Pakistani News for the Rest of Us

Karachi, Pakistan’s commercial capital, has only one sitar maker, and he is afraid that after his death, there will be no one to carry on the legacy. Zafar says that sitar making has become such a rarity that it alone cannot help him sustain and in the day he has to work as an assistant …

Sardarpur Jhandeer Town continues to attract people for its admirable peculiarities. Of all the achievements the town has made over the years, the Jhandeer Library stands out as a source of knowledge… It is the biggest privately-run library in terms of the number of books, which exceeds 130,000, in Urdu, English Punjabi and Seraiki on …

Forced marriage is the ugly flip side of arranged marriage, a widespread and valued tradition in South Asia. In arranged marriages, parents typically help their son or daughter choose a suitable partner — often along lines of class, education, or wealth — but leave the ultimate decision to the child. Forced marriage, however, has no …