Wheel is regard as one of the most significant inventions of mankind. From thereon, cycles, carts, cars, buses, planes, all are human inventions designed to improve the living standards of mankind. Man used car to transport himself, his family and his belongings from one place to another. Over the years, the motor car became the most important and sought after creation of mankind. It started off as a luxury item and ended up being a necessity. No person in today’s world can even imagine living his life without a car. However, lately some of these marvelous inventions of the mankind have been used in such a way that they have become a hassle rather than a providing the comfort, they were meant to. Traffic jams have become an everyday problem nowadays. There are traffic jams leading up to hours, while people who are returning home after a long day can do nothing except cursing other drivers. According to the 2006 World Bank, there are 7,000,000 vehicles on the roads in Pakistan. This not only poses a problem for the commuters, but also has hazardous effects on the climate. Moreover, the ongoing construction work on the roads also causes traffic problems.

On the one hand, the number of cars on the roads have increased tremendously, while on the other hand, drivers display no knowledge or respect for traffic rules and regulations. The worst traffic hours are when children get off from schools and offices have lunch breaks. If you have been on the road from one to three p.m., you know what that means. There is almost one car per child that goes to school, hence causing the gigantic traffic jams. It is almost next to impossible to find a parking space anywhere near the school, and there are rows of cars parked up to the end of streets. It is a sad truth that we live in a very status conscious society, where the worth of a person is judged from the size of his house and more often from the make and model of the car that he or she drives. Hence, the trend of riding in school buses and vans is becoming obsolete. Moreover, one cannot deny the fact that school vans are very unreliable and undependable. So, most of the parent have no other option than to pick and drop children themselves.

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Unemployment is the scare-word of recent times. The rising job-insecurity tailgates this fear once one has managed to get a job. In the wake of the recent financial turmoil emerging from the ‘Great Depression’ of Lehman Brothers and American International Group (AIG), it is suspected the global economy is faced by a final crunch leading to an end of American financial capitalism. At home, the situation seems unpleasant too as Pakistan has rundown its foreign reserves to $3 billion. The country is on the run for financial rescue plan as this amount could only last us for another three months. As for its consequences, unemployment is already at an all time high nationally and internationally. Recently a report on International news channel was quoted as saying that Europe’s biggest bank had furloughed almost 80,000 employees from its banks from around the world. Whatever the global problems, but in developing countries like ours, it comes as no surprise.

If we delve a little into the recent past, just in the month of August 2008, the National Commission for Human Development (NCHD) laid-off around 0,000 employees due to government’s funding being suspended. This was a major set-back to the employees and the people who were benefiting from the human rights services of this organization mainly in the areas of poverty, health, education, gender empowerment, food, justice etc. The demanded budget of Rs 874 million by the organization was reduced 50 percent by the government leading to large scale downsizing.

The year 2008 started with closing down of almost 70 percent of textile units rendering more than 15 percent daily wagers unemployed. This has been a reason for an increase in crime an suicide rates consequently. It is government’s responsibility to help these down-trodden to make both ends meet. Rather than generously misspending for hosting iftar-dinners, they should have thought practically about the seriousness of the problem that was fast approaching and had assumed dire proportions. The national exchequer cannot be splurged with such brutality, while the whole country is crying to gain access to basic commodities.

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Body piercing is a several decades old trend. In its initial form it dates back to preceding centuries. With the passage of time, piercing got modified through technology and many different kinds of piercing were introduced. In the beginning people were aware of ear piercing and nostril piercing only, of which mummies of ancient times is very clear evidence. A few westerns did research on piercing and invented better and easy to do methods for piercing. At that time men with pierced ears were considered as homosexuals or gangsters. As far as Egyptian civilizations are concerned, piercing was considered as a status symbol and the royalty, and African tribes considered it as a religious activity. Then modernization took place and both males and females got into the craze of body piercing. Although body piercing is very popular world over, yet this culture was not very popular in Pakistan until recently. Nowadays, youngsters are getting more and more involved in these fashions, such as tattoos and body piercing. Ear and nostril piercing are very common and are related to the Asian culture. In same cultures it’s mandatory for a bride to wear a nose pin or nose ring. There are some people in Pakistan who are getting their lips, chins, cartilage and eyebrows pierced. For all those, who don’t know what piercing is, here is some information of facial, navel and surface piercings.

Nose Piercing:

This is the most common type of piercing; it takes three months for the healing process to complete. For these first three months, the person wears gold or steel rings, because wearing sterling silver leaves a black spot forever. Also avoid rubbing your nose on the pillow while sleeping as it may damage the tissue and injure your nose.

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The architecture of most of the mosques are a continuation of pre-Islamic architecture of palaces build during the Parthian and Sassanian dynasties of Persia. The Sarvestan palace from the Sassanian era is a great example of this. The idea of having an arched entrance and a central dome is clearly one borrowed from pre-Islamic, Persian architecture. After the Arab invasion of Persia, this architecture, as well as elements of Sassanian culture, was used for the new Islamic world. Many forms of mosques have evolved in different regions of the Islamic world. Notable mosque types include the early Abbasid mosques, T-type mosques and the central –dome mosques of Anatolia. The oil-wealth of the twentieth century drove a great deal of mosque construction using Muslim modern architects and promoting the careers of important contemporary Muslim architects.

A common feature in all the mosques is the minaret, the tall, slender tower that usually is situated at one of the corners of the mosque structure. The top of the minaret is always the highest point in mosques that have one, and often the highest point in the immediate area.

The first mosques had no minarets, and even nowadays many Islamic movements avoid building minarets, seeing them as ostentatious and unnecessary. The first minaret was constructed in 665 in Basra during the reign of the Umayyad caliph Muawiyah I.

Many Muslims rulers after the death of the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH), emulating him, established their domains by first building a mosque. In the same way Mecca and Medina are built around the Masjid Al-Haram and the Masjid Al-Nabawi.

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