Owais Mughal

Outside Pakistan any reference to mother land naturally catches our attention (see Beijing’s Pakistani Connections and Pakistani Towels in Missouri). Last week I got chance to visit Washington DC’s Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History (NMNH). This museum was opened in 1910 and was among the first building built for Smithsonian to house national treasures. Among other treasures of knowledge and research preserved in the museum, there is a section dedicated to Pakistan. The whole theme of Pakistani pavilion is around a ‘bazaar’ being the center of social activities in a Pakistani village.

Shown above is a scene of Pakistani village depicted at Smithsonian Museum of Natual History in Washington D.C.

Adil Najam

These pictures are of the violence and mayhem that erupted outside the Karachi, Lahore and Islamabad Stock Exchanges on Thursday after the market plunged yet again, to a 18-month low. Look at them carefully. What is wrong with them?

Adil Najam

[UPDATE: Sadly, Ahmed Faraz died in Islamabad ]on August 25, 2008. Details here.]

Despite an erroneous news earlier that renowned poet Ahmed Faraz had died in a Chicago hospital, the news right now is that Ahmed Faraz is still alive, but not at all well, struggling for his life in a Chicago hospital.

Here is the latest from The News:

CHICAGO: Renowned poet Ahmed Faraz is alive and still under medical treatment at a local hospital here, said his physician Tahir Rohail, brushing aside the earlier report of his death aired by state TV. He said Ahmed Faraz is seriously ill at a hospital in Chicago where necessary medical treatment is being provided to him.

Others are still reporting his death, seemingly based on a TV channel news item. It seems – we hope – that the TV channel jumped the gun on this and Faraz Sahib is still alive.