With the current account deficit widening, inflation boiling at over 24% and foreign reserves dieing out at the rate of $1 billion a month. Pakistan’s economic indicators seem to have taken a nose dive. Where did it start and when will it end?

The dollar today stands at over Rs.80 in the open market. Citigroup calls weak rupee ‘a legacy of flawed economic policies’. Economic policies put in place by a generous gift to Pakistan, from Citigroup itself, the MBA-cum-economist Mr.Shaukat Aziz. The other Shaukat, Tareen our latest in the line of Finance ministers boldly throws all the blame on the previous government and it’s “Short-term” aimed policies.

So how the hell did we land up here?, is Zardari secretly stealing all those billions from our foreign reserves? no. I mean I’m sure he’s tempted to, but well that’s not how it works. People frequently ask me how everything went wrong after the PPP-led government took office. The answer to that is, it didn’t go wrong after the new government took office. It went wrong a year before that. When it was obvious to the Chuadries of Gujrat that they’d soon have to vacant government offices they didn’t like it.

The Hidden, and fairly obvious motives.

November 2007; I turn on my TV and a local economist on CNBC is trying to explain to the host the sinister intentions of Musharraf and his minions. Global oil prices have jumped up by almost $20 to $86/barrel in a span of 2 months, domestic prices world over are adjusted accordingly yet prices in Pakistan remain static. The government is providing an subsidy of almost Rs.40 per liter of petrol. Now multiply 40 by the number of liters of petrol sold in 24 hours across Pakistan, that’s the amount of money the government was paying Pak-Arab Refinery daily. Now all of this may seem good for the average automobile/factory owner, and it was in the short-short-term, but that wasn’t what Musharraf was aiming for, he’s smarter than that. The basic motive behind this was political gain, if they could just hold up five more months, the “Petrol ke keemtain bara dee” blame could be thrown on the new government which would either be PPP-led or PMLN-led.

While most people did not release why this was of any concern economists knew exactly where this was headed. Amid worsening economic situation - one of the reasons given for imposition of emergency on Nov 3rd 2007 - this was a deliberate blow to the long-awaited stability Musharraf had gained and was ready to throw down the drain owing to typical politics.

Here’s are excerpts from:

Business Recorder December 12 2007

ISLAMABAD (December 12 2007): President Pervez Musharraf has rejected any change in petroleum products’ pricing policy, leaving no other option for the caretaker government to absorb billions of rupees more as subsidy every month for protecting the consumers from international market price-hike.

A senior official told Business Recorder on Tuesday that after President’s ‘No’ to any change in existing policy there was no possibility of upward revision in oil prices for the next fortnight, commencing from December 16.
…
In the last couple of months of Shaukat Aziz regime, Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (Ogra), Ministry of Petroleum and Finance made serious efforts to get the policy of capped oil prices changed but they could not succeed. Now in caretaker setup Ogra and related ministries again presented their case with a hope to get positive response but they met the same response of not passing the real prices to the consumers.
…
Now when crude oil prices are ranging between $90 and $100 per barrel, the government is absorbing on average Rs 14 billion every month as subsidy. Such a big hit is widening budgetary deficit and worrying the economic team of the caretaker government.

Dawn newspaper on February 25, 2008

“Can the new elected government take the unpopular step to increase oil prices at the first available opportunity? Or will it allow the subsidy on oil prices to widen the budget deficit and to erode macro-economic stability the way the previous government and the caretakers did? It will be confronted with tough choices.“

These subsidies rose to about Rs 30 billion per month by the time the new government took charge. Domestic prices, static, the president had spoken.

The repercussions

This particular step by Musharraf virtually destroyed our economy, making billions for Pak-Arab refinery in the process. The federal reserves had declined by 37% before April 2008, our Petroleum Import bill had sky-rocketed. For the month of September our monthly import bill was $519.7m. By November it had increased to $939.4m and by the end of April it had reached $1458.8m (monthly), an increase of 280% within 7 months. Instead of cutting the demand, and substituting over to alternates, our nations consumption of oil gradually increased over this period. Opposite to what was happening world over.

