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Another nuclear white elephant PAKISTAN has signed up to buy its second Chinese-made nuclear power plant. This new plant will be identical to the earlier reactor at Chashma, designed and built by the Chinese, on the banks of the Indus River...		Closing down power plants is not prudent CHAIRMAN Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission Dr Pervez Butt (S.I) was approached by Dawn Magazine to respond to various concerns over the Chashma-II nuclear power plant. He was not ready for an...
Thus spake Khamosh HIS arms resting on the pentagonal marble top of the table, Khamosh was attentively listening to the heated debate between a few friends who had occupied adjacent...		Digging up history ACCORDING to a renowned archaeologist, Dr Bridget Allchin, the Indus Valley is a ‘green band’ that follows foothills of the steeply folded mountains of Balochistan, dividing them from the undulating sandy...
Feeling the heat I LIVE in Hyderabad, a small city of the Sindh province. The wind here blows in all directions simultaneously, making your hair unkempt. Since these days almost everyone you see...		Backward, but beautiful IT is indeed a matter of concern that even in the 21st century, people of the mountainous areas of Sindh do not have basic facilities. Much to everyone’s disappointment, the authorities concerned do not give due importance to the region....
A journey across France WHEN it comes to bicycle races, nothing gets bigger than the Tour de France bicycle race. Spread over a distance of more than three-thousand kilometres and spanning no less than twenty...		Life in Lisbon’s streets THE most interesting aspect of the bifocal syndrome is that it creeps up on you without there being any indication that you have been ‘claimed’. It is a euphemism I use for the common and vulgar (in the etymological sense) term ‘middle age...
Of better health OUT of innumerable plants and animals that exist in the world, human beings consume only a few hundred. These are edibles that over the course of centuries have proved to be food items that are good for human consumption....		Historic stonework APART from being the name of the old Peshawar Valley, Gandhara used to be the centre of the Buddhist civilization and the home to Aryans who composed Rigveda, the first of the four Vedas....
Sizzling summer IT’S summer time. The season always has two facets. In Europe it is sweet and pleasant; and in Asia, it brings sweltering, often unbearable, heat....		A timeless novelist IT is a novel about our time written prophetically long before our time. The novel I am talking about is Deputy Nazir Ahmad’s Taubat ul Nusooh, which made its appearance in...
Heroics of Imam Shamil CHECHNYA is a tiny Caucasian land-locked enclave, predominantly inhabited by the Muslims. It has been in continuous confrontation with Russia since the 18th century....		Hot Seat ADJUDGED the Best Model at a recently held awards ceremony, Zainab Qaiyoom, or Zee Q as she is more popularly known, has a difficult time catching up with her thoughts....
The elusive gold FINALLY, there’s some good news for Pakistan in the world of squash. But where we managed to win the world Team title, it was also heartbreaking to see that we also failed for the third successive year in capturing the individual title...		Doctor Saab DR DILAWAR HUSSAIN was a PhD From Cambridge and in terms of formal education that’s about as high as Mount Everest....
Senate body is our only hope THESE are sure early days for Bob Woolmer, the man who has been hired to make things happen positively. The characteristic debacle against Sri Lanka in the Asia Cup would have...		Urdu ke nai bastian OUT of depth? Oh yes, especially when the mailman rings and asks, aap ko Amrika kaisa legta hai? The dagger-sharp icicles crystallized on the eaves above the doorway, stared down as his words hung...
Property blues THE winds of change in Islamabad are always up to something. Either they bring a cool breeze or a hail storm. But this time, the hail storm has come in the shape of spiralling property business....		The concept of ‘mahram’ WITH reference to The concept of ‘mahram’ (June 20), the author has not mentioned the source of the hadith he quoted, “a woman is not allowed to undertake a journey involving...
MOSAIC: Bird rediscovered after 89 years ONE of the rarest and most beautiful birds in the world has been rediscovered in southern Myanmar, 89 years after the last of its species was seen, BirdLife International said....		Newsmaker WHEN you decide to take on the authority, you should be prepared to pay a price for that. Dr Jiang Yanyong had the guts to challenge the Chinese government in order to do what he believed was right and save others; he got away once but he paid...