LAHORE: Last week, after bargaining for hours with more than a dozen goldsmiths in Lahore’s largest gold market, the famed Rang Mahal bazar, Maulvi Jamshaid finally returned home with a 10 kg bag of dirt he had bought for Rs100,000 ($487).
But why did he pay such a hefty sum for a sack of dirt?
Jamshaid, 55, comes from a long line of niyarias, or gold scavengers, who do the often filthy, always painstaking work of extracting gold — and other precious metals like platinum, palladium and silver — from literally anything one can find in a goldsmith’s workshop — including dirt.
The grinding, filing, polishing and buffing processes required to make jewelry send microscopic clouds of precious dust flying into the air, Jamshaid explained, which ultimately settles down on mats, carpets, earthen pots used to melt metals, tools and floors at Rang Mahal’s gold shops.
It was always a hard bargain, Jamshaid said, to convince goldsmiths to let him sweep the floors of their shops for dust and filth that may contain minute particles of gold. Often, the niyarias also scour out gold dust from sewerage drains.
“I couldn’t afford to buy the other scrap from the workshop so I only bought the dirt collected there,” Jamshaid told Arab News at his rented home in Gumti Bazar, as he sat down with his 10-year-old son, who is also learning the trade, to begin to extract gold.
Gold is trading at historic high rates in Pakistan mainly due to price fluctuations in the global bullion market. Twenty-four karat gold was trading in Pakistan at Rs142,450 ($690) per tola (12.6 grams) on Tuesday. The highest level of Rs143,250 ($695) was hit last week.
The Pakistani bullion market follows the international gold market. Gold rates in the international market were $1,822 per ounce on Tuesday. The yellow metal hit a high of $2,052 an ounce in March this year.
But despite having paid almost $500 dollars for his sack of dirt, Jamshaid, who has for decades practiced the occupation he inherited from his forefathers, said he had a feeling he had struck a good deal this time.
“At least 17 grams of gold are there in this dirt,” he said. “My experience tells me that.”
To extract the gold, Jamshaid pours the dirt into a metal tub on his rooftop and mixes in nitric acid until precious yellow slivers, sometimes barely visible to the naked eye, separate. The gold scavenger’s hands and upper arms bear signs of years spent in this thankless line of work, with burns in many places from the toxic chemicals that are an integral part of the process.
To the health hazards of the craft, a new fear has recently been added: that technology will soon render the niyaria’s skill redundant.
“I think machines will soon take the majority of jobs away from these people, because now the latest machines can sift gold from anything, tell the amount of gold in anything,” goldsmith Asim Ali, who also owns a testing laboratory, told Arab News. “They’re not so common in Pakistan but soon, I fear, they will be.”
But Ali added it was in the goldsmiths’ interest to help sustain the niyaria profession since it protected against pilferage by their own workers: “If they stole items with small amounts of gold embedded in it, without niyarias to extract it, they would not be able to sell it.”
“So most of the goldsmiths maintain their cordiality with these scavengers … just in case there is pilferage from their shops,” the goldsmith said.
But Jamshaid does not appreciate the good faith. From his perspective, niyarias feed their children literally by “washing the dirt off the feet of goldsmiths.” And poverty keeps them trapped in the profession.
“I’m making my son learn this trade as I cannot send him to school. But he will help me earn more in the future,” he said.
Then, as the first glitter of yellow appeared on the surface of the gray dirt in the tub, Jamshaid exclaimed:
“Look! This is a relatively big speck of gold. I knew I had made a good deal!”
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Saturday reiterated his country’s desire to resolve its outstanding issues with India, state-run media reported, as tensions simmer between the two neighbors following their armed conflict last month.
India and Pakistan engaged in the worst fighting between the two countries since 1999, raising fears of the prospects of an all-out nuclear war. After both countries traded heavy fire for four days, pounding each other with missiles, fighter jets and drone strikes, US President Donald Trump announced a ceasefire between them on May 10.