Consequently our budget deficit had reached absurd digits, to finance the deficit the government literally printed notes. Below is an excerpt from State Bank of Pakistan’s latest report on Monetary policy:

More importantly, Government borrowing from the central bank was largely on track; as it borrowed only Rs23.2 billion. In short, major economic variables were showing that monetary transmission mechanism was working. However, since November 2007 onwards, monetary tightening began to lose some of its steam. Massive liquidity was injected in the system as the Government borrowed from SBP almost Rs178 billion in November and December 2007. This led to softening of key interest rates and money growth accelerated. At the same time, rising international oil and food prices impacted the inflation outlook and in absence of adjustment in domestic prices the financial burden of subsidies and high spending in other areas resulted in rising economic stress.

This heavy borrowing increased money supply which in-turn gave rise to the inflation and the castle of cards had started to fall, Investor’s got spooked and started withdrawing the dollars, pushing the economy into a downwards spiral. For those of you who do not know what a downwards spiral is, its when ‘Foreign reserves decline due to a reason of concern - in this case rising oil prices fueled by politics - people start withdrawing money from Pakistan, because they withdrew money foreign reserves went down further, again spooking more investors who also take out their money. This creates a cycle of declining foreign reserves”. As a consequence the rupee’s demand went down, increasing our cost of the dollar and in turn of a barrel of oil.

What now?

By now the Global economy has taken a sever hit, world over financial systems are collapsing (or have collapsed). While most developing countries dodged a more critical hit, Pakistan suffered because of its newly inflated Banking sector. Musharraf had actually taken focus off of agriculture - which showed a slow annul decline in his tenure - and manufacturing and pushed an infant economy onto a tertiary sector oriented growth.

Combined with global economic slowdown Pakistan’s near future does not look very promising, where countries like the U.S., France and Ireland can afford bail-out plans of more than half a trillion dollars each, I’m afraid we can-not do the same. While i am extremely negative on taking a loans from a U.S. based bank or fund, right now we do not have much choice.

From how i see it, if steered correctly Pakistan’s economy should be on rail by mid-2009 and blossoming in 2010. This is just a bump in our growth chart, it shall be over soon.

-Citations and further reading-
[1] http://www.nyse.tv/crude-oil-price-history.htm
[2] http://www.dawn.com/2008/02/25/ebr2.htm
[3] http://www.dawn.com/2008/06/02/ebr12.htm
[4] http://www.sbp.org.pk/ecodata/pakmon_survey.pdf
[5] http://www.statpak.gov.pk/depts/fbs/statistics/national_accounts/table12.pdf
[6] http://www.sbp.org.pk/ecodata/forex.pdf
[7] http://www.sbp.org.pk/ecodata/Netinflow.pdf
[8] http://www.statpak.gov.pk/depts/fbs/statistics/national_accounts/table13.pdf
[9] http://www.sbp.org.pk/ecodata/Import_Payments_by_Commodity_Arch.xls
[10] http://brecorder.com.pk/index.php?id=662808&currPageNo=1&query=&search=&term=&supDate=
[11] http://forex.com.pk/

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Asif Zardari’s politics of reconciliation took him to the doors of a 120 yard head quarters of MQM who had a bitter relationship with the PPP because of Benazir Bhutto’s extension of the infamous Operation Cleanup apart from the Sindhi-Mohajir or Rural-Urban Divide in Sindh.

The message was clear, “let’s forgive and forget” for the betterment of Sindh and Pakistan and start a new democratic Pakistan where each political party accepts each-other’s mandate. Asif Zardari also went on to visit the grave of Altaf Hussain’s brother to offer prayers – he was warmly welcomed by the emotional MQM leaders, workers and the people of Karachi.

