Pakistani News for the Rest of Us

Until two years ago, playing sport in public had been virtually unknown for women in Pakistan. Many feared the reaction of conservative Islamic groups. In April, a mixed marathon in Lahore faced opposition from hardliners, who clashed with police. But it was not until December 2004 the PCB finally recognised the women’s game, a decision …

Born in Karachi, Pakistan, the 62-year-old studied business at the University of London with the intention of heading back home, but as he puts it: “The world was not so small back then, and Pakistan wasn’t as developed. I felt that if I wanted to grow personally I needed to stay in the Western world.” …

Although cricket is the most popular game in Pakistan, the Karachiites are famous for their passion for football. And the People’s Sports Complex, the venue of the Fourth SAFF Championship, turned into a sea of football fans just before the start of the final between Bangladesh and India yesterday (Dec 17). India won 2-0. A …

The audience’s response towards both the documentaries was very positive… a gesture that suggest that our audience is certainly maturing for different genres of film other than entertainment. The first in the row happened to be Across the LoC: Indian Administered Kashmir, directed by young Munizae Jahangir and pertaining to the eye opening reality of …

The last few days in Pakistan have demonstrated as clearly as ever that the contrast between the popularity of Test and one-day cricket here remains as stark as ever, probably more than in any other Test-playing country. As much as the emphatic Test series win over England was cheered throughout the country, yesterday showed that …

The 2000-km tour on a 200cc Suzuki motorcycle called ‘On the way for SOS’ began from SOS Village Karachi on December 2 and is scheduled to end in Peshawar on December 12. Tareen stopped at Haiderabad, Mohro, Sukkhur, Rahim Yar Khan, Bahawalpur, Multan and Sahiwal before reaching Lahore. Mukarram Khan Tareen, a 37-year-old artist …

The Alcan Prize Adjudication Panel received the AKPBS’ entry in March and over the course of its assessment was impressed by the organization’s grassroots approach and sustainable impact on environmental, economic, social and cultural issues and the global relevance of its work. Founded in 1980, AKPBS works to alleviate poverty in a sustainable manner, by …

Emanating from a city that was mostly destroyed by October’s magnitude 7.6 earthquake, which killed an estimated 87,000 people and left 3.2 million homeless, Radio Muzaffarabad has provided victims with a vital link to the outside world and informed them of the availability of critical services. ‘’It’s 5 p.m., and this is Radio Muzaffarabad,” began …

The skyline of Mirpur, in Pakistani-controlled Kashmir, once boasted nothing more than two-storey brick houses and mud huts. All that has changed since British Pakistanis returned to invest money earned in the UK in their ancestral town. Now soaring doric columns jostle with gilded porticos at the entrances of huge houses. A construction boom …

There remains a huge potential for Broadband expansion for Pakistan’s 160 million population. Recent growth in the mobile market has created an optimistic outlook for Pakistan’s communications industry. Mobile subscriber numbers have surged from less than 2 million at end-2002, to over 11 million by mid-2005. Trimax Corporation, through its wholly owned subsidiary, announced today …

Shamshad Akhtar, an Asian Development Bank official, was named the first woman to run Pakistan’s central bank. Akhtar has an M.S. in economics from Quaid-e-Azam University in Islamabad, an M.A. in development economics from England’s University of Sussex and a Ph.D. in economics from Scotland’s Paisley College of Technology. She studied at Harvard University …

For years, the slightly built Khan, who worked as a cabbie in Washington, D.C., had regularly played the lottery. He sometimes slept in his cab, but Khan never gave up hope. He kept a fortune cookie prediction that read, “Among winners, you are the chosen one.” He played numbers that came to him in a …

A legend back home in Pakistan, the 53-year-old has won his country’s National title an amazing 16 times. Sadly, the enormous talent was never put to good use. He never turned pro. He was not allowed to. His father resorted to emotional blackmail to keep his older son from seeking greener pastures on the greens …

This, in itself, is a cultural and even political event in Pakistan, a country where dance was officially banned for many years and the opposition coalition, the MMA, is dominated by extremist clerics who would like the same to happen to music. For Lahore, the 10-day festival was a huge, at times startling cultural event. …