Latest news with #Avari
Express Tribune
15-04-2025
- Express Tribune
Karachi bans motor-cab rickshaws on major roads for two months
Listen to article Karachi Commissioner Syed Hasan Naqvi has issued a formal notification banning the operation of motor-cab rickshaws on 11 major roads across the city for a period of two months. According to Express News, the ban, enforced under Section 144 of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC), was recommended by the Deputy Inspector General (DIG) of Traffic. It will remain in effect from April 15 to June 14, 2025. Violators will face legal action under Section 188 of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC). The notification specifies that both One Plus Two and One Plus Four motor-cab rickshaws will be prohibited on key routes such as: Shahrah-e-Faisal (from Avari Light Signal to Madam Apartments) and II Chundrigar Road (from Tower to Shaheen Complex). Additionally, One Plus Four MCRs are restricted from operating on several other important arteries, including Shahrah-e-Quaideen (from Numaish to Shahrah-e-Faisal Nursery), Sher Shah Suri Road (from Matric Board Office to Nagan Chowrangi), Shaheed-e-Millat Road (from Jail Chowrangi to Shaheed-e-Millat Expressway), Abdullah Haroon Road (from Do Talwar to Hashoo Centre via Hoshang, Khayaban-e-Iqbal), Do Talwar to Shahrah-e-Firdous and Abdullah Shah Ghazi Mazar, Stadium Road (from Millennium Mall to New Town Police Station), Sir Shah Suleman Road (from Sir Habib Ibrahim Rehmatullah Road to Hasan Square and Karsaz), Rashid Minhas Road (from Drigh Road to Sohrab Goth), and Mauripur Road (from Gulbai to ICI Bridge). The decision stems from concerns over the increasing number of unauthorised and self-established illegal routes and rickshaw stands, which have been cited as significant contributors to traffic congestion. Commissioner Naqvi has instructed all Station House Officers (SHOs) to ensure strict enforcement of the ban and initiate legal proceedings under Section 188 PPC against any violations.
Khaleej Times
27-03-2025
- Politics
- Khaleej Times
Pakistan's Parsi community dwindles as young migrate
From a gated community for her Zoroastrian faith in Pakistan's megacity Karachi, 22-year-old Elisha Amra has waved goodbye to many friends migrating abroad as the ancient Parsi community dwindles. Soon the film student hopes to join them — becoming one more loss to Pakistan's ageing Zoroastrian Parsi people, a community who trace their roots back to Persian refugees from today's Iran more than a millennium ago. "My plan is to go abroad," Amra said, saying she wants to study for a master's degree in a country without the restrictions of a conservative Muslim-majority society. "I want to be able to freely express myself", she added. Zoroastrianism, founded by the religious leader Zarathustra, was the predominant religion of the ancient Persian empire, until the rise of Islam with the Arab conquests of the seventh century. Once the Parsi community in Pakistan had as many as 15,000-20,000 people, said Dinshaw Behram Avari, the head of one of the most prominent Parsi families. Today, numbers hover around 900 people in Karachi and a few dozen more elsewhere in Pakistan, according to community leaders, many staying together in compounds like where Amra lives. She acknowledges her life is more comfortable than many in Pakistan -- the Parsis are in general an affluent and highly educated community. But says she wants to escape the daily challenges that beset the city of some 20 million people — ranging from power cuts, water shortages and patchy internet to violent street crime. "I'd rather have a life where I feel safe, and I feel happy and satisfied," she said. Zubin Patel, 27, a Parsi working in e-commerce in Karachi, has seen more than two dozen Parsi friends leave Karachi for abroad in the past three years. "More than 20-25 of my friends were living in Karachi, they all started migrating", he said. Derelict homes That is not unique to Parsis -- many young and skilled Pakistanis want to find jobs abroad to escape a country wracked with political uncertainty and security challenges, a struggling economy and woeful infrastructure. The number of highly skilled Pakistanis who left for jobs abroad more than doubled according to the latest figures from the Pakistan Economic Survey — from 20,865 in 2022, to 45,687 in 2023. Parsis are struggling to adjust in a fast-changing world. The religion, considered among the oldest in the world, forbids conversion and mixed marriages are frowned upon. "There is a better chance to find a Zoroastrian partner in Canada, Australia, UK and America than in Pakistan," said Avari, who heads of a chain of hotels. He points out that Parsi population of Toronto is some 10 times greater than Karachi. Avari, 57, said that a wave of Parsis left Pakistan during the hardline military rule of Zia-ul-Haq in the 1980s, who