Shahid Khan Afridi

Born:1 March 1980, Khyber Agency Shahid Khan Afridi; called in as a last minute replacement leg spinner for the One Day Tournament in Kenya in 1996, amazed everyone by smashing a century off 37 balls after being promoted to one down.

The promise shown in his early batting in international cricket has gradually worn off due to poor self-control and perhaps team management. He has not been called upon to play regular first class cricket to improve his batting skills, instead has been made a regular pinch hitter who after a few defensive strokes begins lashing out regardless of line and length. This may have put a halt on his learning progress and he now needs to play far more carefully to retain his place in the team. The percentages were clearly against him and as he has so far failed to 'learn from experience', the tremendous expectations from him are subsiding. Afridi probably introduced the fastest spin delivery the game has seen in recent years. Delivering quick leg spinners with an occasional even quicker one, he surprised and beat many batsmen through his unorthodox bowling. But with exposure, batsmen have now got used to him and fewer wickets fall Afridi's way. Never a significant turner or flighter of the ball, he has now just become a run stopper in the middle of the innings rather than a wicket taker. Shahid Khan Afridi's extravagant bowling avg. (+45) and higher than average economy rate, coupled with his ever falling batting scores have begun to raise doubts and do not reflect the initial promise shown by this hugely popular youngster. Career: TESTS Debut Pakistan v Australia at Karachi, 3rd Test, 1998/99 Latest Pakistan v Sri Lanka at Karachi, 2nd Test, 1999/00 Bating: M I NO Runs HS Ave SR 100 50 Ct St 8 15 0 497 141 33.13 68.45 1 2 5 - Bowling: O M R W Ave Best 5 10 SR Econ 138.4 28 448 16 28.00 5-52 1 - 52.0 3.23 One Day International Debut Pakistan v Kenya at Nairobi (AK), KCA Centenary Tournament 1996/97 Latest Pakistan v England at Rawalpindi, 3rd ODI, 2000/01 Batting M I NO Runs HS Ave 100 50 Ct St 120 116 4 2673 109 23.86 2 14 44 - Bowling O M R W Ave Best 4w 5w SR Econ 731.2 19 3450 78 44.23 5-40 - 1 56.2 4.71

Dr. Abdul Qadeer Khan

Dr. Abdul Qadeer Khan, Architect of Pakistan's nuclear program Born: 1935, Bhopal He is the brains behind what has been a mysterious and controversial nuclear program whose latest products are five bombs tested in 1998. He is also the father of Pakistan's medium-range Ghauri missile, test-fired and which is said by officials to be capable of carrying nuclear warheads and hitting most Indian cities. A scion of a modest family from India's Bhopal state, who loves poetry, flowers, and animals, he is caught in the subcontinent's current nuclear standoff that has rung alarm bells across the globe.

Khan is a metallurgist by training, but it had taken a great deal more than a doctorate in metallurgy to provide Pakistan with the atomic bomb. It had taken a sound knowledge of atomic physics, engineering, and management. It had taken a degree of patriotism. It had taken monumental self-absorption and egotism. His efforts and dedication to make Pakistan a nuclear power was a result when he saw the fall of East Pakistan back in 1971, when Pakistan was trapped in a political crisis and India was involved in arming the rebellions "The Muktee Bahinee" in East Pakistan to fight against the Pakistani troops. Khan, 62, migrated to Pakistan in 1952, following millions of other Muslims who came here from India at the subcontinent's partition at independence from Britain in 1947. Precocious, he was able to breeze through science courses first in Pakistan, then in Europe, ultimately earning a doctorate from the Catholic University of Leuven in Belgium in 1972. That year, he went to work for the Physical Dynamics Research Laboratory, or FDO, in Amsterdam. FDO was a subsidiary of a Dutch firm, Verenigde Machine-Fabrieken, which in turn worked closely with one of western Europe’s most important nuclear facilities: URENCO. Former prime minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto urged Khan to return home in 1976 to be given the job to organize Pakistan's nuclear program that could give an answer to India's first nuclear explosion of 1974. "It was,...to be precise, on July 31, 1976, when the first seeds, real seeds of Pakistan's nuclear program were sown," Khan recalled in one of his newspaper articles. "Kahuta is an all-Pakistani effort and is a symbol of a poor and developing country's determination and defiance to submitting to blackmail and bullying." He was rewarded for that patriotism by being made the head of a research institute that was named after him: the Abdul Qadeer Khan Research Laboratories at Kahuta all the research work (at Kahuta) was the result of Dr. Khan's innovation and struggle. Sources: http://orion.neiu.edu/~saansari/AQKHANVSABKLM.htm http://shell.comsats.net.pk/~ramsha/aq.html http://www.jang.com.pk/thenews/spedition/nuclear/index.htm

SHAHZAD ROY

Shahzad Roy, the young heart throb of millions of teenage girls, is a down to earth person. This I can say with certainty. He showed no hesitation in returning my call after I had left a message with his mother requesting for an interview. Regretting that he hasn't much time as he was too busy before leaving for UAE for a concert, he himself proposed that the interview be conducted on phone then and there. Shahzad Roy is an Aquarian, born on February 16. He studied till class V at St. Jude's School, Karachi, after which he went to America but returned to finish High School from St. Jude's, and later, B.Com from Karachi University. "How were you at studies?"

