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Lyari Expressway (South Bound) Inaugurated
2008-02-12 01:10:00
Owais Mughal The famous Lyari Expressway project is now ready to be opened. Atleast in half. The proposed project called for a 4-lane expressway on either side (2-ln each side) of Lyari river. The South bound corridor is now complete and it was inaugurated today (Feb 11, 2008). The total length of Lyari Expressway, North and South ...
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Pakistan Elections 2008: Will They? Won?t They?
2008-02-11 16:45:00
Adil Najam Yesterday, while passing through Chicago airport on my way to Tokyo, Japan, I found myself transfixed by a wall full of posters announcing that Chicago is an “Applicant City” for the 2016 Olympics. The airport was full of them but, frankly, the posters themselves are not remarkable. They became remarkable for me because of the thoughts ...
More About: Politics , Elections , Pakistan , 2008

Provinces and Islamabad to compete for the Cricket Title
2008-02-10 15:33:00
Owais Mughal This year PCB is experimenting with a brand new format of Pentagular Cup cricket tournament; and that is only provincial teams will take part in it. The tournament starts today. The captains for the participating teams in Pentagular Cup are: Shahid Afridi (Sindh), Shoaib Malik (Punjab), Younis Khan (NWFP), Shoaib Akhtar (Federal) and Naseem ...
More About: Cricket , Islamabad , Title , Compete

billi - an excerpt from Shafiq-ur-Rehman?s ?lehreN?
2008-02-09 06:13:00
English translation is given at the end. Owais Mughal Following ‘azad’ poem is by one of my favourite writers, Shafiq-ur-Rehman and it comes from his book ‘lehreN’. The poem is actually a satire on modern day poets who write ‘azad’ Urdu poem by using all the ‘azadi’ they can get. The poem describes a situation of fighting ...

Learning Resource Center, Nushki
2008-02-08 20:51:00
Owais Mughal This is the photo of the Learning Resource Center at the Government Boys Primary School, Ghareebabad II in Nushki, Balochistan. Photo credits belong to Mr. Qudrat Barrech who is a teacher at this school. One can see interesting things in this photo. I am very happy to see this mini library in an area ...

Traveling on the N5 - Part IV
2008-02-08 02:27:00
Owais Mughal Three episodes ago, we started our journey on Pakistan’s longest highway N5 in Karachi (km 0). On our way we stopped at Rohri, Bahawalpur and Lahore. Today in Part IV we will continue our journey on N5 northwards of Lahore (km 1260) and cover a distance of 280 km to reach Rawalpindi (km 1540). ...
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VIDEO: Chasing Storms in Thar Desert
2008-02-07 17:51:00
Owais Mughal In September 2007, we had featured a video of the Jeep Safari by 4×4 Off-Roaders Club into Hingol National Park and Mud Volcanoes of Balochistan. Today we are bringing another spectacular video from the same club into the Thar desert of Pakistan. Take a Look. WPvideo 1.10 Related ATP Post: Mud Volcanoes of Balochistan
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ATP Quiz: Clock Towers of Pakistan
2008-02-05 05:40:00
Owais Mughal Following is a collection of Clock Tower (ghanta ghar) images from Pakistan . Can you tell us where are they located? Once part of every major public building, Clock towers have now gone out of fashion from modern architecture. For Quiz purposes let us number following images from (1) through (9) starting from top left, ...

Benazir Bhutto?s New Book: Reading Between And Beyond The Lines
2008-02-04 01:42:00
Adil Najam The much-anticipated, and now posthumus, new book by Benazir Bhotto - Reconciliation: Islam, Democracy, and the West - is to be released soon and excerpts were printed today in the Sunday Times (London). I have read the excerpts but have not read the book yet. I am very eager to read the book and just ...
More About: Politics , People , Books , Reading , Book

Emperor Ashoka in our Backyard: Deciphering the Rock Edicts and the Law of
2008-02-03 07:36:00
Mast Qalandar If you think it was the MMA who tried to introduce the “law of morality” in the Frontier province of Pakistan (NWFP), think again! A “law of morality” was first introduced in the region much, much before the MMA or the Taliban appeared on the scene. Even before Pakistan, before the British and before the ...
More About: History , Tourism , Rock , The Rock , Mast Qalandar

Tribute to a Musical Giant: Khamisu Khan and Son
2008-02-02 09:18:00
Adil Najam For the last one-and-half hour I have sat here totally transfixed. Utterly spellbound. I am as mesmerized by this magical sound today as I was the very first time I heard the legandry Alghoza (Alghozo, Beeno) maestro Khamiso Khan . The sound grows on you slowly. And then, at some point, it takes hold of you. ...
More About: Musical , Giant , Tribute

