This place is a hell. A day ago, a 5-year old girl admitted in GangaRam Hospital, Lahore became a victim of sexual assault.

The admin doesn’t want this to come out.

Imagine the horror of these texts among female house officers/PGRs who had to stay on duties for 24-36 hours. The moment admin got air of it, he rushed to hush the matter.

The mother of victim who couldn’t sign (fingerprints?) was some
how able to write this very official statement (focus on last lines), saying that vigilante/crowd justice was enough for the criminal after the assault?

Just watched Heeramandi. Found everything but heermandi in it.

I mean either you don’t set your story in 1940’s Lahore, or if you do- you don’t set it in Agra’s landscape, Delhi’s Urdu, Lakhnavi dresses and 1840’s vibe. My not-so-sorry Lahori self can’t really let it go. To begin with, where exactly is it set? Lake Como? Amalfi Coast? The most evident landmark still visible from every building in today’s remnants of Heera Mandi is the Shahi Qilla-Grand Mosque’s doom and minarets skyline. If you call it Lahore, show Lahore.

An absolute horror story coming out of Avicenna Medical College, Lahore :

On April 27th, Mahnoor died. Students think it’s a suicide. It’s a humiliating torture cell. Students have had their heads shaved of, made to sit in suffocating rooms, phones hammered down, clothes cut. Here, the owner - (the one shouting in the voice memo above) can be seen humiliating a student by what? Cutting his shirt. “Punishments” for failing a test can range from being fined 60,000 pkr to being made to sit on cold floors.

Using the liberty of a voter today, let’s analyse, appreciate and critique the proposed reforms for health in PTI’s manifesto for GE 24, : 🧵 Before I begin, let me state the obvious : It’s a pretty detailed manifesto & I appreciate how almost every tier of health care delivery system has been touched. I do feel a need of somewhat more precise goals though which can help put health as a central campaigning point.

2017 : It was an international medical forum in Turkey with 300 global representatives. 12 of us from Pakistan. We were asked to introduce our respective countries.

My fellow from Bolan stood up :

“……and I am from Balochistan”

Confused, our host asked if she meant Pakistan. “No, Balochistan”

As a 19 year old, central Punjab’s relatively privileged middle class Sunni kid sitting beside her, i chocked on my sandwich.

My Lahori friend whispered, “did you hear? She deliberately omitted Pakistan”.

To begin with, we saw no possible reason for this.

Mitigation of History?

Today, my younger brother brought back his O level’s course book which has been returned to the kids as a ban passed on this book by the PMLN-PPP vanguard became effective.

Pretext?

“It goes against the cultural norms of Pakistan”. Let’s see which “cultural norms”were about to meet extinction by this book.

1) An entire chapter on 71’, explaining in detail how a popular party was brutally cut down to size and denied it’s constitutional rights.

A Pakistani anime dream : a series set in Lahore of 1700s. 🧵 Let’s follow our little squirrel feet today into the streets of a city which once lived on the banks of mother Ravi, the realm of domes & minarets, the thumping jugular of Kingdom, the most delicious berry in basket of Punjab - the city of Lahu.

Last night, AI took me to Lahore.

It took me to the most living colonial memory - the Mall Road. Noisy, night food corners had erupted, air smelled of spice, hasty cars sped by & the column of old trees lining the footpath hid Victorian tint of the high court and post office. Carving my way out of the crowded serpent streets, I reached a street too bright for the night, a thousand shimmering lamps hanging from the hastily made shades, a battalion of mughal arches guarding it’s sides and vendors crying loss. It was Anarkali Bazar.

