Adil Najam

ATP has speculated before that there may be a US-Pakistan ‘falling out of love’ going on right now. The ATP Photo Quiz from this Saturday (15 July, 2006) provides us a nice opportunity to remember the “good ol’ days” and how the two countries fell in love in the first place.

But coming back to the US-Pakistan relations, the relationship is a long-surviving one, but it has been (and remains) a rocky ride. By far the most public, unconditional and affectionate demonstration of this relationship–honeymoon, if you will–was when Pakistan Prime Minister Nawabzada Liaquat Ali Khan came on a state visit to the US in May 1950. These pictures above show just how much more elaborate that visit was than anything since; in fact, no one visits the US like this anymore.

Nawabzada Liaquat Ali was received at the airport by US President

Adil Najam

This is the 100th post on ATP. I thought it was worthy of some celebration.

Nothing could better capture the whirlwind ride it has been than this photograph of the feverish dance (a weekly, Thursday evening ritual) at the famed Pappu Sain plays the dhol at the Baba Shah Jamal shrine in Lahore.

The very first post on ATP was on June 11, 2006 (1.18p): my video tribute to Faiz Ahmed Faiz and Pakistan, but the blog really ‘went public’ the next day on June 12. In the 35 days since then, we now have our hundredth post (including 12 ‘Guest Posts’), under 34 categories, and (till now) nearly 600 comments (the map below is a few days old, and will be replacced when new one is available).

ATP has now been in the top 100 sites amongst the over-200,000 listed on Worldpress.com since it first got their on June 28, and a number of ATP posts have regularly made the top 100 posts on WordPress.com. Most recently, these include

By S A J Shirazi

About 25 kilometres south of Balochistan coast, Astola–the largest island in Pakistan–is six kilometres in length and administratively comes under Pasni subdivision of Gwadar district.

Flying over Astola Island my first sight of the Island and the speed boat anchored in a bay far below quite took my breath. Pointing hull of the boat lay in pale blue shallows riding on the swell. Even a hardened seaman would have melted at the sight of a creature as beautiful as the speed boat. I looked forward to the promise of sailing around the Island in a boat and later exploring it in the company of botanist experts on a purposeful visit.

We landed on a rough helipad marked with a circle in lime on the edge. Soon a sleek and small boat puttered towards us. I felt like a warrior and navigator Vasco da Gama, when he reached Calicut on May 20, 1498.

The boat skated over shallow coral and bumped alongside the Island. Climbing aboard‚ we were introduced to the crew and a bunch of other guests. I resisted complaining of ennui that I experienced on the introduction to so many experts in the field I know nothing about. But soon instructions were shouted and guests joined in enthusiastically often snaring themselves in the lines and becoming more nuisance than help. Within minutes we had slipped into the rhythm of this trip: leaping off the bowsprit‚ snorkelling round the stern‚ or windsurfing around the Island. I climbed the bowsprit and watched the boat cleave through the chop. A frigate bird‚ twitching on the breeze‚ tracked our progress.