Nanawatai........pashtun culture

It is a tenet of the Pashtunwali code of the Pashtun people. It allows a beleaguered person to enter the house of any other person and make a request of him which cannot be refused, even at the cost of the host's own life or fortune.A similar code of conduct is used by the neighbouring..
Traditionally it is used to refer to a request for sanctuary, whereby the host must be willing to fight or die for the sake of anyone who comes knocking at his door seeking refuge,even if it is a sworn enemy.

Nanawatai can typically be used to force a victim, or victim's family, to forgive a transgressor and offer their protection to the repentant aggressor. However, in cases of rape and adultery, the guilty party cannot request sanctuary, and must flee or submit willingly to the prescribed punishment. Sources are divided on whether those who elope can request such protection.

jirga.......pashtun culture

A jirga is a tribal assembly of elders which takes decisions by consensus, particularly among the Pashtun people.all d major issues r solved through jirga.
In Jirgas comprehensive collective discussion and examination of the issues enable in-depth understanding, development and formulation of a common view or consensus that leads to a cohesive approach dealing with the concerning issue. This remarkable traditional process of mutual consultation also assists developing a commitment shared by the community to implement the resolution that has been resolved. In the presence of a proper mechanism and the way Jirgas are held, the consequent broad based understanding and the consensus reached facilitate to surmount fundamental issues threatening the Pashtun Society.
Procedure for jirga........
By observing the need for a Jirga the head of the state invites tribal leaders.

CM addressing a joint Jirga of tribal leader of Khyber PUkhtunkhwa

The Jirga agrees on a Framework for communication with the parties involved
The Jirga comprehensively discusses and understand the issue under-analysis
The Jirga establishes a mechanism helping to reach the final decision
The Jirga, finally, sets up a committee to implement and oversight the decision made by the Jirga members

National Horse and cattle show.......Punjab rung

It is also a very special festival ,specially 4 punjabi people.In such show there is dance competition among d participating horses.Such horses r specially trained,.a large number of people come to watch d show.The owner of d winning horse is given money/award.

beside horse show,there is a display of the finest livestock, horse and camel dances, tent pegging colourful folk dances from all regions of Pakistan, mass band displays and tattoo shows in the evening.

Basant.......patang baazi... Punjab seasonal festival

Today,lets share some posts elated to punjabi culture, Basant festival came into my mind, so i would like to share among you.
Lahore is becoming the main focal point for the celebration of this festival in Pakistan. People traditionally fly kites on the roofs of their buildings.

The  basant is celebrated in spring season feb month).all walk of poeple take part in basant, the is full of kites in such season.

Sajji..............Balochistan dish.

Sajji is a native dish of the desert province of Baluchistan, Pakistan. It is unique and Indigenous Balochi way of cooking lamb, adopted now in Urban areas of Pakistan by replacing lamb with chicken.

For making Sajji the meat is roasted to a delightful degree of tenderness and is not very spicy. It is a whole leg of lamb or whole chicken deliciously marinated in local herbs and salt, barbecued beside an open fire. It is very popular among the locals and is offered with great insistence to the guests. It is served with special bread “Kaak”, “roti” or “naan”, which is baked in an oven, wrapped around a stone.

Sajji is amongst the favorite delicacies of Baluchistan natives specially it is famous in Quetta. A spicier version is preferred in Karachi or Lahore, uses chicken instead of lamb. The chickens are on wooden rods and they are cooked slowly on the heat of smoldering fire. The urban people prefers to use Chat masala( spice) , lemon juice, Raita(yogurt) and salad with it. While originally it has been eaten with bread.

The process of making Sajji is divided into three parts: marinating, preparation and cooking. In all, the preparation time is about 2 to 2 1/2 hours and the cooking method is generally roasting. The lamb (or chicken) leg is first marinated and then prepared for roasting. Once the meat is done, it is ready to be served. It is worth mentioning that the meat for the dish is considered done and ready for consumption when it is 'rare'.

