Adil Ahmad

Zamzama Boulevard is home to some very pricy and upmarket botiques, restaurants, doctors' private clinics, and a fabulous park known as Generals Park,with a kilometer long walking & jogging track that is heavily patronized by the rich and famous, and all manner of other very affluent residents of the DHA and Clifton who drive around the neighborhood in their Mercs and Audis, and BMWs, with Prados and other flashy four-wheel drives a dime a dozen. Powerful and rich Saeens and Waderas rub shoulders with all manner of powerful and rich politicians and bureaucrats on Zamzama Boulevard with their entourages of gun toting bodyguards with the latest in weaponry, riding at the back of SUVs with black tinted windows. It's all very mucho macho, and there are times when Zamzama Boulevard resembles a warzone. One day when transiting through Zamzama Boulevard on my way from Two Swords to Khadda Market, weaving my way through all manner of kings' fortunes on wheels, I came up...

These pics depict the sad state of affairs in the posh PECHS locality of Karachi on Dr. Mahmood Hussain Road (formerly 42nd Street). This is the back end of Jheel Park which has been developed at much cost, but the developers overlooked this bit, or possibly left it to contrast with the otherwise beautifully appointed park. Dr. Mahmood Hussain was a high order educationist, and he must be turning in his grave, in a manner of speaking. I pass this dump on a daily basis, and on one such occasion I stopped to chat with two Afghan boys busy picking rags and other useful stuff that the more affluent had discarded. One of them refused to talk to me, and when I offered him a cash inducement in lieu of an interview, he flatly refused, his pride not permitting the taking of a handout. The younger one was more amenable, and for 100 rupees told me that his name was Dost Khan, and that he hailed from Quetta where his mother had relocated from Kunduz in Afghanistan after being abandoned by her h...

Interviewed by Adil Ahmad some six years ago at the Infaq Foundation’s Head Office in Karachi Pic caption - The late lamented Agha Hasan Abedi where Mr. Swaleh Naqvi puts in a regular 10am to 2pm stint five days of the week, for the Book (‘BCCI and the Attack of the Neo-Barbs’) based on Mr. Swaleh Naqvi’s memos to his court appointed lawyer in New York while incarcerated. The Book has since been written and, at the request of Mr. Swaleh Naqvi, put into cold storage for the time being. One of the issues that caused concern regarded the sustainability of the charitable trust. Infaq Foundation is a Not for Profit organization meant exclusively for charity work. The word ‘Infaq’ appears in the Quran and means to spend for the benefit of the people. Abedi Sahab provided enough capital for this venture and the income from that endowment is quite significant. “At that time BCCI had three Branches in Pakistan , and instead of transferring their profits to the BCCI Head Offi...

Reham becomes KP’s ambassador for street children  - But what about Karachi's street Mums? BUREAU REPORT  (Edited to the extent of the second pic and caption) Top - Reham Khan, wife of PTI chief Imran Khan, meets children at Chief Minister’s House in Peshawar on Sunday. —Photo by Shahbaz Butt Second - Street Mums scan the garbage in a high-stink and heavy bacteria zone on Karachi's posh Dr. Mahmood Hussain Road (formerly 42nd Street), P.E.C.H.S., Karachi. Published in Dawn, April 13th, 2015  PESHAWAR: The provincial government has appointed Reham Khan, the wife of PTI chief Imran, as ambassador for street children. Adviser to Chief Minister Dr Mehr Taj Roghani, who announced Reham Khan as ambassador of provincial government for raising awareness about the rights of street children, accompanied her when she came to attend a function held in connection with International Day for Street Children in the guarded Chief Minister’s House here on Sunday. ...