Here is a screenshot of database records ( don't mind weird entries, they are for testing) http://i42.tinypic.com/9uumpc.png
But when I run following query no matter what, upper/lower/quotes/double quotes it returns empty.
SELECT * FROM BusDetails WHERE category='$cat'
$cat = "Accountants"
it doesn't return anything. Even though there is a record with such category. And I know its not my PHP fault, I tried running this query in myadmin SQL.