Speaking to his Malaysian counterpart Dato’ Seri Anwar Ibrahim over the phone, Sharif thanked him for Kuala Lumpur’s “support and balanced stance” during Pakistan’s conflict with India.
“The prime minister underscored that Pakistan had always strived for regional peace and stability,” state-run Radio Pakistan said. “He reiterated that Pakistan was ready for dialogue with India on all outstanding issues, including Jammu and Kashmir.”
Sharif separately wrote on social media account X that he looks forward to Islamabad and Kuala Lumpur deepening and strengthening their bilateral ties.
“I greatly look forward to my visit to Malaysia later this year,” he wrote.
Had a warm and most cordial telephone conversation with my brother, Prime Minister Dato’ Seri Anwar Ibrahim @anwaribrahim of Malaysia. We exchanged Eid-ul-Adha greetings and prayed for unity in the Ummah and peace in Gaza.
I thanked Malaysia for its principled stance during the…
India and Pakistan, bitter rivals since they gained independence in 1947 from British rule, have fought two out of three wars over the disputed Himalayan territory of Kashmir.
Both countries administer Kashmir in parts but claim the region entirely. Pakistan accuses India of occupying Kashmir and denying its people their right to self-determination. It regularly calls on India to abide by the United Nations Security Council resolutions and hold a transparent plebiscite in the territory.
India, on the other hand, accuses Pakistan of arming and funding militant separatists in the part of Kashmir it administers. Islamabad has denied the allegations and says it extends only diplomatic and moral support to the people of Indian-administered Kashmir.
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s Punjab has deployed over 43,000 police officers and personnel across the province for the Eid Al-Adha holidays, state-run media reported, with police placing the province on high alert amid the prevalent security situation in the country.
As per a report in the state-run Associated Press of Pakistan (APP) on Friday, the police personnel have been deployed to secure 28,074 mosques and 890 open-air Eid prayer venues.
Pakistan has seen a surge in militant violence in recent months. Scores of citizens have been killed in the past in militant attacks that have targeted mosques and tourist destinations on public holidays.
“According to the Punjab Police spokesperson, a comprehensive security strategy has been formulated to ensure the safety of mosques, Imambargahs, Eid congregations, and the general public,” APP said on Friday.
The report said 445 Quick Response Force (QRF) teams will be stationed to enhance security readiness while 11,912 metal detectors, 225 walk-through gates and 10,466 CCTV cameras will be utilized during Eid prayers.
In Punjab’s provincial capital Lahore, over 9,000 personnel will be assigned to secure more than 5,000 Eid gatherings, the spokesperson confirmed.
“Inspector General of Police (IGP) Punjab Dr. Usman Anwar has ordered heightened security measures for Eid-ul-Adha, citing the current national security situation,” the report said.
Additional police will be deployed at parks and recreational spots during the Eid holidays to ensure public safety.
The Punjab Police chief also issued a strict warning against one-wheeling, aerial firing, kite flying and rowdy behavior, the report said, stating such acts will not be tolerated.
He stressed all mosques, Imambargahs and Eid grounds must be thoroughly checked and cleared before Eid prayers. High-security mosques and Imambargahs (in category A) will have snipers posted on rooftops while plainclothes commandos will be deployed inside Eid congregations, the report said.
“The IG [inspector-general] also directed the Additional IG Traffic to personally oversee the traffic management plan across Punjab, ensuring smooth flow of traffic during Eid,” APP said.
It said police have been ordered to take preventive measures to combat street crimes and highway robberies, while extra personnel will be posted at key locations to maintain traffic flow during the holidays.
“Special instructions have been issued to ensure tourist safety in Murree and other tourist destinations,” it said. “Authorities are required to enforce SOPs for vehicle entry and exit in Murree, the IG added.”
LAHORE: Tucked away in a quiet lane in Pakistan’s cultural capital of Lahore, Hashim Ali’s studio feels less like a workspace and more like a time capsule from the Mughal era.
