A large crowd gathered at theJinnah International Airporton Monday to welcome re-cently-retired Younis Khan ashe touched down in Karachiafter his final Test against theWest Indies.

Younis Khan cemented hisplace in Pakistan's cricket his-tory as an iconic batsman withunparalleled success. He re-turns to Pakistan on the backof a historic win against theWest Indies, as the jinx ofPakistan never winning a Testseries in the Caribbean waslifted.

Over the 17-year span of hiscareer, Khan has been a hugelysuccessful batsman. With aTest average of over 50, atriple-hundred, a double-hun-dred against India in India anda memorable partnership toclinch Pakistan's 3-0 Testwhitewash over England:Khan’s career speaks for itself.Khan also became the onlybatsman to have scored a cen-tury in 11 different countrieswhen he smashed the 34th tonof his career at the SydneyCricket Ground against Aus-tralia in 2016.

He is the only Pakistani tohave reached the 10,000-runsmark in Test cricket.

He was a busy batsman at the

crease. His batting style, in allits uniqueness, drew a fairamount of scepticism, but hisownership of his style re-mained unapologetic and firm.

Khan first's major break in in-ternational cricket came withhis debut Test hundred againstSri Lanka in February 2000 atthe Karachi National Stadium.In the second innings of thematch, he scored a 107, ce-menting his place in the teamas a strong lower middle-orderbatsman.

One of his major achieve-ments was leading the Pak-istani team to win the 2009T20 World Cup.

While the cricket board wouldhave to work hard to replaceKhan, his retirement will bringhim closer to pursuing his life-long passion of sport fishing

and spending more time withhis family.

Courtesy: Dawn

May 18, 1950: The Peshawar University comes intobeing.

May 11, 1951:University of Karachi is established.

May 14, 1956: PM Abiha Abdul Majeed presents thefirst five-year plan.

May 1, 1972:Labour Day is celebrated for the firsttime in Pakistan.

May 26, 1980:Establishment of Federal Shariat Courtis announced.

May 16, 1991: National Assembly adopts Shariat Bill.

May 21, 1997: Saeed Anwar slams world record scoreof 194 runs against India.

May 12, 2000:Supreme Court validated the October1999 coup and granted General PervezMusharraf executive and legislativeauthority for three years.

May 22, 2004: Pakistan readmitted to Common-wealth.

May 14, 2006: Charter of democracy (CoD) is signed bytwo former prime ministers of Pakistan,Nawaz Sharif and Benazir Bhutto inLondon.

23 May-15 July 2009:Pakistan Army launched OperationRah-e-Rast and cleared Swat Valley ofall Taliban elements. It is regarded asone of the most successful counter-insurgency operation in modern age

May in History

Positive Post is published to project positivity all around Pakistan amongst our youth and the entire nation. Our efforts are to inculcate patriotism and a sense of ownership in them. It is a compilation of news extracted

by the students of Mass Communications and Media Studies of Greenwich University.

Volume VII, Issue-V, May 2017

F Atiya Zaidi to attend the ‘See ItBe It’ programme ......

F This new competition will givewomen focused startups .......

F Inspired by tradition: NaziaEjaz’s mirror acrylic work ......

F After 17 years, Lahore gets a fe-male SHO

F KLF holds events in UK tomark independence anniversary

F From Imran-Miandad toMisbah-Younis:Pakistan's best...

F Dil Say Pakistan: a brand newplatform for budding film......

F Tweaking the path to growth

F Art gallery opens inMuzaffarabad

F he secret of Sindh's memorialstones is out

What’s inside:

Younis returns home to Karachi to a hero's welcome

The ECD of Synergy Dentsu isamong the 15 women selectedfrom all over the world to attendthe event.

Atiya Zaidi, Executive CreativeDirector, Synergy Dentsu was re-cently selected to participate inthe ‘See It Be It’ programme atCannes Lions (to be held fromJune 17 to June 24) this year. Theprogramme was launched in2014 with the purpose to identify

promising mid- to senior-levelwomen in the advertising worldand help them accelerate theircareers – currently only 11% ofwomen reach leadership posi-tions in the creative industry(source: Grant Thornton).

