Adil Najam

For as long as I can remember, I have heard passionate arguments about whether the four provinces of Pakistan should be divided into multiple smaller provinces. The discussion has, once again, gained momentum. This time the focus is the Punjab and converting Southern Punjab into a separate province (a ‘Saraiki sooba‘).

The political optics of the situation remain in flux. The PML(N) has reacted to the current discussion with suspicion seeing this as a ploy by PPP to break the PML’s hold over the Punjab. The PPP has reacted, for the moment, with both President Zardari and Prime Minister Gillani saying that no such move is on the cards. That may well be so, and may well be subject to change, but my question for our readers today is whether — irrespective of political motives — creating a new province in Southern Punjab is a good idea or not? And what this may mean, if anything, for other provinces?

Adil Najam

What is the most appropriate word for ‘GanDeri’ in English?

I have puzzled over this for long and asked a number of friends. In fact, this is a re-post of the question I had posed at this blog 3 years ago. The best I got was ’sugarcane cut-piece’; where ‘cut-piece’ is itself a peculiar Pakistani-ism, if not Pinglish.

Do you have a better suggestion?

Dr. Rauf Parekh

Mushtaq Ahmed Yousufi, one of the most celebrated humorists of the Urdu language, said in an interview early in his literary career that he had decided to quit writing humour. Reason? He thought it was useless to write humour if one could not write it the way Shafeeq-ur-Rahman did. (Though, luckily enough, Yousufi Sahib later decided that he could write humour the way he himself did.)

Such was the influence of Shafeeq-ur-Rahman, a humorist who ruled the world of Urdu humour for about 60 years, and is still doing so.

Adil Najam

Owais Mughal

This photo reminds me of a Shafiq-ur-Rehman joke. To count animals, a student first counts their legs and then divide the number by 4. One can use the same formula here to find out how many camels are shown.

Place: Clifton Beach, Karachi; June 25, 2009
Photo Credits: Jahangir Khan