S.A.J. Shirazi
Pakpattan – the name is enough to start the travelers, cautiously curious and devoted faithful dreaming. Already the magic words like sultans and saints are stirring in the head. Let your gaze slip over the dhaki – original citadel of Pakpattan – and the town will suddenly appear. The antiquity is its own message: the town is heritage, and heritage permeates the town.
Enter the once walled inner-city through one of the existing gates and you will find yourself in archetypal form of an ancient town – crooked and narrow streets, dense housing, intricate woodwork on Jharokas, bay windows and doors. So many historic cities have developed losing much of their original character in the process during modern times, but Pakpattan has survived remarkably in tact.
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Darwaish
Legendary archeologist, historian and linguist, Dr. Ahmad Hasan Dani has passed away in Islamabad today at age 89; born on June 20, 1920.
Among Pakistan’s most noted authority on South Asian History and Archeology, Dr. Dani was author of several books and received national and international recognition for his remarkable work. He was under treatment at the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS) in Islamabad where he died today.Dani has left behind his wife, three sons Dr Anis Ahmad Dani (World Bank), Navaid Ahmad Dani (PTV), Junaid Ahmad Dani (Action Aid), daughter Fauzia Iqbal Butt, five grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.
An erudite writer of history and an evergreen tree of knowledge, Dr Ahmad Hasan Dani spent his entire life to establish a better world by providing his study of history, an attribute which made him an extraordinary scholar, at home and abroad.
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Adil Najam
Yesterday, the headlines screamed of yet more US drone attacks within Pakistan leaving 18 dead. Today, they bemoan 11 killed in Swat in continuing fighting between military and militants. Meanwhile, following on earlier reports of extremists banning women from entering cloth markets in Swat, now we hear of restraunts in Quetta banning the entry of women after succumbing to the fear tactics of fanatics. The tragedy is that news of barbarism – men killed and hung in the public square because their shalwar was not hiked up to the right length – have become so common that one does not even register as unusual.
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