Five months forward, MQM is part of the broader coalition but confused about her role in the new government thanks to the step-motherly treatment of the PPP’s government although things are about to be moved to a postive direction.

Nawaz Sharif politics on the other hand had been of confrontational nature where he played and still is playing “for the galleries”, which is understandable in politics since he was and is left with no other options – everyone seems opposition to him thanks to his six years of his civilian despotism in the nineties.

Sometime back PML-N hawks took a clue from an amateur politician and a social worker, Imran Khan and adopted; some say hijacked his stance on supporting the disposed judges. In couple of months the demoralized, plagued and leaderless PML-N successfully transformed the support for the deposed judges in Punjab into support for PML-N and won the elections in Punjab stabbing Imran Khan & the APDM which wanted to boycott the general elections.

In his own Set-Match-Game style Nawaz Sharif lost when a couple of months back underdog Asif Zardari the ever smiling and pleasant in his Dilip Kumar dialect ditched Nawaz Sharif by his famous words, “promise are meant to be broken”. It was politics…..

Asif Zardari not only ditched Nawaz Sharif on the restoration of former chief justice but successfully isolated him from being a national leader to a provincial to become the President of Pakistan replacing Mustafa Kamal Pasha Experiment gone wrong: General Pervez Mushraff (better of the worse lot).

Asif Zardari led government today is an extension of Mushraff’s government; authenticating Mushraff’s policies regarding war on terror and shifting the pendulum of power from Punjab to Sindh – a province which earns 2/3 of Pakistan’s revenue and giving a new sense of confidence to smaller provinces making the federation stronger.

Let’s give credit to Asif Zardari to end Balochistan insurgency to a large extent especially with regards to BLA which for the first time in her history called for a ceasefire – something which the wily’ old President General Mushraff – relic of the past? with all his power and carrots to Nawab’s failed to do.

Lets Talk Policies & Priorities…

The policies of the PPP led government may be in the right direction but the priorities seem to have lost direction in a short span. The government should understand the gravity of the economic condition and instead of rewarding her members more and more portfolios to cement alliances or reinstate thousands of Jayala SHOULD emphasize on cutting government’s expenditure and immediately stop privatizing profit-making institutions.

I fail to understand why this government should help via State Bank & KSE the infamous KSE-Mafia which believes in “Privatize the Profits & Subsidize the Losses” in a free market economy – why should government help inject Rs.200 Bn (that’s: $2.56Bn) in KSE to help brokers? I fail to understand….could this be Shaukat Tareen who headed KSE sometime back?

India recently post-Oil prices reduced Oil prices drastically while our government kept the prices static earning billions and then a zakat of Rs.10 per litre? And now fooled the nation by blaming OGRA – the regulator and price fixer. Then we have the wily Raja of Gujarkhan, Raja Pervez Ashraf as our power & electricity minister who came out with a rather foolish statement of linking electricity prices with the prices of oil which are at the lowest - $50 / barrel – who on earth are they fooling?

However I do not doubt the intentions of any of the minsters as they are people’s representatives but they should remember the real purpose of being made MoS – which is serve the interests of PEOPLE of PAKISTAN and not to the respected Ministry’s interest. They should stop acting like corporate leaders and start being politicians.

Just as if I had seen all the bad moves by PPP and Asif Zardari – the party awarded people like Zehri & Bajrani as MoS for Postal Services and Education.

PPP and Asif Zardari has somewhat mastered the art of emotional blackmailing like a true politician and has used his deceased wife’s name to legitimize anything and everything – what PPP and Asif needs to understand that it’s one thing to head a political party and another to lead a nation while those who oppose PPP’s government should understand that destablizing the current government would be playing at the hands of undemocratic forces – it’s vital that the process moves on and only time will filter the good, bad and the evil..that’s the beauty of democracy.

