Loud Thinking

Federal government is ready to provide legal help to Mr. Altaf Hussain……

What about Aafia Siddiqui???

“Don’t take anything personally. Even when a situation seems so personal, even if others insult you directly, it has nothing to do with you. Their point of view and opinion come from all the programming they received growing up. When you take things personally, you feel offended and your reaction is to defend your beliefs and create conflict. You make something big out of something so little because you have the need to be right and make everybody else wrong.”

— Don Miguel Ruiz

“Nobody grows old by merely living a number of years. People grow old by deserting their ideals. Years may wrinkle the skin, but to give up wrinkles the soul.”

—Douglas MacArthur (1880-1964);
American General And Field Marshal

The supreme sacrifice of the Shaheed is the life of the nation.(SHAHEED KI JOO MAUT HAY WOO QUOM KI HAYAAT HAY).

Living and honourable nations do eulogise their Heros.

Why Pakistani Media is silent and mum on the supreme sacrifice offered by Shaheed Nasrullah to save his drowning student from the Kunar river.

Our national hero Shaheed Nasrullah deserves all the accolades and the highest civil bravery award by the government.

I am at a loss to understand the silence of the KPK, Sindh and the Federal governments on the monumental sacrifice rendered by Shaheed Nasrullah, Principal, an elected MPA of Sindh Assembly and a very senior leader of the Jamaat-e-Islami, Karachi for saving the life of his class X student, who had accidentally slipped in the fast flowing river.

Know Your Stance on Travel When Choosing an Industry

A lot of the discussion around work/life balance focuses on managing time. But it’s also important to manage your location. When leaders face a decision to travel or relocate, their home lives play a huge part – which is why many believe in acquiring global experience while they’re young and unencumbered. International assignments aren’t for everyone; and if travel is undesirable, ambitious young executives should decide so early on to avoid getting trapped in an industry that clashes with their geographic preferences. They’ll also have more time to find other ways to signal open-mindedness, sophistication, skill diversity, and willingness to go above and beyond – personal attributes often associated with experience abroad. For those already well into their careers and with families, managing travel (and most things) requires a shared vision of success for everyone at home. Common goals and complementary relationships hold people together; turn to your partner for support and collaborate to reach a decision.

Adapted by HBR from “ Manage Your Work, Manage Your Life” by Boris Groysberg and Robin Abrahams.

“Today is a brand new day. A fresh start. Replace any negativity with positivity. Think happy thoughts. Exercise. Drink lots of water. Fill your body with fuel. Healthy is happy. Inspire yourself. Create. Laugh. Play. Love. Learn. Give someone a compliment. Make a new friend. Do a random act of kindness. It creates good karma. Take chances and finally start living life to its fullest. But no matter what’s thrown at you today, smile and remember, tomorrow’s always a fresh new start.”

— Author Unknown

Raise Prices (and Tame Backlash) with the Right Messaging

Raising prices is a sensitive issue – no one enjoys paying more. But with the economy in an upswing, many companies are contemplating it, making managers rightfully anxious.

However, the right messaging tactics can help tame a potential backlash. Just take a page from Amazon, which hiked up the price of Prime a couple months ago.
Float a scarier number. Amazon initially hinted it was contemplating a $20 to $40 increase. When it announced “only” a $20 boost, customers sighed with relief.

Appeal to fairness. Amazon clearly noted it that it had not raised Prime’s price since its inception nine years ago. That’s a long time. And it seems fair enough.

Hint that there’s more to come. There has been a lot of talk about Amazon adding streaming radio to its Prime package. Additional features can make customers more receptive to a deal.

Adapted by HBR from “ The Art of Raising Prices: Lessons from Amazon Prime” by Rafi Mohammed.

AAJ AAKHAN WARIS SHAH NOO
TOON QABRAN WICHUN BOL

Today India has created Telengana as 29th state & heavens didn’t fall.

India and Bangladesh are marching forward with supersonic speed and we are just getting lost on a fast track in the oblivion (the state of being completely forgotten or unknown).

I am pleading since many years to make every division of Pakistan as a province for accelerated growth and development and as a panacea (an answer or solution for all problems or difficulties) for all our ills, but every govt wants to pass time on status quo.

When Pakistan will have its Mao Tse-tung, Mahathir Muhammad or Kamal Ata Turk who will be brave enough to believe in out of box thinking?

When will Pak have fearless and true visionary leaders who will break the status quo?

The nation is calling for Waris Shah…!

Why can’t we build a tax free Textile city at Gawadar???

