Pakistani Diaspora Thriving in America

Nearly half a million people of Pakistani origin call America home. Pakistani-Americans' education and income levels are significantly higher than those of the general population of the United States. Among them are doctors, engineers, lawyers, accountants, journalists, politicians, business executives, professional sports team managers and owners, artists, actors, entrepreneurs, salespeople, policemen, soldiers, convenience store clerks and taxi, bus and truck drivers. United States is the 5th most popular destination for Pakistani-born international migrants and the 6th largest source of remittances to Pakistan. In addition to participating in local philanthropy and community activities, several Pakistani-American organizations help raise funds for schools, hospitals and other human welfare projects in Pakistan.

Pakistani-American Population:

Over 450,000 Pakistani immigrants and their children live in the United States as of 2013, according to a report compiled by Migration Policy Institute. Of these, 273,000 were born in Pakistan and the remaining 180,000 are US-born. Pakistani-American population has more than doubled in the last decade due to increased immigration, according to US Census data.

Origins of Foreign-Born Americans. Source: Pew Research


Pakistani-Americans (pop: 450,000) are the seventh largest community among Asian-Americans, behind Chinese (3.8 million),  Filipinos (3.4 million), Indians (3.2 million), Vietnamese (1.74 million),  Koreans (1.7 million) and Japanese (1.3 million), according to Asian-American Center For Advancing Justice . They are still a minuscule fraction of the overall US population.

Source: Migration Policy Institute 

Education and Income Levels:

56% of Pakistani-Americans have at least a bachelor's degree, much higher than 33% of Americans with college degrees. Among Pakistani-American college grads, 33% have a bachelor's degree while 23% have master's or Ph.Ds.

Median annual income of Pakistani-American households is $60,000, higher than the $50,000 median household income of all Americans. 33% of Pakistani-American households earn at least $90,000 while 18% earn more than $140,000.

Pakistani Doctors in America:

Pakistan is the third biggest source of foreign doctors who make up a third of all practicing physicians in the United States, according to OECD. Vast majority of Muslim doctors in America are of Pakistani origin.  Among them is Dr.Mark Humayun who was awarded top US medal for technology by President Barack Obama in 2016.

About 30% of the 800,000 doctors, or about 240,000 doctors, currently practicing in America are of foreign origin, according to Catholic Health Association of the United States. Predictions vary, but according to the American Association of Medical Colleges, by 2025 the U.S. will be short about 160,000 physicians. This gap will most likely be filled by more foreign doctors.

Foreign Doctors in US, UK. Source: OECD


As of 2013, there are over 12,000 Pakistani doctors, or about 5% of all foreign physicians and surgeons, in practice in the United States.  Pakistan is the third largest source of foreign-trained doctors. India tops with 22%, or 52,800 doctors. It is followed by the Philippines with 6%, or 14,400 foreign-trained doctors. India and Pakistan also rank as the top two sources of foreign doctors in the United Kingdom.

Pakistanis in Silicon Valley:

is home to 12,000 to 15,000 Pakistani Americans. Thousands of them are working at Apple, Cisco, Facebook, Google, Intel, Oracle, Twitter and hundreds of other high-tech companies from small start-ups to large Fortune 500 corporations. Pakistani-Americans are contributing to what Erik Brynjolfsson and Andrew McAfee describe as "The Second Machine Age" in a recent book with the same title.

A Representative Sample of Pakistani-American Entrepreneurs in Silicon Valley
Pakistani-Americans are the largest foreign-born Muslim group in San Francisco Bay Area that includes Silicon Valley, according to a 2013 study. The study was commissioned by the One Nation Bay Area Project, a civic engagement program supported by Silicon Valley Community Foundation, The San Francisco Foundation, Marin Community Foundation and Asian Americans/Pacific Islanders in Philanthropy.

 Overall, US-born Muslims make up the largest percentage at 34% of all Muslims in the Bay Area, followed by 14% born in Pakistan, 11% in Afghanistan, 10% in India, 3% in Egypt and 2% each in Iran, Jordan, Palestine and Yemen.

Pakistani-American entrepreneurs, advisers, mentors, venture capitalists, investment bankers, accountants and lawyers make up a growing ecosystem in Silicon Valley. Dozens of Pakistani-American founded start-ups have been funded by top venture capital firms. Many such companies have either been acquired in M&A deals or gone public by offering shares for sale at major stock exchanges. Organization of Pakistani Entrepreneurs (OPEN) has become a de facto platform for networking among Pakistani-American entrepreneurs in Silicon Valley. It holds an annual event called OPEN Forum which attracts over 500 attendees.

Entertainment and Sports:

Kumail Nanjiani, a Pakistani-American actor-comedian, recently made news with the successful release of his feature film The Big Sick on hundreds of screens across the United States.  It is a cross-culture romantic comedy based on actual events that breaks new ground by casting a brown-skinned Pakistani-American in a lead role in a movie produced and widely screened in the United States. Acquired by Amazon Studios for $12 million after a bidding war at Sundance film festival, the film has already grossed over $36 million so far.

Shahid Khan, a Pakistani-American engineer who made his multi-billion dollar fortune in auto industry, became only non-white owner of an NFL franchise team when he bought Jacksonville Jaguars for $760 million in 2011.

Major League Baseball's Los Angeles Dodgers franchise general manager is a Pakistani-American named Farhan Zaidi, an MIT and Berkeley-educated economist.

Kamala Khan is a new Ms. Marvel comic book character created by Pakistani-American Sana Amanat for Marvel Entertainment. Kamala is both female and Muslim. It is part of the American comic giant's efforts to reflect a growing diversity among its readers.

Academy Award winning Hollywood hits Frozen, Life of Pi and The Golden Compass have one thing in common:  Each used extensive computer-generated imagery (CGI) created by Pakistani-American Mir Zafar Ali who won Oscar statuettes for "Best Visual Effects" in each of them.

Pakistani-American Organizations:

Rockefeller Foundation-Aspen Institute Diaspora (RAD) program identified 79 Pakistani-American organizations. Of these, 5 organizations had revenue exceeding $1m while two had over $200,000 in their most recent fiscal year. The top organizations are The Citizens Foundation (TCF), the Association of Physicians of Pakistani Descent in North America (APNA) and the Organization of Pakistani Entrepreneurs (OPEN). Other large organizations are American Pakistan Foundation, Imran Khan Cancer Foundation and Human Development Foundation (HDF). These organization help raise funds for education, health care and other development and human welfare activities in Pakistan.

