Shogran, Pakistan: Mohammad Naseem’s eyes shine while he shares the legend of a remote, alpine lake nestled among snow-capped Himalayan peaks as a rare crowd of onlookers hears one of Pakistan’s last “storytellers.”
The story of Saif-ul-Malook — the winding saga of a brave prince who falls in love with a fairy — is just one of the 50 tall tales passed down to Naseem by his father.
“Usually people tell me I’m crazy when I tell these stories,” says Naseem, whose long white beard and traditional cloak give him the timeless appearance of a storyteller of old.
The 65-year-old shopkeeper says it would take days to recite all the stories he learned by heart that are imbued with “the history, the culture” of the land.
But few are still listening.
Naseem says he hasn’t bothered sharing the stories with his six children, and friends are no longer interested in hearing them as social media, video games, and soap operas have all but eclipsed his ancient art.
Video platform TikTok is now a major source of entertainment for the country’s youth, wildly popular in part because it is accessible to illiterate users in rural areas — just as the legends of old once were.
“When I die, these stories will die with me,” sighs Naseem outside his shop in northern Pakistan’s Shogran, where winter snows have blanketed the mountains.
The city of Peshawar — in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province where Shogran is located — has long been the country’s stronghold of oral history, its Qissa Khawani or “storytellers bazaar” a Silk Road hub where travelers and locals alike congregated to hear a well-spun yarn.
The bustling frontier capital was once “the Times Square of the region” because of “the excellence of its storytellers,” explains Naeem Safi — a consultant at an Islamabad-based institute dedicated to Pakistani folk heritage, where cassettes of stories told at the bazaar have been archived.
“Writing was not very popular. The transfer of knowledge was verbal. Storytelling was fundamental — people considered themselves educated if they had heard enough stories,” says Safi.
Before tuk-tuks and buses clogged its narrow lanes the market was littered with Silk Road caravans of wandering traders who often stayed the night after the city’s sixteen gates were sealed at dusk.
In the evenings, the merchants would hear the city’s famed storytellers — who shared tales about the perils of the road, news of wars and local lore.
Storytellers were “the communication tools of that time, they were the messengers,” said Ali Awais Qarni, a researcher in history and literature at the University of Peshawar.
“When they were telling the truth, they would always add a little poetry and color to it,” he said.
“People would listen to them for hours. Sometimes a story could last a week, or a month.”
The bazaar’s tea houses and salons have been replaced by neon signs on garish structures that now dot the traffic-choked streets.
“There may be some storytellers left, but the tradition is gone. It has transformed into other forms of storytelling,” Safi added.
Long-time Peshawar resident Khwaja Safar Ali, 75, remembers his youth in the city when the arrival of caravans was met with excitement.
During the day, “we used to run between the camels’ legs,” he recalls.
And when evening came, “we would all sit together and listen to the storytellers.”
“They would tell us about Kabul, the USSR, Uzbekistan. We learned about these countries through them.”
Modern transportation eventually killed off the caravans, which even by the 1960s had become an increasingly rare sight in the area.
Storytellers continued to perform for smaller circles, but were gradually replaced by radios and then televisions.
This autumn one of Peshawar’s few remaining storytellers died aged 86, said Jalil Ahmed, a tour guide who frequently took his clients to hear the recitations.
The narrator once owned a small hotel where the caravanners lodged and listened to stories “for a few pennies” over steaming cups of green tea.
“But now the only way to see storytellers in Peshawar is to go to the cemetery,” Ahmed sighed.
Once upon a time: Pakistan’s fabled storytellers fade away
https://arab.news/zex2z
Once upon a time: Pakistan’s fabled storytellers fade away
- Storytellers continued to perform for smaller circles, but were gradually replaced by radios and then televisions
- Storytellers were “the communication tools of that time, they were the messengers,” says a messenger
Pakistan province calls for inquiry after Baloch separatists attack remote southwestern town
- Balochistan Liberation Army fighters torched Levies station, NADRA office before security forces moved in
- Strict action will be taken against district administration members found guilty of negligence, says official
QUETTA: The government in Pakistan’s Balochistan province on Thursday called for an impartial inquiry into an attack by armed fighters from the separatist Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA) group on a remote town in the country’s southwest before security forces regained control of it.
The attack in Zehri, located 150 kilometers from Khuzdar city, occurred when BLA fighters stormed the Levies force station on Wednesday and the National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA) office, setting the buildings ablaze and robbing a private bank.
Khuzdar deputy commissioner told Arab News that security forces retaliated in a timely manner and regained control of the area. One soldier of the Frontier Corps was injured during the standoff as the armed men escaped.
Shahid Rind, the spokesperson for the provincial government, said strict action would be taken against the district administration members found guilty of negligence during the attack and did not retaliate in a timely manner.
