Lahore is a huge metropolis of around 8 to 10 million people today and it keeps on growing by every minute. A vast pie of this population comprises of migrants from other parts of Punjab and Pakistan. There are hundreds of thousands of people who come to ‘Dil walon ka Shehar’ in search of jobs, education, better opportunities and an urban flavor unmatched in the north of the country. All of this gives Lahore a flavor of diversity – all blended into the Lahori way of life as you just have to spend a few years in Lahore to become a Lahori at heart.

The demographic profile of the city’s immigrant population means that a lot of people have families and relatives residing in other parts of the province. Each holiday season, millions of Lahoris flee the city to spend vacations with their families in villages and other cities. Two Eids being the biggest Islamic holidays are the times when you see a mass-exodus of people heading out of the city just to come back a night before the vacation’s over.

If you happen to be a part of that crowd or just visit the railway station, lorry addas or bus terminals, you’ll see happy faces longing to see their loved ones while climbing onto any available and affordable means of transport. There’s a dad who’s carrying presents for his kids in village; there’s a student carrying his meager belongings in a backpack hanging on to the overcrowded entrance of a Bedford bus.  Then, there’s a group of white collar office employees, dressed in white shirts and black trousers with a laptop bag, albeit empty, waiting in queue at the New Khan or Faisal Movers ticket counter. Gourmet lafafas are usually a constant at all places of boarding buses, lorries, trains, rickshaws, APVs or Qingqis.. Babus prefer Daewoo or even better, an aeroplane ride to their hometowns. To take advantage of an improved bargaining position, transporters usually increase the fares handsomely and the passengers have no choice but to comply. Not to mention huge gridlocks of traffic outbound on G.T. Road, Motorway and up/down national railway grid.

In short, it’s an interesting phenomenon to witness so many Lahoris leaving the town they love for places that they originally belong. I still call them Lahoris for the city derives it’s character from everyone that brings his/her own flavor to share with the spirit of this great city. If you happen to drive by a calm Mall Road or lazy Canal Bank on a Saturday night during Eid holidays without having to press brakes, you get a feeling that…

Lahore’s missing its Lahoris… :)

Are you map literate?  Do you reside in Lahore? 

Then you might want to check out  the Google Mapping ‘party’ taking place at FAST-NU this Saturday, 2nd  January, 2010. 

Sneak peak at what its all about— Badshahi Mosque and neighborhood.

Some information from the organizers:

Greetings!

FAST-NU and the Google Map Maker Community in Pakistan officially invite you to a half-day of discussion, interaction and mapping fun! Google Map Maker is an open editing tool for Google Maps, and has allowed crowd-sourced mapping of Pakistan on an unprecedented scale, as highlighted by Google.
In order to take stock of what has been accomplished so far, and more importantly, what opportunities lie ahead, FAST-NU’s ACM (Association for Computing Machinery) Chapter welcomes Google to campus to host a workshop and discussion on crowd-sourced mapping of our cities. Take a look at the links below to see Lahore’s map on Google Maps today, to see how Badshahi Mosque’s neighborhood has been mapped, for example.
Now, help shape the opportunities which lie ahead for Pakistan’s urban development using maps, the internet and the power of collective public thinking.
Join us on the 2nd of January, 2010 from 12:30pm to 5:00pm, at FAST-NU (see it on the map)
….(click here to read the rest on the event page on Facebook)

For further information and to register–click here.

Important: You must pre-register at http://local.com.pk/mappingparty  to join in all the fun on Saturday!

If you attend–do come back to share your experience here on Lahore Metblog. :)

MQM has long tried to make inroads in Lahore. The controversial party is quite ‘known’ for their popularity in Karachi, much like Zardari is known for his popularity all over Pakistan.
I remember linking MQM’s first try to get into Lahore by opening a center here, with a sudden increase in reports of mobile snatching. Nevertheless, the following is a great reminder our political parties will go to, to show their strength (much like MQM ‘show of strength’ on that fateful day in Karachi when people were shown being shot at on national television).