Trump's America:

Some Pakistani-Americans, like members of other ethnic and religious minorities, are alarmed by the increasing bigotry in America since the election of President Donald Trump. This is particularly true of places like New York's Little Pakistan were Pakistanis were targeted after 911 terrorist attacks. At the height of the sweep, over 20,000 people in Brooklyn’s South Asian communities left the United States, a COPO survey found, according to Gotham Gazette, a New York City publication. Many sought political asylum in Canada and Australia, and some returned to Pakistan and other countries. A number of them never returned. Many had their legitimate US immigration applications pending at the time. Others had their cases in immigration courts and they were waiting for disposition by judges.

Summary:

With few exceptions, most Pakistani-Americans, making up a tiny fraction of the US population, are thriving. They have significantly higher incomes and education levels than the general US population.  Pakistani-Americans are engaged in diverse occupations ranging from doctors, engineers and lawyers to large and small business owners and drivers. In addition to participating in local philanthropic and community activities, several Pakistani-American organizations help raise funds for schools, hospitals and other human welfare activities in Pakistan.

Related Links:

Haq's Musings

New York's Little Pakistan

Pakistan is the 3rd Largest Source of Foreign Doctors in America

Pakistani-American Stars in "Big Sick" Movie

Pakistani-American Population Growth 2nd Fastest Among Asian-Americans

Silicon Valley Pakistani-Americans

A Dozen British Pakistanis in UK Pariament

Trump and Modi

OPEN Silicon Valley Forum 2017: Pakistani Entrepreneurs Conference

Pakistani-American's Tech Unicorn Files For IPO at $1.6 Billion Valuation

Pakistani-American Cofounders Sell Startup to Cisco for $610 million

Pakistani Brothers Spawned $20 Billion Security Software Industry

Pakistani-American Ashar Aziz's Fireeye Goes Public

Pakistani-American Pioneered 3D Technology in Orthodontics

Pakistani-Americans Enabling 2nd Machine Revolution

Pakistani-American Shahid Khan Richest South Asian in America

Two Pakistani-American Silicon Valley Techs Among Top 5 VC Deals

Pakistani-American's Game-Changing Vision 





Comments

Riaz Haq said…
7,000 Indian and 3,476 Pakistani Children in Jeopardy as DACA Faces Repeal by President Trump

http://www.indiawest.com/news/global_indian/indian-american-children-in-jeopardy-as-daca-faces-repeal-by/article_782e4382-8f4d-11e7-b984-479e09f3d882.html

The Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program – an Obama-era initiative providing relief from deportation to more than 800,000 undocumented young people, including more than 7,000 Indian Americans – could be repealed by President Donald Trump as early as this week.

The repeal of DACA could make recipients of the program immediately eligible for deportation. It could also strip them of their work permits and rescind in-state tuition for undocumented college students. The program also allowed its recipients to obtain social security numbers.

A study issued in January by the CATO Institute – a libertarian think tank – estimated that deporting all 800,000 DACA recipients – also known as DREAMERs – would cost the federal government $60 billion, and reduce economic growth by $280 billion over the next 10 years.

“These are American children,” said Rep. Joe Crowley, D-New York, in an impassioned press call with reporters Aug. 31. “Eighty percent of Americans support DACA, and keeping these DREAMERS right here where they belong,” he said, noting that Trump has promised compassion for undocumented children on several occasions after he was elected to office.

“They’re not here for hand-outs, they’re not here to harm, they’re here to contribute to our country,” said the congressman, who represents the Queens and Bronx neighborhoods of New York, both which host a large immigrant population.

Asked by India-West if litigation would ensue should Trump repeal DACA, Crowley responded: “We will exhaust every legal avenue. But the president could show his compassion by not prosecuting or persecuting DACA kids, and give peace of mind to these young people.”

“We cannot send these children back to the country of their birth,” he said, noting that many DREAMERs arrived as young children, and do not know the language of their native countries.

Last December, Trump told Time magazine in an interview that he would “work something out” for DACA beneficiaries. “They got brought here at a very young age, they've worked here, they've gone to school here. And they're in never-never land because they don't know what's going to happen.”

In February, Trump said the DACA executive order was one of the most difficult issues he has had to grapple with. “You have some absolutely incredible kids, I would say mostly,” hedging his remarks by noting that some were drug dealers and gang members.

But the president is under deadline to repeal Obama’s executive order: a June 29 letter sent by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton to Attorney General Jeff Sessions threatens to sue the administration if DACA is not repealed by Sept. 5. The attorney generals of eight other states – Alabama, Arkansas, Kansas, Louisiana, Nebraska, South Carolina, Tennessee, and West Virginia – and Gov. Butch Otter of Idaho were co-signatories to the letter.

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According to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services latest statistics – collected until March 31 – an estimated 7,028 undocumented Indian American students are DACA recipients, many who arrived as young children with their parents and have never been able to return to the land of their birth. India ranks 11 amongst the top countries of origin for DACA students; 7,881 have applied for the program. More than 17,000 are eligible, according to data from the Migration Policy Institute.

Pakistan ranks 22nd in countries of origin for DACA recipients: USCIS reports that 3,476 applications have been accepted to date.
Riaz Haq said…
There are 519,000 Pakistani-Americans as of 2015, according to Pew Research.

#Pakistani-Americans median household income is $66,000, higher than $53,600 for all #Americans but lower than $73,060 for #Asian Americans http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2017/09/08/key-facts-about-asian-americans/

The U.S. Asian population grew 72% between 2000 and 2015 (from 11.9 million to 20.4 million), the fastest growth rate of any major racial or ethnic group. By comparison, the population of the second-fastest growing group, Hispanics, increased 60% during the same period.

Population growth varied across the 19 Asian origin groups in this analysis. Roughly half of the 19 groups more than doubled in size between 2000 and 2015, with Bhutanese-, Nepalese– and Burmese-origin populations showing the fastest growth over the period. Meanwhile, Laotians and Japanese had among the slowest growth rates among U.S. Asians in the past 15 years.