الیکشن ملتوی کرنے کا تاریخی سکرپٹ : انیس سو ستتر کی کہانی۔

یہ سال ۱۹۷۷ کی بات ہے۔ جنرل ضیا مارشل لا لگا چکے تھے اور ایک منتخب حکومت کو گھر بھیجا جا چکا تھا۔ مارشل لا کے فوراً بعد ہی ضیا نے نوے دنوں میں اگلے الیکشن کروانے کا اعلان کر دیا۔ اعلان کرتے وقت ضیا کا خیال تھا کہ پاکستان نیشنل الائینس یعنی (PNA) الیکشن میں بھٹو کا مقابلہ کر لے گی۔ لیکن حقیقت اس سے برعکس نکلی۔ پی۔ان۔اے جو بھٹو کے خلاف جمع ہوئی آپوزیشن جماعتوں پر مشتمل تھی، وہ بوجہ کرپشن اور بددیانتی، عوام میں اتنی مقبول نا تھی۔

The delay-elections playbook : a 1977 story.

It was 70s. Zia had just imposed martial law and sent Mr. Bhutto home. Underestimating Bhutto’s approval in masses, Zia announced elections to be held in 90 days. He thought that the opposition alliance- PNA, would hold it’s ground. But this didn’t happen. PNA was highly unpopular. And when Bhutto’s party kickstarted his campaign, one thing was very clear : there was nothing stopping him from coming back. Hence, in desperation - Bhutto was re-arrested. The party leadership fell on his wife’s shoulders.

#Toshakhana just released everything the Sharifs swallowed from it. Here’s a timeline of their endeavours from stealing Pineapple jars to a dozen luxury watches :

1) Mercedes Benz grabbed by Nawaz Shareef in 2008 in only 6 lacs. 2) Rolex Watch Perpetual N-series in 2013 received by Nawaz Shareef estimated to be around 200k+.

Mohsin Naqvi is lying blatantly. In any accident there are 3 types of injuries :

1) Primary: by the initial collision with car in which the bumper strikes the legs & usually results in a a fracture of the legs bones. (Patella/fibula). Zile Shah didn’t have any such fracture. 2) Secondary : due to victim falling on the ground or the car. Landing on the face would have caused hyper extension neck injuries and not bilateral scapular injuries (back injury). Findings on his body aren’t consistent with these either.

My friends are managing a free health camp in a distant Multan village this weekend. They’ve been successfully able to take basic healthcare to an area where nearest hospital is 100s of KMs away. Help them with it by donating :

0067 0095 0068 750 13
Hammd Nawaz
Bank Al habib This amazing team of doctors has been successful in having a general vision screening of the population, detecting early malnutrition in children, providing Antenatal care to pregnant mothers, doing free ultrasounds and diagnosing renal issues at a level where they’re curable!

10 reasons why every Pakistani should be a Women right’s activist : 1) Gender Violence :

In the year 2022, around 70k cases of domestic violence were reported by women with overall stats of about 90% women reporting one form of violence or the other. Reuters estimates that 1000 women are killed each year in the name of honour in the country.

How a pre-Nikkah screening can help country’s economy : The case of Thalassemia in Pakistan.

Pakistan has one of the highest recorded number of Thalassemia Patients, a disorder of blood caused by abnormal Red Blood Cells which needs repeated blood transfusions for survival. Every year, around 5000 children are born with this disorder, which occurs when repeated cousin marriages occur over generations, trapping the disease gene in a family and making its expression stronger.

Overall, the country has 100,000 active patients right as we speak.

وہ اس نتیجے پر پہنچ چکا تھا کہ اسکا غلیظ وجود، اسکی تعفن زدہ روح، گلتا جگر، سڑتی آنتریں، سلگتی آنکھیں اور بدبخت دل اب کسی خدائی رحم کے محتاج نہیں رہے۔ وہ چاہتا تو زندگی کو رات اسی بستر پر ختم کر لیتا لیکن وہ خود پر یہ مہربانی نہیں کرنا چاہتا تھا۔ اس نے حوّا کے تجسس کو کوسا۔ وہی تجسس جو ایک سیب کھانے سے شروع ہوا اور صدیوں خون میں یوں جما رہا کہ ظلم کی آخری حد پر ختم ہوا۔ وہی تجسس جس کے خلیے سقراط کے پیالے میں پل کر اس تک پہنچے تو اسے گمنام پر لطف راہوں تک لے گئے۔ جہاں بھول پن میں اس نے لذت کی حد کو چھوا اور پگھلتا رہا۔

I am in an age group where there’s a lot of anxiety about relationships, marriages and how they work.

