Osama Tells

I belong to a family whose elders have supported Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto in the early 1970’s. My grand father and father both admired Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto. It will be a little less to say that my father was an admirer of Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto. He was a Bhutto Enthusiast. Later on, when Benazir Bhutto came into politics all of my aunts liked her and supported her. Mostly Hindko speaking Peshawri s were supporters of the Bhutto Family. My introduction to   Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto is not an ordinary story. During the elections of 2008 many old friends of my father who were part of PPP’s Student union in late 1970’s and early 1980’s use to come to our home and listen to speeches of Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto and Benazir Bhutto, their eyes would shine. I simply asked my grandfather who is Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto? He told me all the details   about him. I suddenly asked him where are his sons? He said both his sons have passed away. Murtaza Bhutto was the elder son where as Shah Nawaz Bhutto was his yo...

Sitting in TV lounge discussing cricketing greats with my cousins and maternal uncles.   Once my maternal uncle   said that before Shahid Afridi there was a man who was as fearless as he is right now. He was the elder brother of Ramiz, Wasim Raja. This fascinated me a lot. I thought, once cricket that was known to be popular for test matches, where games were not really fast, there was a cricketer who was   popular for being a stroke player. Now as a curious young boy I started searching about him. Raja belonged to an upper middle class family. His father was a civil servant. His facial appearance was very different as compared to the other Pakistani players of that time. An intense looking man with a heavy beard, educated at the government college Lahore. Another factor that came forward was that he was not an easy going man. Wasim Raja was an introvert and moody. In a fundraiser that was held for Shaukat Khanum memorial hospital , when Imran was asked that who...

Allama Mashriqi was born in Amritsar Punajb on 25 th of August 1888. He was an intelligent student which was reflected by his aceademic records. He was the first student who took first class in Msc Mathematics in Punjab university.   Mashriqi joined the Christ’s College at the university of Cambridge in 1907 and finished his education in 1912. His aceademic achievements were highly appreciated in Cambridge university. During his stay in England he was offered the Premiership of the princely state of Alwar. He declined the offer as he was more interested in serving the education department of India. When he returned to India he was asked by the chief commissioner of NWFP(now Khyber Pukhtoonkhwa) to take up the position of Vice Principal in Islamia College Peshawar. In 1917 he was appointed as the principal of that college.   Later on he was made the under secretary in Education department by Lord Chelmsford. However the fact that impressed me the most was when Mashriqi dec...