Deen Sheikh On the road less travelled.....

This has been something that has been on my mind for quite some time now, it was only bound to be a matter of time before I either wrote about this or discussed it in an open ended platform through engagement with other people. We growing up in Pakistan, particularly my generation which grew up in the 1990's has witnessed a dramatic shift in society and their level of religious sensitivities which has reached significantly heightened levels in the recent years. The religious sensitivity of religious people has reached levels where they are unable to show tolerance toward anything deemed even mildly possibly critical of religion, at the same time compassion has evaporated into thin air and vigilantism behavior is becoming increasingly common. Just as food for thought I would like to propose a hypothetical suggestion, I could be right or I could be wrong, no one has to take my word for it, it is intended to be just food for thought. The hypothesis I would like to prop...

The word Humsafar itself means travel companion, or to give it a more significantly richer meaning, it is commonly used to refer to a life long companion. It is indeed a sweet word with an even sweeter meaning, how wonderful are those individuals who are either our travel companions or our life long ones. Growing up in Pakistan, for me, Humsafar was also the low production quality in flight magazine found in every seat of a domestic or an international flight of the nation's flag carrier PIA (Pakistan International Airlines).However if you are a Pakistan, or a member of the South Asian diaspora living in any corner of the world, the word Humsafar carries with it an additional meaning and a reference to something in popular culture. That alternative Humsafar which is what most Pakistanis in particular can identify or relate with is the Hum TV drama Humsafar which debut on weekend prime time television in September last year. Starring young talents such as Fawad Khan, Mahira Kha...

Public relations practitioners for some time now have been able to establish the importance of an effective public relations campaign relative other forms of marketing and promotional activities. Public Relations is not only more effective than other forms of marketing communication and promotional activities but is also relatively cost effective providing users of a public relations strategy a better value. However the ever changing world around us has brought significant challenges to the way in marketing and public relations strategies are planned and how those activities are executed. The rapidly changing nature of digital technology and the level of societies involvement with online and digital technology has meant that in order to compliment offline activities, Public Relations practitioners are faced with a new challenge, which comprises of incorporating an online or digital Public Relations campaign to compliment offline activities. Offline Public Relations ini...

It wasn't easy for myself to resist the temptation, eventually temptation got the better of mine. I was trying very hard to hold myself back from sitting in front of my laptop and writing about this, a moment came where I could no longer hold back. This is an issue that is near and dear to me, and one that affects all fellow Pakistanis, it is an often over looked issue with only the odd blink of an eye coming from the very minute liberal minority. Even as I write this, I am indeed taking a huge risk as it is, there will be those that will take personal offence to what I am about to write, there will be those that will accuse me of blasphemy and there will be some who will dismiss me as just some western educated young brat who is ignorant to things that really do matter. Religion is a very very personal affair, yet there has been an abundance of the religious spill over into every day life in Pakistan. This spill over has spread into our daily lives, our working lives and even...