Zaidi, who is the first Pakistanito be selected, was also chosenlast year, but couldn’t attend theevent because her visa was de-clined by the French Embassy.She is currently waiting for hervisa to be issued, and hopes to flyoff as soon as she gets it.

“I hope and pray I live to breathethe seaside air of Cannes.”

Courtesy: The Express Tribune

2

Atiya Zaidi to attend the ‘See It Be It’ programme at Cannes Lions

These three interlinked conceptswere used by and served as sourcesof inspiration for artist Nazia Ejazin her exhibit, ‘The Green Room’,which opened at the CanvasGallery on Tuesday.

Most notable in display were theimages done up in laser cut mirroracrylics and other works in oil andgold leaf on linen.

From the use of grill patterns toseveral screens to missing pieces ofglass, my paintings are also a ref-erence to traditions, she said.

Her work is a part of the work shedid in Adelaide, Australia inNexus Residency for about threemonths, last year. Meanwhile, sheis currently in the process of mov-ing back to Pakistan from Aus-tralia where she was living withher family since the past 12 years.

The daughter of melody queenNoor Jehan, Ejaz commented thatto a great extent, her mother’s cre-ativity was reflected in her too asan artist. “You’ll find her presenceeverywhere here today,” she said.

Ejaz has toyed with the conceptsof identity and migration, focus-ing on her own roots.

her end about her identity androots.

Courtesy: The Express Tribune

Works by reclusive artist UnverShafi Khan were exhibited at KoelArt Gallery on Thursday evening.The artist said he primarily spendshis time focused on his work as hegets to narrate his tale.

These artwork pieces on displayare acrylics on canvas done up ina Fabulist style. They were allpainted between June 2015 andDecember 2016.

Karachi-based artist Khan said hislast exhibition was at CanvasGallery in 2004. Where has hebeen for the past 13 years? “I was

doing group shows after the Can-vas event but I really wantedeverything to calm down and bequieter,” he explained.

In this series of paintings, whichare more tilted towards abstracts,one finds a collection unlike anyother collection in town. The workis hard to define and yet a pure joyfor the eyes to view. Noticeably,there are varied colours in theworks and viewers get to enjoy thevibrancy of the work as well as thesymbolism.

Courtesy: The Express Tribune

Inspired by tradition: Nazia Ejaz’s mirror acrylic work lights up Canvas Gallery

Hidden gems: Unver Shafi Khan exhibits hiswork after 13 years

This new competition will give womenfocused startups an opportunity to shine

She Loves Tech Pakistan 2017will send its winner to a week-long tech bootcamp in China!Calling all women-focusedstart-ups!

A competition titled She LovesTech Pakistan 2017 is set totake place in July and the winnergets to go to China for a week-long bootcamp!

The competition is open to allfemale-founded start-ups seek-ing angel, seed or A roundfounding or startups that impactwomen positively using tech-nology. In the competition, en-trepreneurs will present theirbusinesses to investors and othertech influencers. The exact dateand location of the competitionis yet to be announced, but in-

terested participants can registerthemselves here before June 23. The top finalist of the Pakistaniround will get to participatewith finalists from Canada,

China, Germany, Hong Kong,Indonesia and Singapore in theglobal competition in China inSeptember this year.

The competition is not only anopportunity to receive construc-tive feedback, but also gain lotsof international exposure.

The Pakistan round has been or-ganised by Circle, a social enter-prise focused on women’seconomic inclusion and leader-ship development.

Courtesy: Dawn

3

A female sub-inspector was ap-pointed the station house officer(SHO) of a regular police stationin Lahore on Friday.

DIG Operations Dr HaiderAshraf promoted Ghazala Sharifto the post of the Rang MahalPolice Station SHO – makingher the first woman to have beenappointed to this position in thecity after 17 years.Besides, sub-inspector NabilaKausar has been appointed theSHO of the women’s RaceCourse Police Station (RCPS).The Punjab CM ‘s Strategic Re-forms Unit (Law & Order)tweeted:

Lahore, the provincial capital ofPunjab, a city of approximately15 million people, has 84 policestations. However, there is onlyone women’s police station in thecity. The RCPS is used to keepfemale suspects behind bars.Cases whereby both the suspectand the person who has filed acomplaint are female are regis-tered at the RCPS.

Courtesy: The Express Tribune

Marking the 70th anniversaryof Pakistan’s foundation, theKarachi Literature Festival(KLF) held a series of events inLondon’s Southbank Centre onSaturday. Tickets had sold outas soon as they became availableand the 20 events at the festivalattracted capacity audiences.

Sessions ranged from talks byauthors, discussions and poetryreadings to musical perform-ances.

The keynote address was givenby leading Pakistani writerMohammed Hanif whose rapidtour of Pakistani historyhighlighted the difficultiesfaced by the country’s authors.He recounted how in recenttimes one had been shot afterorganising a discussion; an-other, a journalist, faced a high-level inquiry because hereported that, sometimes, thearmy and politicians don’t agree,and a third was lynched becauseof a Facebook post.

Highlighting cases of the dis-appeared in Pakistan and quot-ing Human RightsCommission data, Mr Hanifsaid that 728 people had beendisappeared in 2016 — thehighest number in the past sixyears. But writing about thedisappeared was so dangerous,

he pointed out, that one riskedbecoming disappeared himself.

In her speech, the organiser andmanaging director of OxfordUniversity Press in Pakistan,Ameena Saiyid, said that“despite its image most Pakista-nis are moderate because of ourSufi tradition”.

Talking to Dawn after theevent, Ms Saiyid said she hadchosen to have KLF in theBritish capital because “Londonis the ideal place because of itsdiaspora of over a million peo-ple of Pakistan origin who wantto be reconnected with theirroots”.

High-profile speakers includedthe former co-chair of theBritish Conser vative Party,Baroness Sayeeda Warsi, whospoke about her new book TheEnemy Within: A Tale of Mus-lim Britain.

Speaking about the purpose ofthe KLF in London, Ms Saiyidsaid that she was hoping tomove beyond the images ofPakistan that are dominant inthe media. “The purpose is toraise the profile of Pakistani au-thors and project a more accu-rate and holistic image ofPakistan,” she said.

Courtesy: Dawn

After 17 years, Lahore gets a female SHO KLF holds events in UK to mark independence anniversary

This young musician from KP has masteredover six instruments

Shaukat Paniyal, a young artistfrom Dera Ismail Khan, enjoys aunique art of playing six musicalinstruments with great skill.

He can play six wind instru-ments including flute, saxo-phone, clarinet, Naulophone,Soprano and Surna. Helaunched his music career 16years ago.

Born to a pipe player family, hegrew up with a natural filial forplaying pipe instruments. Whenstill a teenager, he used to playwith his father’s flute and occa-sionally tried to play it but oneday his father decided to removehis son’s curiosity and begantransferring his art to him.

He is not only a skilled instru-mentalist but also keeps on ex-

perimenting with new musicaltools. Two years ago, he inventeda new Pashto wind musical in-strument which he called‘Naulophone’. It is made of canehaving finger-holes.

He said that in early 60s,Zarnosh Ustad invented a windmusical instrument from wheatstaff or straws named ‘Druza’.He said that Naulophone haddifferent sound features asDruza had five tunes whileNaulophone had seven tunes.

Master Ali Haider, a seniormusic composer, told this scribethat Pashto folk music had abright future and change in anyfield was inevitable but not atthe cost of losing a culture.

Shaukat Paniyal has performedin Dubai, Qatar and Kabul. “Ifwe want to save our indigenousculture, we must safeguard ourmusical instruments becausemusic is closely linked to folkpoetry and both music and po-etry are reflective of the past of anation,” he said.

Courtesy: Dawn

4

2010 brought 35 year oldMisbah-ul-Haq, the mostun-Pakistani cricketer and aneven more unlikely national cap-tain, a complete antithesis ofImran Khan and his prodigies.

His first assignment as captainwas a series against South Africa.Dubai International Cricket sta-dium was hosting its first Testmatch as team Misbah laidfoundations to their fortress.

South Africa set a 451 runfourth inning target for Pakistan,who were bundled for 248 in thefirst innings. With four sessionsto go, a Pakistan loss seemed in-evitable.

Then, Mis|You (Misbah-ul-Haqand Younis Khan) came togetherand provided what would be atemplate for Pakistan cricket forthe next seven years. They refusedto lose. Misbah batted 225 min-utes and Younis Khan for 344minutes. Both remained not out.

Younis, the man of the match,

was making a come back after aone and a half year altercation(ban, retirement, fine, no one wasquite sure, including Younishimself ) with the administrationand teammates.

Finally, Younis had a captainwho gave him the liberty and re-spect he demanded, and a manYounis could respect and admirein return.

Mis|You went onto score 3,213runs in partnership at an averageof 68,36 - the highest by anyPakistani pair in Test history.They got a century stand 15

times, that puts them sixth in theall time list and makes them theonly Pakistanis in the top 20.

Rahul Dravid and Sachin Ten-dulkar lead with twenty 100+partnerships. But Mis|You weremore than twice as likely to geta century partnership than theIndian legends.

In total, Mis|You have 50 Testwins, 26 of them in away testsand 15 of them outside Asia.

And if anyone doubts the powerbehind these engines, Misbahholds the record of the maximumnumber of sixes hit by any Pak-

istani batsman ever, 81. And You-nis is number two with 70 sixes.No one else even touches 60.

But how do you weigh the re-spect that Mis|You earned backfor Pakistan on English soil?

How do you measure the worthof dignity and honour theybrought for Pakistan cricket?

They showed that a bunch ofcorrupt and divided match win-ners can win the odd game ortwo on their own, but it takes awell-knit team to become theworld's number one. Whenunity, faith and discipline meetshard work, it can create its ownmagic.

How can you quantify integrity?Especially in a place where it hasbeen so scarce!

How can Mis|You ever bereplaced? I have the answer to that. Theycannot!

Courtesy: Dawn

From Imran-Miandad to Misbah-Younis: Pakistan's best cricketing duo

A WHITE statue of Chinesephilosopher Confucius standstall and behind it is the impres-sive building of the ConfuciusInstitute — the rebranded Chi-nese language department at theNational University of ModernLanguages (NUML).

This institute, like several othersaround the globe, was set up topromote Chinese language andculture. It was founded withsupport from the Office of Chi-nese Language Council Inter-national (Hanban), and theBeijing Language and CultureUniversity in April 2005.

The NUML’s Chinese languagedepartment, however, has beenaround for nearly half a century.When it was set up in Septem-

ber 1970, it had only 13 stu-dents. Over the years, however,the interest in the departmenthas increased exponentially.

Job marketLearning Chinese has certainlyhelped alumni acquire jobs inthe past. Zeeshan Mehmood, aformer student of the NUML,says that after finishing his Chi-nese language course in 2014, hegot a job as a translator in aChinese construction companyworking with Pakistan.

The institute clearly recognisesthis. A few years ago, it startedoffering a short-term course fo-cused on ‘Business Chinese’ lan-guage.

The curriculum focuses not onlyon the language, but also basic

etiquettes that students mayneed while doing business inChina. The course has bookslike one titled “ABC BusinessNegotiation”.

But not all students have aspi-rations of doing business inChina. Ms Mustafa says thatstudents are also showing moreinterest in Chinese because afterlearning the language, they go topursue Master of Philosophy(MPhil) degree in China. The increased interest in learn-

ing Chinese not only meansthat more students from acrossPakistan are enlisting in theNUML, it has also resulted inConfucius institutes opening indifferent parts of the country.Right now there are four insti-tutes; one each in Islamabad,Faisalabad (Agriculture Univer-sity), Lahore (Punjab Univer-sity) and Karachi (University ofKarachi). The building of an-other institute is under con-struction in Gilgit.

Courtesy: Dawn

More students in Pakistan learning Mandarin today than ever before

Does FryPan's unique fusions mean it's hereto stay?

The last time I went to a restaurant, I hadobjections to their approach: elaboratemenu, trying to please everyone with variouscuisines and no signature dishes. So, coinci-dentally, the restaurant that I ended up at re-cently addressed all these concerns.

FryPan had been on my mind since itopened up back in March. It’s a predomi-nantly desi place, and there’s not much youcan do with local food, but the reason Iwanted to try it out was that they were serv-ing ‘fusion qatlama’. And the pictures piquedmy interest further.

Located in the back lanes of DD block inDHA facing a residential area, FryPan is asmall eatery, with a congested ground floorthat leads to the dining area upstairs. Uponentering, you encounter the live kitchen andon your way upstairs notice three frying panshanging on the wall. Along with a friend, Iwent at lunch time and found the small din-ing area brightened up with sunlight flowingin through the glass window at the front.The chili cheese bites were a pleasant startto the meal

Settling down, I knew I wanted the ‘qat-lama’, at least. But we started off with theChilli Cheese Bites that sounded tempting.These cubes of cottage cheese, crispy on theoutside, soft inside and glazed with an in-house hot, spicy sauce mixed with slices ofcapsicum, onion and tomatoes were, obvi-ously hot, but a delectable, light appetiser. Apleasant start to a meal.

The qatlamas are their specialty

Next, we ordered their specialty: the Mexi-can and Moroccan qatlamas. These eight-inch ‘pies’ are served in a frying pan and eachis meant for two people. FryPan’s own takeon the desi delicacy, these are nothing likethe large, thin, pancake-like, oil-laden qat-lamas you may have had outside shrines orat melas. This is an inspired dish, one that’sfresh, filling and delicious; two crispy layers,stuffed, and topped with traditional herbsand spices.

Look at the cheese in that Mexican qatlama The Mexican qatlama is generously filled

with grilled chicken, red sauce, capsicum,onion, tomatoes and olives. And if you havecheese added to it, it oozes out as you biteinto it. The Moroccan qatlama is also filledwith grilled chicken but mixed with a mildlyspicy sauce and herbs. Both were servedwith tamarind sauce.

You may order the qatlamas expectingsomething on the lines of the traditionaltreat, and these may not be close to them,but what you get does tick all the rightboxes: the filling is cooked well with theright amount of spice and sauce whereneeded, they’re fresh, crispy outside and ap-petising. And not a bad deal for Rs500. Fullpoints to FryPan for introducing somethingunique.

Creamy chicken curry

We also tried two of their gravies: ButterChicken comprised tender, boneless chunksof chicken cooked in smooth creamy, butterygravy served with soft, fresh naan. The sweetand sour tinge from butter and cream madethis one a mouth-watering treat.

Their handi is another popular dish like thehari mirch

The other gravy we ordered was ChickenHari Mirch. This thick green curry withboneless chicken pieces cooked in greenchillies and herbs had a distinct chilli taste,yet the amount of spice was appropriate andnot overpowering. Something worth spend-ing on, and not bad for Rs700 and Rs650 forboth the gravies, respectively.

Light and crispy coconut naan

To cap the meal, we had their coconut andgurr (jaggery) naans, and I have to say theywere scrumptious. The Coconut Naan wassuper light, thin, soft, filled with the right

amount of grated coconut and thankfullynot an overdose of sugar. Similarly, the GurrWala Naan was soft, thin and topped with alayer of light jaggery syrup. I expected itto be uncomfortably sweet, but, fortu-nately, this too was appropriately sweetand not overwhelming. Quite satisfactorydesserts for someone with a massive sweettooth as me.

Some other items on the menu includedburgers, which frankly I wasn’t drawn to-wards sitting in a local restaurant, as well asbiryani, papri chaat, kulfi and a wide rangeof drinks – mocktails, shakes, smoothies. Ifthey manage to maintain quality and con-sistency, they have some delicious food tooffer.

Courtesy: Dawn

5

FryPan's fusion qatlamas are a must-have for the Lahori foodie

The fifth round of the 60-second inter-national film festival (60SIFF), Dil sayPakistan, was held at the Punjab Univer-sity, Lahore and Alhamrah Hall on twoseparate days to celebrate the endeavoursof aspiring film-makers from across theglobe. The event – organised by the Ex-press Media Group, 60SIFF and Dil sayPakistan, witnessed a colossal crowd in-cluding students from different universi-ties of the metropolis.

Renowned drama writer Asghar NadeemSayed was the chief guest on the occasionwhile other entertainment personalitieswere also in attendance. The affair waspart of a nationwide celebration on thisyear’s theme of Colours of your Countrythat started off from Islamabad and isnow taking place in different cities ofPakistan.

Courtesy: The Express Tribune

Dil Say Pakistan: a brandnew platform for budding

film-makers

Breaking low-growth shackles, the economymoved past the 5pc (in 2007-08) economicgrowth rate to an estimated 5.28pc — high-est in around nine years.

The government is expected to spend morethan Rs800 billion allocated for the publicsector development programme by year endowing to higher than targeted foreign aidflows.

While there may be those pointing out thatthe GDP growth target of 5.7pc was missedexcept for some slippages on the manufac-turing side, all other sectors particularlyagriculture and services, either achieved orsurpassed targets after a gap of many years. This calls for more effort than complacency.

With more than Rs2.1 trillion public sectorinvestments next year, the coming year’seconomic growth target has been set at 6pc.

In a major policy shift, devolved pro-grammes like health and education wouldno more be part of federal PSDP ‘in accor-dance with the division of subjects betweenprovincial and federal governments in thepost 18th amendment scenario’.

A major focus of the upcoming develop-ment plan appeared to be allocations fornon-core PSDP that included Rs45bn forthe PM’s Global Sustainable DevelopmentGoals, Rs20bn for the PM’s Initiative,Rs25bn for gas development schemes,Rs45bn each for security enhancement and

relief and rehabilitation of internally dis-placed persons.As such, the core PSDP would be put atRs866bn against Rs655bn of the currentyear while non-core development spendingwould amount to Rs135bn. A special allo-cation of Rs27bn has been made for com-pletion of CPEC projects.

Completion of CPEC would continue to bethe top objective of the next budget withRs324bn allocation for National HighwayAuthority instead of Rs190bn of this year.

Another Rs61bn would go to power sectorinstead of Rs130bn this year, perhaps due tonearing completion of major generationprojects. The total Rs385bn allocation forCPEC would also include foreign fundingof Rs145bn.

Courtesy: Dawn

6

Tweaking the path to growth

Two-day Express Career and Education Expo 2017 concludes in Karachi

A huge turnout of students and the generalpublic was witnessed on the second and lastday of Express Career and Education Expo2017 held on Sunday at the Expo Centre.

The education expo, organised by the ExpressMedia Group, was held with the aim to pro-vide career counseling opportunities andideas for young students under one roof. Over58 stalls were set up by 15 universities fromacross the country. Scientist Dr Attaur Rah-man inaugurated the education expo on Sat-urday. He visited various stalls and metstudents who were attending the expo.

Different activities were organised for partic-ipants in Expo Centre’s Hall III. Variouscompetitions were held among different uni-versities. Tabani School of Accountancy se-cured first position in the advertisingcampaign competition, while Iqra Universityand PAF-KIET were the runners-up. IqraUniversity bagged first position in singingcompetition, while the runners-up werePAF-KIET and Sir Syed University of En-gineering Technology.

Iqra University also managed to secure firstposition in photography competition whileNED and Preston universities were the run-ners-up. Shields were distributed among par-ticipants by Nadeem Murad and Mehboob

Elahi, senior marketing executives of theExpress Media Group.

The dance competition was won byGreenwich University, while Iqra Universityand Arena Multimedia were the runners-up.Aleena Ahmed, a participant of the dancecompetition, said the event provided themwith not just entertainment but with oppor-tunities to get information about universities.

Participating universities were divided intotwo categories of platinum and gold partnersof the expo. The platinum partners includedShaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto Institute of Sci-ence and Technology, DHA Suffa University,PAF-KIET, Iqra University and Oxford Uni-versity Press. The gold partners includedSindh Madrassatul Islam University, FatimaJinnah Dental College, Habib University,Usman Institute of Technology, MaritimeTraining Institute, United Medical and Den-tal College, Barrett Hodgson University andSuperior College.

Courtesy: Dawn

An art gallery dedicated to the PakistanMovement and the Kashmir cause openedits doors to the visitors on Sunday.

AJK premier Farooq Haider inauguratedthe Sailani Art Gallery in the state capitalMuzaffarabad.

This is the first ever art gallery in the AJKcapital showcasing pictures and portraits ofsocial, political, religious, literary figures ofheroes of Kashmir freedom struggle andPakistan Movement.

The gallery has been established by thefamous artist of AJK Syed Qasim Sailani.PM Haider appreciated his effort forpromoting the message of Kahsmirthrough art.

Courtesy: The Express Tribune

Art gallery opens in Muzaffarabad

7

The secret of Sindh's memorial stones is outOver three decades ago, I sawfor the first time a stele on thebank of Bhodesar pond outsideNagarparkar town in Sindh’sThar region. It was a time ofdrought. The pond was dry andan upright sandstone slab wasstanding there.

The slab carried a beautifulcarving of a horse rider, hisraised left hand holding whatappeared to be a staff. At hiswaist was a quiver bristling witharrows. In a panel immediatelybelow the artistic renderingwere a few lines of writing thatI thought was in Hindi. Nearbywas another slab bearing whatwas clearly the depiction of awoman. Her dress was notablefor being quite similar to theghagra still worn in Thar.

The loose ends of her ornatecummerbund came down to herknees. To the right of thewoman’s figure was an armraised upward as if in salutation.This disembodied arm was cov-ered with bangles above theelbow — just as Hindu and JainThari women adorn their armsto this day. The writing on thesecond slab was much longer

than that on the slab with themale figure.

Back then it was difficult to findan expert to divulge the secretsof the story and symbolism pre-served in those stones. All Ilearned was that these were me-morials to famous personagesburied beneath them.

About that time I became ac-quainted with German scholarDr Salome Zajadacz-Hasten-rath’s seminal work on the fu-nerary art of Sindh’sChaukhandi tombs. I saw avague similarity between theelaborate Chaukhandi carvingsand the stele of Bhodesar. Butnothing more.

It is only now, with the recentpublication of Memorial StonesTharparkar by Dr Zulfiqar AliKalhoro, that the secret ofBhodesar is fully out: the stelesby the pond are not the onlyones present in Sindh. Memo-rial stones harking back to his-torical persons and events areliberally strewn throughout thedesert of Thar. We also nowknow that the Bhodesar stonescelebrate Naraji, a prince whowas sacrificed by his fatherBhodo Thakur so that the pondwas never empty of water.

Such memorials to local heroesare unknown in Punjab andother parts of northern Pakistan— as well as in northern partsof India. Unsurprisingly, how-ever, we find the same art formswidespread in India’s Kutch re-gion which is adjacent to Thar.