enforced a programme of Islamisation. Since then, violence has targeted religious minorities, and while Parsis say they have not been targeted, they remain wary. He suggested the community's high levels of education and Western outlook to life meant many eyed a future abroad, while for those who do stay, family size is shrinking. "Couples are more interested today in looking after their career; they are not interested in family," he said. "When they do get married, they will have one child -- and one child is not enough to make a positive impact on the population." Parsi members were among the pioneers of the shipping and hospitality industries in Karachi, and the city's colonial-era historic district is dotted with Parsi buildings including hospitals and schools. But as the community declines, many buildings have crumbled, with as many as half the homes in elegant tree-lined streets of the century-old Sohrab Katrak Parsi Colony lying abandoned. 'Difficult decision' For many among the younger generation, the only pull left keeping them in Pakistan is their ageing relatives. Patel, the e-commerce worker, said he would leave if he could. "It would be a difficult decision," he said. "But if I have an opportunity which would give my parents ... a healthy lifestyle, then I'd obviously go for it". Amra, who visits her 76-year-old grandfather almost daily, worries that her parents will be alone when she leaves. "You have to figure out a way, eventually, to either bring them to you or come back," she said.
Yahoo
27-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Pakistan's Parsi community dwindles as young migrate
From a gated community for her Zoroastrian faith in Pakistan's megacity Karachi, 22-year-old Elisha Amra has waved goodbye to many friends migrating abroad as the ancient Parsi community dwindles. Soon the film student hopes to join them -- becoming one more loss to Pakistan's ageing Zoroastrian Parsi people, a community who trace their roots back to Persian refugees from today's Iran more than a millennium ago. "My plan is to go abroad," Amra said, saying she wants to study for a master's degree in a country without the restrictions of a conservative Muslim-majority society. "I want to be able to freely express myself", she added. Zoroastrianism, founded by the prophet Zarathustra, was the predominant religion of the ancient Persian empire, until the rise of Islam with the Arab conquests of the seventh century. Once the Parsi community in Pakistan had as many as 15,000-20,000 people, said Dinshaw Behram Avari, the head of one of the most prominent Parsi families. Today, numbers hover around 900 people in Karachi and a few dozen more elsewhere in Pakistan, according to community leaders, many staying together in compounds like where Amra lives. She acknowledges her life is more comfortable than many in Pakistan -- the Parsis are in general an affluent and highly educated community. But says she wants to escape the daily challenges that beset the city of some 20 million people -- ranging from power cuts, water shortages and patchy internet to violent street crime. "I'd rather have a life where I feel safe, and I feel happy and satisfied," she said. Zubin Patel, 27, a Parsi working in e-commerce in Karachi, has seen more than two dozen Parsi friends leave Karachi for abroad in the past three years. "More than 20-25 of my friends were living in Karachi, they all started migrating", he said. - Derelict homes - That is not unique to Parsis -- many young and skilled Pakistanis want to find jobs abroad to escape a country wracked with political uncertainty and security challenges, a struggling economy and woeful infrastructure. The number of highly skilled Pakistanis who left for jobs abroad more than doubled according to the latest figures from the Pakistan Economic Survey -- from 20,865 in 2022, to 45,687 in 2023. Parsis are struggling to adjust in a fast-changing world. The religion, considered among the oldest in the world, forbids conversion and mixed marriages are frowned upon. "There is a better chance to find a Zoroastrian partner in Canada, Australia, UK and America than in Pakistan," said Avari, who heads of a chain of hotels. He points out that Parsi population of Toronto is some 10 times greater than Karachi. Avari, 57, said that a wave of Parsis left Pakistan during the hardline military rule of Zia-ul-Haq in the 1980s, who enforced a programme of Islamisation. Since then, Islamist violence has targeted religious minorities, and while Parsis say they have not been targeted, they remain wary. He suggested the community's high levels of education and Western outlook to life meant many eyed a future abroad, while for those who do stay, family size is shrinking. "Couples are more interested today in looking after their career; they are not interested in family," he said. "When they do get married, they will have one child -- and