MQM Rally photoshopped

Thanks to this keen-eyed blogger, we have now a ‘large presence of MQM in Baltistan, Skardu’. The image is photoshopped to show a larger crowd. More details here

DeSOM – Services Club Lahore – has come be famous for its traditions like celebrations of festive occasions like Chand Raat – night when Eid ul Fits moon is cited on first of Shawal – national days and other get to gathers. Like always and like everyone, I was there with my whole family. In addition, there we meet some old colleagues and their families, kids met their class fellows and friends and had a traditional food with little bit of every thing from Murg Channe to BRBQ (dahi bhalle, halwa puri, biryani, list goes on and on) .

There were many stall form bangles and hina to crystal gazers and special Eid gifts for kids to indulge in. Yes, there were a lot of boooools for my Maan.

The bottom line; at DeSOM every one was a style star. {From}

Now, with a shocking 2 million internally displaced people (IDPs) plying on routes south of their heaven-on-earth homeland of SWAT, Pakistan is officially experiencing an unprecedented crisis. While sitting in our drawing rooms, it is far too easy for many of us to say collateral damage cannot be avoided, but, try asking anyone who has lost his whole family to the bloodbath. Each human life costs the same; whether an innocent Pakistani, an Afghan or an American one. And no justification can soothe or curtail further radicalization of the youth of the innocent affectees of full-scale bombardment of wide settled areas. 

It’s too late to ask this question as to how our Government signed an agreement from a weak position and then rolled all talks within a meagre ten days on external pressures. The only question now valid is to how quickly and effectively can we help millions of IDPs who have lost everything and are in dire need of food, shelter, and clothing.

Let us join hands in donating as much as we can to the Prime Minister’s Fund for Victims of Terrorism, to other local and international NGOs, foundations, individuals and groups who are active in the affected areas. If it still needs to be realized, we must not forget, Pakistan is expereincing the worst kind of refugee problem since Independence. So, please, help; and help as much as you can.

At the Liberty Roundabout, which was the scene of a bloody ambush of the Sri Lankan Cricket Team on March03, it has become a daily feature for passers by to stop and pay respects to the memory of the martyred policemen.

Six of the men guarding Sri Lankan Team’s convoy lost their lives while battling about twelve very heavily armed militants right in the heart of Lahore in broad daylight.

People paying their respects at the Memorial

Lahorites are proudly commemorating the bravery of these men who sacrificed their lives to save what is left of this country’s international image. It was due to the cover provided by deterrence of these men lasting 25 minutes against the terrorists that the bus carrying the Sri Lankans was able to escape to safety of the Qadaffi Stadium. Would they have not fought bravely enough, the whole Sri Lankan team might have been taken hostage or in a worse scenario; killed!

A tribute!

As you do a roundabout at Liberty, you can see stacks of flowers and bouquets coupled with hand written charts, banners, posters and candles adorning the small memorial erected in the grounds. The most prominent feature of the memorial is the official banners with pictures of the martyrs on them.

Martyred Policemen of the Punjab Elite Force

Liberty Memorial for Heroes of 3/3

We owe a lot to the ‘Shuhada of 3/3′ namely:

- Zafar Iqbal, Constable Elite Force
- Faisal Rasheed Butt, Head Constable Elite Force
- Mudassar Nadeem, Constable Elite Force
- Muhammad Sultan, Constable/Driver Elite Force
- Tipu Farid, Constable Mujahid Squad
- Tanveer Iqbal, Traffic Warden

We pray that may God grant peace to their loved ones and bless their souls by honoring them with the highest ranks in heaven. Amen!

More Pictures: Liberty Memorial at Flickr

Lahore is brimming to its maddening political edge as political parties battle it out in the streets. Loyalists branding party emblems are gathering everywhere. The Mall is a political boulevard where all parties deem it necessary to make their presence felt.

