Mian Amer briefs Mayor of London :

"The City District Government, Lahore, has executed an unprecedented number of six thousand development schemes, at a cost of Rs.10 billion, in the provincial metropolis till October 2006 since its inception five years ago." District Nazim Mian Amer Mahmood disclosed this while talking to The Lord Mayor of the City of London Mr. Alderman John Stuttard, who called on him along with a ten-member delegation at Jinnah Hall, Saturday. The district nazim gave a comprehensive briefing to the visitors about the history and culture of the city as well as about the development projects under taken by the City District Government, Lahore, for the uplift of the city.

He informed that a Hepatitis Control Cell had been established at Mian Muhammad Munshi District Headquarter Hospital in the city with the assistance of the federal government. He told that blood screening would be carried out free of cost besides other tests of patients suffering from hepatitis B and C a this center. Free treatment facilities would also be provided to patients suffering from this deadly disease under a phased programme, he added. The district nazim observed that Lahore was the second biggest financial center of Pakistan. Lahore Stock Exchange was Pakistan’s second largest stock exchange after Karachi, which has consistently been placed among the best performing stock exchanges of the world for the last few years. Lahore was also a significant center of information technology in the country and 70 per cent of soft ware exports of Pakistan had been originating from here, he informed. Mian Amer Mahmood said that the City District Government, Lahore, had set unique examples of public-private partnership arrangement for implementation of a number of development scheme in the city. He told that non-government organizations and philanthropists were paying salaries of as many as 1500 teachers, who had been working in the government schools of the city. This was the only one example of its kind in the world, the nazim maintained.

Hiran Minar :

Hiran Minar is set in peaceful environs near Lahore. It was constructed by Emperor Jehangir as a monument to Hansraj, one of his pet antelopes. It is a popular picnic resort with a lake and boating facilities.

Power Rising, Taliban Besiege Pakistani Shiites :

PESHAWAR, Pakistan — It was once known as the Parrot’s Beak, a strategic jut of Pakistan that the American-backed mujahedeen used to carry out raids on the Russians just over the border into Afghanistan. That was during the cold war.
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Shiite women, refugees from the Kurram region, with pictures of people who were killed in clashes with the Taliban.
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International Mystical Music in Lahore :

Artists from Afghanistan, Syria, Iran and Egypt performed on the final night of International Mystical Music Sufi Festival at Peeru’s Café on Sunday. The performances were not scheduled but were still conducted. The Dalahoo Sufi Ensemble, the Iranian group, stole the show with Jalaluddin Rumi’s poetry. It was the second from last group to perform at the event.

Female MPAs ‘spew venom’ :

Female legislators of treasury and opposition made sarcastic comments against each other in the Punjab Assembly’s fourth session on Friday. Punjab Assembly Speaker Rana Muhammad Iqbal also amused the members with some funny remarks. Pakistan Muslim League–Nawaz (PML-N) legislator Tayyeba Zameer stood up and tried to say something but was prevented from doing so by female PML-Q members Amna Ulfat, Amina Jehangir and Samina Khawar Hayat. Tayyeba became infuriated and said, “The opposition’s female members have no etiquette.

They are behaving like Mohalla women.” To this, Samina replied: “You (Tayyeba) too are ill-mannered. If we are Mohalla women, you too are not from a mehal (palace).” Also during Friday’s session, a PML-Q member asked Irrigation Minister Raja Riaz about the low water level in canals. Riaz stood up and tried to answer the question, but the speaker stopped him by saying, “Did you get my permission to speak?” Riaz sat back down, which made all the members laugh.Pakistan People’s Party member Fouzia Behram said all the female MPAs, whether from the treasury or opposition, should be respected. In response, the speaker said, “All the male MPAs are like your brothers, so they should also be respected.”

Top Ten Books on Lahore :

1. City of Sin and Splendour: Writings on Lahore by Bapsi Sidhwa

2. Illustrated Views of the 19th Century by F.S. Aijazuddin

3. Lahore: Portrait of a Lost City by Som Anand

4. Lahore: A Memoir by Muhammad Saeed

5. Lahore: A Sentimental Journey by Pran Neville

6. Old Lahore by H.R. Goulding

7. The Dancing Girls of Lahore: Selling Love and Saving
Dreams in Pakistan’s Pleasure District by Louise Brown

8. Amritsar to Lahore: A Journey Across the India-Pakistan
Border by Stephen Alter

9. Lahore District Flora by Shiv Ram Kashyap

10. Beloved City Writings on Lahore by Bapsi Sidhwa

Lahore’s Defence Club has much to offer :

It’s a hot summer night as we enter the Coffee Shop of Defence Club. Set amidst, a large lush green lawn and overlooking the tennis courts, it’s a welcome addition to the eateries of the Defence Club.
The Coffee Shop’s decor is warm, comfortable and elegant. The cafe is nicely lit; the lights bounce off the wooden floor and illuminate everything in a soft glow. It’s crowded and people, mostly families sit either around small glass tables with wrought iron seats or the couches set in the middle of the place.

The coffee bar is housed in a large cabinet and trained baristas prepare a variety of coffee drinks, made from gourmet South African beans. The cold coffee is not extremely sweet, its cold enough and the tongue can feel a bit of bitterness — the flavour is just right. The Coffee Shop also hosts an assortment — like all other cafes — cakes, brownies, cookies, tarts and hand-made ice cream. What it does have and others don’t, is a Middle Eastern sweet (which looks like a carrot cake) known as a ‘basboosa.’ It’s quite popular and should be tasted, at least once.

Lahore’s innovative transport and art :

Afzal has a great eye for capturing the ordinary and not-so-ordinary glipmses of Lahore. Here a traditional donkey-cart, now disallowed on the main roads, is decorated with much love and meaning.
The names of Allah and the major saints of the subcontinent have been painted as good luck charms.
Lahore Nama will feature her photos on this space.Watch out for more..

Fresh air far away - The drain that pollutes South Lahore :

Lahorites love to inhale a fresh whiff of air when they wake up in the morning or for that matter, at anytime of the day. Many of the lively-hearted Lahorites have planted flowering plants and shrubs by their houses or have placed earthen pots containing such plants by their bedrooms or in the corridors of their houses, for aesthetics and a whiff of fragrant air every now and then.

However, millions of residents of south Lahore have been denied this pleasure for the last decade or so. Its not that the people residing in this part of Lahore have less aesthetic sense or don’t care for a fresh breath of air in the mornings; they have been compelled to smell fetid air 24 hours a day seven days a week.

The Shalimar Gardens :

A seminar took me to Lahore. The topic was: Rapprochement between India and Pakistan. Among the participants were scholars and retired diplomats from Germany and France. Their experience of striking friendship after hundreds of years of war was their input. They argued that certain members of the government elite had to undergo a personal “conversion.” Public opinion followed later.
With India and Pakistan, it is different. Bureaucrats who formulate and execute policy for a détente between the two countries are “mindset” and they are far from converted. The initiative has been by the people. Whatever progress has been made to lessen tension, it is because of them. They, too, have their eyes fixed on how France and Germany reached the equation.