one child is not enough to make a positive impact on the population." Parsi members were among the pioneers of the shipping and hospitality industries in Karachi, and the city's colonial-era historic district is dotted with Parsi buildings including hospitals and schools. But as the community declines, many buildings have crumbled, with as many as half the homes in elegant tree-lined streets of the century-old Sohrab Katrak Parsi Colony lying abandoned. - 'Difficult decision' - For many among the younger generation, the only pull left keeping them in Pakistan is their ageing relatives. Patel, the e-commerce worker, said he would leave if he could. "It would be a difficult decision," he said. "But if I have an opportunity which would give my parents ... a healthy lifestyle, then I'd obviously go for it". Amra, who visits her 76-year-old grandfather almost daily, worries that her parents will be alone when she leaves. "You have to figure out a way, eventually, to either bring them to you or come back," she said. str-ecl/pjm/tc
Yahoo
20-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
This M. F. Husain Painting Just Sold for $13.8 Million at Auction, Shattering a Record for Modern Indian Art
M. F. Husain's Untitled (Gram Yatra) sold at Christie's for $13.8 million in New York, making it the most expensive work of modern Indian art ever publicly auctioned. That amount, which includes fees, shattered the auction house's estimate of $2.5 million–$3.5 million and was more than four times the artist's previous record of $3.1 million, which was set by his painting Untitled (Reincarnation) last September at Sotheby's in London. More from Robb Report A Lavish $23.5 Million French Renaissance Mansion in Dallas Is Fit for Royalty Exclusive Luxury Comes to the Southern Tip of Eleuthera This West Palm Beach Penthouse With an Artistic Legacy Can Be Yours for $1.5 Million The previous record for a modern Indian work was $7.4 million, for Amrita Sher-Gil's The Story Teller (1937), which sold in September 2023 in Mumbai. (S. H. Raza's 1959 painting Kallisté, which sold last March at Sotheby's for $5.6 million, was given an estimate of $2 million–$3 million—the highest price ever put on a modern Indian artwork at auction, a spokesperson for that house said.) The Husain record was mintedduring Christie's sale for South Asian modern and contemporary art, a category which continues to garner momentum despite a fragmented art market. The 1954 painting, which is nearly 14 feet long, was a consignment 13 years in the making and one that Nishad Avari, the New York–based head of Christie's South Asian modern and contemporary art department, called 'by far one of the most significant works' he's seen in his career. Avari told ARTnews that, prior to the sale, his department had hoped Untitled (Gram Yatra) would change Husain's market, which has lagged compared to F. H. Souza and Raza, two other members of the Progressive Artists' Group. Of the Husain painting, Avari said, 'It comprises of 13 separate vignettes of village life in India, which is really important, because this is five years after Indian independence, and Husain and all his colleagues are trying to figure out at the time what it means to be a modern Indian artist.' In the painting Untitled (Gram Yatra), Husain emphasizes the centrality of village and rural life in India as the basis for going forward as a new nation. Avari also noted that one of the 13 vignettes portrays a standing farmer—the only male figure in the in the piece. This is a self-portrait of sorts, and the only image which crosses into another vignette of a landscape with fields. 'It's literally a portrait of a farmer as a sustainer of the land and a protector of the land,' Avari said. The original owner of the painting was Leon Elias Volodarsky, a Norwegian general surgeon and private art collector, who acquired Untitled (Gram Yatra) in New Delhi in 1954, while heading a World Health Organization team stationed there to establish a thoracic surgery training center. Volodarsky's estate donated it to the Oslo University Hospital in 1964. When the hospital first contacted Christie's about Untitled (Gram Yatra), Avari said his team's immediate response was: 'We're getting on a plane.' For seven decades, Untitled (Gram Yatra) was unavailable for viewing by the public. 'It was in a private neuroscience corridor,' Avari said. The 13-year process to get it to the auction block on March 19 included gaining the necessary permissions from the Oslo University Hospital's board when the institution was finally ready to sell. 'What's really, really gratifying, is that the proceeds are going to be used to set up a training center for doctors in Dr. Volodarsky's name,' Avari said. Best of Robb Report The 10 Priciest Neighborhoods in America (And How They Got to Be That Way) In Pictures: Most Expensive Properties Click here to read the full article.
