A few years ago, I found myself seated in front of the Karachi Police Surgeon. Like most government offices, his came equipped with lime green oil paint, a picture of the Quaid on the wall, and a large desk littered with pen holders and paperweights, but little of the clutter that suggests any real work...

Modern Pakistani pop culture is a cultural extension of the upper echelons of urban middle-class Pakistan. This remains in spite of the fact that acts such as Sajjad Ali, Nazia and Zoheb, Abrar-ul-Haq, Atif Aslam, and to a certain extent, Junoon and the Vital Signs have often managed to resonate some...

A foreigner wishes the Punjab government would give the Walled City’s international profile a face-lift. As I dropped my wife off at Heathrow early this morning, I had a sudden rush of adrenalin and the overwhelming urge to join her through the departure gates. She was heading to Lahore and I desperately...

What should a reporter do when he thinks there’s more to an accident than meets the eye? Initially, it seemed like any other road accident. A woman was driving alone from Islamabad to Lahore when she met her tragic end on the motorway after colliding with a parked trailer in the early hours of June...

My last blog on marriage in Pakistan stirred quite a response and, as one reader put it in an email, ‘the article raised many questions but then left them unanswered.’ Since marriage is one of the most discussed and yet the least understood phenomenon in Pakistan, I’ve decided to analyse it from...

Hillary Clinton went to India, and all we got was a special envoy. Pakistanis are very uncomfortable, indeed, with the US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s recent visit to India. The same pictures have run repeatedly on all the television channels. Mrs Clinton is animated and lively, her head thrown...

Canadian citizens of Pakistani descent are beginning to wonder whether it’s worth it to marry people from back home. A friend of mine, Najma, recently expressed her displeasure at the Canadian immigration system pertaining to spousal sponsorship. As a Canadian citizen of Pakistani descent, she...

The following post, I’ll be the first to admit, is the perfect definition of a storm in a teacup, which is rather apt, since we’re going to be talking about tea-sipping socialites. I’m about to make a mountain out of a molehill, or, more exactly, an academic exercise out of an amateur effort. Like...

Nadeem F. Paracha deals with piety in a parking lot. While driving up a three-storied parking structure, I noticed that at the turn of each level, a wall chalking commanded drivers to say ‘God is great’ while ascending (ooper jatey waqat Allah-o-Akbar kahen). On the way up, I also noticed a tremendous...

Naveen Naqvi asks why the city government can’t protect Karachi from nature. Okay, I know it’s predictable to write about the rain, but I can’t help it. I can’t think about much else because I live in Karachi and I have been seething. It was a gorgeous storm, perfect even. It was as though Karachiites...