MQM: Let the games begin

That the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) isn’t by now adapted to the “chicanery” of its senior friend in the association central social family members portrays either naivete or proficient calculation.

In MQM’s covering, naivete ought more or smaller diagram be discounted because the party has used the advanced component of eight and a half years in vitality corridors – is relying, of course, its five-year stint with the beforehand regime. It is hard not to construe, if not master, the laws of vitality, no material how dysfunctional they may sense in our polity, in such a consecutive period. And yes the party has had its portion of failings, as have all other political players on our national chessboard.

Many contact the MQM has not regularly shown the fashion of maturity wanted of a top-notch political entity (but afterward neither have others), picking to turn every small suffered at the hands of its resistance into a make-or-break political issue. One cannot show obviously the threat of leaping off a political cliff too regularly, because at one point someone will call one’s bluff. And afterward what does one do? The dangers multiply after a administering party has an acquaintance in waiting (at least that is what the relative standing of PML-Q was in early January) and also has a small proportion more political snares higher its sleeve.

On Monday, when this less old friend forced out of the central social family members –for the second time in six months – the separation seemed close to irreversible, unlike in January 2011 after the likelihood of a patch-up immobile existed weeks after. This time the MQM faulted the rupture on the PPP’s “undemocratic and dictatorial behaviour” and the couple parties’ differences through the elections in Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK). But those are simply starts for the motion, not the actual cause.

It is safe to assume that the MQM has commenced posturing for the subsequent national election, even if it is a small proportion weeks resultant than the mainstream Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and the more fringePakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI).

Now is definitely the season for rallying and assessing one’s compels in the political trenches.

As it is, the terminal year and a half of any central social family members tenure is regularly ripe for gamesmanship, with public captivate glossing through political expediencies. This is the serious time after all parties consider they can win through the hearts and heads of the people.

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Dreams of a Digital Rockstar

Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and co-founder of Cygnis Media, Ahmed Hashim is not your regular techie. His team doesn’t make banners but creates, instead, interactive applications and experiences. The small, fairly young digital marketing company has found its niche in the digital universe by taking on marketing projects for international giants like one of Canada’s biggest communication companies, Rogers and Butlers Chocolate Café in Karachi.

But Hashim’s talents stretch far beyond the digital periphery. He has played an active role in Karachi’s music scene for the last decade. A drummer for Messiah, a popular metal band that got shortlisted for Battle of the Bands, Hashim says being a tech-savvy musician had its perks, as he used his skills to create a home recording studio, where he recorded his music and shared it online.

Did Hashim ever consider music professionally? No, according to the young CEO being a rockstar is not something that everyone in Pakistan can do. For him, the dream was always digital. “Since I was 8 years old, I always knew my career would be in the digital world,” he says, adding that being a video-game enthusiast as a child may have contributed to his keen interest in computers and technology.

Hashim’s resolve to pursue a career in the digital world sharpened when he took a web applications course at Purdue University, from where he graduated and worked in the US for almost three years. Moving back to Pakistan, according to Hashim, was a step bolstered by his ambitious, entrepreneurial drive as he wanted to be part of a team that created programs that helped local advertising agencies.

“With TV ads, the biggest problem is that you can’t track your audience,” he says “you never know who may be recording a show and forwarding through the adverts. With digital marketing, we can track nearly everything: from our audience’s geographical location, to how many clicks they made, how much time they spent on our page, if they returned to or shared our page – and these are just to name a few. This data helps us calculate the return on investment, and costs a quarter of billboard and TV ads!”

Despite the boon of cost-effective advertising there are still challenges ahead. The most cumbersome challenge according to Hashim is that although people don’t deny the move towards electronic media, some are resistant to change and will want a product to be marketed digitally while still hanging on to a conventional mindset.

However, Hashim is optimistic about the future. “This is the start of something big for us,” he says “Today, Facebook is huge; as time goes by, other platforms will be hotter.”

“My team jokes that we can’t ban Facebook at work,” says Hashim. He says that the creative process for building a web application involves browsing through the social media site for hours to conduct market research and formulate ideas based on popular trends.

According to him reading blogs, finding out what’s hot and what’s not in the digital world and analyzing this information helps build a mental database so when clients approach Cygnis Media they are prepared to present a list of ideas of what is going to sell in the digital market.

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