Tuesday laid bare that Karachi’s black economy generates a staggering Rs830 million every day.According to the numbers crunched by Geo News, at least Rs10 million is paid in extortion on a daily basis, while kidnapping for ransom amounts to Rs50 million.

Every day the parking mafia, which operates over 500 lots in the city, hooks Rs2.4 million. There are over 55,000 hawkers operating stalls/kiosks in the city, who pay Rs8.25 million to blackmailers every day.

The water mafia sells approximately 272 million gallons of water illegally each day, which amounts to Rs100 million.

The city also houses 15,000 drug-selling and gambling dens, which make Rs15o million per day.

Karachi’s land-mafia illegally grabs over 30,000 acres of government land denting the national exchequer by Rs7 billion annually and Rs230 million daily.

The city’s transport mafia extorts Rs10.48 million from buses, rickshaws, and taxis. Illegal payments called “Dhakka Wasooli” received from trucks, container-trucks, and oil tankers earn the mafia an additional Rs7.5 million.

Electricity worth Rs10.5 million is stolen daily in the city and there are between 4,000 to 5,000 ‘kundas’ (illegal connections) in Karachi.

Criminals associated with the health industry deprive the poor patients of Rs3 million every day.

Vehicle theft in the city is also at an all-time high, with an average of 40-50 motorcycles and 20-25 cars are lifted daily. This translates into Rs20.5 million a day.

Street criminals loot around 125-150 mobile phones, cash, jewelry and other valuables worth Rs5.2 million daily.

Short-term kidnapping in which the abductees are held at gunpoint and driven around the city for several hours generates over Rs3 million. Approximately 10-15 such kidnappings are reported from city’s posh localities every day.

The police in Karachi also receive bribes worth Rs210 million on a daily basis, which go into the pockets of officers from top to bottom.

ISLAMABAD: The Judicial Commission on Judges Appointment will meet Chief Justice of Pakistan Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry in the chair on Monday (today).
The meeting is expected to confirm the services of six additional judges of the Lahore High Court and fill the vacant seat of a Supreme Court judge.
The JC is also likely to approve elevation of Sindh High Court Chief Justice Musheer Alam as the Supreme Court judge while name of Justice Maqbool will also come under discussion for the post SHC.

LOS ANGELES: Boy mega band One Direction's new film is set to top this holiday weekend's North America box office, in the latest British invasion, an expert said Friday.

"One Direction: This is Us," which has also just opened in Britain and much of Europe, will likely depose Oscar-tipped civil rights epic "Lee Daniels' The Butler" in the number one spot over the three-day Labor Day weekend.

The movie, by Oscar-nominated director Morgan Spurlock, made $2.7 million on opening Thursday evening alone, preliminary figures show.

"The British Invasion seems to be upon us again. And by us, of course, I mean gaggles of tween girls," said Jeff Bock, analyst at box officer tracker Exhibitor Relations.

He did point out that the Labor Day weekend, the last of the summer season, is traditionally one of the slowest periods of the year at the box office.

Spurlock was nominated for an Academy Award in the best documentary category of the Oscars in 2005, for his film "Super Size Me," in which he explored the consequences of eating nothing but McDonald's food for a month.

The One Direction film shows the group in concert at London's O2 Arena, along with fly-on-the-wall footage of life inside one of the world's most famous bands.

The band -- Irish-born Niall Horan, 19, Zayn Malik, 20, Liam Payne, 19, Harry Styles, 19, and Louis Tomlinson, 21 -- have topped the charts on both sides of the Atlantic, becoming the first British act to top the Billboard chart with their debut album.

"Lee Daniels' The Butler," a celluloid depiction of the US civil rights battle as seen by an African-American who served in the White House, has topped the North America box office for the last two weeks.

Starring Forest Whitaker and US talk show queen Oprah Winfrey, it is already being spoken of as a multiple contender for the Academy Awards, the climax of Hollywood's annual awards season on March 2 next year.

QUETTA: The case relating to grenade attack on the house of Balochistan National Party chief, Sardar Akhtar Mengal has been registered against some unknown persons.

Police said that the FIR was registered in Sariab police station on the complaint of the guard at the house.

It may be recalled that some unknown persons had hurled two hand grenades at the house of Sardar Akhtar Mengal, which partially damaged the house, but no one was injured, as Sardar Akhtar Mengal was not present in the house.