No single country-of-origin group dominates the U.S. Asian population, but the largest groups are of Chinese, Indian and Filipino origin. As of 2015, 24% of Asian Americans (4.9 million) were of Chinese origin, the largest single origin group. The next two largest origin groups are Indian-origin Asians, who accounted for 20% of the national Asian population (4.0 million), and Filipinos (19%, or 3.9 million). Those with roots in Vietnam, Korea and Japan easily clear the 1 million mark as well. The remaining 13 groups in this analysis account for just 12% of all U.S. Asians.

Riaz Haq said…
Five Pakistanis Who Have Taken Hollywood by Storm

http://pakistanlink.org/Community/2017/Nov17/03/05.HTM

1) Kumail Nanjiani
From stand-up comedian to actor, Kumail has already got a few designations under his belt.
The Silicon Valley star took it to the next level and carved more than a mark by writing and acting in The Big Sick – a biographical account of his love story with his (now wife) Emily Gordon. He recently appeared on SNL too – and man, what a speech!
If that wasn’t enough, he will be starring alongside professional wrestler John Cena in his next venture. What more could you want?
2) Faran Tahir
Son of veteran Pakistani actor Naeem Tahir, Faran may not be considered a household name yet but he is definitely familiar to millions around the world. You may recognize him as Raza in Iron Man (2008) or Captain Robau in Star Trek (2009).
The international artist has been a Hollywood insider for over 25 years now and has guest starred in many TV series and films. His debut appearance was in Disney’s The Jungle Book in 1994 as Mowgli’s father. You can currently watch him in the hit American TV Series Scandal.

3) Sharmeen Obaid Chinoy
Named as one of the 100 most influential people in the world by Time magazine, this charmer needs no introduction. She’s earned a couple of Oscars and six Emmys for her work as an activist and film-maker, shedding light on profound issues surrounding women inequality.
She is all set to add another feather to her cap as she recently announced her next project, Look But With Love – Pakistan’s very own reality film series directed by herself.

4) Sameer Asad Gardezi
You can thank this man for the hysterical one-liners in the Emmy-winning hit series, The Modern Family.
The Pakistani-American screenwriter has worked for many big networks including Universal, Nickelodeon and ABC, and is also the recipient of the Writers Guild award for his exceptional writing skills. Sameer is currently writing for his next project, The Goodwin Games.

5) Dilshad Vadsaria
Troublemaker Rebecca Logan in the much-admired TV show Greek, is played by Pakistani actor Dilshad Vadvaria. The Karachi born star was also part of the regular cast of hit TV series, Revenge. Way to go girl!


Riaz Haq said…
The Struggle to Send Home Pakistan’s Dead
When Pakistan’s national airline suspended U.S. flights, the immigrant community struggled to send their dead home.

https://thediplomat.com/2018/05/the-struggle-to-send-home-pakistans-dead/


... amid the street party scenes, wedged between the stalls heaving with sweets and succulent and spicy kebabs, another stall was showcased and getting a great deal of attention from local merrymakers: A funeral home’s stall.

Its presence on the streets during this holiday might seem jarring, even unseemly, to visitors unfamiliar with Little Pakistan. But not for local residents, virtually all of them Muslim and low-income, who are acutely aware that their struggles don’t end with death, but in some cases become manifold challenges for family and friends left behind.

As with other stalls, people stopped at this somber one too; asking a litany of well-informed questions, from the lowest rates for body embalming to the cost of being driven to the mosque where the funeral prayer would take place and then to the airport for the final journey home. The Pakistanis who stopped at the stall did not recoil because members of this financially struggling immigrant community regard burial in their homeland and making dignified arrangements for that time as a necessity; a part of life.

Not only is there the strong emotional pull to be buried as quickly as possible on native soil for religious and cultural reasons; for years, the practice of the deceased being flown back to Pakistan was the least expensive option. While an American burial was out of reach for many low-income immigrants, returning a dead body on a direct flight to Pakistan was free. Fourteen years ago, Pakistan’s national airline began transporting the country’s dead back to their homeland free of cost.

But last fall, the Pakistani airline abruptly ended its flights to the United States, saying it had become too costly. The decision has left local Pakistanis in a desperate bind when tragedy strikes.

In this South Asian New York neighborhood of mostly daily wage earners, some undocumented and with limited English proficiency, there is often comfort found in living lives under the radar. But the community now finds itself facing the issue of repatriating their loved ones in an ad hoc, haphazard manner rather than in the cohesive way of a more organized immigrant community.

For 14 years, the Pakistani immigrants in New York City only had to gather money for body embalming and the basic funeral services of getting picked up from the hospital or home, driven to the funeral home and finally to the airport. Pakistan International Airlines (PIA), the national carrier of Pakistan, transported the bodies of the country’s deceased citizens back to Pakistan free of cost. But on October 28, 2017, PIA flew its last flight from John F. Kennedy Airport, leaving the immigrants in New York beset with worry and fear of what to do when a loved one who wished to be buried in Pakistan dies.

From now on, aside from the approximately $1,500 to $1,800 dollars needed for the funeral services and embalming, a process mandatory for a body being transported to another country, the immigrants will also have to scramble to find money for the air travel. PIA operated a direct flight from New York to Lahore, which meant that a body would reach its loved ones in 12 hours; the other international airlines that go to Pakistan all have layovers at their respective base cities.

Bazah Roohi, founder of the American Council of Minority Women and a humanitarian worker in Little Pakistan, has seen how the airline had a tremendous impact on the financially struggling Pakistani population, making a difficult time easier.

“We could inform PIA officials a night before a body had to be transported,” said Roohi. “But now, we don’t know what the protocol will be and what more we will need to do in an already desperate situation.”
Riaz Haq said…
On September 13, 2018, the US Census Bureau released some of the data from the 2017 American Community Survey (ACS). The survey reflects the U.S. population as of July 1, 2017. The immigrant population, referred to as the foreign-born by the Census Bureau, is comprised of those individuals who were not U.S. citizens at birth. It includes naturalized citizens, legal permanent residents (green card holders), temporary workers, and foreign students. It does not include those born to immigrants in the United States or those born in outlying U.S. territories, such as Puerto Rico. Prior research by the Department of Homeland Security suggests that 1.9 million immigrants (legal and illegal) are missed by the ACS.

https://www.marketwatch.com/press-release/nearly-one-in-seven-us-residents-are-now-immigrants-2018-09-14

The sending countries with the largest increases in the number immigrants since 2010 were India (up 830,215), China (up 677,312), the Dominican Republic (up 283,381), Philippines (up 230,492), Cuba (up 207,124), El Salvador (up 187,783), Venezuela (up 167,105), Colombia (up 146,477), Honduras (up 132,781), Guatemala (up 128,018), Nigeria (up 125,670), Brazil (up 111,471), Vietnam (up 102,026), Bangladesh (up 95,005), Haiti (up 92,603), and Pakistan (up 92,395).