I also understand the difficulty of ruling a nation like Pakistan – this inexperienced government is somewhat unlucky to have taken over at such difficult times. Maybe they will eventually come out gracefully after some time – lets hope they do because somehow bizarrely with their stability lies the stability of Pakistan…..

Desi Statements…

Nawaz Sufism: Iftikhar Chaudry Jeway Jeway….

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Bloggers are also socio-political commentators; any change in the social and political landscape of a society will mean a shift in blogger’s orientation. Unlike mainstream media men, bloggers are considered to be voice of ‘people’ as they themselves belong to various political and social backgrounds and reflect what a man in street is thinking about socio-political environment of a society.

PAKISTANI BLOGGERS contributed a lot in terms of awareness and physical participation against former Dictator Pervez Musharraf, when he sacked the Chief Justice of Pakistan and later imposed a ‘Mini Martial Law’ to sack impartial judges.

Before general election in Pakistan, there were reservations about NRO and so called ‘deal’s’ rumors between Musharraf and exiled political leadership, but as a whole PAKISTANI BLOGGERS were for democracy. They had a huge impact to mobilize the young voters that they swayed the final majority against a ‘Dictator’. Participation of youth in rallies of Chief Justice and Benazir Bhutto is the evidence of impact of still ‘incubating blogging’ in Pakistan. They were blogging for change.

When PPP announced to impeach Pervez Musharraf, almost overnight, all bloggers who had been critical of the PPP Government, toned down. Dictator’s cowardly escape from ‘Presidency’ and resignation took the wind out of the sails of PPP’s sharpest critics. Bloggers are the windmills of social and political change, shifting with social and political winds. We have witnessed a change in attitudes of Bloggers.

Now, Zardari took over the Presidency but there is no change! Naik, Khosa and Babar Awan started playing with words and Chief Justice who began the silent revolution is still in streets. Shaheed Benazir Bhutto who was assassinated because she realized that NRO is nothing more then a trap became a forgotten story.

The ‘Democratic Government’ had come under unbridled attack; most of Bloggers now feel that ‘enough is enough’!

A new group of bloggers, more pro-establishment, emerged because a lot of people realised that maybe it was not such a good idea to vote for PPP. These were people installed by ‘hidden hand’ and are trying to prove that dictatorship is a blessing and an alternate of ‘Khillafat’. They were to counter Opposition bloggers but, unfortunately, today, there is a mix-up.

Zaid Hamid (Brasstacks), Ahmad Qureshi, Musharraf Zaidi and some others, who are thought to be ‘voices’ of hidden hand, are being mixed with pro-democracy bloggers.

When it comes to the criticism of present government, the ‘voices of ‘hidden hand’ with more resources and accommodation in media seems to be taking over the legitimate Pakistani Bloggers. Obviously, the anger and frustration of bloggers on unfulfilled promises of President Zardai has further distanced the Bloggers from present democratic government, who are very much political now, on both sides of the divide.

Bloggers during the general election were for change. The change is not visible today. The pro-democracy bloggers are being accused of not being supportive of democracy!

Rehman Malik, Latif Khosa, Faruk Nail and Babar Awan might conveniently convince President Zardari that all these bloggers are working for ‘hidden hand’ or so called establishment. They have a right to do so, because they have their own goals and scores to settle. President Zardari is convinced that ‘it’s all about hidden hand’, the bloggers and the media are ‘voices’ of establishment and nothing else.

What drives bloggers in the absence of monetary rewards? Pride in growing their blogs is another motivator, and certainly there is idealism. Whatever their political stripes and personal idiosyncrasies, bloggers are crusaders. Political affiliations can also be ideals but the justice and equality is what a man in street wants today and bloggers can not go beyond these demands.

Most socio-political bloggers are dissatisfied with policies of present democratic government but crossing the limits which can convince our youth to opt for a‘Bangladesh Model’ or a ‘Khilafat’ as being propagated by Zaid Hamid or Ahmad Qureshi is not an answer. ‘Legitimate Bloggers’ and present democratic regime have to draw the lines.

