Adil Najam

Many years ago there was a very popular PTV short play, later an even more popular theatre production, called ‘Dubai Challo.‘ Now it seems that the new trend is to ‘Sharjah lay Challo.’ That is, steal national historical treasures and take them to Sharjah and, possibly, beyond.

An Associated Press news item published in the International Herald Tribune and elsewhere caught my attention earlier today:

Pakistan officials said on Saturday they had foiled a bid to smuggle hundreds of historical artifacts to the United Arab Emirates, and were looking for those who booked the consignment. The artifacts, worth million of dollars (euros), had been concealed in a shipping container that was seized on Nov. 1 at the main seaport in Karachi, Pakistan’s biggest city, said customs spokesman Muhammad Yahya.

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Adil Najam

I recently recieved a copy of ‘Grieving Shias’, the recently published book of poetry by Raza Ali Hasan. It is a slim volume – around 50 pages with 38 poems, published by The Sheep Meadow Press, but it is thoughtful and thought provoking well beyond its size.

This is an intriguing collection. From the title onwards it beckons the Pakistani reader with familiar imagery and concepts rooted in experiences that many Pakistanis would be immediately drawn to. The idiom, however, is much more than just Pakistani. It is the idiom of a vagabond of the East, a vernacular of a global citizen unwilling to be constrained by place and yet rooted in many soils.

Maybe Raza Ali Hasan’s biography explains why this is so. Now a University Fellow at Syracuse University, he was born in Chittagong, grew up in Indonesia and Islamabad and studied and worked in USA. His poems have appeared in Agni, Tampa Review, Cimarron Review, Puerto del Sol and Poetry International.

Adil Najam

Will they? Will they not? They will! When? What will happen if they do? What will happen if they don’t?

During the debate over the Womens Rights Bill, the leadership of the Mutihida Majlis-i-Amal, or MMA, had threatened that they would resign from all their seats if the Bill was passed.

Well, the bill did pass. They have not yet resigned and even as some taunt them for not doing so, reports suggest that there are rifts within the coalition on this issue and also that they will be resigning. Although it is not clear exactly when, how and even from what.