- The sending countries with the largest percentage increases since 2010 were Nepal (up 120%), Burma (up 95%), Venezuela (up 91%), Afghanistan (up 84%), Saudi Arabia (up 83%), Syria (up 75%), Bangladesh (up 62%), Nigeria (up 57%), Kenya (up 56%), India (up 47%), Iraq (up 45%), Ethiopia (up 44%), Egypt (up 34%), Brazil (up 33%), Dominican Republic and Ghana (up 32%), China (up 31%), Pakistan (up 31%), and Somalia (up 29%).


- The states with the largest increases in the number of immigrants since 2010 were Florida (up 721,298), Texas (up 712,109), California (up 502,985), New York (up 242,769), New Jersey (up 210,481), Washington (up 173,891), Massachusetts (up 172,908), Pennsylvania (up 154,701), Virginia (up 151,251), Maryland (up 124,241), Georgia (up 123,009), Michigan (up 116,059), North Carolina (up 110,279), and Minnesota (up 107,760).

- The states with the largest percentage increase since 2010 were North Dakota (up 87%), Delaware (up 37%), West Virginia (up 33%), South Dakota (up 32%), Wyoming (up 30%), Minnesota (up 28%), Nebraska (up 28%), Pennsylvania (up 21%), Utah (up 21%), Tennessee, Kentucky, Michigan, Florida, Washington, and Iowa (each up 20%). The District of Columbia's immigrant population was up 25%.
Riaz Haq said…
“Little Pakistan” in #NewYorkCity To Be Co-Named After #QuaideAzam Mohammad Ali #Jinnah, the Founder Of #Pakistan. To honor the man, efforts were taken by various individuals and organizations in the #Brooklyn #Muslim community https://bklyner.com/little-pakistan-co-name/ via @bklyner

The Coney Island Avenue strip between Avenues C and H, also known as “Little Pakistan,” will be co-named “Muhammad Ali Jinnah Way,” after the founder of Pakistan.

“This is a really great achievement of the Pakistani-American community,” Shahid Khan, member of Community Board 14 and Pakistani American Youth Organization (PAYO) said. “Presently where we are struggling within our community, we really achieved this milestone. This is community integration in process.”

Muhammad Ali Jinnah, also referred to as Quaid-e-Azam, is still idolized by Pakistanis today. When Great Britain left India after controlling it for over three centuries, it left a place where Muslims and Hindus were in conflict.

Jinnah pushed for a separate country, a Muslim dominated Pakistan. On August 14, 1947, India was finally partitioned. But it was met with intense bloodshed and a great migration of people. Indian Muslims headed to a new free country – Pakistan, but many people were murdered along the way. Women were raped, men were dismembered, and villages were set on fire. About 15 million people were displaced and grieving.

But still, Jinnah had hope.

“My message to you all is of hope, courage, and confidence. Let us mobilize all our resources in a systematic and organized way and tackle the grave issues that confront us with the grim determination and discipline worthy of a great nation,” he had said in the past.

To honor the man, efforts were taken by various individuals and organizations in the Brooklyn Muslim community, including PAYO for several years to get the street co-named. In fact, according to Khan, the process began before September 11, 2001. But efforts were halted after the “Pakistani community was stigmatized, marginalized, and targeted,” he said.


Waqil Ahmed, president of PAYO, echoed the sentiment and spoke about the Islamophobia the community has had to endure. He said the co-naming was the “first step to bringing change within the community” as it holds a sentimental value that allows “all Pakistani-Americans to find a home within another home.”

“As a team, PAYO observes ‘Little Pakistan’ to feel segregated, as if they are intruders not only to the community but also the country,” Ahmed said. “PAYO wants to break cultural barriers, get rid of Islamophobia, and have a fusion of nationalities and culture.”

“Over the years, the community has tremendously grown,” he said. “The street co-naming is going to bring the community closer, strengthen relationships within other ethnicities.”

The resolution, sponsored by Council Member Jumaane Williams, was passed by the NYC Council last week. An official ceremony will be held later this month. Khan attributes this victory to the Pakistani youth.

“The second generation is more aware, more active, and more educated. That’s why things were done successfully,” Khan said. “Youth is the architect of any nation. I believe each generation should live better than the last.”

Kashif Hussain, a community activist who ran for District Leader and lost, says his run (and the fact that he got close to 8,000 votes) may have made a difference – the community is finally being taken seriously, he said.

“The resources and requests like co-naming the street are being brought to the community,” he said. “It’s a sign of good things to come in the future for South Asian communities. Our work for the betterment of the community continues.”

Hussain believes it’s about time “Little Pakistan” was co-named.

“Elected officials have made a lot of promises over the years but nothing really big happened,” he said. “As a community leader and a political candidate, this is making me more dedicated and motivated to keep fighting for more causes and deficiencies in our neighborhood and district.”

Riaz Haq said…
#Brooklyn unveils #street sign for founder of #Pakistan.The location saw a jubilant scene Friday as community members tossed confetti, waved #American and #Pakistani flags for the unveiling of "Muhammad Ali Jinnah Way." #NewYork #QuaideAzam https://in.amny.com/2Dr0bOO via @amNewYork

The intersection of Coney Island and Foster avenues in Brooklyn was witness to a jubilant scene Friday, as community members tossed confetti and waved American and Pakistani flags for the unveiling of "Muhammad Ali Jinnah Way."

The co-naming of the intersection after the founder of modern Pakistan was the realization of a longtime goal of the Pakistani American Youth Organization (PAYO), a nonprofit based in Midwood, which hopes an official designation of the neighborhood as "Little Pakistan" will soon follow.

“I think [the co-naming] is a great way to show homage," said Councilman Jumaane Williams, who supported the co-naming and revealed the signage at the ceremony. "You see the impact that 9/11 had for this community, the un-American feeling that was here was palpable. So many organizations opened up to try to bring back that sense of community, so when PAYO reached out to do this renaming it made sense. I was excited to do this.”

