A lost Pakistani encounters the Catalan capital Imaduddin Ahmed The Friday Times blogs | Feb 13, 2016 Offered a flight and three nights at a four-star in Barcelona if I spoke at a conference, I found myself alone in a city which … Continue reading Barceloner
Imaduddin Ahmed delights in the charms of a transformed Rwanda The Friday Times | July 05 – 11, 2013 – Vol. XXV, No. 21 Rwandans greeted outsiders well into the nineteenth century with hails of arrows. And who could blame … Continue reading Land of a thousand hills
The Friday Times (Pakistan) Imaduddin Ahmed | Jan 8, 2010 With China projected by Goldman Sachs to overtake the US as the largest economy by 2030, the way for the US to remain the most dominant force in global politics will be by having China sign itself into US-led global governance structures The generally accepted view among the scientific community is that human activity, through greenhouse emissions (mainly in the form of carbon dioxide), has contributed significantly to global warming. Global warming isn’t irrelevant. According to the Nobel-winning Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), Pakistan can expect floods and rock … Continue reading What happened at Copenhagen and why China didn’t cooperate
The Friday Times I remember that pre-Partition, my two elder sisters studied at the co-ed FC College. Post-Partition, when I finished high school, Ab Ji, Maulana Salahuddin Ahmed, did not want me to go to a coeducational college because he … Continue reading Contrasting memories of pre and post-Partition Lahore – Rehana Bano Bokhari
The Friday Times | Imaduddin Ahmed meets the family of Nadeem, a victim of Basant Spring fesitvals celebrate fertility, birth and renewal. Basant, for some families, is different. This year Akhtar Bibi and her family will be marking the first year death anniversary of their son, Nadeem Pasha, who would now be 19. On 26th February 2006, Nadeem, the youngest of eight brothers and sisters, ventured into Lahore with friends from Chung village off Multan Road. This was the second of 14 days that the Supreme Court lifted its ban on kites that year. He was going to Gulshan-e-Iqbal. He … Continue reading Lambs to the slaughter
Imaduddin Ahmed | The Friday Times Lahore’s MM Alam Road is as divorced from the bottom 95 percent of the population as Tehmina is from Khar. What’s truly dismaying though is that good money is buying trash. The street is … Continue reading High on teak
The Friday Times I remember when my Urdu teacher at primary school in Karachi asked class to write an essay on what we wanted to be when we grew up. Seeing my mother, Tallat Siddiqui, as a role model, I … Continue reading I remember – Nahid Siddiqui
The Friday Times | Jan 19, 2007 Imaduddin Ahmed’s week Regular readers will know that my luck runs short when I enter public spaces in Lahore. Ironically enough, I’ve never had trouble at protests or elections. Yet I found myself to be the proverbial moth to the incandescent flame last Sunday as Annie Aunty, Sarah and Julia came to pick Amme (I now live with my repatriated mother) for the Lahore marathon. I’ve had too much fun revelling in Berkeley and San Francisco street festivals and open air concerts to be deterred by a couple of ugly incidents. Besides, last … Continue reading Utopia for a day
Imaduddin Ahmed | The Friday Times Sana Khurshid has been an eye catcher since I can remember. Active, outgoing, good-humoured and pretty, she was she was the subject of my first serious crush. I know I have not been in … Continue reading Against the odds
Imaduddin Ahmed and Ume-Laila Azhar | The Friday Times The Women’s Action Forum celebrates its silver jubilee; it started in a blaze, but where has it gone? In September 1981, women came together in Karachi in an emergency meeting to … Continue reading Long day’s journey
energy and a just transition 