A storied Karachi bookstore and its septuagenarian owner offer remembrance of things past 

Habib Hussain Abbasi, 74, is seen working at his bookstore in Karachi, Pakistan on July 27, 2024. (AN photo)
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Updated 05 August 2024
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A storied Karachi bookstore and its septuagenarian owner offer remembrance of things past 

  • Founded in 1910 in Karachi’s Juna Market, “Abbasi Kutubkhana” was once a cherished spot for the city’s poets, scholars and authors
  • 48-square-yard space houses 6,000 books in multiple languages, both new books and those up to six decades old are available 

KARACHI: With a backpack slung over his shoulder, Habib Hussain Abbasi, 74, turned into a street off Karachi’s bustling Napier Road and lifted the shutter to open “Abbasi Kutubkhana.”

Established as a roadside stall in 1910 by Abbasi’s maternal grandfather Ghulam Abbas Dawoodbhai in Juna Market, Abbasi Kutubkhana now stands as the port city’s oldest bookstore. 

Located in a 48-square-yard space with a ground and a mezzanine floor, the store houses over 6,000 books on a variety of topics. New titles as well as many that are over 60 years old are available in several languages, including Urdu, Arabic, Persian, English, Pashto, Sindhi, Punjabi, and Saraiki. 

“It’s like you have arrived from a desert to an oasis,” Abbasi told Arab News in an interview one morning this month as he entered his bookstore, which he described in its heyday as a vibrant space frequented by Karachi’s writers, poets, scholars and politicians. 




The picture taken on July 27, 2024, shows Karachi’s bustling Napier Road, where Habib Hussain Abbasi's book shop is situated. (AN photo)

Abbasi himself started sitting at the store when he was in the fourth grade, he said, coming straight from school in his uniform to assist his father. 

“I would change here, have my lunch and start helping my father,” he recalled. “Still every day I ache to come here. For me it is like having food, if I don’t come here for a day, I feel like I’m hungry.”

Around the bookstore, one can find stalls of street food like jalebis and samosas and shops selling crockery, hardware, spices and shoes but there are no other bookstores in sight. 

That was not always the case.




The photo provided by Habib Hussain Abbasi on July 27, 2024, shows Sheikh Al Muntasir Al Qahtani (right), a scholar and Vice Chancellor of Damascus University, visiting “Abbasi Kutubkhana” in 1963. (AN photo)

After Pakistan gained independence in 1947, Abbasi said, around a dozen bookstores emerged in Juna Market, making it the go-to area for Karachi’s book lovers. 

“Earlier there used to be many bookstores here, at least 10-12,” the shop owner said.

“Slowly they started diminishing, to the point that now only my bookstore is left ... reaching this place [Juna Market] is a task in itself.”

But the shop’s vast collection means if one can’t find a book elsewhere in the city, they will eventually still make the hike to Juna Market and end up at Abbasi Kutubkhana. 

“A customer came looking for some specific books which were not available in the market, hence I have come here looking for those books,” said Nizamuddin Khan, a customer at Abbasi’s shop who himself owns a bookstore in the city’s Urdu Book Bazaar. 

“Generally, if a customer needs a book that is out of stock anywhere in Pakistan and has very little chance of being found, there is a 90 percent chance they will find it here.”

And Abbasi does not mind if you aren’t a paying customer. 

“If they come and sit here, read the book, take notes or make photocopies, they are fully allowed to do so,” he added. 

While Abbasi has carried on his grandfather’s and father’s legacy of managing the bookstore for 60 years, none of his three children have opted to join the family business. 

That worries the septuagenarian. 

“I need to think about the bookstore’s future,” he said, particularly in an era when online sales have been driving independent bookstores out of business across the world:

“It would have been a wise decision on my part if I had pursued that direction [of setting up an online bookstore], it would have helped me significantly. From the beginning, I did not lean toward that approach … Sometimes, I hold myself responsible and question why I didn’t … Had I done so, it would have created more ease for people as well.”

Pointing at other shops in the street, Abbasi said:

“Sandals or shoes are displayed in beautiful glass showcases while books are being sold on footpaths. This is a huge tragedy when it comes to books.”

Then he paused, and added: 

“But God willing, I won’t let that happen to this bookstore.”


