Markets (Bazar) are important source to know social and cultural aspects of a country. Lets share information of famous markets of Pakistan in this thread.
Re: Markets and Bazars of Pakistan
I start with famous Bohri Bazar Karachi
Bohri bazaar: Stepping back in time | Pakistan | DAWN.COM
Bohri bazaar is the one of the oldest marketplaces of Karachi, located in the heart of the city. It was established before independence, which makes some of these shops more than a 100 years old.
The bazaar has witnessed two horrific disasters, one of which was in 1958 when a huge fire broke out in a fireworks shop. The building, which was mainly made of wood, and another one nearby were burnt beyond recognition. The second incident took place in the 1980s when two bomb blast claimed dozens of innocent lives. The Bohri community also played an important role in reconstructing the market
Bohri Bazar - YouTube](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BodnlPRdEmM)
Re: Markets and Bazars of Pakistan
Qissa Khwani bazar- Peshawer
Kissa Khwani Bazaar, Peshawar, Pakistan - YouTube
The situation has changed a lot. story tellers are no more identity of this market. They have been replaced by suicide bombers
PESHAWAR: The old market of storytellers, Qissa Khawani Bazaar, is left with few memories of traders and travellers sharing their stories over a cup of green tea, while passing from Afghanistan to the subcontinent.
Dhaki Nalbandi, the centuries-old narrow street leading from the main Qissa Khawani Bazaar, once famous for the birth of film icons, has now turned into a place remembered for massacres, where many legends breathe their last.
The recent events at the bazaar are creating a new history. If travellers would sit over a cup of tea today, there would only be tales of violence to share.
If storytellers of modern-day Qissa Khawani share their stories they will tell the listeners about the killing of 20 people on January 28, 2007. Among the deceased was a well-respected police official of the city CCPO Malik Saad and police official Khan Raziq.
The storytellers will then go on to say that three years later, on April 18, 2010, a suicide bomber targeted DSP Gulfat Hussain, three police constables and a Jamaat-e-Islami leader Dost Muhammad Khan only 50 metres south of Dhaki Nalbandi.
They will surely tell the story of November 11, 2012, when a suicide bomber targeted SP (Investigation) Hilal Haider’s vehicle barely 200 meters west of Dhaki Nalbandi.
“Awami National Party Provincial Minister Bashir Ahmad Bilour, who had survived two assassination attempts in the past, was targeted on December 22, 2012,” they will say next. “Police official Abdul Sattar and seven others were also killed in the suicide attack in the middle of Dhaki Nalbandi,” they would add, while pointing to the narrow lane.
Re: Markets and Bazars of Pakistan
Heritage: The lost soul of Anarkali by Amir Qureshi
Som Anand would be disappointed if he were to visit Anarkali Bazaar today. “The fashions in Lahore became popular all over Punjab. Not only Punjab but all over Northern India,” said Anand, the Indian author of Lahore: The Lost City. He was talking about fashion trends emanating from Lahore’s posh market places - most notable among them: Anarkali Bazaar. But that was before it became engulfed in communal riots of Partition, back when the city was referred to as the “Paris of the Orient”.
Anarkali Bazaar epitomized the culture of tolerance that existed between the Hindu, Muslim and Sikh communities of Lahore - a cosmopolitan city with a reputation for excellent educational institutions, high-street fashion, cafes, arts and culture. Hindus, Muslims and Sikhs ran businesses there that catered to the upscale communities in suburban Model Town. Dhoni Ram Lane - deep inside the Anarkali Bazar - with its high-end crockery, Neela Gumbad for its clothing stores and automobile parts, pharmacies, and shoe stores. Hindus traditionally dominated all businesses, and the Muslims who worked there were upwardly mobile.
Dilawer Hussain, a young, lanky Muslim boy from Mohalla Choghatian, Mochi Gate, dropped out of school and began working for the Jallundhar Motor Agency in the mid 1930s. His boss, Gogal Ram, a distinguished-looking older Hindu man, was a modern entrepreneur; he invested in the then cutting-edge business of selling car batteries. Only the wealthiest families owned cars back then, and most of them lived in Model Town or Gulberg. By the time he turned 20, Dilawer was managing the shop for Gogal Ram and dealing with the upper crest of society. A couple of years later, he was making enough money to move his family from the Walled City to the developing suburb of Muslim Town.
As August 14, 1947 began approaching, communal tensions boiled over to full-blown riots. Gogal Ram, not a very religious man by nature, dismissed them as just a phase; Lahore had been home to his forefathers for centuries, and he could never even think of leaving.
Until one day, when a Muslim mob attempted to torch the Hindu temple behind his shop. Startled, Goga Lal handed Dilawer the keys to his store and his palatial house in Gulberg and boarded an east-bound train. He was only going to be gone for a few weeks, until tensions cooled down.