"Excellent, before starting on music," came an unexpected reply. "Basically I was a guitarist, which was my inspiration from childhood. You can say it was the beginning of music for me," started Shahzad, telling me about his childhood. "In school, I used to stay with my own group. We were a bunch of four or five students. My childhood can't be defined in a word. I was neither shy, nor aggressive, I think I was pretty normal." How he started professional singing? "I never thought I could be a singer. I thought I was just a good guitarist. Then my friends suggested that I should sing as well, and so upon their insistence, I started singing professionally in 1995." He said. When asked whether he composes the music or writes the lyrics first, Shahzad said, "I work both ways, sometimes the music is composed first and sometimes the lyrics are written before the music." And what he have been if not a singer? "God knows what I would have been if I were not a singer; may be doing a job or running a business or would have gone abroad for higher studies, who knows?" came a bizarre answer. "My honesty, my God, my parents' prayers and the hard work I did, all combines to form the Shahzad Roy which I am today!" says Shahzad while talking about the secret behind his achievements. Shahzad's views about acting are great, "I am willing to act and model whenever I get the time (which he won't for a long time because of the long line of concerts). I have acted in a serial Lamhay because Mahnoor Balooch asked me to and I also had some free time then. It was my first and last serial which was pretty famous too. Though at present I am not acting in any drama, working in music videos is also like acting. Take the example of Khudi, which is a four minute video. The same thing stands for films. If I have time, and if the script is good, I would act in films." And which co-stars would he prefer to act with (provided he gets the time, of course)? "I would love to act with Mac Sean". Shahzad defined himself in a nice way, he said, "I am sometimes very loving and sometimes a very angry person!" About his present engagements, he said, apart from the countless concerts ahead of him, his new video CD has been recently released which include all the videos from his first to the last song. He is also working on a new album in which he has sung alongside Abida Parveen (Teray Dil Main Kya). What would he wish for if a genie grants him three wishes? "My first wish," he said, "would be that I could fly, because I love to fly, my second wish would be that if Pakistan is at war I would get hit by unlimited bullets and still not be harmed. And my third wish," he said after thinking for a while, "would be that God remains kind on me forever." Celebrities, specially singers get a lot of fan calls. He told me an interesting incident in this regard, "It was about 2 am in the morning and I had returned from a concert when I received a call where someone asked, 'Kya aap ka fridge chal raha hay?' When I said, 'Jee chal raha hay', he said, 'Agar chal raha hay to ja kar pakreay, woh to bahar nickal gaya ho ga!'" An unforgettable moment of his life was when he got the PTV Award, the credit for which he gives to his fans. He also wanted to say sorry to those fans whom he can't give autograph after his concerts. For this reason he has also made a website: www.shahzadroy.com. Shahzad loves his younger fans a lot. His message for them is: "Always try to give small contributions for your country, because we ourselves are our country!" SHAHZAD ROY'S FAVORITES: Food: Chicken chilly dry (but his tastes change from time to time) Dress: Anything that's comfortable Song: His own song, Aag (now), Teri Surat (previously) Pakistani male singer: Adnan Sami Khan Pakistani female singer: Abida Parveen International singer or group: Sting TV actor: Noman Aijaz, Nadeem Baig TV actress: Sania Saeed Pakistani film actor: Shan Pakistani film actress: All Foreign film actor: Anthony Houstin Foreign film actress: Umath Serman Colour: Black & Grey Place: Virginia Source: Daily Dawn.

Noor Jehan,

Noor Jehan, Child prodigies usually fade out early. Only a few live up to their initial promise. Very few have ever made it to the top. This child was unique. At five she could reproduce the style of most leading singers of the subcontinent. Two years later, she rendered her first playback song for a Calcutta-based production. With that commenced a career which has spanned six decades of unparalleled, unchallenged reign. In time Baby Noor Jehan became Madam Noor Jehan, then Melody Queen.