Pakistan’s northwestern province urges public to expose proxy ownership, help curb tax evasion

Updated 07 November 2024
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Pakistan’s northwestern province urges public to expose proxy ownership, help curb tax evasion

  • KP chief minister promises 40 percent share to people for identifying ‘benami’ properties in the province
  • CM Gandapur says while addressing a seminar his administration wants to introduce a whistleblower law

PESHAWAR: In an effort to document the economy and broaden the tax net, the chief minister of northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province announced Wednesday that attractive rewards would be offered to whistleblowers who assist the government in identifying instances of proxy ownership, locally known as benami properties, in the province.
Benami properties are assets registered under another person’s name to disguise the actual owner’s identity, often used to conceal movable or immovable assets for tax evasion or other purposes.
Chief Minister Ali Amin Gandapur outlined his plan to introduce a whistleblower law at a seminar on combating drugs in Peshawar aimed at rooting out corruption from the province.
“Anyone providing information in helping the government identify a benami property will get 40 percent share,” he said.
Gandapur maintained people should help out the government, adding they should benefit from the opportunity that his administration was providing.
Pakistan’s tax collection body, the Federal Board of Revenue, announced in 2019 it would confiscate vehicles and properties with proxy ownership, as well as fictitious bank accounts.
The chief minister said public cooperation was crucial to the government, which could not advance without their support.
He also spoke out against the widespread availability and use of drugs in the province.
“The KP government has a zero-tolerance policy on drugs, and we have issued clear directives to relevant departments and institutions to crack down on the drug trade,” he added.
He stressed the government should deal sternly with those involved in drug trafficking. Gandapur described the drug trade as a heinous crime and vowed to impose exemplary punishment on those engaged in it.
“During our tenure, we have rehabilitated 2,400 drug users, including individuals from other provinces and even Afghan nationals,” he said, adding that the rehabilitation program would continue until drug users take control of their lives and become responsible citizens.


Bomb and mortar attacks in northwest Pakistan kill four security officers, two schoolchildren

Updated 07 November 2024
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Bomb and mortar attacks in northwest Pakistan kill four security officers, two schoolchildren

  • Pakistan has launched dozens of operations against militants, but they continue to carry out attacks
  • The bomb attack took place in South Waziristan while the children were killed by a mortar in Tirah valley

PESHAWAR: A roadside bomb exploded near a vehicle carrying security forces in northwestern Pakistan, killing four officers and wounding five others, officials said Thursday, while two schoolchildren also lost their lives when a mortar exploded nearby elsewhere in the region.

The roadside bombing happened Wednesday in South Waziristan district, a former stronghold of the Pakistani Taliban, local police officer Dilawar Khan said.

No one immediately claimed responsibility for the attack, but the Pakistani Taliban, known as Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan, has stepped up its assaults in the region since its ally the Afghan Taliban seized power in neighboring Afghanistan in 2021.

Later the same day, a mortar fired by insurgents landed near a road in the Tirah valley in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province on Wednesday, killing two schoolchildren who was going to school on foot, police said.

The Pakistani military has launched dozens of operations against the Pakistani Taliban and other insurgents in South Waziristan and other former tribal regions nearby, but the militants continue to carry out frequent attacks.

On Thursday, Pakistan’s Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi met with Chinese ambassador Jiang Zaidong in Islamabad to brief him about an investigation into an attack Tuesday in which a guard shot and wounded two Chinese nationals at a textile mill in the port city of Karachi, allegedly over a private dispute.

China has frequently demanded better security for its nationals who are in Pakistan to work for Beijing’s multibillion-dollar Belt and Road Initiative.


Pakistan condemns Israeli efforts against operations of UN agency for Palestinian refugees

Updated 07 November 2024
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Pakistan condemns Israeli efforts against operations of UN agency for Palestinian refugees

  • Israel’s parliament voted last month to ban UNRWA from operating within Israel and occupied East Jerusalem
  • Almost all of Gaza’s population of more than two million people are dependent on aid and services from UNRWA

ISLAMABAD: Acting Permanent Representative of Pakistan to the United Nations, Ambassador Usman Jadoon, has “strongly condemned” Israel’s attempts to dismantle the operations of the UN relief agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA), calling it a part of Israel’s “genocidal campaign” against the people of Palestine.

Israel’s parliament voted last month to ban the UNRWA from operating within Israel and occupied East Jerusalem, crippling its ability to work in Gaza and the Israeli-occupied West Bank. Almost all of Gaza’s population of more than two million people are dependent on aid and services from the agency.

The move has faced widespread condemnation, with UNRWA warning the new law could see aid supply chains “fall apart” in the coming weeks. Israel has defended the move, repeating its allegation that a number of the agency’s staff were involved in Hamas’s Oct. 7 attacks last year, which killed 1,200 people.

“The adoption of the law by the Israeli parliament [is] a flagrant violation of the UN Charter, international law, provisional measures set by the International Court of Justice, and the ICJ’s advisory opinion issued on July 19,” Jadoon said while speaking at a UN General Assembly meeting, calling on the international community, in particular the UN Security Council, to hold Israel accountable for its actions and ensure unimpeded operations of UNRWA.

Jadoon demanded a stop to the “demonization and delegitimization” of UNRWA.

“By targeting the UN relief agency for Palestinian refugees, Israel not only obstructs vital humanitarian assistance but also threatens the collective effort to uphold the Palestinian people’s identity, rights and aspirations for justice and peace,” Jadoon added.