Meanwhile, Dilawer, loyal to the man who had changed the course of his life, called over his brothers to guard Gogal’s property from looters during the riots that lasted until a couple of months after the creation of Pakistan. But Gogal never returned from India.
Today, Dilawer’s grandson, Shahid, runs the same business from a newly renovated building and lives in Gogal’s carefully-maintained mansion. Luck has been exceptionally kind on this Muslim family with humble beginnings. And so has it been with hundreds of other Muslim families who still run businesses in the Anarkali Bazar. And they, in return, have been kind to the small Hindu community that still gathers, occasionally, at a small temple located in the puzzle of narrow streets in the bazaar.
Sixty-four years after Anarkali Bazaar shed its diversity and ultimately its vibrancy, the market is in total disarray. The streets are clogged with carts selling cheap knock-offs of famous western designer wear, most building structures have been replaced with unsightly, concrete store-fronts; and those that remain are dilapidated. But the bazaar is still frequented by a large number of families looking for bargains. On weekdays, students from the nearby colleges and universities roam the streets for used books, ‘shami’-burgers and snooker.
Weekends see a rush of young women shopping for saris at the famous Banoo Sari, shoes and bangles. That’s also when predators are on the prowl, young men sneaking up to women and finding every excuse to harass them in an overcrowded marketplace. In fact, Anarkali has earned a bit of a reputation for that among the young women of Lahore. “I try to come here on Sundays, when it’s less crowded,” said Tori, an Iranian medical student who lives in a hostel just outside the bazaar. “On weekends, as a woman, you can’t step foot in this place without getting harassed by these hordes of men from the University hostel who come here just for that purpose.”
The shopkeepers are equally unhappy about this; they see it as one of the many reasons business is down nowadays. “Load-shedding. Load-shedding. Load Shedding,” exclaimed Zulfiqar Ali Maqbool, who sells electronic appliances from a shop at the end of the main street of Anarkali bazaar, when I asked, “How is business?” Electricity outages make it unbearable to stay around any longer than is absolutely necessary.
The streets are lined with carts, and shopkeepers who are short of space place their goods out on the street. What little space remains on the street is shared between crowds of shoppers, motorcycles, rickshaws, and sometimes cars.
For a while, a few years ago, things had begun to turn around. The government had restored some old buildings with the most exquisitely carved wooden balconies - in what is known as the Old Anarkali - and set up a food street. That brought tourists and food revelers from the affluent parts of the city. The government also renovated the Tollinton Market close by, which had been lying in ruins for decades. The facelift paid off and business was good at Anarkali bazaar. But local politics between the residents and the shopkeepers led the new government to do away with the food street, driving away the well-heeled traffic that had begun to frequent the bazaar.
One of the last remnants of Old Anarkali is a small compound - with a courtyard and two dingy rooms - located in a puzzle of narrow streets. From the outside, the compound appeared to be a house. I was led into it by a short, aged man dressed in a shalwar kameez. The wall, in one of the rooms, was lined with garlanded portraits of Hindu deities and Baba Guru Nanak. This was once a renowned Hindu temple of the bazaar that was frequented by Hindu merchants. It now serves essentially as a prayer hall for the very small community of Hindus, Sikhs and Christians who live here. The walls have been adorned with symbols of their faiths. In 1992, when a Hindu mob attacked the Babri Mosque in India, an angry Muslim mob torched this temple, gutting the entire building to the ground. It was replaced by a smaller, more discrete structure. Apparently suspicious of my motives, the man showing me around tried to act irreverent to the place. I was curious to know if it really was an act to conceal his identity out of fear of persecution. So I worked up the courage to ask, “Are you Hindu?” He paused for a few seconds, and then with a distant look in his eyes, slowly replied, “Yes, I am.”
Amir Qureshi, is a resident of Lahore and a regular contributor to The Friday Times.
Re: Markets and Bazars of Pakistan
I will love to read some info on Tariq road.
Re: Markets and Bazars of Pakistan
I will love to read some info on Tariq road.
Tariq Bin Ziad stayed here on his way to Spain :p (j/k)
Re: Markets and Bazars of Pakistan
Qissa khwani bazaar of peshawar is one of few famous markets..
Re: Markets and Bazars of Pakistan
Qissa khwani bazaar of peshawar is one of few famous markets..
due to Raj Kapoor?
Re: Markets and Bazars of Pakistan
due to Raj Kapoor?
and Dilip Kumar ...also famous carpets...
i heard that there used to be story telling there...
i read one blog of dilip kumar about his childhood there...
Re: Markets and Bazars of Pakistan
Tariq Bin Ziad stayed here on his way to Spain :p (j/k)
He wozze a trader?!?! :p
Re: Markets and Bazars of Pakistan
On a serious note, Tariq Road is comparatively a new market built after independence. The city ended near Numaish (then knowns as Takri) before independence.