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Books, cooks, schnooks and more at the Karachi Literature Festival ’14
The Karachi Literature Festival inaugurated in 2010 and in five years has become the leading cultural event in Pakistan. A literary spectacle. I throng in with an assortment of school children, aging...
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Don’t label me ‘Mohajir’
Being a first generation Mohajir might have felt like stepping into an exciting new territory full of adventures in reassertion of identity, a deeper assimilation into the national fabric and finding a...
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Don’t forget our police jawans, they are the real heroes!
I would like to thank everyone for spreading and sharing the word about Ibtihaj when he visited Karachi for his treatment. He was a little boy who ended up being a victim of terrorism. He smiled...
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Beware, antibiotics are not the answer to every disease
A few days back, I called a friend and found out that she was suffering from a sore throat, yet again. Being a pharmacist, people talk to me quite frequently about the medicines they have been taking....
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Where were you Lahore, when we were protesting for our missing Baloch brethren?
I attended the long march of the Baloch Voice for Missing Persons (BVMP) in Lahore to show my solidarity with the cause. I was amongst the journalists who came from various news organisations to...
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North Waziristan operation: Peace talks were never going to work anyway!
After much hue and cry about the peace talks, things ended up as most people predicted - the militant group would not let go of its savage ways and the federal government’s peace initiation would...
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Why was my mamoo killed?
The gunshot outside was deafening. The woman inside the house continued talking on the phone, thinking it was just one of those routine firing shots that are a norm in her area of residence. Moments...
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Be Pakistani, support the Pakistan Protection Ordinance
Leadership has never been our strong suit. When it’s time to step up to the challenge and rally the nation on a certain path, our leadership crashes; it always falls short of selling an idea and...
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Karachi is blasphemous, Lahore is not
If blasphemy is defined as ‘irreverent behaviour towards anything sacred’, Karachi is blasphemous; a city where something as sacred as human life is irreverently and disdainfully extinguished. As...
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Islamabad is the safest city in Pakistan? Not today…
I was tying my shoe laces, getting ready to go for a walk when the number of my children’s school flashed on my screen. My heart always flutters a little when I see this number on my phone and this...
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Lost in translation: 12 signs you’re new to Pakistani culture
Recently moving from Canada, where I’ve lived practically my entire life, to Pakistan, I’ve had to do a lot of learning. Here are few of the things I have learnt since coming to Pakistan: 1) My...
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Aerial firing: “If Shahid Afridi’s brother can do it, so can I!”
After an indubitably glorious victory against India in the Asia Cup this past Sunday, ardent Pakistani fans, all across the world, have indeed found various ways to celebrate this euphoric occasion....
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Is it a crime in Pakistan for a boy to drop a girl home?
A few days ago, as a friend was dropping me back home after dinner; we were pulled aside by the cops on main Khayaban-e-Shahbaz road in Defence, Karachi. No dark corner or shady alley but while driving...
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Karachi Grammar School admission blues: Do you have what it takes?
It is that time of the year again when parents of three-year-olds queue up breathlessly outside the most coveted red building in Pakistan, to get their wards admitted into this 150-odd years old...
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Attack in Islamabad: Where did the Pakistan I grew up in go?
How many deaths will it take for our government to wake up and realise that our country is doomed if they don’t wipe out these terrorist groups once and for all? The recent attack in Islamabad sent...
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Every time you buy a stolen phone, you take a life
Early last Sunday I was awakened by a call from a cousin. “My nephew, Abdul Ghaffar, has been killed.” Considerably shaken, I said, “What? How?” A reply came my way, “Cell phone robber shot him when he...
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Bahria Town project and it’s invisible hands
It was back in October last year, when I first noticed the crowd around the Bahria Town Karachi office at Shahre Firdousi. Having physically witnessed the extravagance of Bahria Town (BT) projects in...
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A FRESH! prespective at the Amin Gulgee Gallery
This evening I attended the launch of an unusual art exhibition in Karachi at the Amin Gulgee Gallery. It was called ‘Fresh!’ – 64 artists under 30, and showcased the art of yes, you guessed it, 64...
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What it means to be a ‘Pakistani’
A few days ago a good friend of mine, living abroad, asked me a question: “What do you think ‘Pakistani’ means?” The question threw me aback, partly because it was unexpected and partly because I...
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PPP wants Sindhi Hindus to vote for them, but won’t protect them!
On March 16, 2014, while Pakistan’s Hindu community celebrated Holi, the country witnessed an unpleasant incident in Sindh’s Larkana District, where a frenzied mob turned violent following a rumour...
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