For the past month or so i have been living in Lahore and preparing for my studies. While i was there i got a call from my friend back home asking if i wanted to go on a week long trip to Northern Areas of Pakistan. It was a very good opportunity as his uncle was in charge of the trip and he himself runs a Travel and Tour Company called Panoramic Pakistan they also arrange Trekking Tours, Safaris and Rock Climbing in Pakistan, i accepted the challenge and so the story started.

He called on 8th July while we were expected to start the tour on 11th of July from Islamabad so the time was short, On 9th July i went back home got my stuff packed and on 10th July i reached Islamabad took a nights rest and on 11th of July i was all up for it.

We gathered at his uncle’s house to get each and every detail sorted get our hiking gear and pre plan some of the important stuff although i didnt pay much attention : ) except to the map of N.Pakistan which showed our route winding through the Himalayas and Karakoram Highway.

We started our Journey from Islamabad to Taxila then Wah and from Wah we went to Abbottabad and then to Mansehra , Now mansehra is the central point you can either go to Kaghan and Naran valley from there or you can turn left and go towards Chilas and so on, We took the Chilas Route because of the local taliban and the SWAT Operation Kaghan and Naran valley are not very safe these days , so from Mansehra we went towards Chilas , we ate lunch at Rana’s Foood & Lodge in Sharkool here are pics

and then we made our way towards Chilas as we had planned to spent the first night in Chilas but we were not able to do so so we spent our first night at Khyber Lodge & Hotel in Barseen

The next day we made an early start and made our way towards Chillas but we we were not going to make a stop in Chilas but went through and had our lunch at a local truck hotel and must say it was a great one.After lunch we made our way to Raikot Bridge where we reached in few hours. At Raikot Bridge we left our Wagon and hired a Jeep which took an hour to transport us halfway to the top of the mountain from where we had to trek ourself towards Fairy Meadows.The Jeep dropped us off at a small rest area where we had some local “Kahwa” or Tea and an urgent energy boost with a Daal Lunch, chicken and any other meat is pretty hard to find in these areas.

After Lunch we started our 3 and half hour trek towards Fairy Meadows , to be honest the first half an hour of ascent was so tiring that we almost gave up but gradually we made our pace and those 3 hours went by pretty fast as we spent most of the time checking out the woods and streams and spent the other times taking photographing each and everything yes each and everything i have got a collection of over 3000 photographs from the trip.

After hours of trekking and the local guide telling us 2000 times that it was just round the corner we finally reached Fairy Meadows and it certainly was a sight to see…lush green grounds with horses grazing in the fields and water streams winding through the meadows.Forgot to mention it had some of the great views of Nanga Parbat we tried to go to Nanga Parbat base camp but due to the weather we could only reach as far as Nanga Parbat Viewpoint.

We spent two days in fairy meadows and finally got to eat chicken while we were there after two days we made our way back towards RaiKot Bridge , the same hike took took us half an hour while descending and then we took the same jeep back towards RaiKot Bridge where our own Wagon was waiting , while we were coming back one of our backpacks dropped off from the Jeep and we were pretty tense what would happen but the next jeep coming behind us picked it up and gave us back at the base. We took the bag thanked them and at once made our way to Gilgit.But i guess luck wasnt on our side as pretty much whole of the road (Karakoram Hiughway) to GILGIT was torn up and it doubled our time but we finally reached Gilgit but didnt make a stay and passed Gilgit for Hunza and the road to Hunza was much worse. It was suppose to be a 4 hour Journey to Hunza from Gilgit but it took us more than 8 hours but the good thing was that while on our way to Hunza we came across Rakaposhi Viewpoint and got to watch the amazing sunset over the Rakaposhi Mountain .

When we reached Hunza it was night already so we went straight to our Hotel “Hunza Embassy” where we had dinner and went to sleep so we could make a head start tomorrow, And we did make a head start after a quick breakfast the next day we made our way to the Baltit Fort which is a must see if you ever go to Hunza

After a great tour of the Baltit Fort we made our way to the local Bazar / Shops and did a little bit of shopping, after that we made our way to Altit fort which is on the other end.The way to Altit Fort was very beautiful but the Fort itself was being restored but it still had as much rich history as the Baltit Fort and offered some great views of the Hunza Valley.

The same afternoon we started our Journey back , had our Lunch at PTDC Motel on the way, we were supposed to stay the night at some hotel in Chilas or somewhere near but time was short and we had to reach Islamabad by the next day so we carried on but at 2 in the morning we were stopped at a police check post and they wouldn’t let us past unless we made a caravan of 20 or so cars … so we waited and waited we didn’t let them sleep and they didn’t let us pass finally after 3 or so hours they gave us permission to go through and we spent the whole next day travelling back towards Islamabad and finally reached Islamabad later that night and went straight for the Pizza Hut as it was the only thing open by then, We filled our stomachs to extreme , that was the first time in 7 days that we were properly eating something and it certainly was a trip to remember for the rest of my life.

