Two teens take on Facebook and Google+ with ‘Scapehouse’

Two classmates have come up with a new social experiment, which they call Scapehouse. Scapehouse is the brainchild of two Dubai residents, Ali Razzouk and my good friend Abdullah Khan.
Ali describes Scapehouse in the following words:

 “I’ve been using Facebook and Twitter for a long time, and I have things that I like and
 dislike about both. Facebook’s privacy issues drive me crazy. On Twitter, the discussions
 are a mess, and 140 characters are just not enough for me to express myself most of the
 time. So we decided to combine the two models and came up with a whole new
 experience”, says Ali.

This is not ‘just another social network’ as you may feel, in fact this little thing carries immense potential. Following are some of the highlights of Scapehouse which makes it stand out from the competition.

The registration is fairly easy and simple, in fact if you already have a Facebook account, you can register via Facebook too. There is also a mobile site, so if you’re using one, just point your device to Scapehouse.com and you’ll be automatically be taken to the mobile site.
Also, Scapehouse is open to all feedback and criticism which can be given at http://scapehouse.com/corporate/contact 

Go ahead and give it a shot, and don’t forget to add me on Scapehouse > MAK009X.

Congratulations Mr. President, Commiserations Mr. Prime Minister

After the passage of the 18th Amendment by the parliament and its subsequent induction into law, the 18th Amendment is now officially a part of the Constitution of Pakistan. A big achievement indeed, the political parties, Prime Minister and especially the President–who agreed to strip his powers, deserve praise.

However while on one hand the 18th Amendment does away with the notorious 58(2)b, which gave the power to the President to dissolve all sitting assemblies at will, on the other hand, it has also given the power to the heads of the political parties to sack any member of the National or Provincial assemblies belonging to his party. Just in case you forgot, our President is currently the effective chairman of the PPP, which means he can sack the PM at any time, in a matter of minutes.

In other words, the final word will be the Presidents, and it will be on his orders that the government will act.

Apart from this, the requirement for political parties to hold intra party elections has also been finished. Another controversial clause in the amendment is the procedure for the appointment of the judges. Apparently many top jurists and eminent lawyers are not happy with it, and see the issue going to the Supreme Court, which they say the SC can strike down on the basis that it is against the basic structures of the constitution.

The 18th Amendment is big step but our lawmakers should begin the groundwork for the 19th Amendment to amend the flaws in the 18th Amendment.

WikiMir Fraudia List: A compilation of all the big names of corruption in Pakistani politics and beyond

I was googling around when I happened to stumble upon this interesting list, dubbed the ‘fraudia’ list, which is an initiative to compile the names of the all the corrupt politicians, bureaucrats, Generals and journalists. The list contains names from people like our President to corrupt bureaucrats like Ahmed Riaz Sheikh along with all their known corruption. A message on the page says:

We are compiling this list as a community project. If you have any information regarding a Pakistani politician, bureaucrat, military person, journalist just write it here. If you do not want to edit this web page, you car write on the Discussion Page for Fraudia List. It would be then added onto the Fraudia List. Any, all help is highly appreciated.

This a highly appreciable project– if you think you know any politician/bureaucrat/general or journalist involved in corruption, feel free to add their name to the ever growing fraudia list.

Earth Hour 2010 in Pakistan

Thanks to an initiative taken by WWF Pakistan, like many other countries around the world, Pakistan will be actively taking part in the Earth Hour–the world’s largest global climate change initiative led by the World Wide Fund for Nature Global during which people will switch off their lights for an hour, although lights here in Pakistan remain switched off for hours due to unprecedented load shedding.

Prime Minister Syed Yusuf Raza Gilani launched Earth Hour 2010 during which environmentally conscious people in the country will show solidarity by turning off household lights from 8.30 to 9.30 p.m on Saturday, March 27. In a message on the occasion, the Prime Minister urged Pakistanis to join the government in the launch of Earth Hour calling it “a historic moment of which government of Pakistan is justly proud to reconfirm its commitment in demonstrating solidarity with environmentally conscious people.”/>

Earth Hour will be observed from 8:30 PM to 9:30 PM. So enjoy the darkness, light some candles, post pictures or videos, tweet about it, and spread the word. For more info check out http://www.wwfpak.org/earthhour/

Summary of Pakistan in 2 and a half minutes

Pakistan is not all about bombs, terrorism, poverty and all. The video below shows us another aspect of Pakistan which perhaps hasn’t been seen by many.