Pakistani News for the Rest of Us

Airblue has become the first private sector airline in Pakistan to start operation on socio-economic routes with commencement of Karachi-Nawabshah-Karachi flights from February 26. The Air Blue is also introducing Karachi-Quetta-Karachi route from February 28. With flights to these two destinations, the airline domestic network will stand expanded to six as it is already operating …

Starting today, an exhibition called Beyond Borders: Art of Pakistan, will be on display at the National Gallery of Modern Art (NGMA), Mumbai. The NGMA along with the Young President’s Organisation has brought together more than 150 works that comprises sculptures, installations, paintings and video art. Artist Naiza Khan, one of the artists who is …

The huge share volume figure reflects that the market has pulled itself out from the state of uncertainty on the strength of all-round buying, leaving far behind the lean period when the single session volume has dropped to all-time low of 15.141m shares on Sept 3, 2001. The index finally finished around 7,508.80 points as …

It’s a fear palpably felt by every Indian who set his or her foot in Pakistan during those magical days. Like us, he had seen doors and hearts open, he had felt the warmth and goodwill which was too spontaneous to have been a put on, he had seen the Indian flags flying proudly in …

TELEKOM Malaysia Bhd subsidiary TM International (L) Ltd has entered into a joint venture which will see the latter take a 78% stake in Multinet in a deal worth US$17.2mil. It will then inject a further US$11.7mil into Multinet, a provider of broadband and cable television services in Pakistan. In a statement to Bursa …

What city has the fastest growing stock market in the world? Karachi. What English language high school consistently tops out the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) scores? Karachi Grammar School. What country has the fastest growing cell phone market? Pakistan. The statistics go on and on. Reading statistics is no substitute for seeing a place. …

The families of Wajahat Ahmed and Tayaba Sharif are from Pakistan, but Tayaba is a young woman reared in a traditional home in Saudi Arabia. In 1997, Wajahat came to Arizona from Karachi, Pakistan, to study electrical engineering at Arizona State University. In the fall of 2002, he traveled to Mecca, Saudi Arabia, during …

WITH the telecommunications sector in Pakistan remaining vastly untapped, Malaysia’s Dancom Group, which expanded here a decade ago, has set its sights on gaining a bigger share of the market. Dancom Holdings Bhd ventured into Pakistan in 1995 through its joint-venture company, Dancom Pakistan (Pvt) Ltd, with a 60% stake in the latter. …

IT’S A cool, breezy evening in Pakistan’s tree-lined capital city, and local womenfolk are busy shopping for Valentine’s Day gifts at a downtown shop. Located in the popular Jinnah market area in the city’s F-7 sector, the store is filled with Western-style “love offerings,” such as teddy bears, heart-shaped candies, jewellery boxes, and giant greeting …

Soon after Saleem Qureshi and Fatima Fasihuddin were married on Valentine’s Day 2003, they realized they had few married couples to hang around with. So that fall, the Manhattan couple started Zariya, a matchmaking service primarily aimed at young professional Muslims who have been raised in the United States. “Zariya” means “source” in Urdu, the …

When Qudsia Sethi was 11, she was invited to a swimming party. Her parents were hesitant but gave her permission to go. She wouldn’t be allowed to wear a bathing suit, however. That would be strictly against her Muslim upbringing, her father told her. Instead, she would wear something akin to a stretchy jumpsuit that …

Illuminare Entertainment to release the first ever Pakistani-American produced film “Night of Henna” (”The Wedding Night”). Produced by Phenomenon Films, “Night of Henna” is about a beautiful Pakistani woman who must choose between her true love and that of an arranged marriage by her family. It’s a young woman’s struggle to be free and to …

Representatives of 16 foreign companies surveyed the persistently Wind-swept area in Gharo, Thatta District, where the Alternative Energy Development Board (AEDB) has identified 19,700 acres of land for “wind farming”, and appeared satisfied with the site selection. The delegates of different windmill and turbine manufacturing companies, including Denmark-based Westas and the US-based Access Energy, surveyed …

Toni Usman, a Norwegian actor of Pakistani descent working in Pakistan for a month to produce a special edition of the left-wing newspaper Mazdoor Jeddojuhd (Workers’ Struggle). Manto wrote about anti-imperialism, religious oppression and social misery. The horrific madness caused by India’s partition and the creation of Pakistan inspired many celebrated works such as Toba …