In 2002, Pakistan and Bangladesh had identical export earnings from garments at $2.5 billion each.

Bangladesh earned $21 billion of revenues last year by exporting garments to the West. We earned $2.6 billion.

Another black day in the sporting history of Pakistan..!

Dear Mr. Prime Minister

AoA.

I will not at all be surprised, if your very important national and international commitments, must have kept you unaware, from the extremely sad and tragic news that today for the first time ever, in the country’s 60-year history of the game of Hockey, Pakistani team is not playing the World Cup; because our team failed to qualify for the tournament, which has commenced today on Saturday, 31 May 2014 at Hague and from Asia, India, South Korea and Malaysia are participating.

Hope you remember, the Hockey World Cup was introduced by Pakistan, which also won this title 4 times in the past.

MashaAllah, next week you will be completing first year of the government.However, if we just talk about sports, it looks that the people at the helm of affairs for sports in the government, absolutely failed to stem the rot and provide any vision or guidance in the improvement of the pathetic state of affairs of the sports, particularly in games of Hockey, Cricket, Squash and Snooker, which were once dominated by Pakistan, around the world.

The improvement in the sports sector is neither difficult, nor has a requirement of rocket science. What is needed is commitment and dedication with honesty, integrity and meritocracy, without any politics, favouritism and nepotism.

Hope you are also aware about the state of the ugly affairs in the other major game of the country namely cricket, where our team came last among all the participants of the Champions trophy played in the UK, but were rewarded with an Eid bonus by Mr. Najam Sethi, as if PCB was his father’s company. Then our team went to Zimbabwe and got defeats from them (Zim a lowest status team) in a Test as well as, the ODI match. And recently Pakistani team created another record of shame, when in the T20 World Cup tournament held in Bangladesh, for the first time in the history, we failed to qualify for even the semi finals spot.

If I were the PM, all the sports administrators including the minister in charge, would have been sacked with the orders to refund entire pay and perks waisted on them for abysmally failing, during the last one year of the government, to deliver even 1% positive results.

Again, if I were the PM, for the sake of the name and image of Pakistan, for which our soldiers are almost daily embracing martyrdom, I would have gone across the party lines, to select an advisor for sports, who could turn around all the major sports played in the country, in not more than a years time.

In this regard, the following three names come to my mind, for selecting amongst them, a national sports advisor to the P.M.

1. AVM Farooq Umar Ex. CEO & M.D. PIA. He was also elected “President Pakistan Hockey Federation.” (PHF) It was during his tenure that he Resurrected Pakistan Hockey and made it Win the “World Champions Trophy” and the “World Cup Sydney 94” after a long lapse of 14 years . His success depended on upfront leadership and the ability to motivate the players right in the play field.

2. Lt. Gen (R) Tauqir Zia. As the chairman Pakistan Cricket Board for 4 years, he not only introduced the “Vision 2005″, paragon for the promotion and development of Cricket in Pakistan but also managed to implement almost 75% of that Project in every part of the country particularly in the far flung areas of Balochistan, Sind and Frontier.

3. Khalid Mahmood. His keen interest in sports particularly cricket, provided Mr. Khalid Mahmood opportunities to serve Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) in various capacities: Honorary Secretary (1975-1976), Member PCB Council (1988-94), Manager of Pakistan Cricket Team touring England, South Africa and the West Indies (1992-1993) and as Chairman PCB (1998-1999).

Before concluding, I would like to bring to your kind notice that please don’t consider sports as something which should be left as your last priority, on the national agenda. And if any proof was required to substantiate my request, here is the statement for your kind perusal, about the power of the sports, by one of the greatest statesman of the world, late Mr. Nelson Mandela.

“Sport has the power to change the world…it has the power to inspire. It has the power to unite people in a way that little else does. It speaks to youth in a language they understand. Sport can create hope where once there was only despair. It is more powerful than government in breaking down racial barriers.”

Now, taking a cue from the above mentioned statement of late Mr. Nelson Mandela, it is suggested that Pakistani government should slightly re-phrase it and declare the following as its mission statement: “Sports has the power to change Pakistan…it has the power to inspire. It has the power to unite Pakistani people in a way that little else does. It speaks to the Pakistani youth in a language they understand. Sports can create hope for the entire Pakistani nation where once there was only despair, lawlessness, hunger, poverty, drugs, suicide bombings and alarming increase of suicides, due to the economic hardships. It is more powerful than government in breaking down the menace of terrorism which has blown Pakistan to the smithereens.”

With best wishes and kind regards,

Syed Nayyar Uddin Ahmad