By Darwaish

Many of the readers guessed the photo in last ATP Quiz right. The photo is indeed of the Sheikh Zayed Islamic Centre (SZIC), Lahore.

I spent two wonderful years at Institute of Business Administration, Punjab Univeristy (SZIC is just behind IBA) but never noticed this beautiful campus. I guess there are so many trees around it and its hardly visible. When I first discovered it a few months ago, I hardly saw any students around. I think either they are very selective in their admission policy or no formal degree program have yet been started. I am sure many of us would love to study there just because of the beautiful architecture inspired by Lahore’s rich Mughal heritage and some really well maintained lawns.

By Yasser Latif Hamdani

Last week (February 6) marked the 114th Birthday of one of Pakistan’s greatest unsung heroes. Once again, there was no mention of commemoration of his remarkable like. No sense of gratitude from a nation for which he did so much. He has been wiped out of our memory because he was an Ahmadi, despite his glorious contributions to Pakistan and its cause (see related post on Dr. Abdul Salam).

Sir Zafrullah Khan’s services rendered to Muslims of India, Pakistan and the Third World are second only to that of Quaid-e-Azam Mahomed Ali Jinnah. As a jurist, a diplomat and a patriot he stood head and shoulders above the lesser men who have made a mockery of our republic.

Born in 1893 in Sialkot in what was to become one of the earliest Ahmaddiya households, this small town boy rose to be one of the shrewdest legal minds of his time. His early education was in Sialkot, after which he proceeded to Lahore for his bachelors degree, under the tutelage of none other than the great Iqbal himself. He got his law degree from King’s College London in 1914, where he stood top of his class and was the first person from the Indian subcontinent to do so. He was, like most great figures of that time, called to bar at Lincoln’s Inn.

Adil Najam

I suspect that many of our readers have never even heard of – let alone seen a performance by – Faiz Mohammad Baluch. If so, you do not know what you have missed; so watch this video!

This video may look quaint to some, but there was music performance well before there were music videos or the era of MTV or even PTV! There was an entire generation of wonderful (mostly folk) singers in Pakistan whose stage was neither film nor television, but the local mela, the village chopaal, the dera. Like Alam Lohar, Sain Akhtar, Tufail Niazi, and many others, Faiz Baloch belonged to this generation. Their audiences were live and intimate; their sound was rough but authentic; and their performances were unchoreographed but heartfelt. They never mastered the skills of looking into the camera, but they always did look into the eyes of their audiences. Their cues came not from the video director, but from the reactions of their listeners.