Large Persian rugs are spread out on the floors and ornate jharokhas overlook walls painted in beige and maroon and covered in wood panels and miniature paintings, creating a world suffused with nostalgia and opulence. Every corner of the studio reflects the vision of an art director who doesn’t just design sets but builds atmosphere. The space is both sanctuary and stage, where centuries-old aesthetics come vividly to life in the service of modern, visual storytelling.
One of Pakistan’s most renowned Pakistani visual artists and art directors, Ali is a Visual Communication Design graduate from the prestigious National College of Arts (NCA) institute in Lahore. Over the years, he has come to be known for his work in fashion, film, and music and is celebrated for his creative vision and attention to detail, particularly in creating visually stunning and intricate sets. His ability to blend historic grandeur with modern maximalism has won him several accolades over the years, including the Fashion Art Director award at the 2024 Hum Style Awards and the Pride of Performance Award in 2021.
In an interview with Arab News at his studio in Lahore’s posh Gulberg neighborhood, Ali, 34, said his passion for visual storytelling came from a history of childhood bullying.
This photo shows a generic view of Pakistani art director Hashim Ali’s studio in a quiet lane in Lahore. (AN Photo)
“When you are bullied, you have to make [up] stories, you have to read stories, so I would get lost in fairytales,” he said.
“I would just start imagining what this world is, what these people are, what is this fantasy that exists out of this world? It started from there.”
The stories he read, full of mythology and folklore, led him to start thinking about his identity as a Pakistani and a South Asian.
“Then I was like, ‘Why can’t we rebuild these memories and these spaces and these places?’”
Pakistani art director Hashim Ali speaks during an interview with Arab News at his studio in Lahore on May 27, 2025. (AN Photo)
Ali’s own studio is a recreation of spaces of the past, a Mughal court in miniature — crafted not from marble and sandstone, but from cardboard, fabric, and imagination. With hand-painted arches, makeshift jalis, and richly colored drapes, the space evokes the grandeur of a bygone empire while laying bare its theatrical artifice. The illusion is deliberate: a paper palace blurring the line between history and performance and reflecting South Asia’s enduring nostalgia for lost splendor and the way identity in the region is often reconstructed through fragments — of memory, of myth, of art.
What one then sees is not just a recreation of the past but a reinterpretation, inviting a dialogue between heritage and reinvention:
“If Hollywood can create all of this [set design] and we think as Pakistanis that we can’t do any of this, then we’re at fault. Because we did create the Taj Mahal. We did create the Lahore Fort … If we could do it then, we can do it now.”
“COMBINED MEMORY”
One of Ali’s most cherished creations was the set for the song “Pasoori,” the first Coke Studio number to hit one billion views on YouTube Music and the most searched song globally on Google in 2022, the year of its release.
Ali, the production designer and art director of the set, crafted it as a communal space, with the bohemian aesthetic of the set, characterized by vibrant colors and eclectic elements, complementing the song’s fusion of reggaeton beats with classical South Asian instruments like the rubab.
This photo shows a generic view of Pakistani art director Hashim Ali’s studio in Lahore. (AN Photo)
Ali describes the aesthetic as “the Pakistani vibe,” exemplified by a new generation that had grown up in the era of globalization and social media and was reclaiming public spaces and dressing up and conducting themselves in ways that merged their cultural heritage with contemporary elements.
“It’s so interesting that now when I’m sitting and I’m scrolling on Instagram or TikTok and I see these reels of girls wearing either ‘saris’ and ‘ghagras’ and they’re dancing in Lahore, in old Lahore,” Ali said.
But the project closest to Ali’s heart is hidden away in the winding, narrow streets of Lahore’s historic Gali Surjan Singh near Delhi Gate. It is a concept store, Iqbal Begum, imagined as a tribute to his late dadi or grandmother, a mathematics teacher who passed away in 2014.
