About this item
Awais Reza is a shopkeeper in Lahore's Anarkali Bazaar - the largest open market in South Asia - whose labyrinthine streets teem with shoppers, rickshaws, and cacophonous music.But Anarkali's exuberant hubbub cannot conceal the fact that Pakistan is a country at the edge of a precipice. In recent years, the easy sociability that had once made up this vibrant community has been replaced with doubt and fear. Old-timers like Awais, who inherited his shop from his father and hopes one day to pass it on to his son, are being shouldered aside by easy money, discount stores, heroin peddlers, and the tyranny of fundamentalists.Every night before Awais goes to bed, he plugs in his cell phone and hopes. He hopes that the city will not be plunged into a blackout, that the night will remain calm, that the following morning will bring affluent and happy customers to his shop and, most of all, that his three sons will safely return home.
About the Author
Haroon K. Ullah serves as Chief Strategy Officer at the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG) , an $800 million global media agency. Prior to joining BBG, Haroon advised three secretaries of state, traveled with Ambassador Richard Holbrooke's Afghanistan/Pakistan team, and started the first-ever public diplomacy countering violent extremism office at any American Embassy (US Embassy Islamabad) . He teaches at Georgetown University and is a term member of the Council on Foreign Relations. He served as senior Harvard University Belfer Fellow, where he completed his graduate coursework at the Kennedy School of Government and won a Peabody Award for his TV animation, "Burka Avenger." Ullah has a MA and Ph.D. in international political economy, and was a William J. Fulbright Fellow, a Harvard University Presidential Scholar, and a Woodrow Wilson Public Service Fellow. His award-winning books include "Vying for Allah's Vote" (Georgetown University Press) , "The Bargain from the Bazaar" (Public Affairs Books) , and the new "Digital World War" (Yale University Press) , which has been featured on Diane Sawyer (ABC 20/20) , CNN News Day with Chris Cuomo, CBS news and focuses on the new 'information battlefield' and uses for technology, transmedia, and digital content.
