Adil Najam
I must confess that I did not know what Wushu is. Not until I read the news that Pakistan’s Ijaz Ahmed has just won an Guangzhou Asian Games Silver medal in the the Men’s Sanshou 75kg Wushu fight event.
Congratulations, Ijaz Ahmed, on your silver medal. And thank you, Ijaz Ahmed, for giving me this opportunity to learn something new and interesting.
In June 2008, Asiya Bibi, a Pakistani farm worker and mother of five, fetched water for others working on the farm. Many refused the water because Asiya was Christian. The situation got ugly. Reports indicate Asiya was harassed because of her religion and the matter turned violent. Asiya, alone in a hostile environment, naturally would have attempted to defend herself but was put in police custody for her protection against a crowd that was harming her.
However, that protection move turned into one that was to earn Asiya a death sentence. A case was filed against her under sections 295-B and C of the Pakistan Penal Code, claiming that Asiya was a blasphemer. Her family will appeal against the judgment in the Lahore High Court.
The Asiya case raises the fundamental question of how Pakistan’s minorities have been left unprotected since the passage of the blasphemy law.
The festival of Eid is here. Eid celebrations are not complete without some sweet dishes around. There is a very famous sher about sewayiaN (sweet vermacelli) which I want to share. arz kia hai (here I go):
jaatay hi bazm meiN jo us ne uThaai sewayiaN
jab tak bethay rahay hum na jhukaai sewayiaN
Today we’ve brought recipe’s of 4 sweet dishes from Begum Hafeez Inayatullah‘s book ‘Khana pakaana’. Her language and recipe’s directly seem to come out of Deputy Nazeer Ahmed‘s drama ‘Akbari and Asghari’.
(1) Sheer Khurma:
Sheer Khurma (photo at top left) which some people wrongly pronounce as ‘sheer qorma’ also, means a sweet milky and dried date dish. When I first read the following recipe’ I mistakenly read it as ‘sher’ khurma, which means a Lion dish and it may still be true because if cooked properly ‘sheer khurma’ is indeed a ‘sher’ (lion) dish. Let us see what Begum Hafeez Inayatullah has to say:
Dear Readers,
While All Things Pakistan has remained alive and online, it has been dormant since June 11, 2011 - when, on the blog's 5th anniversary, we decided that it was time to move on. We have been heartened by your messages and the fact that a steady traffic has continued to enjoy the archived content on ATP. While the blog itself will remain dormant, we are now beginning to add occasional (but infrequent) new material by the original authors of the blog, mostly to archive what they may now publish elsewhere. We will also be updating older posts to make sure that new readers who stumble onto this site still find it useful.
We hope you will continue to find ATP a useful venue to reflect upon and express your Pakistaniat. - Editors