While she got her start from Calcutta, it was in Lahore, close to hometown Qasur where the limelight flooded her. Master Ghulam Haider, a master in the truest sense of the expression put the raw gold in the child's voice in Gul Bakaoli (1939) with "Shala jawanian mane" on the road to lasting fame. In another movie, the same composer's "Bas bas wey dholna" accorded her instant mass popularity. From then on there was no looking back for the precocious child who was just ten at the time. But maturity and professional recognition came with her first film as leading lady, at the age of 14 in Khandan (1942) with "Tu konsi badli mein mere chand hai aaja". Once again the composer was Master Ghulam Haider. Marriage to Rizvi took her to Broadway, to new and vaster horizons. Director Mehboob cast her in Anmol Ghari (1946) in which she had a chance to work with one of the greatest composers of India, Naushad. Rizvi paired her with a young and promising but little known actor, Dilip Kumar in Jugnoo (1947). Both films were big hits at the box office. The teenaged singer-actress had taken Bollywood by storm; she was heralded as a star of dazzling luminosity. She was poised for sweeping the Indian cinema, both as actress and singer at that time. But in Pakistan, too, her career continued flourishing though the industry was in its infancy, much smaller in size and resources in comparison with Bombay and operated in a restricted circuit. Professional standards were not of a quality to do justice with her immense potential. Despite such handicaps, she went from proverbial success to success, from glory to glory. A somewhat questionable achievement was becoming that first woman director of films in Pakistan. That was with Chan We (1951), produced by Rizvi. But marriage hit the rocks and floundered after ten years and three children. Another marriage with actor Ejaz ended in a similar way after three more children. There were ups and downs in her personal life. But her career prospered. The magnificence of her voice groomed in her early years by Kajjan Bai, a famous Indian singer of the 20s and 30s, and enriched by riyaz lasting up to twelve hours or more every day, gave her heights while as an actress she gathered luster with every film. She gave significant performances in Dopatta (1952), Gulnar (1953), Intezar (1956), Lakht-e-Jiggar (1956), Annar Kalli (1958), Koel (1959) and Neend (1959), to name a few of her movies of 50´s. She had indeed become eligible for playing lead only as an actress. It is, however, unlikely that her acting could ever match the excellence of her singing. In any case, marriage with Ejaz put a stop to her career as an actress. He did not want her on the screen and she acquiesced like a conventional housewife. She herself wasn't much interested in acting. The decision provided a boost for her singing. With acting out of the way, she could concentrate on singing with single mindedness. As playback singer she touched new heights with Mousiqar (1962), Sawal (1966), Lakhon mein aik (1967), Mirza Jatt (1967), Dosti (1971), Naag Munni (1972), Heer Ranjha (1970), Sher Khan, Sala Sahib & Chan Waryam (1981), Sholey (1984), Moula Bakhsh (1988) and innumerable other movies. Indeed after the break with Ejaz, she plunged headlong into playback singing, often recording five to six songs in a day. How many songs she recorded in her career is anybody's guess. Estimates place the number above ten thousand. It is a sad commentary on the state of management of arts in Pakistan that an undetermined percentage of her work may have perished. There is no inventory even of songs she recorded; a library of Noor Jehan's songs is a far cry. It is time the Ministry of Culture, along with serious-minded people from the film industry (there still are a few professionally-oriented men in cinema) got down to putting things in order and at least preserving what has survived the ravages of neglect. While she has been acclaimed as the supreme soprano, a truly gifted artist and adulated, her class and contribution have never been critically evaluated. What exactly is the place of Madam Noor Jehan in the music of, first, the subcontinent, and then Pakistan? "Unrivalled, incomparable," says Nisar Bazmi, virtually the last of authentic composers of Pakistan's cinema. While she remained confined to light music and popular singing, she always believed in classical music. "Pop" she said: "is like a foundation of sand; a cooking pan of wood. The same songs reappear after some time. Classical is eternal". A strong classical base is reflected in her singing. She effortlessly moved in difficult, demanding trajectories. High and low notes came to her with naturalness to underline and elaborate the range of her talent. The fibre of her voice retained resolution in all scales. Her articulation of turns, enunciation of emphasis, pauses and stresses belong to the most creative dimension of virtuosity. The government acknowledged her work by awarding the "Pride of Performance Award" to her, making Noor Jehan the first woman to be so honored. She used to be at the Lahore Radio Station every day, rehearsing for hours and recording a song only when she was fully satisfied. This was the patriotic involvement and commitment of a song stress who normally had one look at the score and delivered every note, every syllable in perfect order virtually off the cuff. Financial considerations never featured in that campaign. Age and illness took hold of her some years ago and she withdrew from public life; her place in the hearts of the people remained intact. When the news that she was seriously ill broke, newspaper offices were inundated with calls from her admirers; it became clear once again that she was widely adulated. Artists across the sub continent have also been inspired and overawed by her. Indian singer, Lata Mangeshkar, a legend in her recording time, refers to her with veneration. Who else could be Pakistan's personality of the millennium but Noor Jehan?

