Air Marshal (R) Inam H. Khan

Pakistan was the first Muslim country to recognize China in 1950 and the third non communist state. Pakistan then voted for a bill concerning the restoration of China’s legitimate rights in the UN. PIA became the first non-communist airline to fly into China in 1964.

All Eggs in One Basket: The real transformation came when USA cut off all spares and other support such as training courses etc. both to India and Pakistan on breakout of 1965 Indo-Pak War. It did not hurt India much as they were mostly dependent on USSR. It had a few US transport twin piston-engine C-118 Packets with a third jet engine specially positioned on top of fuselage. It was specially designed for operations from high altitude airfields such as Leh, after Indo-China War of 1962. (As a POW we flew in one from Calcutta to Nagpur on way to our camp at Jabbalpur. Aircraft was in a rickety dilapidated shape due to poor maintenance).

Owais Mughal

This photo is from Lahore - taken on March 17, 2010. You can probably search and find this photo on the web but ‘baat to jab hai’ that you try to guess (or tell) what is this guy doing? If ‘what’ is very easy for you to guess then take the next shot on ‘Why’ is he doing ‘what’ he is doing. Answer will be revealed in comments below in a day or two.

Owais Mughal

A friend of mine had once jokingly told me that

Poetry should be done in no other language than Urdu and news should be reported in no other language than English.

That comment was for lighter moments only but one can see such a stark contrast between Pakistan’s standard of Urdu and English press that at ATP we are now in Part 10 of highlighting these differences. I also want to take just this tid-bit liberty of generalizing that Urdu press stories seem to be cuter and more sensational than their English counterparts in Pakistan. Following is an example of a cute news in Urdu - reported 3 days ago.

(1) Naming Ceremony at Lahore Zoo For the 2 Lion Cubs
The translation goes like this: A ceremony was held at Lahore Zoo to name the two cubs of a Africa babbar lion. What is the English word for babbar? Students from a private school attended the ceremony and named the two cubs as Ricky and Ticky. Father lion’s name is Jumbo and he is fifteen years old. Mother lion’s name is Fairy and she is thirteen.

Adil Najam

Today, March 16th, marks the death anniversary of former Pakistan Prime Minister Mohammad Khan Junejo who died on this date in 1993. It is not a date that is likely to be marked by much ceremony or rememberance.

Owais Mughal

The photo to the right above is Charna Island off the Karachi coast

There was a time when most of my day was spent riding motorcycle on Karachi streets. I had literally driven more than 40000 km in the first year I bought my motorcycle. After I had travelled all the metalled city roads, my friend Umar and I decided to go for an off-roading trip.

It was Christmas morning of 1991, when before dawn I took my motorcycle out and went to Umar’s place. The cold wave from Quetta valley had come to grip the city and it was extra cold that morning. The night before, a tree outside my bedroom window kept shrieking in the cold wind and I kept praying for the wind to stop so that we could go on our motorcyle safari in the morning.

Despite the cold weather, we made our way towards the beach on two motorcycles. I had a Yamaha 100 and Umar had a Honda HS100. Our plan was to take an unmetalled road North of Hawkes Bay and explore Hub River’s delta.

Owais Mughal

Photographer Shigri captured this face in Rawalpindi on March 12, 2010. I chose the photo for these pages because there is a lot of character and untold stories in it. Note the eyes, the cigarette and the rings in fingers among many details of the photo.