Darwaish
Everyone these days seems to be talking about the elections, the tragic death of Benazir Bhutto and its impact on federation of Pakistan, the ever high anti Pakistan and anti Army sentiment in Sindh, Balochistan and FATA. The ordinary Pakistanis, middle and lower class in particular, are faced with a long list of other serious [...]

Mast Qalandar
Of all the folk tales of Punjab, Waris Shah’s Heer is the most widely read, recited (actually, sung), commented upon and quoted love story. People have even done Ph.Ds on it. It is a very long poem, written in the Punjabi baint meter, comprising of 630 odd stanzas of 6 to 12 or more [...]

by Muslim Rizvi
Last night it was thunder
Lightning and rain
In the city’s suburbs
In a dark lonely lane
It’s the edge of the night
And the nascent sunlight
Is searching for way
To make it a day
Clouds that surround
Are scattering away
Less grievous, relieved
With a heart void of fear
Of far and of near
Having shed every tear
The last falling drops
from the shades of [...]

Adil Najam
For much of Pakistan’s history, Habib Jalib was a voice of rebellion. Often an angry voice, but always an honest voice. He wrote in the idiom of the people and the jalsa was as much a platform for his poetry as was the mushaira. He often wrote in the idiom of anger. But that [...]

Raza Rumi
God, You created the night, I made the lamp
You created the earth, I made earthen pot out of it
It is me who created the mirror out of stone
It is me who made elixir out of poison

Today Pakistan celebrates Allama Iqbal’s birth anniversary with the usual lip-service. The key messages of Iqbal seem to have [...]

Adil Najam
These are distressing times. But this is not a time to be depressed.
This is a time, as Owais reminds us in his last post, to reaffirm our hopes for the future. True defeat would be to give up on those hopes. I have put up the splash image (on the front page) that I [...]