“Balochistan government has called for an impartial inquiry into the Zehri attack from all aspects,” Rind said in a statement, adding that the provincial home department had issued instructions to engage the civil administration in this regard.
Rind said law enforcement agencies are monitoring the situation in Zehri while the government has strengthened security arrangements in the entire province.
“The government has been taking concrete measures to uplift the performance of the civil administrations in the entire Balochistan to prevent attacks like Zehri in the future,” the spokesperson said.
Balochistan, Pakistan’s largest and resource-rich province, has long been plagued by a low-level insurgency led by ethnic Baloch separatist groups like the BLA. They accuse Islamabad of exploiting the province’s natural resources, such as gold and copper, while neglecting the local population.
Pakistan rejects these allegations, asserting that the federal government has prioritized Balochistan’s development by investing in health, education and infrastructure projects.
The BLA has become a significant security threat in recent years, carrying out major attacks in Balochistan and Sindh provinces targeting security forces, ethnic Punjabis and Chinese nationals working on development projects.
Violence by Baloch separatist factions, primarily the BLA, killed about 300 people over the past year, marking an escalation in the decades-long conflict.
South Africa urged by minister to boycott Afghanistan match in Pakistan
- Minister criticizes Taliban’s decision to ban women’s sport, disband women’s cricket team
- Proteas are scheduled to play Afghanistan on Feb. 21 in group match in Karachi, Pakistan
PRETORIA: South Africa’s sports minister has joined public calls for the Proteas to boycott the Champions Trophy game against Afghanistan next month and criticized the International Cricket Council for not upholding its own rules.
Gayton McKenzie said on Thursday he felt “morally bound to support” a match boycott because the Taliban government has banned women’s sport and disbanded the national women’s cricket team.
“It is not for me as the sports minister to make the final decision on whether South Africa should honor cricketing fixtures against Afghanistan. If it was my decision, then it certainly would not happen,” McKenzie said in a statement.
“As a man who comes from a race that was not allowed equal access to sporting opportunities during apartheid, it would be hypocritical and immoral to look the other way today when the same is being done toward women anywhere in the world.”
The Proteas are scheduled to play Afghanistan on Feb. 21 in a group match in Karachi, Pakistan.
England was also urged to forfeit its match against Afghanistan on Feb. 26 by more than 160 UK politicians on Monday.
McKenzie believed the ICC was also being hypocritical for not upholding its own mandates that member nations develop men’s and women’s cricket.
McKenzie noted Sri Lanka Cricket was suspended by the ICC from November 2023 to January 2024 for government interference.
“This does not happen in the case of Afghanistan, suggesting that political interference in the administration of sport is being tolerated there,” McKenzie said.
“Cricket South Africa, the federations of other countries and the ICC will have to think carefully about the message the sport of cricket wishes to send the world,and especially the women in sports.
“I hope that the consciences of all those involved in cricket, including the supporters, players and administrators, will take a firm stand in solidarity with the women of Afghanistan.”
Pakistan central bank chief expects inflation rate to fluctuate in coming months
- Inflation rate to stabilize within 5-7 percent range by end of 2025, says central bank governor
- Pakistan’s inflation rate slowed to 4.1 percent in December after aggressive policy rate cuts by state bank
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s central bank chief said on Thursday that the country will experience fluctuations in inflation in the next four to five months before it stabilizes within the five to seven percent range toward the end of the year.
Pakistan’s consumer inflation rate slowed to 4.1 percent year-on-year in December 2024. The reductions came at the back of the State Bank of Pakistan’s (SBP) move to cut the key policy rate by 200 basis points to 13 percent in December, the fifth straight reduction since June, bringing cumulative rate cuts for 2024 to 900 basis points.
The reduction in the inflation rate has brought some relief for the masses, which bore the brunt of record high inflation which peaked at 38 percent in May 2023, as Pakistan faced a prolonged economic crisis.
“At the moment it [inflation] has decreased a lot and in the month of January, it will come down a bit further but will then witness fluctuation later,” SBP Governor Dr. Jameel Ahmed said at a news conference.
“But as per our [central bank’s] assessment by the end of 2025, it will stabilize within the target range of five to seven percent, according to the medium-term target by the state bank and the government of Pakistan,” he added.
Ahmed said a collective effort to achieve the medium-term target of five to seven percent will bring relief to Pakistani businesses and the common man.
“But god forbid if there is any volatility in this which we are unable to control then we have seen the disruptions caused to businesses and even the common man in the past,” he said.
The South Asian country is navigating a challenging economic recovery path buttressed by a $7 billion facility from the International Monetary Fund granted in September.
Pakistan’s finance minister has lauded the government’s fiscal measures but warned that the country needs long-term financial reforms to ensure sustainable growth and avoid future IMF bailout programs.
