KARACHI, sea-side paradise, a city of peace love, and happiness a welcoming gateway for fortune seekers. KARACHI, a riot-torn city, a haven for the drugs and arms Mafia, a metropolis of pollution, noise, and decay. KARACHI has been systematically transformed from a heaven on earth to a sordid environment resembling hell. KARACHI has been ravaged, raped, and ruptured by inimical internal and external forces. KARACHI has paid the price for being a citadel of prosperity in Pakistan. KARACHI has paid the price for providing shelter and opportunity within its perimeters to the Punjabi, Pathan, Baluchi, Sindhi, and the Mohajir. KARACHI had paid the price for being ill-planned, ill-treated, and ill-controlled by its administrators. KARACHI has fallen victim to the conspiracy hatched by those who do not agree to a strong KARACHI. In the process, the Karachiite has greatly suffered.

The frustrations, irritations, and annoyances faced daily by the residents of KARACHI has lead to a hapless situation where tempers flare in a jiffy, where street scuffled are common, and where confusion is the rule rather than an exception. It is these predicaments which are leading the ordinary citizens to a plight bordering between calamity and chaos. Thus, deliverance from this situation is the keyword. A solution has to be envisaged to bring normalcy and bliss in the tumultuous life of the city dwellers. This is a far-fetched possibility at present, due to various political economical and social constraints. Nevertheless, the Karachiite has to be given some remedy to temporary heal the wounds inflicted on him. The KARACHI CASSETTE COLLECTION is one such antidote. All one needs are prerecorded cassettes of KCC and a cassette player at home, in the office, or in one's car.

The KARACHI CASSETTE COLLECTION will be professionally prepared by the promoters. It will not be a hack job or a naive production. It will essentially require ingenuity, sophistication and superb artistic skill to come out with a fabulous presentation. Notwithstanding the dearth of opportunities available to the truly qualified, the KCC can become a source for exploiting the superior capabilities of those who are unable to effectively prove their merit due to certain archaic restrictions. In the KCC it will be a no-holds barred adventure. The whole concept of KCC depends on the achievement of the highest degree of fulfillment of the listener's agreement with the material contained in it. The concoctions brewed by the writers, producers, and the actors will at times be hilarious, at moments nasty, at certain points meditative, and at appropriate instants bordering on the absurdity.

What then is the KARACHI CASSETTE COLLECTION. The KCC will be recorded items related to a particular problem. It will cater to the citizens' requirement at a particular time for a specific problem. It will become a daily companion for dealing with various activities, assorted difficulties, or different complications a citizen comprehends routinely. The KCC will contain blatant invectives, sarcastic sayings violent tongue-lashings, inspirational morale-boosters, provocative slogans, abusive outbursts, contemptuous words, and lots of castigations, curses, and condemnations. The producers of the KCC can utilize, among others, the tremendously super capabilities of personalities such as Anwer Maqsood, Umar Sharif, Moeen Akhtar, Dildar Pervaiz Bhatti, etc., to bring the focal points in perspectives. The sharpness, shrewdness, and perceptiveness of these talented gentlemen will be given a free hand to really go for it. What these performers cannot say on TV, radio, or the stage, they can forcefully articulate in the KCC. They can let their imagination run wild. There will be lots of topics available for these artistes. To emphasize it further, one should 1ook into the various problem faced by the citizens of Karachi. Some are categorized as follows:
(A) Loadshedding, (B) Curfew, (C) Traffic Jams, (D) Water shortage, (E) Sewerage overflow, (F) Telephone systems (G) Insensitive police, (H) Riots, (I) Road blocks, (J) Government, (K) Ethnic Organizations, (L) Political parties.

There will be separate cassettes for each category. In case of power failure, one can put in a cassette on load-shedding in a (mind you) battery-operated player and listen to the spout of characters in the cassette. The cassette will vent the feelings of the affected citizen and really lambaste KESC and the coterie that manages the behemoth. During curfews, a "prisoner" of the curfew can listen to a character pulling his hair, tearing his clothes, and shouting absurdities at those who enforced the curfew and at those whose actions resulted in the imposing of curfew. At traffic jams (a la mauripur load and the famous 8 hour gridlock) the character in the traffic jam cassette really lets loose. He hurls every abuse under the sky at the truck drivers, bus conductors, taxi drivers, yellow devils, impatient motorists, nincompoop traffic controllers, traffic signals destroyers, Traffic Engineering Bureau, potholes, detours, and God knows what else. The cassette can be played at a loud volume because the external din will be considerably very high. The perpetual water shortage will entail another cassette which will tongue - whip the KWSB and its saturated, free-wheeling, expensive staff. There will be lot of moaning, lamenting, and complaining also. The water tanker owners will be cursed aplenty because of their talents in procuring water while the aggrieved citizens remain unshaven, unwashed, and unwholesome.

There will be other cassettes in the KCC. The sewerage overflows, especially during rains, will result in the citizen putting in a cassette deriding the KMC, KDA, and whoever else who deals with the garbage. It will be a real beauty and will broadcast the woes of those citizens who have to bear the dirty, smelly, and disease-prone sewerage problem. Those unlucky persons who possess telephones very graciously allotted to them by the T&T department considers the instruments as a nuisance rather than a necessity. It is quicker to visit the called party in person than to get its number on the phone. Cross calls, wrong numbers, dead telephones, obscene calls at all times, discourteous behaviour of the telephone staff are common features. The cassette can be played while trying to dial a number. It will be a real zinger. It will wash away your blues, that's for sure. Then there will be cassettes to rail at the miscreants who destroy the life of the citizen by instigating and inciting riots. There will be cassettes to flay the inept policemen and the road-blocks erected by law-enforcing agencies out to catch a thief. During the moments when an innocent citizen's car is being thorough searched for bombs, drugs, or rocket-launchers, the cassette can be played to counter the frustration and to provide a semblance of sanity during the ordeal. Its no wonder the criminals run loose while the law-abider is tormented by the law-provider.

The cassettes dealing with ethnic organizations, political parties and the government will be very comprehensive and will be a motley of varied themes. These cassettes will not only lampoon, ridicule, or satirize them; but will also vociferously denounce them with a heightened sense of scorn, contempt, and disdain. They will be derided for the untold sufferings faced by the residents of Karachi with special reference to the above mentioned problems. They will be castigated for bringing disaster and ruin to this metropolis. The melting pot has been turned by them into a ladle filled with molten lava. They will be crucified without mincing words for the deaths of the innocents of the city, for the influx of drugs and arms in the city, for the flight of capital from the city, and for making this Eden into Hades.

The KCC will be modified, changed, or revised as and when required. It will encompass other subjects as and when; they are loaded upon the miserable denizens of the largest city of Pakistan. The whole exercise will be on a continuity basis with fresh ideas, original notions, and vivid imaginations. The success of this venture heavily depends on these factors otherwise the whole activity, will be superfluous. Also, there is likelihood of listeners becoming tired of the KCC.

The citizens of Karachi have braved for long the atrocities committed on them. Their escape through the maze is through the KCC. Listening to these cassettes can obviously provide some relief. The KCC is not a panacea for all the evils. The citizens can get mad at the problems without using their own words. They can break out without committing a crime. They can get masty without acting it out. The KCC will do all that and more. But, if and when they are tired of the KARACHI CASSETTE COLLECTION, they can always procure a cassette that will blast away the contents of the KCC and, as in Mission Impossible, self-destruct in five seconds.