The unveiling was followed by steaming trays of samosas and jalebi, a bright orange Pakistani sweet. As attendees ate and celebrated, speakers took to the podium to commemorate the co-naming, including Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams, Councilman Mathieu Eugene, and Zubda Malik, the general secretary of PAYO.

“I don’t have words to explain; this is not just a sign," said Waqil Ahmed, president of PAYO, who also called it a symbol of acceptance.

In the 1940s, Jinnah played a prominent role in the partition of Pakistan from India in order to establish an independent Muslim state. He succeeded in his negotiations with Britain and was pronounced the first governor-general of Pakistan in August 1947.

“When the kids see the sign they will be proud to explain he’s the founder of Pakistan," Ahmed said.

The mile-long stretch of Coney Island Avenue between Newkirk Avenue and Avenue H has been a destination for Pakistani immigrants since the ’80s. The area became informally known as “Little Pakistan” among residents as the area filled with Pakistani restaurants and shops while Urdu became the language of the streets.
Riaz Haq said…
Upscale Pakistani-American restaurant near the White House in WashingtonDC feeds the poor and homeless every single day . Served 16,000 free meals in 2018| WJLA

Sakina Halal Grill looks like your typical high-end restaurant located just blocks from the White House. During the lunchtime rush hour, many customers flock to the grill for the all you can eat buffet of authentic Pakistani Indian food.

However, it's anything but just another restaurant.

Beyond the delicious flavors you find, the warm Chai Latte or fresh lemon water, you would never know that homeless people are walking in and out to experience the same thing paying customers are.

https://youtu.be/GIHVwDlJUQ8
Riaz Haq said…
'State Of The Heart' Cardiologist Assesses Breakthroughs In Heart Health (Pakistani-American cardiologist Dr. Haider Warraich)


https://www.wknofm.org/post/state-heart-cardiologist-assesses-breakthroughs-heart-health


This is FRESH AIR. I'm Terry Gross. Breakthroughs in heart medicine, including surgical procedures, devices and medications, have changed how various forms of heart disease are treated and enabled many people to live longer lives. We're going to hear about some of those new developments from Haider Warraich, author of the new book "State Of The Heart: Exploring The History, Science, And Future Of Cardiac Disease." We're also going to talk about cholesterol and blood pressure.

Warraich previously joined us to talk about his book "Modern Death: How Medicine Changed The End Of Life." He's a cardiologist who began his medical training in Pakistan, where he's from, and continued his training in cardiology at Harvard Medical School and Duke University. In September, he joins the faculty of Brigham and Women's Hospital at Harvard Medical School and the Boston VA.

Doctor Haider Warraich, welcome back to FRESH AIR. You write that during the time that you were a medical student, you saw so many changes in heart medicine and technology. Tell us about one that you think is most significant.

HAIDER WARRAICH: When I was a medical resident up at the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, this was around the time when a new device had just started to be used in clinical practice that I had really never heard about before. And this was a device called a left ventricular assist device. And really what it is, is it is a mechanical pump that can be sewn directly, right into a patient's heart, and basically takes over the pumping function of the heart. And I know when this program started, there was a specific row in the hospital, in the wards, where these patients would be taken care of. And at least initially, residents were not even allowed to take care of these patients. So they had this aura, this mystery to them.

But the interesting thing about this therapy is that it fundamentally changes so many of the things what we consider to be, you know, the key fundamental principles of being a human being. So, you know, these patients who had these mechanical pumps, you know, they didn't have a pulse. If you performed CPR on them, it could actually do more harm than good. And these patients were basically dependent on their batteries for their life.

So this was such a dramatic departure from really any type of other medical intervention that I'd ever even heard about, which is, you know, part of the reason why I actually pursued this and now I actually specialize in taking care of these patients.

GROSS: Yes, and you describe this device, which is an LVAD - which stands for left ventricular assist device - you describe it as representing the dawn of a new era in human life, the union of man and machine. Because you're totally dependent on the machine, I mean, every second of the day. But really, the idea of, like, no pulse. I can't - it's, like, hard for me to conceive of that.

WARRAICH: I mean, it's hard as a physician. I mean, checking someone's pulse is part of the - you know, one of the sort of purest and oldest rituals in medicine. When you come up to someone, you shake their hands, and you're examining them. And you almost always start by checking the pulse in their wrist. And the other thing that happens in these patients is that if you put a stethoscope to their chest, usually, you'll hear, you know, the gallop of the heart kind of, you know, running away as it has been since, you know, we were in our mothers' womb.
Riaz Haq said…
#London-born #Pakistani-#American Lina Khan’s essay on the “Amazon Antitrust Paradox” and subsequent legal research made it more possible for people in the halls of power to once again begin investigating monopolies. #Amazon #antitrust https://bit.ly/31YKbOV

For the most part, Americans have watched the advent of the massive corporation over the past half century with some degree of indifference. When companies merged with each other, they saved money on overheads, and so could provide consumers with lower prices on everyday goods. Regulators didn’t worry too much about the rise of big companies, in part since consumers weren’t complaining. But at the age of 27, while a student at Yale Law School, Lina Khan very publicly pushed back against this line of thinking. In “Amazon’s Antitrust Paradox,” a widely-read article published in 2017 in the Yale Law Journal, Khan argued that though the rise of big companies like Amazon may mean lower prices, they should not necessarily be immune from antitrust scrutiny. There is a “broader set of ills and hazards that a lack of competition breeds,” she wrote. Giant corporations can manipulate the markets they dominate, she wrote, forcing smaller companies out of business and worsening the economy for workers, citizens, and sometimes even consumers.
Khan had in roughly 24,000 words resurfaced an argument against monopolies that journalists such as Ida Tarbell had popularized more than a century ago. It’s an argument that politicians like Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders are now echoing. But it was Khan’s paper and subsequent legal research that gave people in the halls of power another tool for investigating monopolies. Thinking only about whether monopolies lead to lower prices was not the right approach, she argued. “If prices are low for us as consumers but our wages are stagnant and there’s no opportunity to create our own business, that’s not self-evidently a good thing,” she says.