The store has been built in a centuries-old home that Ali rented from a woman who has lived there before the partition of India in 1947 and the creation of Pakistan. The walls are adorned with framed pictures of Iqbal Begum and the shop strewn with things that belonged to her, including old table clocks and dial phones and a tub of Nivea cream, a bottle of Oil of Olay lotion, and a coin purse framed together.
Photo frames of Pakistani art director Hashim Ali’s grandmother hang on one of the walls of his studio in Lahore. (AN Photo)
Ali remembered growing up surrounded by the stories his grandmother told him, including about the violence of the partition.
“She told me a story about how she lost her favorite pen and our house was burned down in front of her eyes and the sense of belonging started happening,” Ali said.
“From that story, this thing of holding on to objects, holding on to people, holding on to stories became very important.”
The concept store is thus not only a way to tell the story of Iqbal Begum but also to create shared memories.
“So, for me, every time I tell a story, I’m passing on my memory to someone else, and when they go and tell someone, in a way, it’s almost like my dadi is still alive,” Ali added.
Pakistani art director Hashim Ali gestures during an interview with Arab News at his studio in Lahore on May 27, 2025. (AN Photo)
And the process is two-way, because people show up with their stories also and can connect with the items they see in the store: “Then it becomes like a combined memory.”
Ultimately, it all connects back to the idea of Pakistan for Ali and to preserving its national, personal and collective histories into tangible, emotionally resonant experience.
“I kind of equated it to the bigger grandparent or the larger mother, which is Pakistan, that slowly, slowly all these amazing things that Pakistanis and Pakistan has done, we’re slowly letting them fade away,” he said.
“The idea from this dadi telling stories to a child has become about this child telling those stories or trying to tell those stories to the world and saying, ‘Hey, we’re Pakistan and we’re a beautiful country and we do all these things apart from what you’re used to hearing about.’.”
KARACHI: Pakistan’s first post-Hajj flight carrying pilgrims back to the country is scheduled to arrive in the southern port city of Karachi on June 11, a letter issued by the religion ministry said this week.
Pakistan concluded its 33-day pre-Hajj flight operation last month, with more than 115,000 pilgrims transported to Saudi Arabia for the annual Islamic pilgrimage.
Every year Pakistan arranges special Hajj flights to facilitate thousands of Pakistani Muslims traveling to the Kingdom for the pilgrimage and back. The operation involves both government and private schemes, as well as coordination with multiple airlines to ensure smooth transit.
“The first Hajj flight of Air Blue Airline, PA–1766, is scheduled to arrive at Jinnah International Airport, Karachi, on 11th June 2025 at 13:35 hours from Jeddah, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, carrying 148 Hujjaj,” a letter written addressed to the airport manager at Karachi’s Jinnah International Airport by the religion ministry said.
The letter said Riaz Hussain Shah Shirazi, the provincial minister for Auqaf, will welcome the pilgrims upon their arrival at the airport.
“You are kindly requested to make the necessary arrangements in accordance with past practices and provide intimation to this Directorate accordingly,” the letter added.
As many as 88,260 Hajj pilgrims arrived in Saudi Arabia via the government scheme through 342 flights from various cities of Pakistan this year while over 27,000 arrived via private tour operators.
The Hajj flights were operated by a range of air carriers including Pakistan International Airlines, Saudi Airlines, SereneAir, Airblue and AirSial.
From Pakistan to Spain via Canaries, smugglers using more dangerous migration routes
Forty-four fellow Pakistani migrants died during 10-day failed crossing in January from Mauritania to Spain’s Canary Islands
Nearly 47,000 people disembarked in the Canaries in 2024, an increase from the nearly 40,000 in 2023, as per Spain
Updated 07 June 2025
AP
DERA BAJWA, Pakistan: It was supposed to be the final leg of Amir Ali’s monthslong journey to Europe. But he was nowhere near his destination, with only death in sight.