This past week i have been travelling a bit. I went to Islamabad to spend few days with cousins there and then back to Lahore to spend a day or two with friend and while travelling from Islamabad to Lahore i was seated with this old man he must be between 50 to 55 year old with a short grey/white beard and i thought instead of getting bored why not make small talk with him and i thought politics would get things started and it sure did.

To start with i asked him what did he thought about the current situation of Pakistan and his short answer was “ Everyone was a Thief” i partially agreed with his statement but as you know i am a total Pervez Musharraf supporter and am not afraid to admit it in front of someone who is Mullah minded and i told him that i think Pervez Musharraf and army was better than any of the 3 Top Politicians of our country i.e Benazir Bhutto , Nawaz Sharif, Asif Ali Zardari (Mr 10% ) and that really got the sparks flying he changed his tone at once and said you don’t know nothing Pakistan Army is the most corrupt and he started his long speech how the army has never done anything for Pakistan ! how Army is of no use they are good for nothing ! i kept silent but then he steered Politics towards religion the way its done in Pakistan.

After he steered everything about Pakistan towards religion i knew he was Mullah Minded and held extremist views. He stated how Pervez Musharraf had looted Pakistan for the past 8 years and have made loads of cash ! i replied if he has done all that why don’t his opponents aka Sharif Brothers file court cases against him and his reply was that Pervez Musharraf has friends in courts and that’s not possible but i really struck gold when i said that now the so famed Chief Justice is restored now you don’t have to worry about anything because Nawaz Supports him and still Nawaz Sharif hasnt filed a single court case against him! on that he kept silent.

He came back to the religious point and said how Pervez Musharraf was Qadiani or Mirzai and all his close friends his secretary Tariq Aziz was a Qadiani and how most of the army officers were Qadiani or Mirzais and how father of his wife Sehba Musharraf was a “qadiani molvi” and how Qadianis or Mirazis were at the front of making Pakistan as the first Foreign Minister of Pakistan and by this he meant to show that Qadianis or Ahmadis were at the front of making Pakistan and that’s a bad thing ! and he ended his hate speech against Qadinis /Ahmadis by saying that you are too young for this and you must read history ! at this i couldn’t stop laughing in my heart because i knew all about it i knew all about Choudary Muhammad Zafrullah Khan i knew all about Ahmadis or Qadianis ! Why ? because i am one !

Yes i am Ahmadi/ Qadiani / Mirzai whatever you call us ! i thought why not tell him that i am an Ahmadi but then i changed my mind because already our community is being persecuted in Pakistan because of our religion and some TV programs like “Aaalim Online” of GeoTV have already incited murder of our community members !

Police Erasing Kalima from Ahmadiyya Mosque

I always hear people saying that Ahmadis or Qadianis are not loyal towards Pakistan so here i would like to mention some of the people from Ahmadiyya Community who spent their life serving Pakistan but were forgotten because they were Ahmadis and not to mention those same mullahs who incite hatred against Ahmadis and suggest that Ahmadis are not loyal to Pakistan were the same ones who opposed the creation of Pakistan in the first place.

Chaudhry Muhammad Zafarullah Khan:

• Represented the Muslims at round table conference.
• Became British India’s representative to the League of Nation.
• His greatest contribution came when he drafted the famous Lahore Resolution.
• On 25th December 1947, Jinnah appointed him the Foreign Minister of Pakistan.
• It was Zafrullah whose efforts materialized into the UN Resolutions on Kashmir.
• First Asian president of the International Court of Justice.
• Also served, briefly, as the President of the UN General Assembly.

Dr. Abdus Salam : The tragedy of our treatment of Dr Abdus Salam

First Pakistani to get a Nobel Prize in 1979.

he refused to give up his Pakistani nationality and acquire another that respected him more.

During the early 1960s Salam played a very significant role in establishing the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission (PAEC) – the atomic research agency of Pakistan – and Space and Upper Atmosphere Research Commission (SUPARCO) – the space research agency of Pakistan, of which he was the founding director.

He was founder and Director of the International Centre for Theoretical Physics (ICTP), Trieste, Italy from 1964 to December 1993 after he was not allowed to establish the centre in Pakistan due to his religion. So he opened the centre in Italy and even now Pakistani and Muslims students are more welcomed. (The Centre has since been renamed, the Abdus Salam International Centre for Theoretical Physics).

