There is no doubt that these plastic bags are dangerous for the environment and managing them with the garbage is real trouble for CDGK. Since there is no proper system of handling and disposing garbage, these plastic bags cause damage to city’s infrastructure such as electric and water supply and sewerage system.

It takes almost 500 to 1000 years for a plastic bag to decompose. It is possible to recycle plastic bags but it is an expansive solution for a city like Karachi. These plastic bags are so cheap that once used, there is no incentive for people to reuse them again. Every shop keeper, store and retailer offers a free bag with almost every thing. From Large electrical appliances to ice cream vendors, every one offers shopping bag for no extra cost. When mixed with other garbage these plastic bags create a huge mess of pollution. Even the developed nations are facing difficulty combating the disposal and recycling of plastic shopping bags.

The advantages of banning the plastic bags are unlimited. However, there are still some concerns over such an immediate action. This is a huge industry the ban would affect thousands of people involved in manufacturing, distribution and resell of these bags. Mass usage of Paper bags is itself not an environment friendly idea but these bags are easy to recycle and they get easily decomposed naturally.

I can not understand, why every thing on sale at the emarkaz website is double the original market price. For example, Nokia 1112 mobile phone is on sale at emarkaz for Rs. 4900, while the same mobile phone is available for RS. 2700 in the market. (price taken from MobileZone’s website, actual market price could be even lower than that). eMarkaz claims free shipping so we can not say that they are charging 2200rs for shipping.

A Barbie Birthday doll costs Rs. 2950 on emarkaz. A few weeks ago I bought my neice the same Barbie doll for rs. 1200, from a local shopping mall. May be additional taxes and import duties are not included in these prices. If thats the case then why all made in Pakistan products such as books and CDs are nearly double the market price?

In the books section Ibn-e-Insha’s travelogue “chalte ho tu cheen ko chalyay” is available for RS. 495. I bought this book a few months ago for RS. 120 in hardcover and white paper. This book is also available from Sang-e-Meel publishers at the same price. The actual publisher’s price mentioned in the book is RS. 150.

Nearly five days ago I wrote them an email asking about the prices but they did not reply. If any one of you is going to buy any thing from eMarkaz, be very careful.