                   

mohenjodaro....cultural heritage

Mohenjo-daro is located in the Larkana District of Sindh, Pakistan,[3] on a Pleistocene ridge in the middle of the flood plain of the Indus River Valley, around 28 kilometres (17 mi) from the town of Larkana. The ridge was prominent during the time of the Indus Valley Civilization, allowing the city to stand above the surrounding plain, but the flooding of the river has since buried most of the ridge in deposited silt. The site occupies a central position between the Indus River and the Ghaggar-Hakra River. The Indus still flows to the east of the site, but the riverbed of the Ghaggar-Hakra on the western side is now dry.

This oval well is located in room 19 northeast of Great Bath. It is the only well with an oval structure and may have been used to draw water for nearby bathing platforms or for filling the Great Bath.

Mohenjo-daro has a planned layout based on a street grid of rectilinear buildings. Most were built of fired and mortared brick; some incorporated sun-dried mud-brick and wooden superstructures. The sheer size of the city, and its provision of public buildings and facilities, suggests a high level of social organisation. At its peak of development, Mohenjo-daro could have housed around 35,000 residents.

The city had a central marketplace, with a large central well. Individual households or groups of households obtained their water from smaller wells. Waste water was channeled to covered drains that lined the major streets. Some houses, presumably those of wealthier inhabitants, include rooms that appear to have been set aside for bathing, and one building had an underground furnace (known as a hypocaust), possibly for heated bathing. Most houses had inner courtyards, with doors that opened onto side-lanes. Some buildings had two stories.

In 1950, Sir Mortimer Wheeler identified one large building in Mohenjo-daro as a "Great Granary". Certain wall-divisions in its massive wooden superstructure appeared to be grain storage-bays, complete with air-ducts to dry the grain. According to Wheeler, carts would have brought grain from the countryside and unloaded them directly into the bays. However, Jonathan Mark Kenoyer noted the complete lack of evidence for grain at the "granary", which, he argued, might therefore be better termed a "Great Hall" of uncertain function.[6]

Close to the "Great Granary" is a large and elaborate public bath, sometimes called the Great Bath. From a colonnaded courtyard, steps lead down to the brick-built pool, which was waterproofed by a lining of bitumen. The pool measures 12m long, 7m wide and 2.4m deep. It may have been used for religious purification. Other large buildings include a "Pillared Hall", thought to be an assembly hall of some kind, and the so-called "College Hall", a complex of buildings comprising 78 rooms, thought to have been a priestly residence.

Mohenjo-daro had no circuit of city walls, but was otherwise well fortified, with guard towers to the west of the main settlement, and defensive fortifications to the south. Considering these fortifications and the structure of other major Indus valley cities like Harappa, it is postulated that Mohenjo-daro was an administrative center. Both Harappa and Mohenjo-daro share relatively the same architectural layout, and were generally not heavily fortified like other Indus Valley sites. It is obvious from the identical city layouts of all Indus sites, that there was some kind of political or administrative centrality, but the extent and functioning of an administrative center remains unclear.

Mohenjo-daro was successively destroyed and rebuilt at least seven times. Each time, the new cities were built directly on top of the old ones. Flooding by the Indus is thought to have been the cause of destruction.

The city is divided into two parts, the so-called Citadel and the Lower City. Most of the Lower City is yet to be uncovered, but the Citadel is known to have public baths, a large residential structure designed to house 5,000 citizens, and two large assembly halls.

Badshahi Mosque.....our cultural heritage

The Badshahi Mosque (Urdu: بادشاھی مسجد) or the 'King's Mosque' in Lahore, commissioned by the sixth Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb in 1671 and completed in 1673, is the second largest mosque in Pakistan and South Asia and the fifth largest mosque in the world. Epitomising the beauty, passion and grandeur of the Mughal era, it is Lahore's most famous landmark and a major tourist attraction.

Capable of accommodating 5,000 worshippers in its main prayer hall and a further 95,000 in its courtyard and porticoes, it remained the largest mosque in the world from 1673 to 1986 (a period of 313 years), when overtaken in size by the completion of the Faisal Mosque in Islamabad. Today, it remains the second largest mosque in Pakistan and South Asia and the fifth largest mosque in the world after the Masjid al-Haram (Grand Mosque) of Mecca, the Al-Masjid al-Nabawi (Prophet's Mosque) in Medina, the Hassan II Mosque in Casablanca and the Faisal Mosque in Islamabad.