The ball is in Zardari’s court.

We walked together. We stood together against a dictator and oppression. Show us the change; show us the equality and justice, which is basis of PPP’s manifesto. This is not a so called ‘hidden hand’. This is demand of 165 million people. Bhutto gave them voice and courage and today they feel like that courage and voice being taken away!

Are bloggers and President ready to face the challenges or Ahmad Qureshi, Zaid Hamid, Latif Khosa and Faruk Naik will succeed? Being original is tough work and only the best succeed in stamping a distinctive mark. There are no other formulae for PPP government or Pakistani Blogging youth being represented by bloggers today to dream for a change.

Prove yourselves, Bloggers and President Zardari, otherwise, there is going to be oppression in name of ‘Bangladesh Model’ and I suspect a change in borders might follow the change in political landscape.

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Courtesy the brilliant producers at AAG TV

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KARACHI: Geo Network’s transmission has been stopped in most parts of Karachi. Cable operators blocked the transmission of Geo Network in a number of areas across the city on Monday, without assigning any reason for the stoppage.

People are making phone calls to the Geo’s Headquarter, asking for the reason as to why Geo News and other channels of Geo Network have been blocked.

If this blockage is limited to Karachi then might we suspect a fumbled catch between Shakil ur Rehman and MQM PPP? Deja Vu anyone?

UPDATE @1327: Geo TV website reports that this blockage is spread across the entire province of Sindh - and PEMRA has no knowledge of this blockage - Geo.tv story

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These are two out of many pictures of Salman Taseer, Governor Punjab. Salman Taseer has his own way of life. Every one knows well about this guy and his personal and social life. To him and his son Shehryar Taseer Life means Wine and women. We have nothing to do with their personal life but once one occupies any public office his personal become public. This is why according to the constitution of Pakistan

1. There shall be a Governor for each Province, who shall be appointed by the President [96A] in his discretion [97] after consultation with the Prime Minister. And
2. A person shall not be appointed a Governor unless he is qualified to be elected as member of the National Assembly and is not less that thirty-five years of age [98]

Who is qualified to be elected as MNA?

The constitution set these prerequisites for the membership of Majlis-e-Shoora (Parliament); A person shall not be qualified to be elected or chosen as a member of Majlis-e-Shoora (Parliament) unless :-

• (a) he is a citizen of Pakistan;
• (b) he is, in the case of the National Assembly, not less than twenty -five years of age and is enrolled as a voter in any electoral roll in- 
• (i) any part of Pakistan, for election to a general seat or a seat reserved for non-Muslims; and
• (ii) any area in a Province from which he seeks membership for election to a seat reserved for women. 
• (c) he is, in the case of Senate, not less than thirty years of age and is enrolled as a voter in any area in a Province or, as the case may be, the Federal Capital or the Federally Administered Tribal Areas, from where he seeks membership; 
• (d) He is of good character and is not commonly known as one who violates Islamic Injunctions; 
• (e) He has adequate knowledge of Islamic teachings and practices obligatory duties prescribed by Islam as well as abstains from major sins; 
• (f) He is sagacious, righteous and non-profligate and honest and ameen;

Thus, under the constitution of Pakistan, Salman Taseer, being the governor of Punjab should not have been what can be seen in the constitution. These pictures make him illegible for the office of governor hence shall be immediately removed. Now the question arises who will remove him? Look, again here we miss independent judiciary.

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Russia is the largest borrower from the International Monetary Fund (IMF). The initial objective and promises by IMF were to quickly bail Russia out of an economic crises, and throw it back on track. Today Russia’s debts to the IMF are so big that the only way to ensure repayment is to keep borrowing more. This summer alone $4.5bn have been borrowed entirely for minimum repayment of previous IMF loans.

