Adil Najam's Pakistan

Adil Najam's Tour-de-Pakistan
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This page is designed for Netscape on a Sun Machine... using it on a different system could change the formatting and make the font appear oversized. It is advisable to adjust your screen size to the width of the picture which follows the first paragraph (the one which says "Gateway to Pakistan"). Please let me know if you have problems viewing this document by via email at anajam@mit.edu.

All right. Let me tell you something about my country-Pakistan. For more detailed information than is provided here I would reccomend chosing from one of the following two sites which have lots of fun pictures, maps and information. Take your pick: More Pakistan and Yet More Pakistan.

However, if you are not interested in detailed information or do not have specific questions to address, I would HIGHLY reccomend a quick pictorial tour of the country which is available at the Sohni Dharti (our beautiful homeland) site. If you are planning to travel to Pakistan soon, a good first guide is available on the net in the form of Destination Pakistan, from Lonely Planet. A good source of useful business related information is the site created by the Pakistan and Gulf Economist

If you are interested in particular destinations in Pakistan, you have to start with Lahore, the city dearest to my heart, the cultural capital of the country and a city about which all that we can say is "Lahore is Lahore!"..... end of discussion! The commercial capital and the 'most happening' place in Pakistan (by far) is Karachi. And then, obviously, there is Islamabad, the administrative capital of Pakistan which I have called home for some years now. Another city that is a perrineal favorite for me and which poignantly captures the past, present and future of Pakistan is Peshawar. Also take a look at Quetta before moving on to a more generalized tour of the cities of Pakistan. To get a flavor of the rich history of the country I would reccomend a trip down to Harappa which will give you great information and images of the mighty Indus civilization. Multan is another city that is particularly righ in culture and history.

To put all of the above into spatial perspective it would be good to have an idea of the geography and the essential statistics about Pakistan. If the small map here does not give you enough information, try this `funky' map from Xerox where you can zoom in to the geographic region of your choice.

For the more historical minded you can go through a history of the country through the mellinia or glance at some of the people who were influencial in creating modern Pakistan the most important of whom, by far, was Mohammad Ali Jinnah who we fondly call the Quaid-i-Azam (the greaterst leader). You must remember, however, that to understand Pakistan you have to understand its major religion, Islam --afterall this IS the first modern state built in the name of religion!

And from the spiritual you can move to the cultural.... If you are like me and have your priorities straight you will start with food..... check out some Pakistani cuisine... and if you are really ambitious in the gastronomic arena you could even try your hand at making one of my favourite Pakistani deserts, Falooda !

The major language of the country is Urdu which literally means "war camp" and was literally born and bred in the war camps of the Mughals as soldiers from all over Central Asia converged and tried to make sense of each other..... it has been influenced by Persian, Turkish, Arabic, Sansikrit and many other Central Asians. You may have an interesting time exploring the introcacies of the language at the Urdu Qaida page or go to a less flashy but very useful Dictionary.

My own passion is urdu poetry, especially the poetry of Faiz Ahmad Faiz. I have collected for you some special selections (in Anglicized script). First there is is absolute gem from Faiz Ahmad Faiz called "hum daikhain gaiy" ("We too shall see"). Next is another moving masterpiece from Faiz, this one called "Bol" ("Speak"). And then there is a particular favorite of mine called "woh log buhat khush-kismat thay" ("Those people were very lucky). Finally, from Faiz Ahmad Faiz there is "Aj ki raat..." ("Tonight..."), and as a special treat this last one is accompanied with an English translation. [Translations of the others are in progress].

And the next step from poetry has to be music. My own favourite Pakistan music site is maintained by Bilal Bhutta which gives the most authentic and diverse selection of Pakistani music. More contemporary and `pop' selections from Pakistan can also be found at other Pakistani music stops. One of the most popular Pakistani singers today (at home and internationally is Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan; you can sample his music by pressing here and listen to the Qawalli Mera Piya Ghar Aaya . Some of my personal favorite Pakistani music include the sufi poem by Khawaja Ghulam Farid Mera Ishq Vee Tun(this is a very large file) as sung by the incomprable Pathana Khan; Ibn-i-Insha's ghazal Insha Jee Utho Ub Kooch Karo as sung by Ustad Amanat Ali Khan; and this renderation of the Punjabi folk song Bale Bale O Tore Panjaban Di! as sung by Farida Khanum.

For other aspects of art in Pakistan I would reccomend visiting the page about folk art on busses in Pakistan. There is also the page of the Indus Valley Arts and Crafts to visit. There is also a page on TV in Pakistan and the official page of Pakistan Television Corporation that may be worth visiting. For general tips on what's 'hip' in Pakistan you can visit Saher-Pakistan's only E-zine.

Coming now to sports, it is interesting that when I first made this page, Pakistan was the world champion in Field Hockey,Cricket, and Squash. Things since then have changed..... However, Pakistan is still quite a powerhopuse in all three. The biggest national passion remains cricket and you can visit our primier cricket magazine The Cricketer-Pakistan. Another sport that Pakistan prides itself on is Polo.

And in case you are interested in the latest news from Pakistan, try out the latest news from Dawn , one of the leading English newspapers of the country. For an alternative view try out The News one of the other major daily newspapers in English.

I hope you have enjoyed this little tour of Pakistan..... but for the real thing you will have to visit Pakistan yourself... I do hope you will do so, and soon! Meanwhile you can always feel welcome to visit this page, the pany other Pakistan pages mentioned here, or my home page .
My thanks to the many pages from which I have borrowed heavily.

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