my friend about the prices & give him suggestion to go for any good model of Honda or Toyota (the most notable’s cars manufacturer in Pakistan) but later I came to know that both of these companies followed the footsteps of pak Suzuki & they also increases their cars prices.

According to local automobiles news, the current rise in car prices is due to the falling value of rupee against various currencies e.g. US Dollar & Euro as well as rise in steel prices at the country. Yes! I believe cars manufactures have no other option except increase in price to cover their manufacturing cost, here I must say one thing that the current rise in fuel & car prices as well as government restriction on the import of used cars not older than three years, all these circumstances may leads to cut down the sale of cars at its lowest level in the incoming months inside the country, lets see..

I am not very found of watches to keep me updated about time, the simple reason behind this is my cell phone & as you all know every cell phone is equipped with a clock. So wearing a watch for the reason to see time is worthless & yes, if someone goes to wear it will be definitely for fashion or he might work with laser engraving machines

Now coming to the main topic for which i want to blog about is something that happens with me today. infect it was known to me that to use more daylight time to conserve energy, Pakistan has advanced the official clock by one hour last midnight but what exactly happen, i cant remember to advanced the time at my cell phone. i woke up with the same routine & get myself ready to go for work. the while i was heading towards the main gate of the hostel as i see the clock hooked there, it was not matching with the time of my cell phone, then i realized i am one hour late.huh..anyways now i have set the time & i am confident i will not get confused. Yes now my time is as accurate as yours

As you all know that the annual budget for the year 2008-2009 is arriving in 2^nd week of this coming month. The present scenario (especially in case of house hold commodities) the retailers in the market seem in dumping a range of products for future sale. This is the revenue generating technique used by greedy retailers as well as whole sellers when they hold their stock from the reach of final consumer as they expect the prices of these products to be raised after the budget because of the increasing in sales tax, with holding tax, custom duty etc. 

I still remember that time when i got the chance to drive a car for the first time, it was an exciting moment for me. then little by little after doing practice for few days i got hold of it & successfully became a car driver. yes that was good old days in 1996 when the price of one liter petrol in pakistan was 16 rupee. you people were amazed about the title of this post but let me tell you that the current price is Rs 74.77 per liter.. sports cars lovers are the major victims, that is why we witnessed the number of sports cars moving on roads are decreasing day by day, so despite of driving big cars with powerful engines like American dream machine with dodge charger san diego they are forced to get a 70 cc bike or a bicycle to move on roads because that’s the only option left with the people having middle class socio economic status.

The rise in the price of petrol is due the increase in fuel prices in the international market, but however the government need to take some initiatives to cope with the fuel crises in the country, yes CNG (compressed natural gas) is another alternative fueling option but i am afraid that the price of CNG will tends to rise if the prices of petrol continues to rise in the country.

The search engine giant google is now there to help you in your health related issues too.Users can now log in to the service at google.com/health to make their medical profile.  import their medical records, fill prescriptions, and get lab results, similarly keep the track of immunizations as well as get pertinent news alerts. this is what i believe a very positive step to help users in their health related problem. they can discuss their any health problem there & get satisfactory advice & recomendations.

Internet has made revolution in our life, we can easily find necessary informations for every problem that we face in our life, weather it is the problem related to our health, either it was the matter of probate planning we can find dozens of solutions at a single click.

The house where you live is your own? I know more then 50 % people will answer with “NO”. Especially in  Pakistan it’s very hard to buy a small house in all major cities. There are several reasons for this like the unequal distribution of wealth among different segments of people in the society. In Pakistan more then 50% people are having the lowest socio economic condition.

So now the question is that who actually are the able peoples who can either buy or having residence at their own homes? So if we see the scenario in Pakistan. We can easily say that they will be a businessmen’s or those who’s grand parents left lands & their houses for them. but if you did’nt belongs to a business class family or you are not having lands or your own house. there is no need to be worried about. Economists have the solutions for every financial problem, yes! you can easily heir loans from any bank or inheritance funding company. You can easily repay the loan amount in installments & most interestingly many of the good funding companies offer loans on zero interest. So this is the most reliable way to buy a home. Isn’t it?

The ban on student unions had been imposed during zia ul haq military rule in 1984, but however it is obvious in political system when the central command of the country has been changed, & the authority to govern the country has been replaced by another individual. thus the new head of the state after taking the charge, immediately implement some new rules & regulations or either alter or modified some of the past laws or regulation. So we can therefore say that lifting ban on student unions in Pakistan by the newly elected Prime Minister Syed yousaf raza gilani is one of the example. But let’s see what consequences will came into sight after lifting the ban.

Let’s take the example of Peshawar University where I used to spend the past 3 years & where student unions/federations are at full boom even at that times when student unions & federations were banned by government. The most notable are PSF the supporters of ANP, awami national party & the followers of PPP, Pakistan peoples party. The third major party is islami jameat e talba, they all exercise their corner meetings on regular basis & their cabinet members are proud to be associated with the party, it is my personal observation that most the students who are associated with any party were weak in their studies & few of them often fails in the annual examination. the party members keep weapons like pistols with them to make other students afraid of it, they can easily broke university laws & regulations, during a peaceful protest rally against any issue they seems to destroy or harm university property, they treat the staff of canteens & cafeterias as they are their personal servants & didn’t even care to pay the bill after having a meal or tea. There is a separate room at every hostel dedicated for union activities and yes they are not bound to pay the annual rent, even the university authority seems to be helpless to get the things organized and make all the activities under the circle of law. This is the negative aspects I personally observed for being a student of journalism & mass communication during timeshare 2006-7. Lifting the ban is however a positive step to flourish the leadership qualities of a student and to make them able to get their rights in democratic manner. But on the other hand it is also considered as a menace for educational institutions. It is therefore predicted that the unions would destroy the academic environment of the holy institutions. Now the government has given the students a free hand to be organized & fight for their rights so lets see how can they use this right, either positively for the betterment of academic career or use it for their personal & political benefits, yes wait & see either it is helpful or harmful for students in universities.

Electricity is for sure one of the major necessity in todays world. but when we talk about summers in pakistan, we can say that its an element that makes us able to survive. electricity breakdown in summers is common thing, but there is a limit. since last 2 weeks electricity is playing seek & hide & i am helpless except to wait for meracle, & yes! there is another unfortunate thing happpened with me today when i witnessed the air conditioner in my room stop running, & later when i concern AC tecnicean he told me that its got some problem due to poor electric supply. it is however i orderd Frigidaire parts to make it back on track but what i want to say this that who is responsible for my loss?

Government is however taking initiatives to cope with the current electricity problem in the country, in this regard government  announced a new conservation plan according to which.All major markets, shopping plazas to be closed by 9pm,No electricity for neon signs and signboards,Air conditioners in all government offices, including PM Secretariat, to be turned off between 8am and 11am,Only 50pc of street lights to be turned on to save power,Shops to be closed on Friday, while offices closed on Sunday to stagger electricity usage. but i belive its a timely solution,so all we need to made new dams & solar energy plants, its a time to make it practicle instead of discussing it over tables.