A brief look at institution’s like the World Bank and IMF rings loud bells. The constant failures of such institutions have elevated poverty, widened the wealth gap, while corporate profits sore. The joint economic comity of the U.S. congress admitted that there is a mire 40% success rate of the World Bank. Even that is an exaggeration.

Pakistan is IMF’s next target, while President Zardari and Prime Minister Gilani keep on insisting that they will not accept IMF’s tough conditions and are negotiating them down to a reasonable level, it is highly unlikely.

Whenever a government takes up and IMF loan it is one of the following cases; ‘One’ it has already defaulted and failed, something which Pakistan is far from being. ‘Two’ the leadership is either corruptible or a U.S. puppet.

The conditions

While it is too soon to predict what the final conditions will be, they will most certainly be along the following lines.

• Currency Devaluation
• Privatization of critical state assets.
• Excise Duty on services and agriculture sectors.
• Reduction in defense budget
• Reduction in Development expenditure
• Increased general taxes
• High level IMF involvement in state economic affairs, including the appointment of key government personnel.
• Cuts in education and health care programs.
• Changes in foreign trade policy.
• High annual interest

In simple words, a further 15-20% of Pakistani popullation will be pushed under the poverty line. Our economic growth will be hampered, including a critical hit to the agricultural sector. We’ll be caught between the ever so popular “Vicous IMF cycle”, of further loans, and prolonged repayments.

Furthermore, IMF’s influence will not be confined to the economic side of our nation. It will systematically creep into social, political and other arenas as well. While U.S. already has more say power than our President himself over Pakistan, increased U.S. influence is a nightmare.

This certainly is not an helping hand.

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Viigo with the Goran Gatti in the background

Quite often the glamorous sights and sounds of tempting destinations worldwide lures us away from the abundant destinations within Pakistan. These last few days I was actually on a 4×4 expedition trip a secluded mountain called Goran Gatti located deep within Baluchistan within the Hingol National Park.

Goran Gatti is a breathtaking 3 km wide plateau mountain scaling at 1020m high, located roughly 300 km from Karachi, the only possible way to reach this beautiful destination is to either traverse on an extremely slow camel back journey or alternatively attempt the terrain with a few capable off road vehicle and maybe test our luck. The OffRoadPakistan club has since early 2007 been trying to reach this destination with three previously unsuccessful attempts embarked upon this fourth expedition hoping the last Baluchistan flood had tried up enough to allow a smoother passage. I personally was part of the previous two attempts but this time we were far better prepared then ever before, the challenge was to be the first ones to reach this mountain on jeeps

Our route was planned along the Hingol River to Aryan, a distance of 35 kilometers, and then turning left, following a water course for 27 kilometers to Goran Gatti Mountain. The park has a unique setting, not only being the largest National Park of Pakistan covering a mind boggling area in excess of 610,439 Hectares or nearly 6200 Sq kms., but also the only one with integrated terrestrial and marine habitats. The Hingol River, the largest river outside the Indus river system snakes through the park for over 100 kilometers and forms the link between mountains, valleys, riverine habitats, coastal sand dune areas, estuary and the Arabian Sea.

Parked with the Garhai Mountain in the backdrop

Under the umbrella of the 4×4 club called OffroadPakistan a team of 20 odd thrill seeking adventurers of Karachi packed their off-road vehicles to depart from Karachi for the 5-day adventure into the wilderness of Baluchistan

The initial approach to Hingol National Park is on well paved Karachi-Gawadar coastal highway some 200 km from Karachi to reach the Arabian Sea outlet of the Hingol River from this vantage point the smooth paved tarmac of the Coastal Highway was traded in for a dirt track northwards heading towards a prized Hindu temple called Nani Mander. A few kilometers shy of the Hindu temple the off-road fanatics jumped of the ‘kacha track‘ and truly went into four-by-four mode charting their ‘own way’ north following the river bed. It wasn’t too long after that nature started throwing at us every possible obstacle ranging from large boulders, thick brushes, trees, open desert, truckloads of dust and sand and sometimes we even had to gentle wade through the the occasional river bed which often camouflaged the unforgiving quick sand fondly nick named as ‘ghup‘. The uncharted route adopted by these vehicles was technically ‘the best drivable path’ with occasional guidance from a few local guides riding along side with us.

