Pakistani News for the Rest of Us

Malaysia plans to recruit 100,000 male Pakistanis to relieve an acute labour shortage caused by a crackdown that sent hundreds of thousands of illegal workers fleeing, reports said. The government’s decision came amid fears that the labour crunch, which led to industry losses running into hundreds of millions of dollars, could further aggravate a slowdown …

Zainul Wahab is a renowned scholar on various archaeological sites and historical periods, particularly of Greek culture in the NWFP. He has not only established the Mardan Museum in 1990 but also worked on various sites, including Alexander’s route, excavation at Gangoder (Hund), and establishment of the Alexander Monument at Hund (Swabi). He recovered extremely …

The first jeep rally was begun in Cholistan on Wednesday participated by 76 jeep drivers. The jeep rally in the desert was being launched to introduce Pakistani drivers with the international driving standards, organizers said. People from all walks of life participating in the rally, as hundreds of sports’ lovers arrived here to …

Villagers watched in amazement as Pakistani and Indian officers shared jokes, tea and snacks while they worked to open a road over a heavily-fortified border in divided Kashmir. The work on the road crossing the de facto border between the two countries in the Himalayan state of Kashmir follows decades of sniper and artillery fire …

The Water and Power Development Authority’s “Vision 2025″ programme is aimed at developing 65 million acre feet (MAF) of additional water storage capacity in the Indus Basin and adding 27,000 megawatts (MW) of hydro and thermal electricity-generation capacity to the national grid to meet the country’s growing water and power needs. At current prices, the …

Telenor won a Pakistani mobile network license in April 2004 with a bid of US$291 million (euro217 million), and plans to invest an estimated US$1 billion (euro750 million) through the next six to eight years in the country. The Norwegian company said its subsidiary, Telenor Pakistan, hopes to be able to provide cell phone …

Nadia Aziz is slated to create a history in Pakistan by refereeing in a squash match during the National Women’s Championship to be held in Wah on March 16. Former squash player Nadia would be the first Pakistani women squash referee and would oversee the league matches of the championship.

If one walks in streets of downtown Rawalpindi at night, he can easily spot two or three people sitting under the streetlight, calculating from which number the first prize or second prize starts in the next draw. Zero is the house of five, two is the house of seven, nine is the house of four. …

The Pakistani stock market broke the 10,000 barrier on Monday for the first time, cementing a 60 per cent gain in the KSE-100 index since the start of the year. The index closed at 9,998.05, up 4.1 per cent on the day, taking the increase for the month to 21 per cent. Its intraday peak …

Meet the millionaire. No, this isn’t a reference to some corrupt politician or government officer. If you’ve driven through Shahrae Faisal in Karachi or gone through the daily newspapers recently, you must have already seen her, a call centre agent, complete with beaming smile and stylish headset. Comparatively, Pakistan appears as a weak blip on …

Perhaps, Faiz Ahmad Faiz was more near to our times the interpretation was carried out in the reverse order with Russian scholar Ludmila Vasileva saying Faiz was doubtless in love with the Russian Revolution he believed Russia could usher in a new world for the poor and wretched of this earth. Thus, he spent considerable …

Prince Al-Waleed bin Talal bin Abdul Aziz Al-Saud, Forbes magazine’s fifth richest man, on Monday announced that his company would build three world-class hotels, possibly in Islamabad, Lahore and Karachi. He said this while addressing a joint press conference with Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz. The chairman of the Kingdom Holding Company has assets worth $23.7 …

He does it so well that not even the sharpest of experts can tell the difference between the real and the copy, except that the latter has a fresh look. Although, if required, he can make his work look 3,000 years old. Ustad Ghulam Mustafa rarely comes to Islamabad and this particular display had been …

Is it an offensive name? Some people in a new subdivision in southeast Markham think so. And they asked council to do something about Lahore Road. Some residents in the 14th Avenue and Markham Road area claim the name sounds like a derogatory term for a prostitute. Others like it, pointing out it’s the …