Adil Najam

More than 10,000 Sikh yatrees from India, Europe and North America converged on Nankana Sahib on Sunday to celebrate the 538th birth anniversary of Guru Nanak, the founder of the Sikh religion, and the first of its ten Gurus. This was reportedly the largest Sikh gathering at Nankana Sahib since 1947.

Earlier in the week about 4000 pilgrims from India had arrived in Lahore on the train Samjhota Express to participate in the celebrations. Others arrived at Janam Isthan by the Amritsar-Nankana Punj Aab bus service. The pilgrims arrived at the Sacha Soda Gurdawara in 125 buses on Saturday morning and returned to Janam Isthan in the evening.

Adil Najam

November 5 marks the 25th anniversary of the creation of the Women’s Action Forum (WAF) in Pakistan.

For all of us who lived through the Zia era, the scars of those memories run deep into our psyche. This is not the time or place to talk about the pain that was inflicted on our national ethos by those years. But this I do know: very few demonstrated the courage of conviction and stood up to the Zia regime, its KoRas, and its brutality with the resolute steadfastness and graceful persistence that WAF and its membership demonstrated.

While too many of us stood quietly in the corner and sulked, they stood up for what they believed in and confronted the laathis of the police. In doing so, they made us feel proud of that which they did while also ashamed of that which we did not do. No matter what you think about the issues that the WAF has stood for and pushed over these 25 years, for that demonstration of courage alone it deserves our respect.

Bilal Zuberi

While many of us have grown up all our lives in Karachi, a port city, it is difficult to find Karachiites who have ever been out to the sea on a boat. At the most you will be able to find people who have traveled to Keemari and the Manora Island. Somehow the port-city residents do not seem to have access to the sea-going vessels.

Well, that is expected to change now, at least for the financially privileged group. Gulf Dream Cruise, ocean going luxury liner, has reached the Karachi port and is set to launch on its first Karachi-to-Dubai trip on November 7th. This will be the first such trip for Karachi in decades. Several other licenses to other port-destinations have also been issued, including Bahrain, Oman and Qatar.