Restraining the Chaudhries: It Ain?t Over Till Its Over
2008-02-01 09:01:00
Adil Najam In a post, written just a few days ago, I had argued that Gen. Musharraf’s hold on power which had earlier benefited so much from the machinations of one set of Chaudhries (Shujaat and Pervaiz Elahi) continues to be undermined by the unwavering resolve of another set of Chaudhries (Iftikhar and Aitizaz Ahsan). Events ...
More About: Politics , People

Encouraging Pakistani Entrepreneurs: Sofizar Wins MITCEF-OPEN Business Acce
2008-01-30 22:02:00
Adil Najam Sofizar, which works on “click fraud” and “web analytics Solutions” (maybe we at ATP should be talking to them!) describes itself as “a Carlsbad, CA based internet marketing company with development and operations based out of Lahore” won the 2007 MITCEF-OPEN Business Acceleration Plan (BAP). Zafar Khan, the CEO of Sofizar, along with others from ...
More About: Society , Development , Open , Pakistani

Deplorable: Iconic Humanitarian Abdul Sattar Edhi Facing Deportation From U
2008-01-29 07:31:00
aAdil Najam Hassan Abbas from WatanDost just alerted me to this most deplorable and shocking news. According to the Daily Times: Renowned social worker Abdul Sattar Edhi was interrogated by US immigration officials at the JF Kennedy Airport in New York, who also seized his passport and other documents, a private TV channel reported on Monday. Edhi told Geo News that US immigration officials had questioned him for eight hours at the airport. “They asked me why I don’t reside permanently in the US despite having a green card,” he said. “I told them that I’m a social worker and I have to travel extensively around the world, and so cannot live there permanently,” he added. (more…)
More About: Humanitarian , Deportation , Facing

Irreconcilable Differences: Imran Khan and Jemima Reunited
2008-01-29 06:31:00
Adil Najam Well, not really. Headlines like that were in rage today and referred to the fact that Imran Khan and Jemima, now divorced, appeared together in a protest outside 10 Downing Street, London, where Gen. Pervaiz Musharraf was meeting British Prime Minister Gordon Brown. According to The News: The high profile divorced couple stood side by side in front of the prime minister’s office for some time, where a large number of overseas Pakistanis had gathered to protest the arrival of Musharraf in London and his “anti-democratic” steps in Pakistan. internet advertising (more…)
More About: Imran Khan , Differences , Reunited

dil wale geyseria le jaaeN ge..…and the Jet Rickshaw
2008-01-28 16:11:00
Owais Mughal Following photo appeared in Dawn of January 13, 2008. It shows yet another use of rickshaw. After a sudden drop in winter temperature, this guy bought a water heating geyser from Saddar, Karachi and is seen hauling it in the ever-versatile carrier of Pakistan, the rickshaw. The Jet Rickshaw? When I first saw the title photo of this post, it reminded me of an episode from ‘Thomas the Tank Engine’ children series about a jet engine. (more…)
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Book Review: No Space for Further Burials By Feryal Gauhar
2008-01-27 16:19:00
Raza Rumi Decades of imperialism have left Afghanistan and its people devastated. But the fall of the Taliban, and the much touted “liberation” of Afghanistan, has produced a new spate of novels, films and other artistic media dealing with the “Afghan victim.” And when I say “Afghan victim,” I mean a nauseating overdose of burqa-oppression, Taliban brutality ...
More About: Books , Space , Book Review , Review , Book

Silencing the Chaudhries: Iftikhar and Aitizaz
2008-01-26 17:59:00
Adil Najam Much has happened in Pakistan over the last many weeks. Too much. Amidst all the chaos and tragedy it has become difficult to keep track of just all that is happening, let alone make sense of it. It is clear that the dust has not settled yet. Far from it one can be sure ...
More About: Politics , People , Law and Justice

The Leaping Oxen of Kanjwani
2008-01-26 06:14:00
Owais Mughal Kanjwani is a small town on Nankana Sahib-Shorkot Cantt Railway section. By road it is connected to the next big towns of Samundri (15km) and Faisalabad (55km). Kanjwani is famous for its annual cattle fair where people from all over the area bring their cattle to show-off. The festivities include tent pegging, Kabaddi, horse ...

