Pakistani government websites

For some reason I am always digging for our official government websites. Probaly cause first it roughly gives me an idea of how well a certain government department is doing. Secondly cause it always feels good to see our country progressing. Though most of the time I am a little disappointed with the portals.

InshAllah soon I will try and write small reviews for all these sites which i visit.

Corruption (Bribe)

I was flying out of Islamabad on April 30th 2009 with my family. The airport was least crowded and suddenly the customs officer stopped me. Well he asked me "Can I open your luggage?". I replied "No" in a cheeky manner. I said I have family with me so please "meharbani karaain". The reply I got was "aap hum per meharabani karain hum aap per kardaain gay". vow even my wife was shocked at this. Well I said no and moved on.

At a time when our country is falling apart these guys are still busy doing their stuff. I thought of complaining but was afraid that he might suddenly "discover" narcotics in my luggage. What a pity.

Saudi electronic banking

It is always a pleasure to write some thing good about Saudi Arabia. I have always appreciated Saudis electronic/internet banking. Especially the way you can pay bills for almost everything under the sun. I often noticed the word SADAD while making my payments on line so I decided to "google" it.

It turns out that this SADAD thing is the result of a very positive initiative taken by the saudi government a couple of years ago. There is a whole web site dedicated to this. I wonder why Pakistan cannot implement some thing like this. The idea is not that complicated.