ISLAMABAD: The streets of Satellite Town, an old and upscale neighborhood in the Pakistani garrison city of Rawalpindi, reverberated with loud beats around 2am earlier this week as Imam Buksh pounded his colorful barrel drum with wooden sticks.
Houses and shops lit up behind the drummer and residents peeked out of their homes to catch a glimpse of the 63-year-old who daily roams the streets of Rawalpindi after midnight during the holy month of Ramadan, urging worshipers with his drum beats to wake up for the fast-keeping suhoor meal.
For decades a Ramadan tradition, the nocturnal practice finds itself at odds with modernity as old neighborhoods in the vast garrison city have made way for more modern housing colonies, and the drumbeaters’ usefulness has been eclipsed by TV, mobile phones and alarm clocks.
But Buksh is resolved to preserve the practice and continues his daily drum pounding from 2:30am until the Fajr prayers throughout Ramadan. For him, it’s a way to earn Allah’s blessings.
“I have been doing this here for approximately 16 years, to awaken people [for suhoor] which pleases Allah,” Buksh, who moved to Rawalpindi from the nearby Jhang district to work as a drum-beater at weddings, told Arab News on Monday.
“I fulfill my duty for Allah during the holy month of Ramadan and after completing my daily duty, I return to my place for rest every day … I used to do drum-beating in Rawalpindi back when there were only a few houses, and people used to give a rupee or a few coins as reward.”
Ramadan marks the month in which the Qur’an was revealed on Prophet Muhammad. Fasting, by abstaining from food and water from sunrise to sunset, is one of the five pillars of Islam, a grueling routine the devout repeat every day for a month.
In much of the Muslim world, particularly the Middle East, suhoor drummers call for people to wake up. Often people offer them money for their services.
“If someone gives something I accept it, otherwise I will keep going on my way as it makes me as well as people in the area happy,” Buksh said. “Many people are happy because of my drum-beating and request me from their rooftops to beat it more.”
He said he often got calls from people if he skipped a neighborhood.
“Just the other day, I received a call from someone in a colony where I used to beat the drum last year,” he said. “They asked why I had stopped coming to their area, and I explained that I cannot travel as much now.”
Buksh has four sons who have all followed in his footsteps. Two are drummers in the southern port city of Karachi, while two work from their hometown of Jhang.
Asked about his future plans, he said he wished to perform Umrah or a pilgrimage to the Muslim holy sites.
“I wish that someone would help me go to Umrah or pilgrimage to the holy places,” he said. “Wherever they can send me, I will pray for them and ask for more blessings for them from Allah.”
In Rawalpindi, 63-year-old drummer defies modernity to keep Ramadan suhoor spirit alive
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In Rawalpindi, 63-year-old drummer defies modernity to keep Ramadan suhoor spirit alive
- Imam Buksh roams Rawalpindi streets at night during Ramadan, waking up believers for pre-dawn meals
- Drummer says modern technology has threated the tradition but people still appreciate his suhoor wake-up calls
Government says Pakistan preparing Cyber Security Act as digital expansion raises risks
- The proposed legislation will create Cyber Security Authority to oversee the country's cyber defenses
- IT minister warns misuse of genetic and digital data could enable targeted cyber and biological threats
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan is preparing a Cyber Security Act and a dedicated regulatory authority to strengthen defenses against rising digital threats as the country rapidly digitizes government services and economic systems, IT Minister Shaza Fatima said while addressing a ceremony in the federal capital on Wednesday.
The planned legislation is part of Islamabad’s broader “Digital Nation Pakistan” initiative, which aims to expand e-governance, a cashless economy and online public services while safeguarding national cyber infrastructure.
“The more we move toward digitization, with the kind of opportunities that are opening up for us, it is also bringing an equal, or even greater, set of challenges,” the minister said. “This does not mean that we stop digitization. It means that we must make our cybersecurity systems robust.”
She said Pakistan had already activated its National Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT) and provincial CERTs to detect and respond to cyber incidents, while a multi-agency digital monitoring framework known as the National Threat Intelligence System (NTIS) operates around the clock.
“We have a Cyber Security Act coming up, under which a Cyber Security Authority will be established.”
The minister said cybersecurity was not a “generic” concept and required multiple technical specializations as well as comprehensive monitoring and regulation. She warned that the rapid expansion of data-driven technologies was creating new risks even as it opened opportunities in areas such as health and biotechnology.
Referring to advances in genomics and precision medicine, she said the same technologies that help treat diseases could also pose security risks if sensitive biological data were misused. She warned that access to large-scale genetic data could potentially allow hostile actors to develop targeted viruses or other biological threats against populations.
The minister also highlighted Pakistan’s cyber defense capabilities, saying government and military systems remained secure during last year's war with India despite sustained cyber warfare attempts.
She said multiple institutions, including the IT ministry, the National Telecommunication Corporation (NTC), national cybersecurity teams and the armed forces’ cyber command structures, worked together to defend critical systems.
“Despite that massive war ... we did not face a single communication breakdown and we did not allow any penetration into our government systems,” she said, adding that the experience demonstrated the need to further strengthen cybersecurity coordination across institutions.