After her paper was published, Khan worked as a legal fellow in the office of Rohit Chopra of the Federal Trade Commission as the agency increased its scrutiny of tech firms; the FTC has recently launched probes of Facebook and Amazon. Khan, now 30, has published opeds in the New York Times calling for more scrutiny of big tech companies, and is currently on leave from her position as an academic fellow at Columbia Law School to work as counsel for the House Antitrust Subcommittee as it takes on tech companies.

Khan, whose parents immigrated to the U.S. from the U.K. when she was 11, had originally wanted to be a journalist. It was the best way to hold powerful people accountable, she thought, during journalism stints in both high school and college, including a fellowship in India. But after graduating from Williams College, she started working with the New America Foundation under the journalist Barry Lynn, and began researching how the rise of massive companies was having a big impact on Americans’ everyday life. For instance, consumers face a lack of choice in chocolate bars since two companies control the majority of the world’s cocoa processing; farmers can only buy seeds from a few giant conglomerates, which limits their bargaining power; once people start buying a specific product like Darth Vader cufflinks on Amazon, the tech company can take over the market from the small seller. The more she researched, the more she found that though consumers might have an illusion of choice, a few companies dominate large sections of the economy and set their own rules. “I think there is a very coherent story to be told about how market power is harming us as a whole in all these bizarre ways that are not readily apparent,” she says. Khan ultimately decided to go to law school so she could more effectively take on antitrust, a mission she has pursued since she became a law student. “We’re at a moment where the revival of antitrust could be extremely important in the coming decades,” she said.
Riaz Haq said…
#Pakistani-#American Journalist Amna Nawaz Among #Democratic Presidential #Debate Moderators Named By PBS NewsHour & POLITICO. Other names include Judy Woodruff, Tim Alberta, Amna Nawaz and Yamiche Alcindor https://politi.co/34t2flr via @politico


Amna Nawaz joined PBS NewsHour in April 2018 and serves as senior national correspondent and primary substitute anchor.

Prior to joining the NewsHour, Nawaz was an anchor and correspondent at ABC News, anchoring breaking news coverage and leading the network’s digital coverage of the 2016 presidential election. Before that, she served as a foreign correspondent at NBC News, reporting from Pakistan, Afghanistan, Syria, Turkey, and the broader region. She is also the founder and former managing editor of NBC’s Asian America platform, built to elevate the voices of America’s fastest-growing population.

At the NewsHour, Nawaz has reported politics, foreign affairs, education, climate change, culture and sports. Her immigration reporting has taken her to multiple border communities in Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and Mexico. She’s investigated the impact of the Trump Administration’s immigration policies, including following the journey of a single toddler as she left her home in Mexico, was separated from her family at the U.S. border, and later reunited with her family several weeks later. She also regularly covers issues around detention, refugees and asylum, and migrant children in U.S. government custody.

Nawaz has interviewed international newsmakers -- including Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Scotland’s First Minister Nicola Sturgeon, and Brazilian leader Eduardo Bolsonaro; lawmakers and Trump administration officials – including then-ICE Director Mark Morgan’s first interview after President Trump announced mass raids across the U.S., Acting Secretary of DHS Kevin McAleenan, and former DHS Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen in her first interview since leaving the Trump administration; and influential voices including Reba McEntire, Gloria Estefan, and Dev Patel.

Domestically, her reporting has taken her to Appalachia to cover healthcare and the economy, the Pacific Northwest to cover gentrification and discrimination in housing, and communities across the country to take the political pulse of the nation. Internationally, she’s traveled to Brazil to report on climate change from within the Amazon, and the Venezuelan refugee crisis.

In 2019, her reporting as part of a NewsHour series on the global plastic problem was the recipient of a Peabody Award.

While at ABC News, Nawaz reported the documentary, “Roberts County: A Year in the Most Pro-Trump Town,” following four families’ lives over President Trump’s first year in office, and hosted the podcast series, “Uncomfortable,” featuring in-depth, one-on-one conversations with thought leaders on the issues dividing America.

Earlier, at NBC News, her work appeared on NBC Nightly News, The Today Show, Dateline NBC, MSNBC, andMSNBC.com. She was NBC’s Islamabad Bureau Chief and Correspondent for several years, and was the first foreign journalist allowed inside North Waziristan, the then-global hub of Al Qaida and the Taliban. She covered the Taliban attack on Malala Yousafzai, the U.S. raid on Osama bin Laden’s compound, and broke news in a series of exclusive reports on the impact of U.S. drone strikes. Nawaz reported for the network’s investigative unit, covering the U.S. housing crisis and the BP oil spill, and also covered the election and inauguration of Barack Obama, the earthquake in Haiti, and Hurricane Katrina.

--

Nawaz has also been honored with an Emmy Award for the NBC News Special “Inside the Obama White House,” a Society for Features Journalism Award, and was a recipient of the International Reporting Project fellowship in 2009. She earned a bachelor's degree from the University of Pennsylvania, where she captained the varsity field hockey team, and later earned her master's degree from the London School of Economics.
Riaz Haq said…
Two #Pakistani #American #Muslim #women elected to city councils in #WashingtonState. Varsha Khan in #Redmond City Council and Zahra Roach in #Pasco City Council. https://crosscut.com/2019/11/washington-state-might-have-just-elected-its-first-two-muslim-women-office

Two very different communities in Washington state are on the verge of making history following this year's general election.

Across Lake Washington from Seattle, in the suburb of Redmond, Varisha Khan is holding on to a narrow lead in her race for a seat on the Redmond City Council. Across the state, in the Tri-Cities town of Pasco, meanwhile, Zahra Roach has clinched a seat on that city’s council.

According to the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) in Washington, while a Muslim man has been elected before — Zak Idan in 2017 to the Tukwila City Council — Khan and Roach are, if current results hold, believed to be the first two Muslim women elected to public office in the state. Another Muslim woman, Amina Ahmed, who tragically died in a car crash last year, had been appointed, but not elected, to the SeaTac City Council.

“I think both races have shown the power of communities of color becoming more and more civically engaged,” said Masih Fouladi, executive director of CAIR Washington.

According to a report on American Muslims in public office, from 2016 to 2019 approximately 138 Muslims have been elected to office nationwide. Last year, U.S. Reps. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota and Rashida Tlaib of Michigan became the first Muslim women elected to Congress. This year alone, at least 33 Muslim candidates won elections in local and statewide races across the country, said Jessica Schreindl, communications coordinator for CAIR-WA.

