Pakistan is set to bestow its highest civilian honour, Nishan-e-Imtiaz, upon two Mumbai-based Parsi doctors. The award recognises their crucial role in maintaining the secrecy surrounding Muhammad Ali Jinnah's terminal illness, a secret that a federal minister suggests was pivotal in the creation of Pakistan.
Had it been know that Jinnah suffered from tuberculosis and did not have much time to live, there is a possibility Partition could have been averted.
Salman Taseer, the slain governor of Pakistan's Punjab province, has been posthumously conferred with one of the country's highest civilian honours, months after he was gunned down by an extremist police guard for favouring amendment to the controversial blasphemy law.
Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari and army chief Ashfaq Parvez Kayani met on Friday. This is their second meeting since the memo scandal that sparked off a tense stand-off between the civilian and military leadership. The informal meeting between Zardari and Kayani at the presidency took place after the ceremony to award Nishan-e-Imtiaz to Admiral Asif Sandila.
From enjoying beer sessions with Shiv Sena founder late Bal Thackeray on the terrace of his Matoshree residence to going on vacations with Nationalist Conress Party chief Sharad Pawar and his family, the late thespian Dilip Kumar enjoyed warm relations with leaders belonging to different political hues, even though the ties strained later.
Sharif said that he was not aware of what Vajpayee was saying to him and promised to get back after talking to the then chief of the Army Staff General Pervez Musharraf.
It is to Vajpayee's credit that he told Dilip Kumar to ignore Thackeray and to follow his own conscience. But the episode -- as indeed, the manner in which Dilip Kumar has been made to pay for being a Muslim throughout his life -- shames us all as Indians, says Vir Sanghvi.
Malavika Sangghvi gives us fascinating glimpses from Dilip Kumar's life.
'... their love was jinxed.' 'His celluloid path to his partner's heart was seldom smooth; it had to contend with greedy relatives and indecisive sweethearts, who were more ready to sacrifice than woo and wed.'
