Owais Mughal

If you have visited Hill Park, Karachi of many years ago, you may remember the presence of a haunted house inside Meraj amusement park. It was a small igloo shaped structure covered in bougainvillea and on the entrance there was a plaque displaying just two words: bhoot bangla (The Ghost House). When I first heard of this haunted house, my friends and I became very excited and we decided to check it out.

One fateful evening in 1981, we reached Hill Park around dusk time. At the entrance of the haunted house, we saw a 6-feet-tall, 3-feet-wide, and 2-feet-deep human being who was issuing entry tickets. He had six inch long moustaches and with a sinking sun in the background, his silhoutted image appeared like a complete ‘bhoot’ (ghost) in itself.

Imran H. Khan

Take a good look of the photo of Attock Fort above as I am going revisit it towards the end.

The use of term science and technology subconsciously suggests that science comes first and technology is a product of science. There is a growing sense in the West that this linear thinking is disconnected with reality. The new thinking states that most of the science could not have been made possible without the availability of technology. While this discussion is best left to people with a lot more cerebral, I would like to focus on the question of relative importance given to technology and science in the developing world in general, and Pakistan in particular.

Countries like Pakistan have to make smart choices in terms of allocation of limited human resources and money. My experience in Pakistan leads me to believe that there is a simplistic view of technology and science.

Shahran Asim

I just received an email that Shehzad Roy will be coming to Chicago this week to receive the Patricia Blunt Fellowship from the Chicago Council of Global Affairs. With every day news of doom and gloom, I think news like this are a breath of fresh air for the Pakistanis.

The Chicago Council of Global Affairs recognized Shehzad’s efforts in improving secondary education and commitment he made through establishing the Zindagi Trust. Among several things that Zindagi Trust is doing, one of their best work, I think is when they turned a Government run school into an educational Center of Excellence. It is called SMB Fatima Jinnah School which is a girls secondary school located in the the old City Area of Soldier Bazar/ Garden.