Hira Qureshi

My first impression when we drove out of Quaid-e-Azam international airport was that Karachi has really changed!

No question that Mayor Mustafa Kamal has done a phenomenal job. Huge billboards were always there, but now you get to see a lot more from bridges to parks, and much better roads to fast-food chains that I never thought could exist in Pakistan. I had been seeing pictures of different projects that were under construction and even those that had been completed, but it was hard to believe until I actually saw them.

But here I was back to Karachi after years. And ‘My Karachi’ was nowhere to be found.

Believe it or not, people do try to stop at a red light now, (of course there are exceptions and excuses) and you would also see some people with paper bags and their old fashioned baskets instead of those black plastic shopping bags that were all over the streets of Karachi (and I highly respect them for trying on their part to solve environmental issues).

But before I could believe Karachi had changed for good, I heard someone knock on my window. I rolled down the window and there it was! The stark reality.

Owais Mughal

This photo was taken on April 22, 1955 and it shows American actress Ava Gardner at Lahore Railway Station. She was in Lahore for the filming of Hollywood Movie ‘Bhowani Junction‘. When Ava came to Lahore, there was only one reasonable hotel in Lahore. It is still there – Falletis. The suite in which Ava stayed has been named after her – “The Ava Gardner suite”. In it’s lounge one could see a beautiful large size, black & white portrait of Ava Gardner smiling.

Adil Najam

The Lahore High Court has declared Mudassir Qayyum Nahira, a PML-N member of the national assembly, disqualified because he holds a fake degree. Elected form NA-100 Gujranwalla. The idea that those holding fake degrees should be disqualified – not just for the ‘fakeness’ of their education but also for the sheer act of lying and making a fool of the very people they are supposed to be representing – is a good one.

It is something that we at ATP have written about before and we feel fairly strongly about. I for one welcome the decision by the National Assembly that the Higher Education Commission (HEC) should verify the degrees of all 873 parliamentarians. That should be a normal and continual function of the HEC. I am also glad that this issue has been gaining such momentum.

Having said that – and having established that if Mr. Nahira’s degree is fake then he should be disqualified – the few details of the story that we know (and we really know very few) do seem to suggest that this may be more a case of catching a technicality because an opponent pushed for it rather than a real case of the honorable court being annoyed and incensed at an act of cheating and lying. Even so, it is good that the issue is highlighted. But not enough.