To appreciate its large size, the four minarets of the Badshahi Mosque are 13.9 ft (4.2 m) taller than those of the Taj Mahal and the main platform of the Taj Mahal can fit inside the 278,784 sq ft (25,899.9 m2) courtyard of the Badshahi Mosque, which is the largest mosque courtyard in the world.
The architecture and design of the Badshahi Mosque closely resembles that of the smaller Jama Mosque in Delhi, India, which was built in 1648 by Aurangzeb's father and predecessor, Emperor Shah Jahan. Its design was inspired by Islamic, Persian, Central Asian and Indian influences. Like the character of its founder, the Mosque is bold, vast and majestic in its expression.

The steps leading to the Main Prayer Hall and its floor are in Sang-e-Alvi (variegated marble). The Main Prayer Hall is divided into seven sections by means of multi-foil arches supported on heavy piers, three of which bear the double domes finished externally in white marble. The remaining four sections are roofed with flat domes.

The interior of Main Prayer Hall is richly embellished with stucco tracery (Manbatkari), fresco work, and inlaid marble.

The exterior is decorated with stone carving as well as marble inlay on red sandstone, specially of lotiform motifs in bold relief. The embellishment has Indo-Greek, Central Asian and Indian architectural influence both in technique and motifs.

The skyline is furnished by beautiful ornamental merlons inlaid with marble lining adding grace to the perimeter of the mosque. In its various architectural features like the vast square courtyard, the side aisles (dalans), the four corner minarets (minars), the projecting central transept of the prayer chamber and the grand entrance gate, is summed up the history of development of mosque architecture of the Muslim world over the thousand years prior to its construction in 1673.

The north enclosure wall of the Mosque was laid close to the Ravi River bank, so a majestic gateway could not be provided on that side and, to keep the symmetry the gate had to be omitted on the south wall as well. Thus, a four Aiwan plan like the earlier Jama Mosque in Delhi, could not be replicated at the Badshahi Mosque.

The walls were built with small kiln-burnt bricks laid in kankar, lime mortar (a kind of hydraulic lime) but have a veneer of red sandstone. The steps leading to the prayer chamber and its plinth are in variegated marble.

The main prayer chamber is very deep and is divided into seven compartments by rich engraved arches carried on very heavy piers. Out of the 7 compartments, three double domes finished in marble have superb curvature, whilst the rest have curvilinear domes with a central rib in their interior and flat roof above. In the eastern front aisle, the ceiling of the compartment is flat (qalamdani) with a curved border (ghalatan) at the cornice level.

The original floor of the courtyard was laid with small kiln-burnt bricks laid in the Mussalah pattern. The present red sandstone flooring was laid during the last major refurbishhment (1939-60). Similarly, the original floor of the main prayer chamber was in cut and dressed bricks with marble and Sang-i-Abri lining forming Mussalah and was also replaced by marble Mussalah during the last major repairs.

There are only two inscriptions in the Mosque:
one on the main gateway entrance
the other of Kalimah in the prayer chamber under the main high vault.

Khyber pukhtunkhwa and Chitrali Topi....PAKOL

One of the best thing in all our provinces is its beautiful dress.Lets take start from KPK,Chitral.
Pakistan is a country of many ethnic groups and cultures. This is apparent not only in the looks of its people and the different languages and dialects they speak, but also in their traditions and dress.
The North-West Frontier Province (NWFP) and Gilgit-Baltistan have the largest variety of men’s headwear, the most common being the pakol, also known as Chitrali cap.

In Chitral, and Gilgit-Baltistan, the white color pakol is more popular and is sometimes worn with a peacock plume stuck in the folds, like a badge, on the front or the side of the cap. The deep blue and green of the peacock feather, set against the white of the cap, is quite eye catching.

