Shogran, Pakistan: Mohammad Naseem’s eyes shine while he shares the legend of a remote, alpine lake nestled among snow-capped Himalayan peaks as a rare crowd of onlookers hears one of Pakistan’s last “storytellers.”
The story of Saif-ul-Malook — the winding saga of a brave prince who falls in love with a fairy — is just one of the 50 tall tales passed down to Naseem by his father.
“Usually people tell me I’m crazy when I tell these stories,” says Naseem, whose long white beard and traditional cloak give him the timeless appearance of a storyteller of old.
The 65-year-old shopkeeper says it would take days to recite all the stories he learned by heart that are imbued with “the history, the culture” of the land.
But few are still listening.
Naseem says he hasn’t bothered sharing the stories with his six children, and friends are no longer interested in hearing them as social media, video games, and soap operas have all but eclipsed his ancient art.
Video platform TikTok is now a major source of entertainment for the country’s youth, wildly popular in part because it is accessible to illiterate users in rural areas — just as the legends of old once were.
“When I die, these stories will die with me,” sighs Naseem outside his shop in northern Pakistan’s Shogran, where winter snows have blanketed the mountains.
The city of Peshawar — in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province where Shogran is located — has long been the country’s stronghold of oral history, its Qissa Khawani or “storytellers bazaar” a Silk Road hub where travelers and locals alike congregated to hear a well-spun yarn.
The bustling frontier capital was once “the Times Square of the region” because of “the excellence of its storytellers,” explains Naeem Safi — a consultant at an Islamabad-based institute dedicated to Pakistani folk heritage, where cassettes of stories told at the bazaar have been archived.
“Writing was not very popular. The transfer of knowledge was verbal. Storytelling was fundamental — people considered themselves educated if they had heard enough stories,” says Safi.
Before tuk-tuks and buses clogged its narrow lanes the market was littered with Silk Road caravans of wandering traders who often stayed the night after the city’s sixteen gates were sealed at dusk.
In the evenings, the merchants would hear the city’s famed storytellers — who shared tales about the perils of the road, news of wars and local lore.
Storytellers were “the communication tools of that time, they were the messengers,” said Ali Awais Qarni, a researcher in history and literature at the University of Peshawar.
“When they were telling the truth, they would always add a little poetry and color to it,” he said.
“People would listen to them for hours. Sometimes a story could last a week, or a month.”
The bazaar’s tea houses and salons have been replaced by neon signs on garish structures that now dot the traffic-choked streets.
“There may be some storytellers left, but the tradition is gone. It has transformed into other forms of storytelling,” Safi added.
Long-time Peshawar resident Khwaja Safar Ali, 75, remembers his youth in the city when the arrival of caravans was met with excitement.
During the day, “we used to run between the camels’ legs,” he recalls.
And when evening came, “we would all sit together and listen to the storytellers.”
“They would tell us about Kabul, the USSR, Uzbekistan. We learned about these countries through them.”
Modern transportation eventually killed off the caravans, which even by the 1960s had become an increasingly rare sight in the area.
Storytellers continued to perform for smaller circles, but were gradually replaced by radios and then televisions.
This autumn one of Peshawar’s few remaining storytellers died aged 86, said Jalil Ahmed, a tour guide who frequently took his clients to hear the recitations.
The narrator once owned a small hotel where the caravanners lodged and listened to stories “for a few pennies” over steaming cups of green tea.
“But now the only way to see storytellers in Peshawar is to go to the cemetery,” Ahmed sighed.
Once upon a time: Pakistan’s fabled storytellers fade away
https://arab.news/zex2z
Once upon a time: Pakistan’s fabled storytellers fade away
- Storytellers continued to perform for smaller circles, but were gradually replaced by radios and then televisions
- Storytellers were “the communication tools of that time, they were the messengers,” says a messenger
New PIA owner says airline will take time to make profits post-privatization
- Arif Habib says his group may consider buying the government’s remaining 25% stake and offer part of it to a foreign airline
- New management is also in talks with the US Federal Aviation Administration about resumption of PIA flights to US, he adds
KARACHI: The recently privatized Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) will continue to face financial losses for another few years before start making profits, its new owner said on Monday, promising to do all it takes to revive the Pakistani carrier.
A Pakistani consortium, led by Arif Habib Group, on Dec. 23 secured a 75% stake in PIA for Rs135 billion ($482 million) after several rounds of bidding, valuing the airline at Rs180 billion ($643 million).
The sale marked Pakistan’s most aggressive attempt in decades to reform the debt-ridden airline, which had accumulated more than $2.8 billion in financial losses. The government said it would end decades of state-funded bailouts and help revive the airline.