Khan, 24, who trailed her opponent in early returns, took the lead over three-term incumbent Hank Myers late last week. She currently leads him by 47 votes. Khan would need to lead by 65 votes or more by Nov. 26, when the votes are certified, to be out of recount range, said King County Elections communications officer Halei Watkins. Khan graduated from the University of Washington in 2017 with a bachelor’s degree in journalism and political science. If elected, she would also be the youngest member serving on the Redmond City Council.

When asked about her decision to run at such a young age, Khan said she hoped to help start building a bench of diverse candidates to serve locally and thought, “Why not here, why not now?”

While others warned her that Redmond was not ready for its first female Muslim candidate, Khan said she “felt like this is the year that we have a chance to really step up.”

Khan admits she also “knew it would be an uphill battle.”

“I knew it would be a challenge,” Khan said in a telephone interview while noting that her aim was to work three times harder than her opponent, who benefited from more name recognition.

With regard to faith, Khan, who wears a hijab, said questions about Islam were a bigger factor at the beginning of her race.

Khan said she also attracted media attention from conservative blogs and radio programs like the Jason Rantz Show on KTTH in Seattle and John Carlson’s show on KVI (Carlson is a Crosscut contributor). The conservative blog “Shift” attempted to disparage Khan by comparing her to Seattle City Council member Kshama Sawant and other socialists, like U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York. The blog referred to Khan as an extremist and anti-Semite. The conservative media outlets also called out Khan for her association with Linda Sarsour, a Muslim and former leader of the Women’s March on Washington, who along with two others, stepped down after charges of anti-Semitism.
Riaz Haq said…
Four years ago, Maliha Javed, an immigrant from Pakistan, was not paying attention to politics. A community college student in suburban Atlanta, she was busy paying for books and studying for classes. She did not vote that year.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/25/us/georgia-asian-american-voters.html

But the past four years changed her. The Trump administration’s Muslim travel ban affected some of her friends. The child separation policy reminded her of living apart from her parents for three years during her own move to the United States. Then, this summer, the discovery that she was pregnant made it final: On Election Day, she marched into the Amazing Grace Lutheran Church near her house and voted for the first time in her life. She chose Joseph R. Biden Jr.

“I want it to be a better country for him to grow up in,” said Ms. Javed, who is 24 and is having a boy.

Ms. Javed is part of a small but powerful new force in Georgia politics: Asian-American voters. She lives in Gwinnett County, Georgia’s second-most populous county and the one with the largest Asian-American population. Mr. Biden, who narrowly defeated President Trump in Georgia, won Gwinnett County by 18 percentage points, a substantial increase over Hillary Clinton’s performance four years ago and only the second time the county went blue since the 1970s.

----------------
https://www.abc12.com/2020/11/07/muslim-vote-helps-secure-michigan-for-bidenharris-ticket/

- Roughly 146,000 votes give now President-elect Joe Biden the edge over President Donald Trump in the Great Lakes State. That margin was even tighter in 2016 when Trump carried Michigan with 10,700 more votes than Hillary Clinton.

By and large, the tight margins of victory in certain states for either candidate highlight how critical every vote is, and perhaps more importantly, the hard work of expanding the electorate. Muslim civic engagement nonprofit Emgage Michigan did just that for the Biden/Harris ticket in 2020, according to the organization’s executive director.

“I want everyone to know that Muslims played a huge role for Biden to win Michigan and the nation itself," said Nada Al-Hanooti, Executive Director of Emgage Michigan.

Al-Hanooti says their efforts resulted in 80,000 absentee and early votes from Muslims. The exact number of Muslim votes cast in Michigan isn’t something that is officially known yet.

She says the president’s ban on visitors from predominantly Muslim countries played a major factor for Muslim families, among other serious social issues. Biden pledged to end the ban on day one if elected.
Riaz Haq said…
Pakistani-Americans in Biden Administration as of 1/25/21:

Ali Zaidi, Deputy Climate Change Advisor in the White House

Salman Ahmad, Director of Policy Planning in US State Department

Saima Mohsin. US Attorney in Detroit, MI in Department of Justice (DOJ)
Riaz Haq said…
Rabia Chaudry on her memoir 'Fatty Fatty Boom Boom'

https://www.npr.org/2022/11/06/1134608160/rabia-chaudry-on-her-memoir-fatty-fatty-boom-boom

Rabia Chaudry loved food — especially fast food — and struggled with her weight growing up as a Pakistani-American. She talks with NPR's Ayesha Rascoe about her memoir, "Fatty Fatty Boom Boom."

AYESHA RASCOE, HOST:

One of the ways we honor and cherish our families is through food. And that couldn't be more true for lawyer, podcaster and author Rabia Chaudry. Growing up in a Pakistani household, she's familiar with the sights and smells of spicy biryani and sticky treats like jalebis. But as Chaudry chronicles in her new memoir, "Fatty Fatty Boom Boom," sometimes, that love for culture and family can become fraught. Rabia Chaudry, who is best known for her work on the Adnan Syed case and host of the "Undisclosed" podcast, joins us now. Welcome.

RABIA CHAUDRY: Hi, Ayesha. How are you?

RASCOE: I'm fine. Thank you so much for joining us. So before we just dive into your story of family and food and everything in between, I want to acknowledge the end of a different chapter in your life, the freedom of Adnan Syed. Syed was imprisoned in 1999 for the murder of his girlfriend at the time. Through your help, his conviction has been overturned, and now he's free. How does it feel to be on the other side of that fight?

CHAUDRY: Oh, I mean, sometimes, I forget. Sometimes, I still - my eyes will fly open, at night and I'm like, wait. What's next? What appeal do we file next? And when you've been carrying that around, like, your entire adult life, it feels quite amazing to be able to finally put it down and check it off your list.

RASCOE: So tell me why with your memoir you wanted to tell the story of your life through the food that you grew up eating?

CHAUDRY: You know, anybody can write a memoir of their life in so many different ways, right? It can be about my career. It can be about advocacy work. It can be about so many things. And I decided that those were a lot of stories I told all the time. But there was a theme in my life that I never spoke about publicly but was - has been with me since childhood. And that is issues around body image and weight. And so "Fatty Fatty Boom Boom" was born, which was one of my childhood nicknames. But, you know, at the same time, I can't divorce it from, you know, this issue about body image and weight from - like, my love for food and especially Pakistani cuisine and my family stories around it that bring me so much joy.

