Pakistan In Pictures

 

Wheel of misfortune: The 82-year-old Olympian who drives a rickshaw

LAHORE: Former cyclist Mohammad Ashiq has shaken hands with prime ministers, competed at two Olympic Games and won several medals at home and abroad, including a silver medal at the Asian Games. He now drives a rickshaw and struggles to keep the wheels of his life turning. A message is plastered across the canopy of his vehicle: “Those nations that do not respect their heroes never prosper.”

 

Pakistan's first private train service embarks on maiden voyage

Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani waves the green flag to signal the departure of Business Express, which he inaugurated in Lahore on February 3, 2012. PHOTO: AFP

M2 Motorway from Lahore to Islamabad.

M1 Motorway from Islamabad to Peshawar.

Karachi: Hens, ostriches, dogs, camels and others animals crowded at the Expo Centre on Saturday January 28, 2012. PHOTOS: MOHAMMAD NOMAN/EXPRESS

Pakistan In Pictures

Pakistan Vintage Photos
Source: WordPress.com

Jan 25, 2012. Dream come true: Transgender community celebrates CNICs, voter registration.

The transgender community in Punjab saw new hope on Wednesday as their voter registration began, and Computerised National Identity Cards (NIC) were issued by National Database and Registration Authority (Nadra), reported Express News.




Verve throws a New Year’s Eve party in Islamabad:

  Murtaza, Zainab and Shaza.PHOTO : COURTESY VERVE

Stefan, Ulrika, Gulbarshyn, Asma, Johan, Sarmad and Dorien.PHOTO : COURTESY VERVE

Azlan.PHOTO : COURTESY VERVE

Pakistan In Pictures

The 16-year-old Arfa Karim Randhawa, who died on January 14 2012 after complications resulting from an epileptic stroke, that natural desire to mourn should also be accompanied by celebration of a person who in her short life, did manage to achieve more than what most of us could hope for in their lifetimes. At the age of nine, she became the youngest-ever Microsoft Certified Professional, earning kudos from Bill Gates himself and an invitation to visit his company’s headquarters in America. A year later, she was certified as a pilot by a flying club in Dubai. Not only is Arfa the youngest ever recipient of the Presidential Award for Pride of Performance, she was also awarded the Fatima Jinnah Gold Medal in Science and Technology and the Salaam Pakistan Youth Award. The word genius may be bandied about too freely, but in Arfa’s case it was a moniker well-earned. The Express Tribune

 

Temple of Double-headed Eagle, Sirkap, Taxila

(World Heritage Site since 1980)
The city of Sirkap (Severed Head), chronologically the second major city of Taxila, is to be found spreading down the Hathial Spur and on to the plains of the Taxila valley. It is bounded by the Tamra stream and to the north and south by the Gau stream, which today has been almost completely obliterated by a modern road and water channel. The present layout of the city was established by the Bactrian Greeks sometime around 180 BC and takes the form of a wide and open grid system. A number of temples and monasteries can be found here: Apsidal Temple, Sun Temple, Shrine of the Double Headed Eagle, Kunala Monastery and Ghai Monastery.

 

A Sikh temple is seen decorated to celebrate the Baisakhi festival in Hasan Abdal, Pakistan, on Wednesday, April 13, 2011. The three-day Baisakhi festival of the Sikh community started at Gurdawara Punja Sahib with the participation of Sikhs from India, Pakistan and other countries. (AP Photo/B.K.Bangash)

Shogran is a village situated on a green plateau in the Naran ValleY, northern Pakistan at a height of 2,362 meters above sea level.

KARACHI: Dr Marilyn Hickey, a US televangelist and a healer of international repute, is here in Karachi for a three-day healing convention.

This is her second visit to Karachi after 1999, but the sixth visit to the country, according to her national manager, evangelist Robinson Asghar. On her last visit to Lahore in 2003, Hickey drew a crowd of about 125,000 people to the hockey stadium on the last day of her healing gathering and cured many by her spiritual powers, he said. The Express Tribune





Saba launches La Chantal at the Designers in Karachi

Ayesha Omar.PHOTO : COURTESY SAVVY PR AND EVENTS

Laiba, Aleena and Murtaza.PHOTO: COURTESY SAVVY PR AND EVENTS

Pakistan In Pictures

American Fast Food in Lahore:

  (When I’m in Lahore this is one of my favorite hangout spots.)

Ahsan Ijaz hosts Rev Up ceremony of Jhal Magsi Desert Rally in Lahore:

  Daneese, Hooria and Maira.PHOTO : COURTESY BILAL MUKHTAR EVENTS & PR

Naheen and Fatima. PHOTO : COURTESY BILAL MUKHTAR EVENTS & PR

  Hamza, Shazreh and Taimoor. PHOTO : COURTESY BILAL MUKHTAR EVENTS & PR

Pakistan In Pictures

Gondrani is a unique place in the province of Balochistan , where traces of ancient cave civilizations are existed. It is popular with the name of Shehr-e-Roghan. This marvelous ancient cave city is spread over an area of 2-3 KM. The fantastic cave houses made of rocks is perhaps the largest collection of such individual style. And amazingly these thousands of cave houses are multi storey which are inter connected with each other through walkways. Mostly every cave house consists of a single room and some of them have a veranda in front of them. Source: Lovely Planet

Fairy Meadows “HEAVEN ON EARTH”

Candlelight vigils: Taseer remembered.