Gunmen abduct over a dozen workers from ‘atomic and mining projects’ in Pakistan’s northwest
- The incident took place in the volatile Lakki Marwat district, a hotspot for TTP's militant activities
- A local analyst says the incident has raised serious questions about the state’s writ in KP province
PESHAWAR: A group of armed men on Thursday abducted more than a dozen people working on “atomic and mining projects” in Lakki Marwat, a highly volatile district of northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) province, a police official said.
Lakki Marwat is situated on the edge of the tribal region bordering Afghanistan, where the proscribed Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) has frequently targeted police precincts and checkpoints, killing several law enforcement personnel in the past.
Pakistani authorities have often accused the Afghan administration in Kabul of aiding TTP militants in their cross-border attacks, an allegation Afghanistan denies.
Speaking to Arab News, Shahid Marwat, the district’s police spokesperson, said armed men kidnapped “17 civilians,” including the driver of the team working on the mining project.
“This unfortunate incident took place on Dara Tang Road this morning,” he said. “The kidnapped individuals worked on atomic energy's mining projects. A heavy police contingent has also been dispatched to locate the kidnappers.”
Marwat did not share further details, but the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission (PAEC), a government agency responsible for the nuclear energy program, operates mining projects in various parts of the country.
Lakki Marwat has been a hotspot of militant activity that witnessed unprecedented protests last September, when police officers, joined by civil society members and tribal elders, staged sit-ins and blocked the Indus Highway.
The demonstrations followed a spate of militant attacks that killed several policemen, prompting members of the force to demand greater involvement and autonomy in counterterrorism operations.
While no group has officially claimed responsibility for the incident, some media outlets reported the TTP acknowledged its involvement.
Riaz Bangash, a Peshawar-based expert on the region’s security affairs, told Arab News the incident had raised serious questions about the state’s writ in the province.
“The southern districts of KP are totally neglected and are at the mercy of criminals amid vanishing government writ,” he said. “This is despite the fact that at this time all three top provincial officials, including the chief minister, governor, and inspector general of police, belong to these districts. Still, the region is in chaos.”
Bangash emphasized the importance of avoiding politicization of the region’s security issues and urged all political parties to unite and work out a joint strategy to address the “growing insecurity.”
This is not the first time such kidnappings have taken place in the region.
Last June, unidentified gunmen abducted 13 laborers from the southern Tank district of KP, who were later released. In November, armed men also abducted seven policemen from a check post in the northwestern district of Bannu, who were released after mediation by tribal elders.
So far, the government has not issued a statement about the incident.
Pakistan to reopen Hajj applications from Jan. 10 to fill 5,000 vacant seats
- Religious affairs ministry says new applicants will have to pay about $2,152 in two installments
- Pakistan extended the application deadline twice in December due to insufficient submissions
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has decided to reopen Hajj applications from January 10 to fill the remaining 5,000 seats under the government quota after falling short of the required number of applications for this year’s pilgrimage, the Ministry of Religious Affairs said on Thursday.
Saudi Arabia has allocated a quota of 179,210 Hajj pilgrims for Pakistan in 2025, divided equally between government and private schemes. The government extended the application deadline twice last month, from December 3 to December 10 and then to December 17, to fill the seats. However, it also hinted at reopening applications in early January due to insufficient submissions.
“The Ministry of Religious Affairs has called for Hajj applications for 5,000 vacant seats under the government quota,” Muhammad Umer Butt, the ministry’s spokesperson, said in a statement. “Hajj applications will be received on a first-come, first-served basis starting from January 10.”
Butt said that new applicants must pay Rs 600,000 ($2,152) in two installments, with additional charges for sacrifices and separate room accommodations.
“All designated banks are instructed to upload daily received applications to the portal immediately,” he added. “The receipt of applications will be halted as soon as the government quota is filled.”
For the first time, the country’s Hajj policy allowed pilgrims last year to make payments in installments. Under this scheme, the first installment of Rs 200,000 ($717) had to be submitted with the application, the second installment of Rs 400,000 ($1,435) within 10 days of balloting and the remaining amount by February 10 this year.
According to official statistics, the government scheme received 12,000 to 13,000 more applications last year compared to 2023. In 2024, Pakistan had to surrender 21,000 Hajj seats to Saudi Arabia due to a shortage of applicants. However, the government is determined to fill all slots for the 2025 pilgrimage.
The ministry has also launched the Pak Hajj 2025 mobile application, available for both Android and iPhone users, to guide pilgrims. Additionally, the government announced a reduction in airfare, lowering ticket prices for federal program pilgrims to Rs 220,000, down from last year’s Rs 234,000.
Pakistan International Airlines, Saudi Airlines, and private carriers have agreed to transport pilgrims this year.