Founded in 1949, UNRWA works in Gaza, the West Bank, Syria, Lebanon and Jordan, initially caring for the 700,000 Palestinians who were forced from or fled their homes after the creation of the state of Israel. Over the decades, the agency has grown to become the biggest UN agency operating in Gaza.

Since the war in Gaza began in October last year, the agency says it has distributed food parcels to almost 1.9 million people and also offered nearly six million medical consultations across the enclave over the course of the conflict.

More than 200 UNRWA staff have been killed in Israeli attacks since October 2023 in the course of those duties, according to the agency.
 


Pakistan, China to form joint security strategy following attack on Chinese workers in Karachi

Updated 07 November 2024
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Pakistan, China to form joint security strategy following attack on Chinese workers in Karachi

  • Mohsin Naqvi says ensuring the safety of Chinese citizens and projects is Pakistan’s top priority
  • Chinese envoy maintains Beijing is ready to enhance bilateral security cooperation with Pakistan

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan and China agreed on Thursday to develop a joint security strategy, following an incident where two Chinese nationals suffered gunshot wounds in an attack by a security guard at a factory in Karachi, an official statement said.
An unknown number of Chinese nationals work in Pakistan, primarily as part of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), a multibillion-dollar energy, infrastructure development, and regional connectivity initiative.
Chinese workers have increasingly come under attack in Pakistan in recent years, with notable incidents including a suicide bombing in the northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province that killed five Chinese engineers in March 2024 and an October blast near Karachi’s airport that left two other Chinese nationals dead.
The latest shooting occurred earlier this week, when a Pakistani security guard opened fire at a factory in Karachi, wounding two Chinese employees.
Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi met with Chinese Ambassador Jiang Zaidong to discuss the situation and Pakistan’s response to the rising security risks faced by Chinese nationals.
“We fully agree with China’s vision of integrating development and security,” he was quoted as saying in a statement released by his office after the meeting. “Ensuring the safety of Chinese citizens and projects is our top priority. Those involved in the incident will be brought to justice.”
The interior ministry informed the two officials “agreed to develop a joint strategy to prevent such incidents in the future.”
Ambassador Jiang also underscored the need for a stable environment for ongoing bilateral cooperation and expressed his country’s readiness to strengthen bilateral security ties.
“China is ready to enhance bilateral security cooperation and build the capacities of Pakistani institutions,” he said.
Attacks on Chinese nationals have put the bilateral relations between both states under increasing stress, with the Chinese envoy previously calling such incidents “unacceptable” publicly.
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif personally visited the Chinese embassy in Islamabad on Wednesday to offer sympathies to the families of the Chinese who got injured in the recent shooting incident.
Pakistan and China have been discussing to upgrade CPEC in recent months, hoping to launch yet another phase marked by enhanced business-to-business relationships and further Chinese investment in the country.


Pakistani wife of jailed Kashmiri leader urges Indian politician to debate husband’s imprisonment

Updated 07 November 2024
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Pakistani wife of jailed Kashmiri leader urges Indian politician to debate husband’s imprisonment

  • Mushaal Mullick tells Rahul Gandhi her husband gave up arms to pursue a non-violent freedom struggle
  • Indian authorities are seeking death sentence for Yasin Malik on the basis of a ‘three-decades-old’ case

ISLAMABAD: The Pakistani wife of a prominent Kashmiri leader in Indian-administered side of the Himalayan territory wrote Wednesday to opposition leader Rahul Gandhi in New Delhi, urging him to initiate a parliamentary debate on her husband’s incarceration following his hunger strike at the beginning of this month.
Mushaal Hussein Mullick, former assistant on human rights and women’s empowerment in Pakistan’s last caretaker administration, is married to Yasin Malik, leader of the Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF), who, along with other activists, was incarcerated after India revoked Kashmir’s special constitutional status in August 2019.
She said the Indian authorities had filed a case against him on the basis of a “three-decades-old sedition case” in which they were demanding death sentence for him.
The letter noted this was despite the fact that her husband had long given up arms to fight for freedom struggle, following the path of non-violence which was highlighted by several high-profile Indian officials and journalists themselves.
“I request you to bring to use your high moral and political influence in the Parliament and to initiate a debate in the case of Yasin Malik, who could become an instrument for bringing organic and not cosmetic peace back to the Jammu & Kashmir — paradise on earth,” she wrote.
Mullick said her husband “stood by his end of the bargain,” though the same thing “cannot be said for the Indian state” that did not pay attention to his pleas and “victimized” him under the current Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government.
Her letter to the Indian opposition leader follows the recent elections in Indian-administered Kashmir in which Gandhi’s allies displayed a good performance while the BJP could not make any impressive electoral gains.
The government in New Delhi has, however, used the polls to suggest that the situation in Kashmir is gradually improving, though the large number of the people of the area have long opposed the Indian rule.