A month after the attack, which sparked a global outcry, young Shazia remained fearless and optimistic.
“Islam gives equal opportunity to males and females to get an education, so we will continue our education. Education is indispensable for both men and women as it gives awareness to mankind. I will become a doctor and serve my nation,” she told The Express Tribune.
Earlier, Interior Minister Rehman Malik announced that he would recommend the Sitara-e-Shujaat for Shazia and Kainat. (complete news)
Dashing cricketer Shahid Afridi is to front efforts to eradicate polio from Pakistan, going head-to-head with militants who have banned vaccinations in an al Qaeda-linked stronghold on the Afghan border.
The charismatic former Pakistan captain was born in Khyber district, which is part of the militant-infested tribal belt, and campaigners hope his Pashto credentials can persuade parents to inoculate their children.
“It is a noble cause and I am happy to be part of smashing polio from Pakistan which has crippled many children,” Afridi told AFP.
He said the main target was remote areas of Pakistan, such as the al Qaeda and Taliban infested tribal belt on the Afghan border. (complete news)
In the midst of violence and chaos in Karachi, master craftsmen are giving birth to art-in brass. Unfortunately, business has taken a down turn in the recent years due to instability in the city.
Spread the word, let’s support Ali Kapadia’s Peace Film via Kickstarter.
Pakistan is a country surrounded by complex issues and I am passionate about addressing them. One of these issues is Pakistan’s relationship with India.
Ever since the independence of Pakistan and India in 1947, they have repeatedly been at war with each other and there seems to be no end to it. The two countries have fought 4 wars with hundreds of thousands of casualties and refugees. Even when both countries have half their population living on less than $2/day, they spend more on their military than education, poverty relief and social services combined. The strife is fueled by political interests that benefit from such conflict and the conflict has no place in today’s world. (Know more about it and support the cause by donating or spreading the word)
In the 1965 war with India, Flight Lieutenant Chaudhry shot down three Indian aircraft in one mission. In the 1971 war with India, he has a close call when his plane was hit over Indian territory but he managed to glide the plane back into Pakistan.
He passed away recently after a long battle against Cancer. He will be remembered by his family and Pakistanis everywhere.
When Peter Oborne first arrived in Pakistan, he expected a ‘savage’ back water scarred by terrorism. Years later, he describes the Pakistan that is barely documented - and that he came to fall in love with
It was my first evening in Pakistan. My hosts, a Lahore banker and his charming wife, wanted to show me the sights, so they took me to a restaurant on the roof of a town house in the Old City.
My food was delicious, the conversation sparky – and from our vantage point we enjoyed a perfect view of the Badshahi Mosque, which was commissioned by the emperor Aurangzeb in 1671.
It was my first inkling of a problem. I had been dispatched to write a report reflecting the common perception that Pakistan is one of the most backward and savage countries in the world. This attitude has been hard-wired into Western reporting for years and is best summed up by the writing of the iconic journalist Christopher Hitchens. Shortly before he died last December, Hitchens wrote a piece in Vanity Fair that bordered on racism.
Pakistan, he said, was “humourless, paranoid, insecure, eager to take offence and suffering from self-righteousness, self-pity and self-hatred”. In summary, asserted Hitchens, Pakistan was one of the “vilest and most dangerous regions on Earth”.
A Pakistani fighter pilot who shot down an Indian civilian aircraft more than four decades ago has written to the family of the dead Indian pilot.
In his email, Qais Hussain said he was sorry for the loss of precious lives during the incident and was acting under orders from his superiors.
Mr Hussain was a young flying officer during the 1965 war between India and Pakistan.
The eight-seater plane had apparently drifted off course along the border.
The Pakistanis suspected it of being on a reconnaissance mission to open a new war front.
Mr Hussain was ordered to shoot it down, despite pleas for mercy by the plane’s pilot.
The former fighter pilot said that when he landed back at an air base at Karachi, he felt highly elated for having completed the mission.
But the mood changed later that evening when All India Radio announced that the plane had been a civilian Indian aircraft with eight people on board. (news clip)
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You can watch the video clip of the moment when Mr Qais had a video conference with the families of the people who died that day, here (at minute 12:40).
AP: Photo exhibit shows alleged US drone strike deaths
We are sorry but this was too important to ignore.
A London gallery opened a photo exhibit Tuesday that allegedly shows innocent civilians killed by U.S. drone missile strikes in Pakistan’s tribal region along the Afghan border.
U.S. officials do not publicly acknowledge the CIA’s covert drone program, but they have said privately that the strikes harm very few innocents and are key to weakening al-Qaida and other militants.
“I have tried covering the important but uncovered and unreported truth about drone strikes in Pakistan: that far more civilians are being injured and killed than the Americans and Pakistanis admit,” said Noor Behram, a 39-year-old photographer who has worked with several international news agencies.
Behram spent the last three years photographing the aftermath of drone strikes in North and South Waziristan, important sanctuaries for al-Qaida and Taliban militants in Pakistan. He managed to reach around 60 attack sites, and the exhibit that opened Tuesday at the Beaconsfield gallery in London features photographs from 28 of those strikes.
U.S. officials “don’t see that they target one house and along with it, two or three adjoining houses also get destroyed, killing innocent women and children and other totally impartial people,” Behram told reporters in Islamabad on Monday. (complete news item)
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This blog aims at telling you the "truth" about Pakistan. Unfortunately, today the news emerging from Pakistan on the Western media are so much polarized that it gives a very unreal image of Pakistan.
At "What no one told you about Pakistan", we aim at telling you the real stories about Pakistan.
