Adil Najam

I first read about the Gutka ban in Karachi at Karachi Metroblog. One hears that the Mayor of Karachi is coming down hard on the subject, that police is actually fining people using and shops selling gutka, and that the beginnings of a black market have emerged. But I can’t seem to get much information on whether the ban is permanent, still in place, or what is happening with it. A ban on this addictive and carcinogenic substance is clearly a good idea. Meaningful implementation of such a ban is an even better idea. But ultimately, one is left wondering just how real is this ban or its implementation.

I am glad that KBM highlighted this issues because one would have missed the story in the newspapers. Even a thorough google search found little to nothing about it. This despote the fact that this is something with deep and immediate health impacts for hundreds of thousands of people. Reportedly, Karchi has 55 percent of oral cancer patients of the country, because of things like gutka, chalia, paan, mainpuri, etc. Yet, the mainstream media seems totally quiet on this. Maybe they know something we do not.

Adil Najam

As regular readers have noticed, All Things Pakistan was unavailable (“Forbidden” Error) from around 1AM Pakistan Time on Sunday March 1 to around 7PM Pakistan Time on Monday March 2 (around 3PM US Eastern Time on Saturday February 28 to around 9AM US Eastern Time on Monday, March 2). As you can imagine, this caused tremendous angst to us, especially in the early hours of this breakdown, as we wondered what this was about and how we could restore things. We got a flood of emails from readers and well-wishers wondering what was up and if all was well. Unfortunately, there was no way – except to our Twitter subscribers – to let all our readers know that this was, yet again, a mess-up on the part of MediaTemple (mt) our web server host company.

The bad news was that there was nothing that we could do at our end about this (more details here). The good news is that the server is back online, and so is ATP!

Pervaiz Munir Alvi

Jandiala Sher Khan is the final resting place of eminent sufi poet Syed Waris Ali Shah.

Located about fourteen kilometer northwest of Sheikhupura at the intersection of Sheikhupura-Vanike and Gujranwala-Chuharkana roads, the town is rather an unremarkable place. For about two centuries the author of magnum opus Heer-Ranjha has lied here in the local cemetery in an unassuming tomb.

Even though visited by thousands of fans and devotees annually, for long the grave site had gained very little attention from the official authorities. That is till 1975 when under the pressure of town folks and other lovers of his literary work the government of Punjab province of Pakistan decided to build a proper mausoleum complex in the honor of this great poet.