Bahria Town

Bahria Town officially Bahria Town (Pvt) Ltd. is the largest real-estate developers and Investors in Pakistan and the largest private housing society in Asia.[1] Bahria Town has establishments in Islamabad (Phase 2 to 7 and enclave), Rawalpindi(Phase 1 and 8), Lahore, Murree and Karachi.[2] Bahria Town is a mega gated community, worth $6 billion only in twin citiesIslamabad and Rawalpindi where it is the original community with nine phases, which has a capacity of a planned residential city for 1 million people. The Town’s offers amenities (24-hour armed security, schools, hospitals, a fire department, retail shopping, restaurants and entertainment centers).

Given the Pakistan‘s security issues, Bahria Town remain the safest place to live with a lower crime rate than other developments. Rival Pakistani developer, Defence Housing Authority, have built similar gated communities in the suburbs of major Pakistani cities such as Karachi. Bahria Town operate’s Pakistan’s largest private sector fleet of heavy earth moving equipment and the service workshops. Bahria is also building the First Formula 1 racing track with full proof safety provided to Bahria Town residents. It employs over 20,000 workforce with. Recently Bahria Town announced its collaboration withStarwood Hotels for the opening the Sheraton Golf & Country Club, which would be the first of its kind in Pakistan. Malik Riaz Hussain, Founder and Chairman, is the force behind Bahria Town, started in the 1980s as a small-time contractor. As competitors targeted the rich, he built for the emerging middle class, becoming one of the wealthiest Pakistanis alive.[3] In May 2012, Bahria Town won five awards at the Asia Pacific International Property Awards.[4][5]

Bahria has been featured by international magazines and news agencies, referred to as the prosperous face of Pakistan. According to Emirates 24/7 Bahria Town is ‘where Pakistan’s new middle class takes refuge from the Taliban attacks and endless power cuts that plague the rest of the country.’[6] GlobalPost claimed that in 2013, Bahria houses some 100,000 people in total.[7] Newsweek calls it as Pakistan’s Gateway to Paradise.[8] On October 6, 2011, Los Angeles Times refereed Bahria as ‘functioning state within a non-functioning one’.[9] Regardless of that Bahria has been subject to controversies, it is referred to as a symbol of inequality, blamed for illegal encroachment of forests and unholy alliance with military.[9]

Captain Muhammad Sarwar Shaeed

Raja Muhammad Sarwar Khan Bhati (1910–27 July 1948) (Urdu: محمد سرور‎) was a captain in the newly formed Pakistani Army. He was born in Singhori village, Tehsil Gujar Khan, District of Rawalpindi, Punjab, Pakistan as Muhammad Sarwar^[1] He was commissioned in 1944 and assigned to the Punjab Regiment. In 1947, he volunteered to take part in the battalion organised by the Pakistani Army wit the purpose of retaking the Kashmir. His regiment managed to outflank the disorganized Indian troops and forced them to retreat out of the regions which are now known as the Northern Areas in one of the battles of the First Kashmir War.

 

During the Kashmir Operations, as Company Commander^{[citation needed]} of the 2nd Battalion of the Punjab Regiment, Captain Sarwar launched an attack causing heavy casualties against a strongly fortified enemy position located in the Uri Sector. His battalion was subject to under heavy machine gun, grenade, and mortar fire. On 27 July 1948, as he moved forward with six of his men to cut their way through a barbed wire barrier, he died when he was shot in the chest with heavy machine gun fire.

 

In recognition for his valor, Sarwar was postmumously awarded the Nishan-E-Haider, Pakistan’s highest military decoration.^[2][3]

In addition Sarwar Shaheed College was named after his honor.

Naheed Khan

Naheed Khan was Former Political Secretary to Benazir Bhutto. Naheed Khan, faced many problems after Benazir Bhutto’s assassination on 27 December 2007 in Liaquat Bagh.She was considered very close to Benazir Bhutto and sidelined under the new leadership of Asif Ali Zardari, along with other close advisers of the Benazir Bhutto.

 

Not only she but it is a general impression since the tragedy, that many of the party workers who were close to Buttho have been ignored by Asif Ali Zardari.

Naheed even have been held responsible for the death of Ms. Bhutto, of which both denied and asked Zardari to contradict. But there was no answer or contradiction from Zardari or his newly appointed aides.

Bilquis Edhi

Bilquis Bano Edhi Hilal-e-Imtiaz, (Urdu: بلقیس ایدھی‎, born August 14, 1947), wife of Abdul Sattar Edhi, is a professional nurse and one of the most active philanthropists in Pakistan. She has been nicknamed, The Mother of Pakistan.^[1] She was born in 1947 in Karachi. She heads the Bilquis Edhi Foundation, and with her husband received the 1986 Ramon Magsaysay Award for Public Service.^[2][3] Her charity runs many services in Pakistan including a hospital and emergency service in Karachi. Together with her husband their

Biography

bilques Edhi was born in Karachi on August 14, 1947. When she was a teenager she was not enjoying school and managed to join a small expanding dispensary as a nurse in 1965. At the time the Edhi home was in the old city area of Karachi known as Mithadar where it had been founded in 1951.^[4] The small number of Christian and Hindu nurses who worked there had just reduced in number. The founder, Abdul Sattar Edhi, recruited a number of nurses including Bilquis who, unusually, was from a Muslim background.^[2]

Her future husband proposed to her after recognising her talents and allowing her to lead the small nursing department. He had recognised her enthusiasm and interest during her six month training program where she had learnt basic midwifery and healthcare. They were married when she was seventeen^[2] and her husband was nearly twenty years older. Their honeymoon was unusual in that the newlyweds discovered a young girl with head injuries at their dispensary just after their wedding ceremony. Edhi said in 1989 that she did not regret the time lost in consoling the twelve year old’s concerned relatives or supervising blood transfusions as now “… that girl is married with children; that’s what is really important.”^[4] The Edhi Foundation’s unofficial website uses the line “Making a difference and changing lives forever”.^[5]

Edhi took over the management of the jhoolas project, the first of which had been built by her husband in 1952. These 300 cradles are available throughout Pakistan where parents can abandon unwanted children, or those that cannot be raised. They carry the message in English and Urdu “Do not kill, leave the baby to live in the cradle.” A small minority of abandoned children are disabled but over 90% are female. This alternative is thought to have reduced the number of dead babies who are killed by their own parents given the alternative provided by the Edhi Foundation to leave the unwanted babies in the cradles. The Edhi project is also responsible for burying dead babies found by the police.^[1]
The couple have four children who are involved with the Edhi Foundation and the management of the Edhi village, the fleet of ambulances, the mental home, the schools and the offices in Pakistan and London.

Recognition

Edhi and her husband have received a number of awards in recognition of their work. In July 2007 they were publicly recognised for their work by President Pervez Musharraf who made a contribution of 100,000 rupees (from his own pocket) and he particularly noted that their work provided social services to the poor of Pakistan without any discrimination.^[6] This contribution contrasts sharply with another offered by President Zia ul-Haq which was turned down because of the strings that were attached. It also contrasts with the 100,000 dollars that her husband gave to Pakistani workers in the USA affected by the 9/11 bombing. Despite her husband being received by Presidents and her own appearance on Pakistani television^[7] the couple still live modestly in a two room apartment which is part of one of their orphanages.^[1]charity has saved over 16,000 unwanted babies.^[1]