How do you, indeed? Meera does the rounds via SMS jokes about her English. Meera helps a damp squib sink to the bottom of the Indian box office. Meera’s alleged husband turns up demanding his house and crores back. Meera predicts she’ll be linked to Musharraf and Clinton next (you wish, M). Meera...

The lingering Islamisation milieu put together by the Ziaul Haq dictatorship got a beating recently. In May this year, in an unprecedented move, the Federal Shariat Court declared that the consumption of alcohol in Islam was a (comparatively) lesser crime. The court duly overturned the punishment of...

As soon as Eid comes around, the Muslim world undergoes mass amnesia, and the abandon with which people eat, drink and celebrate belies the fact that a month of abstinence and piety has just passed. On the occasion of Eidul Fitr, it is also worth taking stock of the month that has just passed. The last...

The tragic case of Saad Khan, a 32-year old contestant on a Pakistani game show being filmed in Thailand who died while taking part in one of the show’s stunts, highlights the serious issue of safety and regulation in the Pakistani media. The days of one state-controlled channel informing the obedient...

Last weekend I finally managed to get my hands on the DVD versions of two Pakistani films that I had once seen on the big screen many years ago, and was looking to do the same again, but this time in the privacy of my TV lounge. I went looking for them after a friend and I discussed the possibility of...

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...

Desis made the King of Pop one of their own a long time ago, writes Huma Yusuf. One of my best friends and I first started talking because of Michael Jackson. It was 1991, and satellite dishes were creeping into Pakistan. Weeks after my family splurged on a dish, the iconic music video of ‘Black or...

Madeeha Syed revisits her interactions with one of Pakistan’s best guitarists. They say he is one of the greatest minds that the Pakistani music industry has ever harboured, that his talent knows no bounds. Speaking his name inspires awe from those who have only heard of him and an acknowledgement...

Madeeha Syed considers the disconnect between the fashion industry and Pakistan’s socio-political circumstances. It took a while for me to figure out why the turnout at a recent fashion show at Karachi’s Pearl Continental Hotel wasn’t as high as one had anticipated: after all, some...

Toronto-based Taimoor Farouk shares tales from the Pakistani diaspora with Dawn.com. Canada’s largest celebration of home cooking and eating, the 17th Annual Good Food Festival & Market, starts next month near Toronto. One hopes that the two-day event will help clarify some misconceptions about...