Junaid Jamshed

Born on September 3, 1964 at the Pakistan Air Force Base Masroor, Junaid comes from a privileged background, which has imbued him with a strong sense of patriotism and the need for enterprise. His star sign is Virgo and his height is 6' 1. He has green eyes and brown hair. Junaid Jamshed is a Pakistani pop icon who makes cheerful, infectious music.. Junaid has reached out to Pakistanis across the board, and touched them with his Vital Signs, and their message of hope for peace, progress, and prosperity.

A voice to reckon with. His singing abilities combined with his good looks and music making potential make him the country's top notch pop star. During his FSC, holidays, before going on to university, his mother was going off to London and he asked her to get a guitar for him. Junaid was 19 that time. He got his guitar and his brother use to sing while Junaid use to play his first instrument, a Spanish guitar. When his brother went away to his college, Junaid had nobody to to sing for his guitar. So he started singing for himself. In 1984, Junaid came across 4 to 5 people who were all guitarists and one keyboardist. In between them Junaid was selected to sing as a second vocalist as he knew the keyboardist, Asif Ali. Junaid then use to sing Reo Speedwagon, Eagles, Wham etc.. People did not know him by his name, and he was known all over Islamabad as the Careless Whispers guy. Junaid did his mechanical engineering from the University of Engineering and Technology in Lahore, Junaid demonstrated his entrepreneurial spirit by abandoning a tried and tested profession in preference to sailing in uncharted, often icy waters as a professional musician. Ten years down the road he has absolutely no regrets. Junaid is happily married with three children, and possesses all the trappings of a successful professional. About Junaid's future plans? Well! Making material for International channels like Channel V, MTV, etc… and a determined assault on foreign markets is high on the agenda, along with doing a new album. "It has been almost two years since his last solo album, and he would like to go with a foreign label this time so as to increase his outreach in the global village. Career: Hit Singles: Dil Dil Pakistan Gori Aitebar Jeetain Gay Maula Sanwali Woh Kon Thee Sanwali Tumhara Aur Mera Nam Ab Jiya Na Jaey Mehndi Ki Raat Hum Hain Pakistani Albums: Vital Signs (1991) Aitebar (1993) Geetar 93 - Greatest Hits (1994) Hum Tum (1995)

Chief Executive of Islamic Republic of Pakistan: General Pervez Musharraf

Chief Executive of Islamic Republic of Pakistan: General Pervez Musharraf

Date of Birth:

August 11, 1943

Zodiac Sign:

LEO

Place of Birth:

Born in a Haveli, situated at Mohallah Kacha Saad Ullah, Old Delhi

Parents:

Father Syed Musharraf Uddin a graduate of Aligarh University, worked in Civil Supplies Delhi. After the division, he joined Foreign Department and took the retirement as a secretary foreign affairs.

Mother had taken her Master degree from Lakhnow University, recently she had taken the retirement from UNO agency in ISB.

Siblings:

Two children Ayla and Bilal, both happily married. They have a granddaughter, Mariam from Ayla.

Favorite Pastime:

General has always loved the outdoors and spends most of his leisure time playing Squash, Badminton or Golf. The General also takes keen interest in water sports, is an enthusiastic canoeist and loves to sail. An avid reader he is well versed in Military History, being his favorite subject.

Favorite Personality:

Kamal Atta Turk

Foreign Languages:

Turkish

Military Career:

He joined the Pakistan Military Academy in 1961 and was commissioned in an elite Artillery Regiment in 1964. He saw action in 1965 war as a young officer in the Khem Karan, Lahore and Sialkot Sectors with a self propelled Artillery Regiment. He was awarded Imtiazi Sanad for gallantry. He later volunteered and served for seven years in the Special Service Group "Commandos". He also participated in the 1971 war as Company Commander in a Commando Battalion.

General Musharraf has the privilege of commanding two self-propelled Artillery Regiments. As a Brigadier, he had the distinction of commanding an Infantry Brigade as well as Armored Division Artillery. On promotion to the rank of Major General on 15^th January 1991, he was given the command of an Infantry Division and later of a prestigious strike Corps as Lieutenant General on 21st October 1995.

General Musharraf has served on various important staff and instructional appointments during his career. These include Deputy Military Secretary at the Military Secretary’s Branch, member of Directing Staff both at the Command and Staff College, Quetta and the National Defense College. He has also remained the Director General Military Operations at the General Headquarters.

A graduate of Command and Staff College, Quetta and the National Defense College, General Pervez Musharraf also distinguished himself at the Royal College of Defense Studies, United Kingdom. Commenting on his performance in his report remarked, "A capable, articulate and extremely personable officer, who made a most valuable impact here. His country is fortunate to have the services of a man of his undeniable quality".

General Pervez Musharraf was promoted to the rank of General on 7th October 1998 and appointed Chief of Army Staff. He was given the additional charge of Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee on 9th April 1999 and is performing duties as the Chief Executive of Pakistan since 12th October, 1999. He also continues to hold the office of Chief of Army Staff and Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee.