KARACHI: In 1954, Muhammad Riaz set up a bookstore in Karachi, just around the corner from the delectable aromas and crowded pathways of the famous Burns Road food street.
Over the next three quarters of a century, a cavernous market of overflowing bookstores and stalls mushroomed all around Maktaba-e-Imran Digest Publishing and came to be called Urdu Bazaar. Today, it is a well-known city landmark, a sprawling space whose history mirrors the cultural development of Karachi itself and which offers a glimpse into the soul and workings of Pakistan’s chaotic financial hub.
But the bazaar’s fate has been uncertain since earlier this month when nearly 70 shopkeepers were informed by the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC) that they had to vacate their shops by January 8 or face forceful eviction.
The notice is part of a larger anti-encroachment drive launched by authorities last year following the orders of the Supreme Court to demolish illegal structures built on drains, pavements and state land. Since December 21, more than 3,500 shops have been demolished, directly affecting at least 17,500 workers. Hundreds of sunshades, extended walls, huts, hotels, cabins, street markets, marriage halls and banquets have also been razed to the ground in all six districts of the seaside city of 1.7 million.
For now, the anti-encroachment operation against the historic bazaar has been postponed due to protests by vendors and merchants, and a four-member committee has been set up to decide whether the market runs over a nullah, or drain.
Karachi mayor Waseem Akhtar said he was taking action against encroachers as per the law. “None of our actions are illegal,” he told Arab News at his office. “We are bound to implement the [Supreme] Court’s orders.”
But 70-year-old store manager Mahmood Ahmed said the bazaar was set up following legal procedures and that KMC had itself invited traders to the area in the fifties and asked them to set up their businesses there.
“We haven’t encroached,” the bespectacled shop owner told Arab News at Maktaba-e-Imran Digest Publishing, which he manages since his brother-in-law Riaz passed away. “Everything here was legal but with this notice we suddenly came to know we have no right to stay at a place which we developed into a centre of learning.”
When the subcontinent was divided in 1947, Pakistan made Urdu, the elegant, supple language associated with poets and emperors, her official language. The language was popularised by Muhajirs, mostly Muslim immigrants who arrived from various regions of India, were widely identified as native Urdu speakers and settled in parts of urban Sindh, including Karachi. Indeed, many of those who first opened bookshops in what is currently Urdu Bazaar were Urdu speakers, lending the market its name. Soon, the place became a regular haunt for poets and authors like Mushtaq Yousufi, Ibne Insha, Shaukat Thanvi, Jaun Elia and others -- and the rest as they say is history.
The bazaar’s groaning bookshelves and stalls culled from discarded pallets are a stone’s throw from heritage buildings like Radio Pakistan, the Sindh provincial parliament and the Supreme Court, in the heart of what is called Old Karachi. The area is a churning hive of shops, food stalls, street vendors, taxi drivers, rag pickers, and more. It’s narrow, teeming alleyways are alive with commerce. But as far as city authorities are concerned, this pulsating stretch of land is an emblem of everything that is wrong with the city.
“The objective [of the demolition] is to rob high-value space from where the poor are located and use it for the benefit of the rich and the speculators who serve them,” top architect Arif Hasan wrote in an op-ed in Dawn newspaper last year. “It is to replace hawkers and indigenous markets with malls and high-end retail outlets. That they can coexist...is beyond the comprehension of a paranoid elite and enemies of a multi-class city. “
By 2030, Karachi is expected to be the world’s third most populated city. The city is a planner’s nightmare and in theory, the anti-encroachment operations are meant to correct decades of failed urban development.
But plans to raze Urdu Bazaar threaten the very “social and cultural face of Karachi,” said Sahar Ansari, an Urdu poet and linguist.
“Urdu bazaar is the educational, literary and cultural face of Karachi and erasing the bazaar will be tantamount to erasing this very identity,” he said. “I have visited book bazaars in more than fifteen cities of Europe, Middle East, South and East Asia, which have played a great role in transforming those societies. How can we demolish ours which we Karachiites need the most today?”
Indeed, the market has become a temple for Karachi’s literary pilgrims, poets, writers, students of all ages, publishers and paper and stationary sellers. Some visitors are bibliophiles who come to immerse themselves in age-old tomes buried in tiny bookstores. Others are just browsing for textbooks or self-help manuals on meandering stalls that line the edge of the streets.
All around, the view is pure Karachi: the crowds, like in the rest of the city, are raucous and dense and the juxtapositions are jarring. A box set of works by Urdu prose writer Saadat Hasan Manto rubs shoulders with the biography of cricket star and current Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan. The historical fiction novel, Memoirs of a Geisha, sits atop a slippery stack of paperbacks about the Atkins diet. Rickety stalls piled high with fashion magazines are pressed up against concrete plaza buildings. Well-dressed university students buy textbooks from elderly bearded men who have grown old running their shops in Urdu Bazaar.
The bazaar’s literary torch is perhaps best represented by Faridi Publications whose 96-year-old founder set up the shop in 1980. Today, he runs it with his 62-year-old son Nazar Muhammad Faridi and 28-year-old grandson Osama Faridi, the three generations of men spending each day together among eager customers and a passel of books.
“This is not only monetary homicide for us,” Faridi said as he put an Urdu magazine in a shopping bag and handed it to be customer. “But they [KMC] are also robbing us of the memories of three generations attached to this old market.”
“We have paid our rents on time and now, after all these years, we are being asked to vacate,” Faridi’s son said as the sun set over the crowded street. “They want to rob us of everything. Our livelihood and our lovely memories.”
To tame Karachi’s architectural anarchy, a vintage book market may be felled
To tame Karachi’s architectural anarchy, a vintage book market may be felled
- Urdu Bazaar slated to be next victim of anti-encroachment drive
- Shopkeepers fear a centre of learning and culture may soon be lost
Pakistan, Iran agree to strengthen bilateral ties to tackle regional militancy
- Pakistan’s planning minister meets Iran’s Ambassador to Pakistan Dr. Raza Amiri Moghaddam
- Pakistan, Iran both blame each other for not doing enough to root out militancy in border areas
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s Planning Minister Ahsan Iqbal and Iran’s Ambassador to Pakistan Dr. Raza Amiri Moghaddam on Thursday agreed to strengthen bilateral relations between their countries to reduce militancy in the region, state-run media reported.
Pakistan and Iran are often at odds with each other over instability on their shared border. Both countries have routinely blamed each other for not rooting out militancy. Small separatist groups in Pakistan have been behind a long-running insurgency, calling for gas and oil-rich Balochistan’s independence from the central government in Islamabad.
Pakistani anti-Iran militants have also targeted the Iranian border in recent years, increasing friction between the countries.
“Pakistan and Iran have agreed to strengthen bilateral relations to reduce tendencies of terrorism and extremism in the region,” the state-run Radio Pakistan said.
Radio Pakistan said the agreement to bolster bilateral ties was reached between Moghaddam and Iqbal during a meeting in Islamabad.
“The Planning Minister emphasized the importance of enhancing connectivity through trade routes, considering the 900-kilometer shared land and maritime border,” he said.
Tensions reached a head in January between Pakistan and Iran after they exchanged airstrikes against alleged militant targets in each other’s territories. Both countries since then have made efforts to ease tensions and promote bilateral trade with each other.
Pakistan’s stock exchange closes at all-time high amid expectations of fresh IMF deal
- Pakistan Stock Exchange closes at all-time high of 67,142.12 points, registering an increase of 594.34 points from Wednesday
- Analysts link recent surge to possibility of Pakistan reaching another bailout agreement with IMF, privatizing national airline
ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) witnessed its highest closing in history on Thursday as the benchmark KSE-100 index closed at 67,142.12 points, with analysts linking the recent surge to market expectations of the possibility of a successful deal with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for another bailout program.
The benchmark index settled at 67,142.12 points on Thursday at the close of trading, registering an increase of 594.34 points or 0.89 percent. This makes it the stock market’s highest closing in history, the previous highest being 66,547.78 points a day earlier.
Pakistan and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) reached a staff-level agreement last Wednesday which would pave the way for the release of $1.1 billion for the cash-strapped South Asian country. Pakistan has expressed its interest in securing a new loan under the Extended Fund Facility (EFF) program with the IMF.
Financial expert and journalist Faseeh Mangi said the Pakistan Stock Exchange is one of the best performers in the world “in a rally that started last year after Pakistan avoided a default.”
“The latest surge is on possible IMF deal, PIA sale,” Mangi wrote on X on Wednesday, referring to the government’s plans to privatize Pakistan International Airlines, its national airline.
Topline Securities’ Deputy Head of Sales Ali Najib said the index had finally breached the 66,000 barrier, saying it could be attributed to “positive vibes from the IMF, rejuvenated foreign interest at historically low valuations and progress on SOE privatization.”
Shehbaz Sharif, who was elected prime minister for a second term earlier this month, faces the daunting challenge of negotiating a long-term financial bailout program with the IMF. Pakistan’s fragile $350-billion economy is in desperate need of external financing to shore up its foreign exchange reserves and escape a looming macroeconomic crisis.
For Pakistan, committing to a new IMF program, however, will mean committing to steps needed to stay on a narrow path to recovery. This would limit policy options to provide relief to a deeply frustrated population and cater to industries that are looking for government support to spur growth.
Inflation touched a high of 38 percent with record depreciation of the rupee currency under Sharif’s last government from April 2022 to August 2023, mainly due to structural reforms necessitated by the IMF program. Pakistan continues to be enmeshed in economic crisis with inflation remaining high, hovering around 30 percent, and economic growth slowing to around 2 percent.
Tickets for Pakistan’s home series against New Zealand to go on sale from today
- Pakistan will play against New Zealand in Rawalpindi and Lahore venues from April 18-27
- Series will help prepare both sides for the upcoming T20 World Cup 2024 in USA and West Indies
ISLAMABAD: The tickets for Pakistan’s upcoming T20I home cricket series against New Zealand will go on sale from tooday, Friday, the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) said in a statement on Thursday.
The five-match series is scheduled to be played in Rawalpindi on April 18, 20 and 21 and in Lahore on April 25 and 27.
“In the first phase, the pre-booking of the online tickets will start on Friday at 5pm at pcb.tcs.com.pk,” the PCB said. “The sale of physical tickets along with outlet addresses will be announced in due course.”
The PCB said tickets for the Rawalpindi leg of the matches will be available at a minimum cost of Rs500 ($1.80) and the maximum will be available for Rs7,500 ($26.98) for the VVIP Gallery. Additionally, hospitality seats will be available at a maximum amount of PKR 15,000 ($53.97) except for the first T20I where the hospitality seats will be available for PKR 12,000 ($43.17).
For the Lahore leg, ticket prices start at Rs300 ($1.08) for the general seats while the maximum ticket prices will be Rs6,000 ($21.59) for the fourth T20I while Rs7,000 ($25.19) for the fifth T20I (VVIP Gallery).
The series will be important for both sides as they gear up for this year’s ICC T20 World Cup 2024 which is scheduled to be held in June in the USA and West Indies.
Pakistan will lock horns with arch-rivals India on June 9 for a big-ticket clash at New York.
Pakistani interior minister, KP CM vow to improve coordination amid surge in attacks
- Five Chinese nationals were killed in northwestern Pakistan on Tuesday in a bombing
- Interior minister, KP chief minister vow to bring perpetrators of attack to justice
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s interior minister and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) Chief Minister Ali Amin Gandapur on Thursday vowed to strengthen coordination between the center and the province to improve the law-and-order situation, the KP CM’s office said, amid a surge in terror attacks in the province.
Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvy arrived in Peshawar to meet Gandapur on Thursday to review the province’s law and order situation two days after five Chinese nationals and their Pakistani driver were killed in the country’s volatile northwest.
The incident took place in KP’s Shangla where a bomber rammed his explosive-laden car into the vehicle of Chinese engineers and construction workers on Tuesday.
The attack occurred in an area vital to the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), which encompasses various mega projects crucial for Pakistan’s economy. The victims were en route to Dasu Dam, Pakistan’s largest hydropower project, when they were targeted.
“To improve the law-and-order situation in the province, both agreed to improve the coordination between law enforcement institutions on the federal and provincial levels,” a statement from the KP chief minister’s office said.
The two condemned the attack on the Chinese nationals and expressed their condolences to Beijing and the families of those who had been killed in the attack.
“The two expressed their resolve to bring all those involved in the incident to justice and put an end to terrorism,” the statement said.
Gandapur said it was his government’s top priority to ensure law and order in the province and to safeguard people’s lives.
Pakistan’s foreign office said on Thursday that Islamabad had enhanced the security of Chinese nationals after the attack.
Foreign Office Spokesperson Mumtaz Zahra Baloch said both Pakistani and Chinese governments were in contact after the tragic incident on March 26, adding they were fully committed to bringing the terrorists, along with their facilitators and abettors, to justice.
No group had claimed responsibility for the attack but suspicion was likely to fall on separatists and the breakaway Gul Bahadur faction of the Pakistani Taliban, known as Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan or TTP.
The TTP is a separate group, but a close ally of the Afghan Taliban.
The TTP denied being behind the suicide bombing in a statement Wednesday, saying: “We are in no way related to the attack on the Chinese engineers.”
Tuesday’s attack came less than a week after Pakistani security forces killed eight Balochistan Liberation Army separatists who opened fire on a convoy carrying Chinese citizens outside the Chinese-funded Gwadar port in the volatile southwestern Balochistan province.
Pakistan says security of Chinese nationals enhanced after deadly attack
- Pakistan’s foreign office says the government fully understands Chinese security concerns after the attack
- It points out Pakistan has built a fence, introduced one document regime to secure its border with Afghanistan
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s foreign office said on Thursday the government has further enhanced the security of Chinese nationals only days after a deadly suicide bombing killed five of them along with their Pakistani driver in the country’s volatile northwest.
The incident took place in Shangla, located in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, where the bomber rammed his explosive-laden car into the vehicle of Chinese engineers and construction workers on Tuesday.
The attack occurred in an area vital to the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), which encompasses various mega projects crucial for Pakistan’s economy. The victims were en route to Dasu Dam, Pakistan’s largest hydropower project, when they were targeted.
“I can reassure you that Pakistan has further enhanced the security of Chinese nationals,” foreign office spokesperson Mumtaz Zahra Baloch told reporters in a weekly media briefing in Islamabad.
She said both Pakistani and Chinese governments were in contact after the tragic incident on March 26, adding they were fully committed to bringing the terrorists, along with their facilitators and abettors, to justice.
“At this point, we are focusing on investigating the terror attack and ensuring that the dead bodies of the deceased are transported to their home country,” she added. “This is the first priority at this stage.”
Asked about the security concerns raised by the Chinese officials following the attack, Baloch said the Pakistani government fully understood their concerns.
“We are engaged with the Chinese officials at very senior level to discuss the arrangements for the safety of Chinese nationals and for the investigation of this particular terror incident,” she informed.
The foreign office spokesperson said Pakistan would continue to work with the Chinese authorities to ensure the safety and security of Chinese nationals, projects and institutions in Pakistan.
“We have no doubt that the … terror attack [in Shangla] was orchestrated by the enemies of Pakistan-China friendship and together, we will resolutely act against all such forces and defeat them,” she emphasized.
In response to a question regarding Defense Minister Khawaja Muhammad Asif’s statement regarding the necessity for stronger border controls between Pakistan and Afghanistan, she clarified he was elaborating measures already taken by Pakistan to regulate travel between the two neighboring countries.
“Pakistan-Afghanistan border is an important border, and Pakistan has, over time, taken several measures to secure the border, including erecting a fence along the border,” she continued.
“Pakistan has also introduced one document regime under which individuals can travel to Pakistan on the basis of valid visas on their passports,” Baloch added.