The 21-year-old Pakistani had been promised a visa and a flight to Spain. Yet six months, four countries and $17,000 later, he found himself crammed in a fishing boat in the Atlantic Ocean alongside 85 others, screaming for their lives as seawater sloshed over the gunwales.
Amir Ali, who survived a failed attempt to reach Spain by boat, walks down a street near his home in Dera Bajwa, a village in Gujranwala district, Pakistan on April 23, 2025. (AP)
Forty-four fellow Pakistani migrants perished during the 10-day failed crossing in January from Mauritania’s coast toward Spain’s Canary Islands.
The deadly journey cast a spotlight on how globalized and sophisticated smuggling networks on the West African coast — and specifically Mauritania — have become. Interviews with survivors and relatives of migrants who died revealed how smugglers have adapted to tighter border controls and anti-migration policies across the Mediterranean and North Africa, resorting to lengthier, more dangerous routes.
Ali’s odyssey began last July. After making an initial deposit of 600,000 Pakistani rupees ($2,127), he went to Karachi airport, where he was told to wait for a shift change before approaching the immigration counter.
“The smugglers had inside help,” he said. He and other migrants were swiftly put on a flight to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
Amir Ali, who survived a failed attempt to reach Spain by boat, walks down a street near his home in Dera Bajwa, a village in Gujranwala district, Pakistan on April 23, 2025. (AP)
From there Ali boarded a second flight to Dakar, Senegal, where he was told someone would be waiting for him.
Instead, when he arrived he was told to go to the Senegal River bordering Mauritania, a seven-hour taxi ride north. He joined other Pakistanis traveling to the Mauritanian capital, Nouakchott. In each country he passed through, bribes were demanded for visas, Ali said.
Imran Iqbal, 42, took a similar journey. Like Ali, he flew from Karachi to Senegal via Ethiopia before reaching Mauritania. Other Pakistanis Iqbal met, he said, traveled through Kenya or Zimbabwe enroute to Mauritania.
WAITING GAME
Once in Mauritania, the migrants were taken to cramped safe houses where smugglers took their belongings and deprived them of food. “Our passports, our money — everything,” Iqbal said. “I was essentially held captive,” Ali said.
Villagers walk a loaded cart through a wheat field in Gajju, Pakistan, passing a house owned by a family that settled in Europe, on April 16, 2025. (AP)
During the six months Iqbal and Ali were in Mauritania, smugglers moved them repeatedly, beating them to extract more money.
While he managed to get some money sent from Pakistan, Iqbal did not tell his family of his dire situation.
“Our parents, children, siblings ... they would’ve been devastated,” he said.
Ali said the smugglers lied to their families in Pakistan, who asked about their whereabouts and questioned why they hadn’t called from Spain.
Finally, on Jan. 2, Iqbal, Ali and the other Pakistani migrants were transferred to an overcrowded boat that set course for Spain’s Canary Islands.
“On the day of departure, 64 Pakistanis from various safe houses were brought to the port,” Ali recalled. “The Mauritanian police and port officials, who were complicit, facilitated our transfer to the boats.”
“What followed were the hardest 15 days of my life,” Iqbal said.
Imran Iqbal, who survived a failed attempt to reach Spain by boat, tells his story during an interview with The Associated Press in Gajju, a village in Gujrat district, Pakistan, April 16, 2025. (AP)
Mauritanian authorities have launched several investigations into smuggling networks and, in the past two months, heightened surveillance at the country’s borders and ports, according to a Mauritanian embassy official in Madrid who spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn’t authorized to comment publicly.
While migration to Europe has been falling steadily, the Atlantic Ocean crossing from West Africa to Spain’s Canary Islands has reemerged since 2020.
Nearly 47,000 people disembarked in the Canaries in 2024, an increase from the nearly 40,000 in 2023, according to Spanish Interior Ministry figures.
