Adil Najam
Reader Umair alerted us to the Pakistani auction website Bolee.com, whose front page (yesterday) was advertising a “Kidney for Sale” (there were three Ads for this, but all from the same person). Search for the website on Google and you will see a bold “Welcome to Pakistan’s First Auction Site.”

Syed Ahsan Ali
ICC Champions Trophy which was to be held in Pakistan in September 2008 got postponed to October 2009 due to the security concerns of not one, not two but four ICC members. New Zealand, South Africa, Australia and England remained adamant throughout negotiations that inspite of Pakistan Cricket Board’s remarkably well job [...]

Pervaiz Munir Alvi
Even though there was nothing remarkable about him, still every body knew Bakka Gujjer. Those were the days when many in our neighborhood kept a milk cow or a buffalo at their homes. Bakka was their sole trusted community cow-hand. At the crack of the dawn he would show up at our door [...]

Adil Najam
Pakistan is in tears today. Yet again.
70+ people are dead in Wah today, as yet another cursed suicide bomber targets Pakistan and Pakistanis. The Tehrik-i-Taliban has taken responsibility for them. Only two days ago, 32 people were killed in a suicide attack on a hospital in the northern town of Dera Ismail Khan. [...]

Mast Qalandar (a.k.a. Aziz Akhmad)
Normally, I receive four or five e-mail messages daily that I want to read, mainly from family and friends. That day I received two dozen, or more — from places as far as Swat in Pakistan to San Francisco in the US. It was not junk mail, but helpful advice, offered [...]

Mast Qalandar (aka Aziz Akhmad)
Our primary school consisted of 20 odd students, both boys and girls, but mostly boys, ranging in age from 5 to 10, and one teacher. The school had no building. We just sat under a thatched canopy resting on wooden poles, covering an area of a large bedroom. The floor was [...]

Adil Najam
A few years ago a friend gave me a wonderful gift. A copy of the January 4, 1948 issue of LIFE magazine. This is the issue with a rather unflattering portrait of a clearly ailing ‘Jinnah of Pakistan’ on its cover.
For most part the cover story - with pictures by Margaret Bourke-White - is [...]