My father’s friend Ustad Ghulam had been driving a private car for a government official in Lahore for almost six years. He was good at his job, reliable, knew the city roads better than most GPS systems, and had never had a serious accident in his life. But private driving work is unpredictable. When the … Read more
Anyone who has travelled by train in Pakistan has interacted with a booking clerk, whether they realised it at the time or not. That person behind the counter at Lahore Junction or Karachi Cantonment station who processes your ticket, checks seat availability, handles your payment, and answers whatever confused question you have about platform numbers … Read more
A friend of mine named Kamran spent two years after graduation sending CVs to private companies in Lahore. Marketing agencies, small software houses, retail chains. He got a few interviews, a few short-term jobs that went nowhere, and a growing frustration with the instability of private sector employment at entry level. His mother kept telling … Read more
I still remember the day Rescue 1122 showed up at our street in Lahore when a neighbor’s house caught fire. They were there within minutes. The way those rescuers moved, calm and completely focused in a situation where everyone else was panicking, left an impression on me that I have never forgotten. My younger brother, … Read more
When my senior from university told me he had gotten a job at the Ministry of Defence, my first reaction was confusion. I genuinely did not understand how a civilian with a commerce degree ended up working for what I assumed was a purely military institution. I pictured uniformed generals and weapons procurement, not accountants … Read more