Goran Gatti Route - OffRoadPakistan.com

Cutting edge satellite technology was definitely in toe alongside as we had elaborately planned and analyzed the entire route on the satellite images obtained via Google Earth we even carried a laptop with the entire area cached if we might need more precise details for referencing. As a safeguard we carried an elaborate set of printouts of screen captures to some relevant sections the area. A few cars even sported on-board GPS devices to keep us on track with the planned route. All this geek paraphernalia was needed to ensure that we simply do not get lost while at the same time making efficient use of our time and resources.

Day 1 Campsite

The first day of driving ended at around sunset where we carefully chose a campsite overlooking the Hingol River. The selection of a campsite is important decision to ensure a safe and a good nights sleep, the sand must be soft so as to provide a natural cushion underneath the tents, the campsite must be at a safe distance from the river to avoid any overnight flooding which might could potentially wash everything away, and lastly it should also provide for some shade so that the campers can have a comfortable early morning breakfast. Camping as usual is fun with the company of some good friends who sit around to share their own campfire jokes and stories making it all a memorable experience.

Teeth Maestro snapping away

The second day, the hot sun had the entire team scrambling out of bed early, after a hearty breakfast and a quick dip in the cold Hingol river [crocodiles are known to prowl in the Hingol river, but none were spotted] we wrapped up our tents and headed westwards towards Goran. The torturous route chosen was the remains of a dried up river bed which may have at one time been a tributary draining flood water into the main Hingol river, navigation was tough weaving through boulders sand and tree, it apparently seemed to be an old river bed as we did not encounter any water or quick sand throughout this westward drive. This route apparently had a camel trail and we were amused to find out that this trial was still actively used as a camel back drug smuggling route towards Gawadar & Iran

Tie Rod being fixed up

En-route one of the vehicles got struck by a large loose boulder to fatally fracture the front tie rod in half, holding up the entire convoy of jeeps for a good few hours until the expert panel conjured up a creative solution to solidly repair the broken piece to a fully functional and drivable state and in roughly 2 1/2 hours we were on our way. With this unforeseen delay we were forced to camp out some 10 km short of Goran leaving the last 10km drive for the third day

The following day with such a short distance to our final destination it was mutually decided not to break camp for that day and we planned to return later in the evening to spend another night at the same location. With an upbeat atmosphere, as the looming mountain was within touching distance the off-roaders set off to make history and by noon we had easily navigated the terrain to finally touch the base of the Goran Mountain which was apparently the last jeep-able route which stood roughly 290m above sea-level. While some prepared to rest at the base a few adventurous young souls decided to try and actually trek up hoping to fully conquer the mountain, but predictably we were unprepared for the cliffhanger type of rock face and were forced to turn back very soon

Typically the drive back is quicker and challenges a bit dull. The fourth day we were easily able to return to our old campsite (Day1) which lay next to the Hingol River and to the luck of our avid group of anglers we were treated to twelve scrumptous fishes freshly caught from the river

On top of the Mud Volcano - Dare not step into it

Our return home on the fifth and final day we decided to detour to see the active Mud Volcanoes located roughly 150km from Karachi. [An easy day trip drive from Karachi]

OffroadPakistan is now gearing up for another adventure tour to Tharparker and Nagarparker sometime in December and soon thereabout a medical relief camp to Baluchistan along the lines of one which we organized to Dhuran in March 2008 (picasa pictures)

A word of advise to all Pakistanis - continue to explore Pakistan it simply breathtakingly beautiful, though its sad that the security situation within the country has turned away the tourism industry but at least until then we as Pakistanis can help explore the still untouched and virgin areas of our nation

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