Owais Mughal

Lately no news coming out of Pakistan seem to be good news. This afternoon I started writing about Benazir’s return in lighter words focusing on hilarious statements coming out of our politicians on her return and then this horrific news of scores of people dead started coming in. My lighter mood vanished totally and now I am left wihout words and more questions like, Why? Who? what now? etc.

Darwaish

This picture is from Faisal Mosque, Islamabad and almost every newspaper in Pakistan published it on Saturday, just a day before Eid-Ul-Fitr. This poor guy had to come to a mosque because he can no longer sell his kidney in the “Kidney Bazaars”. After the arrest of the Kidney Gang of Lahore, our government had to bring a new law, thanks to strict orders from Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhary. Just last week, Shaukat Aziz gave us this good news during an interview on ARY Digital that poverty have been reduced from 36% to 24% (I always wonder who comes up with these figures anyways?). He proudly said that thanks to the wonderful work by our government, we have eliminated poverty significantly. Perhaps, he meant the poor.

by Qandeel Shaam

What is patriotism but the love of the food one had as a child – Lin Yutang

There are many questions I struggle to solve – for instance, does the soul weigh 28 grams, why 72 virgins and why not just 1? Is Lichtenstein a country? Why do the Brits call private schools ‘public’, why is the green tea pink? How does Kamran Khan always manage to look like a very sad and cynical koala bear?

But there is one question that has persistently sat like a shrapnel in my mind: What does it mean to be Pakistani, what is Pakistaniat?

I’ve yo-yoed between Pakistan and Europe all my life, and with the passage of time this question has come to mystify me more and more. Moments of reflection over what your national identity is, and what it means, usually occur when you’re not in your home country. Maybe it has something to do with being labelled a “Pakistani” or feeling like an outsider, but living in the West can really intensify one’s ethnical awareness. This often results in an exaggerated sense of national identity where you see Pakistanis in the West acting more Pakistani-like than those living in Pakistan! For a brief time I was also overcome with a disposition to jingo, but then I moved to Pakistan….