Such a “battle” brought me to an eventful PML-N rally on The Mall on 26 February. Armed with my camera and its bag; I walked hesitantly into the rally, a potential terrorist strike target. I freelance as a photojournalist, an interesting but risky job.

Here, the workers of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) had blocked The Mall for over five hours in their protest against the Supreme Court (SC) verdict that disqualified the Sharif brothers from contesting the general elections.

Unrest prevailed as the protest intensified when aggressive party workers marched towards the Punjab Assembly building to break the locks after PML-N parliamentarians had to sit on the staircase to conduct the session.

Anti-Zardari slogans were chanted, tyres were burnt tyres and banners containing pictures of PPP leaders were brandished. The protesters held placards and banners that condemned the SC and the PPP-led government.

During the protest, a worker climbed a streetlight to hoist a PML-N flag.

Addressing the workers, PML-N leader Hamza Shahbaz said the SC had disqualified PML-N leadership on the directives of President Asif Ali Zardari and alleged that “The decision was a raid on democracy”.

The other side:

Amid the noise at such ralies, a series of fortunate and misfortunate events also take place. A rally is a world in itself, in addition to the main political activity, there is a lot that goes on.

Pickpockets have a field day, robbing unsuspecting spectators of their cell phones, wallets and whatever they can get their hands on. I lost my cellphone as a man smuggled his way into my pocket and disappeared into thin air. 

Hawkers scramble about the gathering, selling water, food and the bare necessities. You’ll find people munching on goodies, browsing lottery tickets and offering free political analysis to everyone around them.

Pushy people:

Amid the commotion, one also gets assaulted by “pushy” people who force their way towards the stage. I was elbowed and my sunglasses fell to the road. Before I could pick them up, a “footful” of people stomped their way through and reduced it into a mere wire mesh! Why was I wearing sunglasses? Well the smoke from the burning tyres can be quite tearful at times!

“Zardari chuha”/Zardari Kuta

Animal rights everyone? Protesters hanged a live mouse from a board that read out “Zardaru chuha” (Translated: Zardari is a mouse). I couldn’t help but capture this one. Is this freedom of expression of abuse of expression? The little mouse was trembling and paying with its life for someone else’s crimes.

Zardari Chuha

Men wearing horror masks and holding placards inscribed with Zardari Kuta (Translated: Zardari is a dog) are rampant throughout these anti-PPP rallies. These men get a lot of press attention, though such images may not be published, but they remain an irresistible catch for any photographer.

Seems familiar?

The political circus brings with it many characters. Activists try to steal the show by using their theatrical abilities to catch everyone’s attention. Here men beat their chests, “mourning” the SC verdict.

PML N-autanki

 It seems that as things become increasingly complicated in this political turmoil, it is advisable to witness the events from the safety of your house. The Mall shall remain choked and tense until things settle down. Lets hope the anarchy simmers down and Lahore is restored to its glory.

A group of amateur photographers with a passion for their homeland have set out to project an image of Pakistan that is totally opposite to the one most popular with international media. Pakistan, today, is in headline news for all the wrong reasons and the world has forgotten that this land still has culture, colors, music, festivals, hopes and aspirations to a brighter future built on a rich past.

Members of the Pakistani Photographers Group at Flickr have arranged a collection display of about forty photographs related to “The Other Pakistan” theme. Submitted by amateur members of the group, these amazing captures range from portraits, landscapes, and architecture to everyday life spanning over entire Pakistan including Lahore, the Northern Areas, Cholistan, Skardu and Uch Sharif.

After its first successful day (Feb.18), the exhibition will contiue on February 19 at the Students’ Lounge, Lahore University of Management Sciences. The exhibition, sponsored and supported by Bank Alfalah, is to later visit smaller cities of Pakistan as well.

Note: Pictures in this post are shared with permission from Mr. Yasir Nasir, photographer and organizer of  the exhibition at LUMS and are property of their respective photographers.