On 21st May 2009 i received this email from Mr.Danish Hassan from a company called SyntaxCommunications never really heard of that company before but he invited me to Join them on a sneak preview of Nokia’s latest killer mobile the Nokia N97 its the second touchscreen mobile from mobile giant Nokia and in many ways can be deemed to be the real iPhone killer because it has got what it takes to beat the iPhone.Back to the story as soon as i read the email i was very interested and really wanted to go but when i looked a bit closer the event was being held in Karachi and just the next day means on 22nd May so it was impossible for me to attend due to the distance and time invovled.

Meanwhile i saw that Amir Ata’s post about the Nokia N97 event on his blog ProPakistani, from his post it looked a nice little event with presentations from big players of Nokia Pakistan and a hands on preview too but later Mr Danish Hassan from SyntaxCommuncations got back to me saying that he would like to share some info and the next thing you know i receive this cool Nokia Branded Kingston USB containing all the information you could want about the Nokia N97 and these were given out to all Bloggers who actually attended the event in Karachi, well that’s the story of the Nokia N97 event now here’s a little something about the Nokia N97 itself.

Nokia has this theory about this transformation of technology from the Cinema Screen which you can call the first screen to the TV the 2nd screen then the computer the 3rd screen and finally mobile the 4th screen which true to its word is pretty mobile.Nokia is trying to bring latest in technology to their mobile phones they were the first ones to bring the internet to mobile phones and now 40% of 1.3 billion internet users use internet from their phones ! cool huh ?

Well Nokia is presenting another of its vision in their latest device the the N97 with personalized homescreen with widgets like weather , bloomberg and facebook etc and here is the cool thing the weather will update according to your location, the facebook widget will update your friend’s status in real-time you get the idea !

The N97 has got a 3.5 inch sliding tilt display , easy text input with either the qwerty keyboard or the touch screen itself so you can not get stuck with just the touchscreen like i do on the iPhone ! Watch High Quality Videos on the 3.5 inch screen with 16:9 aspect ratio. The video playback is 30 frames per second and you can also play your movies or videos on your TV with the TV out cable ! Another great thing i like is the standard 3.5mm jack for headphones this means you can use any normal headphones and connect them to your N97 or just simple connect your N97 to your home speakers or Woofers like i do ; )

It also comes with the Nokia Maps and integrated compass + A-GPS receiver which in simple words assists you to pinpoint your location faster ! When you are felling bored and it feels like you have nothing else to do you can play the latest game titles on N-GAGE .N97 has got 32GB built in memory and a 16gb expandable microsd card slot.I almost forgot about the camera is a 5megapixel camera with a Carl Zeiss lens with a dual LED to use as camera flash or video light ! and all the basics that you expect from a N-SERIES device WLAN , Bluetooth, Micro USB 2.0 connector.

Oh forgot another thing Nokia will also be releasing OVI which is like main synchronizing hub for your Nokia Devices specially N-Series devices where you can synchronize contacts and more and along with the launch of N97 in Pakistan , Nokia will also open Ovi Store for Pakistan from where users will be able to buy Applications for their Nokia devices !

These are tough times for Pakistan but the future looks a bit brighter with the help of our Heroes from Pakistan Army who are their to protect Pakistan from threats whether internal or international sadly there is a lack of leader ship in the so called Democratic Government but that hasn’t had nay impact on the ever strong leadership of the Pakistan Army and they are cleaning our the Taliban and the ones who pretend to be Taliban.Past few weeks the Northern Areas of Pakistan have been a battle ground between the Pakistan Army and Taliban ( & international conspirators ) who support the Taliban after all such heavy weaponry being used by them is not dropping from the sky but i am glad that this time its going to be a final battle and we as Pakistani must give moral Support to Brave Soldiers of Pakistan Army who are laying their lives for the protection of Pakistan which is not easy when the whole World is against you which most of them fail to understand ! here is a must see video by Zaid Hamid on the current situation of Pakistan.

So its been a long time since i have written a real detailed post in 2009 most of them have been brief posts except one about Israel , but why is it that i am not writing as much as i used too well it couldn’t be more simple its Pakistan and Pakistan alone the situation in Pakistan is killing me everyone is depressed and tense including me to be honest i haven’t been able to work properly since January 2009 the situation has taken toll on everybody and i mean EVERYBODY !

You might ask why is it that way ? well there is no single reason for it , the reasons range from terrorism , extremism , to corruption , dying economy and to top it all of we are being lead by some of the most corrupt leaders in World History  but who is to blame them when your own people betrayed you and elected them but that’s just part of the problem. These corrupt leaders are here to stay as long as they serve the purpose of their Masters for the “Greater Good”.

