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Exporting a -ve image PAKISTAN’s economic and commercial relations with the world leave much to be desired. The major difference between the developing and the developed societies is that the advanced nations generally rely more on the use of reason and scientific method....		Economy has certainly improved ... on paper MAHER ALAVI, a known name in business circles who has held senior positions in trade bodies, believes concentrating on agriculture-related exports is a folly, and is not going to pay in the long run....
Children of tomorrow A five-star hotel in Karachi was packed to the capacity. Most of the ambassadors, high commissioners and representatives of the UN, UNICEF, UNESCO, IMF, World Bank, Asian Development Bank and numerous national and international agencies had occupied their seats....		A vicious cycle It was a bright, sunny day. The environment was filled with pomp, pleasantries and extravaganza. The area was decorated with colourful flyers, banners, balloons and buntings. The facade of the venue...
Hands-on kitchen gardening WHEN we moved into a bigger office premises late last year, we ‘inherited’ a pathetic looking patch of lawn. Or rather what had once been a lawn. At some point, the...		NET-CLIP: The Wright way, indeed IT is now nearly a century since one of the greatest inventions of the 20th century got off the ground, literally. On December 17th, 1903, two brothers, hobbyists at best at...
Amateur theatre making headway THEATRE is one of the major form of performing art that entertains masses all over the globe. No doubt after the advent of TV cable, dish and VCR, their popularity has decreased considerably....		Theatre in trouble An incessant series of raids by the Punjab government on popular theatres has rendered the future of hundreds of artistes uncertain and bleak....
Threatened wild areas THE Ayub National Park is one of the biggest natural parks in Pakistan with an abundance of trees, about half a dozen lakes and an uneven land structure. But the park...		Conserving tourism THE ancient historian Vegetius once quipped, “If you want peace, prepare for war.” The rule can be applied for tourism and conservation, “If you want tourism, conserve your nature and genetics”....
Nawabshah’s own Shalimar Garden THE district of Nawabshah holds many unknown, unpublicized historic and natural attractions. With a newly improved national highway, a drive from Karachi to Nawabshah, at a leisurely pace takes just about...		A dam perspective ACCORDING to a report of the World Commission on Dams (WCD), Dams and Development: A New Framework for Decision-Making, 2000, less than 2.5 per cent of water is fresh, less than 33 per cent of fresh water is fluid and, less than 1.7 per cent of fluid water...
HOT SEAT HAVING opened his eyes in a family of religious scholars, “it was impossible to watch movies in my early days,” recalls writer, humorist, playwright and columnist Ataul Haq Qasmi in his...		Ace musicians of the subcontinent The history of music in the subcontinent associates itself with the classical genre of music. The various ragas developed over the centuries cater to all times of the day....
CHAPTER FROM HISTORY: The battle of Leyte Gulf The Battle of Leyte Gulf was the biggest naval battle fought in the Pacific Theatre during WW-II. Four different actions took place in this battle between the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN)...		POINT OF VIEW: A posthumous book launch IT was a book launching ceremony with no reference to the book which was being launched. None of the speakers talked about it. Only the banner in the background reminded the...
A Pakistani legend BEFORE the advent of modern technology that would turn sports into a money making machine and transform sportsmen and women into demi-gods, young men and women played sports for fun....		A challenging season ahead EID over, the national team will now get ready for the tough assignments that lie ahead. While there are quite a few events that will test the mettle of the boys...
THROUGH THE COVERS: The circus goes on and on ... I AM not too sure what to say on the ongoing circus of shocking selections and equally shocking reversal of decisions that the Pakistan Cricket Board, its ad hoc chief...		From sehri to bhangra blast at MIT On this Indian summer day — so languorously porous that the geeks at the mighty MIT swarming the outdoors can give a casual visitor the wrong kind of ideas about their intellectual machismo and superior genes that has to date produced 57 Nobel laureates alone...
Welcoming new readers Investing in human development to achieve sustained economic progress is the new slogan. The National Book Foundation, in its initiative to promote book-reading habits, marked the expansion of Readers Club schemes....		NEWSMAKER BRITNEY Spears, the princess of pop is now the youngest-ever music icon to have a star on Hollywood’s prestigious Walk of Fame....