Arif Habib, CEO of Arif Habib Group, said the airline will take time to start giving “reasonable” returns to its investors, including AKD Group Holdings, Fatima Fertilizer Company, City Schools, Lake City Holdings and Fauji Fertilizer Company, a publicly listed firm owned by Pakistan’s military.
“It may take about one to two years’ time because in initial period of one to two years, we may see some losses but into medium term, I think, that would be turned around,” Habib said in an exclusive interview with Arab News.
“In a longer period of time, if we say about 10 years’ time, this business is expected to give a reasonable return to the investors.”
Once considered among Asia’s leading carriers, PIA struggled with chronic mismanagement, political interference, overstaffing, mounting debt and operational issues that led to a 2020 ban on flights to the European Union, United Kingdom and the United States (US) after a pilot licensing scandal. The EU and the UK lifted the bans, providing fresh momentum to the carrier that still remains barred from flying to the US.
PIA currently has around Rs9 billion ($32 million) liabilities on its balance sheet and the injection of “a reasonable capital” will keep the airline afloat, according to Habib.
“It will take care of initial period losses and will also take care of the development capital expenditure,” he said.
RENOVATION PLANS
Habib plans to renovate PIA planes, improve maintenance and flight schedule, and bring in new aircraft to revive the carrier.
“We will renovate the check-in counters and the cabins. We will replace the seats and put the entertainment equipment into it,” he said.
“We will also ensure the punctuality of flights. That will bring market confidence, and with that there will be a culture change.”
Bound by his agreement with the government that he will not change PIA’s logo and name, Habib did not rule out the new management could change the uniform of the airline staff.
“It’s too early, but I definitely will consider all options whereby we improve the brand,” he said.
The privatization of PIA as well as other loss-making, state-run enterprises is a key requirement of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) under its $7 billion loan program.
Pakistan’s equity investors welcomed the airline’s sell-off, with PIA Holding Company (PIAHC) being one of the most-traded scrips on Monday, according to the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) data.
Habib, whose conglomerate is involved in businesses ranging from stock brokerage services to real-estate projects, plans to invest about $400 million in PIA to sustain its initial losses as well as fund its overhauling that he aims to complete in the next seven years.
He said he would invest two-thirds of the planned investment in the airline upon taking it over in April, while another one-third would be injected in one year afterwards.
“Since we are putting in a large sum, about $400 million, into the company, that $400 million will be available to the company for all these improvements,” he said.
Habib’s consortium has engaged global advisory firm, Seabury Aviation Partners, to help find “viable” markets for the carrier, and targets more than 70 million Pakistani travelers to expand its local and international footprint.
If PIA is able to improve its services and improve its cabin and aircraft, I think there is a huge market waiting for PIA,” he said.
‘STRATEGIC INVESTOR’
The consortium may look to buy the government’s remaining 25% stake and offer part of it to a “strategic investor,’ preferably a foreign airline, to make PIA more competitive.
“The government has given [us] an option of acquiring 25 percent and that option we have to exercise in 90 days,” Habib said. “We are thinking of bringing in some foreign airline as our partner who would be the technical partner for [our] airline.”
The consortium does not intend to lay off any of the airline’s 7,000 employees, unless someone fails to perform, according to Habib.
The existing members of the consortium will hold 75 percent shares of the airline for the next three-year mandatory period and may expand the group afterwards.
“We may consider getting this company listed on the stock exchange and also bring in some partners if additional capital is required,” he added.
Presently, the airline’s parent company, PIAHC, is listed on the PSX, but not the newly privatized PIA.
Habib said the listing would happen once the company starts showing some profits.
“Then there would be a case for going into the market. That would be around a three-year time period,” the businessman said.
“As far as the 25% option is concerned, there we have the ability to attract more investors, more qualified investors, and preferably airlines,” he said, referring to the government’s remaining share in the airline.
FLEET AND ROUTE EXPANSION
PIA’s new management plans to more than triple its fleet to 64 aircraft from 19 at present in up to eight years. In the first phase, the airline would induct 38 four- to seven-year-old, narrow and wide body aircraft which would go up to 64 in the second phase.
“There are routes where there is incremental demand there, but because of the limited aircraft available with PIA, they are not able to serve the whole market,” Habib said, adding the delivery scheduled for new aircraft was very tight and buying old passenger jets would be easier for the group.
“Those are very suitable for the business of PIA as well.”
PIA’s new owners see the region comprising the United Kingdom (UK), the US and Canada as a “lucrative market” for their business.
“There we can increase the frequency of the flight,” he said. “We will also try to run flights to Canada from Karachi, Lahore, and I think it’s already in Islamabad.”
Habib said the PIA management was in talks with the US Federal Aviation Administration about the resumption of its flights to the US.
“We will try to comply with whatever the requirements are,” he said. “Definitely, we would like to be approved worldwide.”