The Master like always U S of A and the “greater good” protecting the world and especially America from Terrorism, Most Americans believe that some one in Afghanistan living 100 years back is going to come into their homes and attack them while some who are intelligent enough to understand it they think its their right to Protect America’s interests in the World and to achieve that they have to act like Word Police. To protect their interests from China , Russia & Iran and to keep these countries on a leash they have to occupy and have a strong presence in their neighboring countries and it doesn’t matter if it costs the lives of hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians or if Human Rights are ignored in the process as long as their interests are protected its alright.

Pakistani Taliban with an American Humvee

Now to the Taliban problem i accept there are extremists both in Pakistan and Afghanistan but you really think they would be able to takeover whole areas like they recently have in Pakistan i mean really how can they be so heavily armed that they can actually hold off Pakistan Army ? take an example of the Russia / Afghan war would those Jihadi’s have won over Russia had they been not funded and armed by America at that time.

If it can happen once it can happen twice , Why isn’t their a chance America isn’t funding and arming them once again to provide a distraction and to weaken the Pakistan Army while on the other hand they seem to be funding separatist movements in Balochistan and there is proof that India might be involved too , India has so many consulates in Afghanistan and i don’t think they are just issuing visas while America has also pressured Pakistan to allow India to do transit trade via Pakistan ? does this mean CIA and RAW working together to weaken Pakistan ?

All these signs point to one direction that in order to weaken Pakistan, USA and India might be working together to achieve there common interests against possible super powers like China and Russia and by having influence over key parts of Pakistan they can have a strong key position on the World Map while India could have an advantage over its Nuclear Armed neighbor and rival Pakistan !

So after all this time hating the iPhone i switched sites and bought a iPhone 3G few days ago although i still hate it (partially) because of some simple things that are so complex to do like send and receive mms or forwarding an SMS. I previously had a Nokia N95 8GB which is also is a great phone may be even better than the iPhone in all aspects especially the 5megapixel camera makes the iPhone look worthless and to be honest i wouldn’t suggest anyone to buy an iPhone as its not your average cell phone, It needs some … actually make it “alot” of Tech experience to actually use the phone on everyday basis.

Now you must be thinking why did i myself got rid of the N95 and bought an iPhone well its a different case, i mostly needed a phone to access the web from anywhere and to keep up with my Friends online on social sites like Facebook and Twitter etc and sadly no one was interested in making applications for the Series60 even though Series60 has a large database of great apps but they are mostly utilities for your Phone not what i wanted meanwhile on the other hand every other online service was releasing its iPhone application and were optimizing their websites for the iPhone so i thought i must give it a try ad i must say i don’t regret it but i still miss the camera of my old N95 8GB.

Now as you know i live in Pakistan and the iPhone has only been released in selected countries it was a mess to buy an iPhone itself first you have to find a reputable retailer which you can trust because almost all the iPhone’s that come into Pakistan are first opened then unlocked if they are unlock able and then repacked if they are not unlock able they are sold with a TurboSim a small Sim shaped chip that goes into your iPhone with your normal sim but it does not work as smoothly as an unlocked iPhone will so its not recommended while for informational purposes only v 2.2 of the iPhone firmware has been unlocked.

iPhone with a firmware version 2.2.1 is actually cheaper than the iPhone with firmware version 2.2 as the version 2.2.1 has been unlocked and works easily with all Mobile Operators in Pakistan while the version 2.2.1 will only work with a Turbo Sim and is a hassle to use.You can get iPhone with the firmware version 2.2.1 in Pakistan as cheap as PKR 50,000 but an Unlocked + Jail Broken iPhone in Pakistan will cost you minimum PKR 60,000 . I went with the Unlocked + Jail broken iPhone which saved me the hassle of first unlocking and then Jail Breaking it. The retailer also installed some necessary iPhone applications such as iRealSMS (adds some necessary functionalities for SMS which iPhone doesn’t have) and SwirlyMMS (app to send and receive mms).

I have been using the iPhone for just 3 days and have already installed quiet a lot of apps from the iTunes App Store and customized it a bit, Here is a list of Apps that i currently have installed on my iPhone, and if you want to copy files from the iPhones for e,g videos recorded by the CyRecorder use iPhone Browser to browse the Files on iPhone and copy data from the iPhone that you don’t normally see.

If you are thinking where did i buy my iPhone from well i bought my iPhone from :

Panorma Computers Lahore, Pakistan
41-42 LG, Hafeez Centre, Main Boulevard,
Gulberg, Lahore, Pakistan.
Phone: 5714787-5714788, fax:5714329.
http://www.panoramacomputers.com

They are the biggest suppliers of iPhone in Punjab, Pakistan, they also sell iPhone Accessories too which are hard to find anywhere else and they have a special dedicated iPhone Lab too so if you have any problems related to the iPhone you can contact them.