Kalhoro tells us the carvedstones preserve tales of heroismof old. The hero – vir, surmo,jhujhar, surayah or sarfarosh inlocal languages – is celebratedfor bravely resisting enemiesand losing his life in combat. In-triguingly, many of the heroeslost their lives when one wed-ding procession crossed anotheror refused to give way in thecrossing. In such cases, thegrooms faced off in one-on-onecombats — a rather meaning-less Rajput silliness to engage in,one would say.

In some other events, the heroeslost their lives attempting to re-trieve cattle from rustlers. Weknow that cattle-rustling wasprevalent across the Subconti-nent and we also know that suc-cessful rustlers were celebratedin their communities as superiorcombatants. Consequently, theone to retrieve his cattle from afamous villainous rustler wasdeemed a hero of great stature.And if he lost his life in the bar-

gain, he was duly commemo-rated through depiction instone.

Among all those heroes, jhujharwas the most venerated, notesKalhoro. He embodied sat —goodness, truth and character.In order to avenge the ultimatedisgrace of decapitation by hisenemy, he continued to fightheadless. He only collapsedafter having killed a number ofhis enemies.

Memorial stones were intro-duced to Thar sometime in the10th and 11th century, accord-ing to Kalhoro. He lists 11 dif-ferent kinds of memorialscarved either from sandstoneand granite or coarse calciferousrocks. Many of these monu-ments celebrate heroes and theirexploits through elaborate carv-ings; others are unadorned up-right slabs and even cairns. Stillothers depict sati, a woman cre-mating herself on the pyre ofher spouse or son.

The iconography on the stonesdocumented in the book ishandsome. One sees turbanedmen in elaborate Rajput battledresses, shod with fancyfootwear and sitting astridegaily caparisoned horses. Theriders bear swords in their righthands and spears in tri-umphantly raised left hands.Shields can be seen on theirbacks.

Sati stones show equally gailydressed women holding deadheroes in their laps. They can ei-ther be standing upright or sit-ting cross-legged, apparentlyawaiting along with a rider-lesscamel in front of him is celebra-tion of a hero who successfullyretrieved his stolen animals —the same event that is celebratedon many memorial stones fromThar.

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Breaking barriers: The girl who rode a motorbike through Khyber Pakhtunkhawa

Gulafshan Tariq travelled through KP andGB on a motorbike to secure herself amention in the National Book of Records.

At 24 years of age, Gulafshan Tariq hasridden right through patriarchal barriers of'social acceptability' on her motorbike tourof Khyber Pakthunkhwa and GilgitBaltistan from May 6 to May 23.

The software engineer from Sargodhamanaged the feat alone, visiting Shangla,Swat, Mansehra, Gilgit Baltistan, Chitral,Malakand and Upper and Lower Dir on hertrusty motorbike.

“I travelled 3,000 kilometres on the ruggedroads of Khyber Pakthunkhwa, mostlythrough tourist hot spots,” Tariq told Dawn.“My travels have taught me much about therich Khyber Pakthunkhwa region,” sheadded, beaming at her achievement.

“It was a dream to travel through

Pakhtunkhawa and Gilgit Baltistan aloneand show the world how peaceful theseareas actually are,” Tariq said.

“It was difficult, I met a number of minoraccidents because of the state of roads in theregion, but I’m grateful to God that therewas no lasting harm.”

Praising KP's tribes’ hospitality and "warmhearts", she said the locals were alwaysforthcoming and appreciated her efforts.

“I have travelled nearly 4,000 kilometres uptill now: my next destination is Kohat, after

which I will travel to Islamabad to concludemy journey.”

Talking about her inspiration for the tour,Tariq said it was her father’s travels over theworld that got her interested in the idea oftaking a bike tour on the less-travelled roadsof KP.

Tariq is happy to have managed to secureherself a mention in the National Book ofRecords by becoming the only woman tohave travelled to every district ofPhakhtunkhawa and Gilgit Baltistan aloneon a motorbike.

Courtesy: Dawn