The pakol is made out of coarse woolen cloth, locally known as pattoo. The pattoo is first sewn into the shape of a cylinder, about a foot or more long. One end of the cylinder is capped with a round piece of the same material, slightly wider than the cylinder itself. The woolen cylinder is then inverted and fitted onto a round wooden block; the rim of the woolen cylinder is then rolled up to the top. The flat top protrudes a little over the rolled-up edge to give the cap a tiny brim. Otherwise, all Pakistani headwear, unlike the Western hats, is brimless. This is so because Muslims pray with their heads covered; a brimmed cap or Western hat would interfere with the sajdah (act of prostration during prayers). The little brim of the pakol, however, presents no such problem.The cap comes in various colors: white, gray, and different shades of brown.
The pakol is believed to have originated in Afghanistan, where it is a popular headwear among the people of Northern Afghanistan

Pashto Attan - A Traditional Pashto Dance

Pashto Attan, as the title suggests, is a traditional pashto dance that is performed in Afghanistan (pashtun populated areas) and in the khyber pukhtunkhwa province in Pakistan by the people of ethnic group called Pashtuns.

The dance is performed on special occasions like on the eve of Eid as a sign of expressing joy, in the battlefield after claiming the victory (happened in older times), on marriage ceremonies, sports events etc. Pashto attan is basically performed in a circular shape with performers ranging from 2 to more than 100 in numbers depending upon the vastness of the ground. Drums and pipers are used to play the music in a rthym; and the foot steps, arms movement and neck movement of dancers follow it creating a nice combination of music and dance.The music doesn't stop until there is no dancer inside the ground. Lets take a look at one of the clip that shows this beautiful pashto dance.

There is a funny saying about pashtun people which says that:

"You won't have a need to use any weapon to kill a pashtun if you can arrange to tie him up with ropes and play attan music in front of him."

Yeah! That is quite true. Pashtun people can't resist from dancing once they hear this music. Even if someone doesn't know how to perform attan, he would simply shake his head or his whole body just to let out what he's feeling inside.

Telecom Sector’s Profits Repatriation Drop by 30 % in Q1 FY 2012

Telecom and broadband operators have sustained a financially-tight quarter as their earnings sent to headquarters were seen dropping by 30 percent in Jul-Sept 2011 as compared to same duration last year, State Bank of Pakistan data showed.

The profit dividends of the telecom and broadband operators stood at US $ 34.6 million in the first quarter of the financial year 2011-12, which showed negative growth compared with US $49.8 million of the earning repatriation posted during the same period previous financial year.

According to the data, US $ 30.9 million profits were sent by cellular and telecom operators such as Mobilink, Zong, Warid Tel, Qubee, Wi-Tribe and etc., as operations and services earnings

Whereas US $ 3.7 million earning repatriated abroad by listed companies in stock exchanges such as Wateen, PTCL and TRG through portfolio profits.

Analysts said that services’ sales of telecom and broadband operators were witnessed quite low in the first quarter of financial year 2011-12 on decreased consumptions of the subscribers in the country.

During the period, the heavy rains across the country particularly in the Sindh affected the services consumption and infrastructure of the telecom sector that impacted negatively on the earnings of the telecom operators.

They said that seasonal drop of services witnessed in the month of Ramadan as customers’ activities were traditionally low in the country despite introduction of enhanced services packages particularly by cellular and broadband operators.

In Ramadan, the commercial and domestic consumption of telephony and broadband services witnessed decline of 15 to 20 percent compared with other months of the year. The subscriptions growth of different operators was also seen slowing down because of shifted priorities of masses in Ramadan.

Moreover, the stock exchanges were remained volatile in the first quarter of 2011-12 with mix trend of share trading particularly in the companies of telecommunication sector. Hence, it affected the earnings of the listed companies in the period under-review.

Hamare Toh Khwab Us Din Hi Choor-Choo r Ho Gaye,
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Jab Pehli Baar Woh Ghar Aai Toh...
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Mummy Boli,
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Ja Beta "didi" Ke Liye "FANTA" Le Aa...:P