“Sir, can I ask why Iran?” asked the travel agent whom I called to book the flight for Tehran.
“I have an interest in the culture, people and language”, I respond.
“Hmmm but people would normally go to Dubai for that… anyway”, he conveys his lack of cultural knowledge.
Just like a lot of people confuse us Pakistanis as Arabs, the Iranians have to face the same misery.

The highlights of the show (i) Javed Miandad says Sports should be banned in Pakistan because Sports and Education can not go together and (ii) the Sharjah hero weeps like a kid wiping his tears off his cheeks as Shaista Wahidi shows a video clip regarding Miandad’s sponsored madrassah in Karachi hosting 600 kids.

Last night’s Shahid Nama hosted by Dr. Shahid Masood on Express News TV with Zaid Hamid and Marvi Sirmed as guests offered some bits of humor and some well timed responses by Marvi. The liberals in Pakistan, in their deceny and respect for constructive debate, unfortunately fail to counter people like Zaid Hamid. For people like him, who lie blatantly, murder history (as K.K.Aziz would have called it), use rhetoric and no evidence whatsoever. Marvi’s approach to counter him was very right. This post summarises some interesting bits and pieces from the program.

It is in this context that Dr. Shahid Masood invited Zaid Hamid and Marvi Sirmed, who was not officially representing SAFMA but defending their point of view and stance. Marvi was simply brilliant – eloquent, vocal, brave and very well timed on arguments and comments. She simply countered Zaid Hamid just the way he deserves and like none else has ever done. For someone like Zaid Hamid whose only quality is the speaking ability, ability to speak non-stop, continue gibberish no matter what; it was real fun to watch him completely running out of arguments and actually counting down for the program to end.

Javed Miandad is a naat khawan too now, with a disturbing video shot in his luxurious house, courtesy GEO TV. With all this luxury and relations to biggest smugglers of the country, the most wanted Indian fugitive doing everything illegal and immoral for years – doesn’t this beat the point?

Our very own D-D-D-Dil Dil Dil Pakistan fame (Oops! That’s haraam now) Halal Lays chips fame Junaid Jamshed has been a party to Halal Capitalism by endorsing Lays Chips certifying their Halal-ness a couple of years back pocketing millions. Now, that Halal healthcare is making inroads into Pakistan; being truly dynamic and dedicated to Halal Capitalism, Maulana sahib has not wasted a moment to join hands with these fascists capitalists exploiting religion.

Clowns like Zakir Naik have made a joke of both Science and Religion. With such gibberish and taka-tak mix of religion and science, they are only adding to the preilious state of Muslims. The golden age of Muslims, of which these Islamists take pride in, was not a product of finding lame scientific excuses out of Quran but was a result of serious dedication to Islamic/Quranic message to seek knowledge, to unleash the universe and its hidden patterns. The likes of Al Razi, Ibn Sina and Al Farabi did not crammed page numbers and their contents, neither did they attempt to make scientific advancements by wasting their time trying to make up “scientific explanations” out of Quran. There should be no doubt that the modern world and all of us are indebted to the Muslim scientists who contributed to literally every field of Science – they took up the work done by Greeks and took it to a new level resulting in Muslim Golden Age. However, at the heart of this scientific advancements was unflinching dedication to critical thinking and a burning desire to know, to uncover the universe. The likes of Zakir Naik only make

To be fair to men, let’s get back to Zakir Nai’s principle: “Thus the only two options before a woman who cannot find a husband is to marry a married man or to become public property.” Now that we have concluded that it’s actually men who outnumber women and not the other way around, this suggest there will be millions of unmarried men looking for women to marry. The only option for them would be either to become “public property” – which of course we don’t want to happen, therefore, we should allow polyandry i.e. one woman marrying multiple men.

We have all grown up listening to a new stream of national songs being aired every Independence day. I can still recall how after telecasting Azaan-e-Maghrib, FM radio and TV channels first aired a Naat followed by a national song and then reverted to their regular business. It was the same this year, an endless stream of national songs followed the Iftar announcement on TV channels and I wondered what are Pakistan’s most favourite national songs? Tough question, I know as there are so many of them and many of them really good but I wanted to find out the most popular Pakistani national songs. Based on a quick survey conducted on social networks, some online discussion forums and monitoring the hits for many songs online, I came up with the following list.

The rioters break in Barclays Bank on East Ham highstreet North and looted the local Western Union outlets as well in addition to several smaller retailers, primarily South Asian businesses. Other than these; Argos, Tesco, Primark and Pawnbroker Jewellers were the worst hit where the broke in and looted goods.

Photography can be extremely rewarding, no matter what the capacity. For amateurs, the past time offers satisfying results on correct execution of the camera. If you are just starting out with a Digital SLR camera, Karl Taylor’s series of educational and entertaining DVDs will make you wish you had possessed this knowledge from day one.

After reporting on Pakistan for nearly 20 years, Anatol has developed a deep affection for Pakistan which is noticeable throughout the book as he writes about the country with concern, “a place that cries out for the combined talents of a novelist, an anthropologist and a painter.” The book provides some fresh concepts on a routinely misinterpreted country, a very interesting and essential read, full of learning and humour, provided you have a good understanding of Pakistan Army to balance out the faults on this side.

There is a treat for almost every Pakistani shopper – from fresh supply of Pakistani fruits and vegetables, to frozen foods (meat products, snacks, vegs etc); from Pakola cans to Shezan juices; from Shaan Masalay to Tulsi Pan Masala; from all varieties of Pakistani lentils to Sooper biscuits; from Tibet snow cream to Super Crisp Nimko and Tea Rusks – you name it. I have never seen this amazing variety in canned Pakistani food – saag, aalo-palak, karhi, baingan-bharta; just to name a few. They have this good offer where they give you £1 cash voucher on every £6 spent in store – which you can use to buy only vegetables or fruits in the store; good enough deal, I believe.

My Rating:
 In 2003, Ethan Casey, a freelance American Journalist, gets the chance to live in Pakistan through an invitation to teach for a semester in the newly formed Beaconhouse National University in Lahore. His earlier visits to the country were in the second half of the 1990s when he spent most of his time in Kashmir. First quarter of the book is dedicated to Kashmir and stories of individuals struggling to live through the turmoil which has gripped the valley for decades. It is living in Kashmir and the …

I recently bumped into this amazing track uth jawana by an underground Pakistani band Soch. The version I heard is the live performance of vocalist Mian Adnan, doing the guitars himself, from the GEO tv’s current affairs program Choraha hosted by Hasan Nisaar.  In these tough times, it gives hope to have young talented people like Adnan critically analysing the society they live in and more importantly, having  the courage to voice their opinion for positive change.
They have a quite active Facebook page here, while the website appears to be …