The past 5 years have seen massive unsustainable ‘development’ in Islamabad. This has been spearheaded by its municipality, with the backing of the bureaucracy and military high-ups. No public input is sought or accepted. The character of the city has changed through ill-thought-out projects that have ruined the environment of the city and made it unmanageable.
Pakistan generally lacks the organizational and management skills to handle large cities and projects effectively, but one continues to see the proliferation of mega-projects up and down the country. From such adventures, various interest groups siphon off funds leaving the cities poorer for everyone, and more so for the majority who are financially poor.
The idea that “small is beautiful” is alien to city planners, top government functionaries and the military.
The video, from the Dawn News channel’s program “The Big Digit”, highlights some of the disasters specific to Islamabad but with relevance to most projects, old and new, in Pakistan and developing countries.
Aap-Beeti/Paap-Beeti;
By Saqi Farooq;
Akademi Bazyaft Karachi 2008;
Pp176; Price Rs 300
Saqi’s gravitation to Habib Jalib was natural in a way too because he saw the anarchist in him where others saw a revolutionary, and the quarrels that took place were incidental to the way they related
You don’t know what kind of irreverent sinner you are up against in this book till I have told what he did in his earlier book titled Hajibhai Paniwala. This was also the main poem in the collection and Paniwala was not the shopkeeper who sold water but he was so called because there was water in his testicles. He sat squatting with his enormous waterlogged genitals in front of him covered with cloth like a table; in fact, he packed the spices on top of them.
What kind of animal is Saqi Farooqi? Reading his life of paap (sin) I am put in the mind of Henry Miller’s work. If he is a self-publicist showcasing his sins like Josh, then the difference between him and Josh is that he is a constantly self-deprecating picaro who insults because he doesn’t respect himself. In the process, he puts a two-pronged poker through Urdu’s tight sphincter and violently shakes up the contents of its clotted colon. The result is a lot of flatulence of platitudes through which Saqi walks with his nose tweaked in his fingers, followed by some very fresh explosion of funny expressions in the style of Perelman. (more…)
When a people begin to believe they have been defeated they have entered a bottomless pit. They continue and continue and continue to live in defeat. It is a cycle that can cripple a people not for a year, not for a century, but for a millennium.
Thus we look at so many communities across the globe. These communities celebrate a distant, idyllic past, a past fueled with great heroes and accomplishments. They celebrate a past without which — they claim — today would not be today. And, these claims of the greatness of the past are to somehow bring these people on the same level as the conquerors of today.
Not to be.
That celebration of the past is fuel. It is fuel for the vicious circle of defeatism. It perpetuates a longing for something that never existed as a hope for a future that is not there or theirs. It is also an excuse, an excuse to continue this life of grief. (more…)
4,000 Indian Sikh pilgrims have reached Wahga border *Over 12,000 Sikhs will visit Pakistan for this festival The Pakistan Sikh Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (PSGPC) and Evacuee Trust Property Board (ETPB) will welcome about 4,000 Indian Sikh pilgrims arriving today (Friday) for the Besakhi Festival, ETPB officials told Daily Times on Thursday.
Salman Rushdie’s latest novel is set in Akbar’s court and Renaissance Florence. NIRPAL SINGH DHALIWAL on how his glossy take could have used more grit
THE MUGHAL EMPIRE has an inordinate pull on the contemporary imagination. After a succession of assaults on India beginning in the 11th century, the Mughal dynasty had established itself over north India by the 1500s, and at its height in the 1700s, controlled all but the southernmost tip of the subcontinent. The empire has today become a byword for opulence and aestheticism. Akbar, the 16th century Mughal emperor is a central figure in Salman Rushdie’s latest novel, The Enchantress of Florence, a book that flits between Renaissance Europe and Akbar’s court, and the cultures in between. (more…)
Shah Allah Ditta caves are located on the route leading towards Khanpur. These caves are next to the shrine and tomb of a Mughal period ‘dervish,’ Shah Allah Ditta. Once you start travelling on Golra Sharif Road, a sharp turn comes for a village named after the saint — Shah Allah Ditta. The narrow road leads towards Margalla Hills on the base of which these caves are located. Old Banyan trees at the roadside marks the entrance to the caves. (more…)
By Dr Muhammad Naim Siddiqi & Dr Abdul Wahab Yousafzai
TWO articles published in these pages (of the newspaper DAWN) made some observations about suicide bombers. In one Dr Pervez Hoodbhoy (March 9) argued that human rights activists and religious scholars are hesitant to condemn suicide bombing because of its association with Islam. He added, “As the mullah’s indoctrination gains strength, the power to reason weakens.”