Late hours in office? Pakistani Corporate Culture?
2008-01-25 13:53:00
Syed Ahsan Ali After a hardwork and serious studies of 4 years, my friends and I got our Economics degrees from the University of Karachi. Before jumping into the job market we were all afraid of our future because we had heard stories that in Pakistan, good jobs are only landed by using bribery, influence (sifarish) ...
More About: Society , Culture , Office , Development , Corporate

Two Poems by Rehman Baba
2008-01-24 16:44:00
Aadil Shah Abdur-Rehman (1650 ? 1715 A.D) widely known as Rehman Baba was a great Pushtu Sufi poet who is regarded as the most read and quoted Pushtu poet of the larger belt of Afghanistan and the North Western Frontier Province of Pakistan. There isn?t much known about his life due to the lack of ...
More About: People , Poetry , Poems

A Phoenix Rises From the Ashes of Bakhshapur
2008-01-23 17:55:00
Owais Mughal and Agha Waseem After the tragic assassination of Benazir Bhutto, Pakistan witnessed widescale burning of Government and public property. Pakistan Railways got its share of bad luck. On the fateful night of December 27, 2007, the locomotive shown in the photo below was hauling Chiltan Express between Quetta and Faisalabad. When the train was ...
More About: Phoenix , Ashes

GEO is Back in Pakistan: Writing on the Wall?
2008-01-23 02:15:00
Mast Qalandar Geo News is back on cable TV in Pakistan ! It was banned along with two other popular TV channels on November 3 last year when Emergency was imposed in the country. We don’t know on what conditions the channel has been allowed to operate again. We also don’t know how much dent the 77-day ban ...
More About: Society , Politics , Writing , Wall

Repost: Made in China: Samosa and Paratha
2008-01-22 14:04:00
Owais Mughal ATP is always searching for tips on good Pakistani food (see here), and as I have a long history with food experiments myself (see here). So here is my new discovery. On our last trip to buy oriental grocery we were surprised beyond words to find ‘Tsingtao Curry Samosa‘ and ‘Paratha - which taste like ...
More About: China , Made , Made In China

SIM-Nation: 76.6 Million Mobile Subscribers in Pakistan? Could this be righ
2008-01-21 08:44:00
Adil Najam Our friend Babar Bhatti reports on his blog State of Telecom Industry in Pakistan that in 2007 the total number of mobile subscribers in Pakistan reached 76.6 million. He is reporting from an interesting statistical compilation of achievements compiled by the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA); (more number from this report are included below). I ask ...
More About: Society , Technology , Mobile , Development

Pakistan vs Zimbabwe: We Need A Few Cricket Victories!
2008-01-20 17:20:00
Syed Ahsan Ali When a newspaper editor told me to do a piece on tour of Zimbabwe cricket team to Pakistan for five limited over internationals before we get to the serious end of the things when Australia is scheduled to play a three Tests and five ODIs series in Pakistan in March-April, 2008, I ...
More About: Cricket , Sports

10 Moharram - Ashura
2008-01-19 06:15:00
Adil Najam NOTE: In some parts of the world (e.g., Europe) today is the 10th of Muharram. Ashura . In other parts (e.g., Pakistan) Ashura will be tomorrow. We reproduce today the post we had done on Ashura last year. My sentiments today are the same as they were last year. Given the events of the year, ...
More About: Society , Religion

Are Ringtones Unislamic? (Please Don?t Answer!)
2008-01-18 06:26:00
Adil Najam Pakistan is a land of creative cell-phone ringtones. Sometimes, I feel, a little too creative. You are sitting in a meeting with some very self-important and staid people - officials, businessmen, buzurg grandfather types - and one of their cell-phone rings: and the ring-tone is a computer synthesis of “Sanou Nehr Waaley Pul Tey Bulla ...
More About: Society , Religion , Answer , Law and Justice , Ringtones

Are Mobile Companies Using Deceptive Marketing In Pakistan?
2008-01-17 18:30:00
Babar Bhatti I have been observing a trend of aggressive marketing and advertisement by the mobile operators in Pakistan . 50 paisa, 3 paisa, 1 paisa. Trying to one-up other competitors, the advertisements emphasise the lowest possible rate to grab attention. In reality the low rates being advertised come with many conditions. To figure it out one has ...
More About: Marketing , Companies , Technology , Mobile

School of Leadership Foundation (SoLF)
2008-01-17 01:08:00
By Shireen Naqvi and Darwaish Back in June, I wrote about Education For All program initiated by the Government of Punjab with the support of Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA). It was just one example of some of the great work going on around us which mostly goes unnoticed and gets very little attention. There are ...
More About: Health , Foundation , Development , Leadership