For most part, I was confused. I always struggled to understand what is the core value one should be looking for in a partner - till I came across the this ayat from Suarh Rum: “And one of his signs is that he has created mates for you from your own kind, that you may find PEACE in them” (30:20)

And this was so astonishing. It shook me. Those fleeting butterflies, magical stories, charms, stability, wealth and everything else came much much later.

اس نے فیصلہ کیا کہ وہ زندہ رہے گا۔ وہ دھتکار، تضحیک اور بے بسی کے باوجود زندہ رہے گا۔ وہ خود پر یقین رکھنے والا آخری شخص بنے گا۔ اور ایسا نا تھا کہ اسے آگے خونخوار کالی اینٹوں کی تنہائی نا دِکھتی تھی، لیکن وہ انسانی نفس پر گراں اس بھر پور قیامت کو بھی سہنے کو تیار تھا۔ وہ جان چکا تھا کہ اذیت کا ازدھا بحرحال ہر در ٹاپ کر بستر تک آ ہی جاتا ہے۔ مگر وہ ناچار اس ذلت کے لیے تیار نا تھا کہ اسکا نحیف ڈھانچہ اس کے سامنے نوچا جائے۔ انا اس کی آخری متاع تھی۔ لہذا وہ سوچ چکا کہ جب وہ ناگ اپنا پھن پھیلائے اس تک آئے گا تو وہ دبکے گا نہیں۔

What if tell you that your favourite character from Peaky Blinders - Thomas Shelby had Punjabi ancestors living on the banks of River Ravi?

Let me explain.

In season 1, You can see Tommy & the other Shelbys speaking Romanian language & often being referred as “gypsies”. To be precise, the Shelby family is of an Irish-Romanian descent and are known to be Roma Gypsies. Historians report that these tribes are known to have migrated from Punjab and Rajasthan in 12th century to Middle East and from there to the Central Europe escaping persecution.

تم کب تک مجھ سے شہہ سرخیوں میں بات کرو گے؟ میں کیا کروں اگر لاہور ٹھٹھر رہا ہے اور تمہاری نوکری کے راستے رش سے اٹے پڑے ہیں۔ اگر سرکار نے تمہارے سکیل کی تنخواہ نئی فہرستوں میں بڑھا دی ہے اور اگر کسان اس سال یومیہ کم فصل پر گزارا کریں گے۔ تمہارے علاقے کے معززین کے مسئلے تمیں مبارک۔ تمہاری معاشرتی مساوات کی جنگ، تمہاری عدل و اصول کی آگ میں میری محبت کے تمام استعارے جل رہے ہیں۔ ایس ایم ظفر کے مقدموں کی کتاب محبت کا تحفہ نہیں ہے! پروین شاکر کی خوشبو، اسکی صدِ برگ کہاں ہے؟ تمہارا شاعرانہ ذوق تمہاری محفلوں تک محدود کیوں ہے؟ تم مجھے پوش ریسٹورانٹ میں بیٹھے سیاسی

اگر تم سیانے ہو تو اپنی محبت کی ناقابلِ یقین اور بودی داستان لے کر میرے پاس نا آؤ۔ تم نے اگر زندگی کا اختتام کبھی نہیں چاہا، اگر تم نے نہیں دیکھا کہ گھٹی شاموں کے اس پہر جب آسمان بجھ رہا ہوتا ہے، کسی کھڑکی کے عقب سے خلا میں تکنا، اور سوچنا کہ۔۔ یہ جو نبض ہتھیلی میں پھڑک رہی ہے، اگر رک جائے - اگر الماری کے آخری خانوں میں رکھی بندوق کسی طور کنپٹی پر چل جائے، اگر پیٹیوں کا نیلا طوطا حلق میں اتر جائے ، اگر میں نا رہوں یا تم نا رہو - تو اس کائنات کی بے تکی ترتیب، دنوں کے تسلسل اور تاریخ کے بے رحم بہاؤ پر۔۔