He further said, “For them [Americans] it [operating lethal drones] is a way to defend their country. What is harder to understand is how the Pakistani suicide bomber can kill people who are so close to him in so many ways.”
Dr Amin Gadit (Feb 26) explained the phenomenon in these words: “A disturbed neurochemistry of the brain cannot be ruled out either, as a number of them are either depressed or have suffered from depression.”
The history of ‘homicide by suicide’ shows that ever since two Jewish revolutionary groups were associated with this sort of activity in the period 4 BC to 70 AD, suicide bombing has been used as a war strategy by the Germans, Japanese kamikazes, the Palestinians and the Sri Lankans. Since the first suicide bombing took place on Nov 6, 2002 in Pakistan, nearly 2,000 people have died as a result of this form of violence. Suicide bombings can only be understood in reference to the context of individual cases.
As psychiatrists we will restrict ourselves to a psychological examination of this phenomenon. In a word, what prompts suicide bombers to destroy themselves while killing others?(more…)
This letter appeared in several dailies, some time ago, with the title: Saving Pak Tea House with this sad-funny illustration that plays on the title- Pak Tyre House. The author is Dr. Irfan Zafar.
Pak Tea House, located on the Mall near Anarkali Bazar in Lahore was originally established as the “India Coffee House” before independence in 1947. The café has been traditionally frequented by the city’s artistic, cultural and literary personalities, including Faiz Ahmed Faiz, Sa’adat Hassan Manto, Muneer Niazi, Ahmad Faraz, Mira Ji and Kamal Rizvi. Along with the writers, the café is also a favourite haunt of Lahore’s youth with non-mainstream points of view.
Recently, because of business concerns and after the death of the owner of the café, his son tried to sell it to a tyre shop owner. While Pakistan is not known for honouring its artists, writers and poets, certain places are part of our national heritage. Pak Tea House is one such establishment. It is the responsibility of the government to preserve it. The least it can do is by the establishment at market rate from the owner’s son, and ensure the continued existence of the café for the benefit of future generations.
Screening of SHALI a telefilm from the powerful series Aseer Shahzadi produced by HUM Television…
A touching story pertaining to abuse against women in our male dominated society with regard to child marriages. The issues presented in these plays are of universal concern, with women being the victims of these evil practices. Sensitive issues are brought forward to make people realize the severity of the prevailing injustices to females. Shali, the 14 year old protagonist, a mere child living in the city’s slums, has no clue what it entails to be married…..
Written by Attiya Dawood, well known writer, activist and poet…have dealt with each story in a thoughtful and sensitive manner which is typical of her writings. SHALI will move your hearts and make you think and hopefully do something for these distressed and troubled souls. (more…)
Zareen Gul sits on the floor of his small recording studio in the Pakistani city of Peshawar and complains that he feels like a criminal for wanting to make music.
A dusty computer and several recording machines are stacked on racks in his two-room Shama Recording Studio in the city’s busy Khyber Bazaar but nothing is switched on.
Gul, who records pop songs in the Pushto language, moved to Peshawar two years ago from his home of Bannu in North West Frontier Province after Islamist militants started bombing music shops and threatened to blow up his studio.
Like Afghanistan’s hardline Taliban, the militants see music as un-Islamic.
But for Gul, things have not been much better in Peshawar, capital of the province that has been ruled by conservative religious parties sympathetic to the Taliban for the past five years.
Aap-Beeti/Paap-Beeti;
This letter appeared in several dailies, some time ago, with the title: Saving Pak Tea House with this sad-funny illustration that plays on the title- Pak Tyre House. The author is Dr. Irfan Zafar.
Things are likely to change for Zareen Gul…?
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