Slain Punjab governor Salmaan Taseer’s children Shaheryar Taseer and Shaherbano Taseer hold candles during a vigil for their father in Lahore. PHOTO: EXPRESS

Karachi celebrates a new year

Noore Bhatti and Ahsan. PHOTO : COURTESY CATALYST PR & MARKETING

Zurain Imam and Sadaf. PHOTO : COURTESY CATALYST PR & MARKETING

Amna Ilyas, Xille and Uzma Ilyas. PHOTO : COURTESY CATALYST PR & MARKETING

Pakistan In Pictures

The Badshahi Mosque or the 'King's Mosque' in Lahore, commissioned by the sixth Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb in 1671 and completed in 1673, is the second largest mosque in Pakistan and South Asia and the fifth largest mosque in the world. Epitomising the beauty, passion and grandeur of the Mughal era, it is Lahore's most famous landmark and a major tourist attraction.

Capable of accommodating 5,000 worshippers in its main prayer hall and a further 95,000 in its courtyard and porticoes, it remained the largest mosque in the world from 1673 to 1986 (a period of 313 years), when overtaken in size by the completion of the Faisal Mosque in Islamabad. Today, it remains the second largest mosque in Pakistan and South Asia and the fifth largest mosque in the world after the Masjid al-Haram (Grand Mosque) of Mecca, the Al-Masjid al-Nabawi (Prophet's Mosque) in Medina, the Hassan II Mosque in Casablanca and the Faisal Mosque in Islamabad.

The inside view of Noor Mahal. Image : M. Awais

One of the most famous cities of the Southern Punjab in Pakistan is Bahawalpur which is also known as the city of Nawabs. Bahawalpur is stretched along the banks of Satluj and Indus river, due to which this historic city has observed massive civic development over the centuries. It is also the twelfth largest city of Pakistan.

One of the prime features of this fabulous city is the palace architecture that were basically the royal residencies of the local Nawabs before the partition of India. The most distinguished of them is the Noor Palace or Noor Mahal, the Gem of Bahawalpur that was built on Italian construction style. Nawab Subah Sadiq the fourth who was well known for his construction passion elevated the fantastic Noor Mahal in 1875. Noor Malahl comprises of an area of 44,600 square feet and it has 32 rooms including 14 in the basement, 6 verandas and 5 domes.  Source: The Lovely Planet

Saad Shahid, is a first year medical student, and a professional squash player in second position in the world ranking for under 17 squash players. Saad won the Under 15 event in India and grabbed the second ranking in the Under 15 category in Pakistan. Grateful to his parent’s support both financially and morally, Saad says he wants to regain the lost glory of Pakistan in Squash. He brought five European titles to Pakistan fetching his ranking to number five in Under 19. Saad’s aim is to play at sports and cultural events and make Pakistan proud. – Photo courtesy Saad Shahid. Source: Dawn News

(Zardari, Nawaz and Imran Khan beware . lol)

MULTAN: Shahana Abbas Shani, President of She-male Association, has announced that she will contest elections as an independent candidate for Muzaffargarh PP-254 constituency of provincial assembly. Talking to The Express Tribune on Monday, Shani said that she has made this decision because she wants to discuss problems faced by her community in the assembly.  By Owais Jafri. The Express Tribune

Sabina Pasha. PHOTO : COURTESY CATALYST PR

Al Karam launches its winter collection at the Al Karam Studio in Lahore.

Pakistan In Pictures

Pakistani Christians attend Christmas prayers at the St. Peter's church in the Pakistani city of Karachi on late December 24, 2011. The newly built St. Peter's Church which accommodate up to 5,000 worshipers at a time is Pakistan's biggest church and opened to the public on its first mass held at 12 am on Christmas Day. The church is built in the heart of Azam Basti, a shanty settlement where approximately 8,000 Christians families live. PHOTO : AFP

A woman prays while attending a Christmas mass at St. Anthony's Church in Lahore December 25, 2011. PHOTO : REUTERS

A mountaineer braving the snows of Karakorams

The Karakorams are home to the highest concentration of peaks over 8 kms in height to be found anywhere on earth, including K2, the second highest peak of the world (8,611 m).
The range is about 500 km in length, and is the most heavily glaciated part of the world outside the polar regions. The Karakorams are bounded on the northeast by the edge of the Tibetan Plateau, and on the north by the Pamir Mountains. The southern boundary of the Karakoram is formed, west to east, by the Gilgit, Indus, and Shyok Rivers, which separate the range from the northwestern end of the Himalayas. By Tayyab Mir, Flickr

Apartments near the Clifton Beach, Karachi

A winter morning in Lahore taken along the Punjab University part of the Lahore Canal.

Sakura, the Japanese eatery, launches in Lahore.
Hira and Sana. PHOTO : COURTESY SAVVY PR AND EVENTS

Fatima, 21, a supporter of the political party Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf looks up as she attends a rally in Karachi December 25, 2011. PHOTO: REUTERS