An old map of Mauritania is displayed in a hostel in Nouadhibou, Mauritania on November 30, 2021. (AP/File)
Until recently, the route was mostly used by migrants from West African nations fleeing poverty or violence. But since last year, migrants from far-flung countries like Pakistan, Bangladesh, Yemen, Syria and Afghanistan have increasingly embarked on the fishing boats used to reach the European archipelago.
Smugglers connect with migrants locally in Pakistan and elsewhere, as well as on social media. Migrants post videos of their voyages on TikTok. Although some warn of the dangers, they also share idyllic videos of life in Europe, from Canary Island beaches to the bustling streets of Barcelona and Madrid. For many, Spain is just an entry point for continuing to France, Italy and elsewhere.
Chris Borowski, spokesperson for the European Border and Coast Guard Agency Frontex, believes smuggling networks bringing Pakistanis and other South Asian migrants through the Canaries are still “testing the waters” to see how profitable it is.
However, experts at the Global Initiative Against Transnational Crime warn the route is here to stay.
“With the conflict landscape showing no sign of improvement, movement on the Canary Islands route looks set to increase,” the group warned.
“Because it remains the deadliest migration route in the world, this has severe humanitarian implications.”
The Atlantic Ocean crossing can take days or weeks. Dozens of boats have vanished.
A car is parked outside a big house in Dera Bajwa, Pakistan, that is owned by a family that settled in Europe, on April 23, 2025. (AP)
Exact figures don’t exist, but the International Organization for Migration’s Missing Migrants Project recorded at least 1,142 deaths and disappearances last year, a number it calls a vast understatement. Spanish rights group Walking Borders reported nearly 9,800 victims on the Canaries route last year — which would make it the world’s deadliest migration route.
Only a tiny fraction of bodies are ever recovered. Some shipwrecked vessels have appeared hundreds of thousands of miles away, in the Caribbean and South America.
The boat Ali and Iqbal boarded had a 40-person capacity but was packed with more than double that. Immediately, there were fights between the Pakistanis and the Africans on board, they said.
The Associated Press wasn’t able to locate non-Pakistani survivors to verify the accusations, but reports of violence on the Canaries journey are frequent even among those of the same nationality and ethnicity. Dehydration can cause hallucinations, exacerbating tensions.
“The weather was terrible,” Ali said. “As water entered the boat, the crew threw our belongings and food into the sea to keep the boat afloat.”
On the fifth day, a man died of a heart attack, Ali and Iqbal said. More people perished every day, their bodies thrown overboard; while some died from hunger and thirst, the majority were killed.
“The crew attacked us with hammers, killing 15 in one night,” Ali said. Both men showed photos of injuries others sustained, although AP couldn’t verify what caused them.
“The beatings were mostly to the head — so brutal that people started losing their sanity,” Iqbal said. They prayed for a merciful death, convinced they had little chance of survival.
On the 10th night, after dozens had died, lights appeared on the horizon. They shouted for help. At daybreak, a fishing vessel approached, handing them food and water before eventually towing them to the West African coast two days later. Forty-four Pakistanis had died.
A man drives in front of a house under construction in Dera Bajwa, Pakistan, that is owned by a family that settled in Europe, on April 23, 2025. (AP)
“Only twelve bodies returned to Pakistan,” Ali said. “The rest were lost at sea.”
BACK AT SQUARE ONE
News of the failed journey made international headlines, prompting a pledge by Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari to go after smugglers.
Pakistan’s Federal Investigation Agency has arrested dozens of people suspected of arranging the journey or connections to the smugglers.
A nationwide crackdown was already underway, but smugglers change locations to evade capture. In Europe and Pakistan, smugglers who are caught are primarily low-level operatives, resulting in limited impact on the overall business.
Staring at the mansions being built around his modest brick home in the Pakistani village of Dera Bajwa, Ali reflected on his wasted journey.
“These are the houses of those who made it abroad,” Ali said. “People like me see them and dream without thinking.”