RASCOE: So, I mean, the book really walks us through how you developed your relationship with food from a very young age. You know, talk to me about the food you were eating and how you felt about it.

CHAUDRY: Yeah. You know, so when I immigrated to the United States, I was 6 months old. And I was the firstborn. My parents were discovering this country in a lot of ways. And one of the ways was through its food. And in my parents' imagination, nothing could be stocked in an American grocery store that wouldn't actually be healthy and wholesome and better than the foods we had back home in Pakistan. So we just dove right in into all of the processed foods. And I grew up eating just so much Bologna and, like, you know, crackers and processed snacks a lot of us grew up with.

RASCOE: I mean, you talked about how, like, even as a baby, kind of to fatten you up...

CHAUDRY: Oh, yeah.

RASCOE: It was some miscommunication, but you were drinking, like, half and half. And then also...

CHAUDRY: Oh, yeah.

Riaz Haq said…
Brooklyn Democratic Machine Appoints Little Pakistan Residents to Party Posts Without Their Knowledge
A former party leader in the borough says ‘ghost appointees’ are not a new phenomenon.

https://www.thecity.nyc/2022/11/28/23476000/brooklyn-democratic-machine-ghost-appointments-little-pakistan

At least ten people living in Brooklyn’s Little Pakistan neighborhood were appointed to obscure but meaningful positions within the borough’s Democratic Party organization without their knowledge in October, an investigation by THE CITY has found.

The irregular appointments were for the “county committee,” a body of neighborhood representatives across the borough who vote on the party’s rules and its nominees for special elections in deliberations that have become flashpoints of heated intra-party rivalries.

In phone calls and conversations in person at homes, apartments and storefronts across Kensington, Brooklyn, numerous residents, nearly all of them South Asian immigrants, said they had no idea how they or their family members had ended up as county committee representatives for the 44th Assembly District. In some cases, people had moved out of the state months before they were appointed, residents of their former residences told THE CITY.

Zulfiqar Ali, 58, who runs a cash transfer business on Coney Island Avenue, was unaware of his appointment until THE CITY visited his shop last Thursday. Ali said he had “no idea” who slotted him into the position.

“I’m with Democrats,” the shopkeeper said. “‘But I never asked, requested them to put my name as recommended leader because, you know, I am busy.”

Farzana Shabbir, who lives in an apartment building a few blocks away, also learned of her appointment from THE CITY. Shabbir said she wanted to be removed from the county committee along with her adult daughter, who also confirmed that she was added to the committee without her knowledge.

“I’m not even aware of anything. This is the first time hearing from you,” Shabbir said. “I’m shocked. It’s disappointing though.”

Boatload of Proxies
The unsuspecting appointees THE CITY spoke with were part of a county committee nomination slate the Brooklyn Democratic Party establishment pushed through at a chaotic mass meeting in October. It was part of a successful effort to shut out a slate of would-be appointees assumed to be at odds with party leadership.

Given this context, some of the new appointees fear their names, and votes, could be exploited for intraparty machinations without their say.

“These people probably are not even voting. So then who is making these rules?” said Shawaza Majeed, a nonprofit worker who lives in Kensington and said that she also was appointed without her consent. “What the hell is happening?”

According to party insiders, for the county establishment to take advantage of these “ghost” appointees’ votes at contested meetings, party leaders need signed proxy forms transferring the unsuspecting committee members’ voting power to dependable allies.

“This is not a new thing. This has been going for decades,” said Diana Gonzalez, a former executive director of the Brooklyn Democratic Party. “Everybody knows County just wants to control meetings by walking in with a boatload of proxies.”

Gonzalez, now president of the dissident club, the Central Brooklyn Independent Democrats, argued the party establishment will stop at nothing to secure the votes of “ghost” appointees.

“It’s not just that they’re appointed without their knowledge. It’s that when the county party needs to collect proxies, other people are forging their signatures,” she said. “So the person who put that list together, his or her work isn’t done. They have to forge proxies for the next county committee meeting.”

A spokesperson for the Brooklyn Democratic Party declined requests for comment about the “ghost” members. In April, THE CITY reported that party members allied with the establishment forged at least five residents’ signatures in a bid to block rivals campaigning to join the county committee.

Riaz Haq said…
Karachi-born Asma Naeem to be the head of the Baltimore Museum of Art

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/24/arts/design/baltimore-museum-director-asma-naeem.html

Baltimore Museum of Art Taps Its Chief Curator as Its Next Director

The Baltimore Museum of Art announced Tuesday that Asma Naeem, its chief curator since 2018 and interim co-director, will become director effective Feb. 1.

Born in Karachi, Pakistan, and raised in Baltimore, Naeem practiced law for almost 15 years before switching careers and finishing her Ph.D. in American art. She becomes the first person of color to lead the museum, founded in 1914, and will oversee its collection of more than 97,000 objects and an annual operating budget of $23 million.

Naeem, 53, has been interim co-director of the museum since Christopher Bedford, the former director, left last June for the top post at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. Naeem had a central role in shaping and implementing the Baltimore Museum’s strategic plan, adopted in 2018, that placed social equity alongside artistic excellence as a core principle guiding the museum’s mission. Since then, the B.M.A., as it is known locally, has been at the forefront of efforts to acquire and exhibit work by underrepresented artists and to diversify its staff, board and audiences — issues being addressed by museums nationwide to varying degrees.

“We were most impressed with how Asma has been part of the work and with her vision for the institution, in terms of how to build on this work and take us to that next level,” said James D. Thornton, chairman of the museum’s board, which promoted Naeem after a 10-month national search.
Riaz Haq said…
Shahzia Sikander, 53, the paradigm-busting Pakistani American artist behind the work, said the sculpture was part of an urgent and necessary cultural reckoning underway as New York, along with cities across the world, reconsiders traditional representations of power in public spaces and recasts civic structures to better reflect 21st-century social

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/25/arts/design/discrimination-sculpture-madison-park-sikander-women.html


Move Over Moses and Zoroaster: Manhattan Has a New Female Lawgiver

The Lahore-born Sikander, whose work has been displayed at the Whitney Biennial and who made her name reimagining the art of Indo-Persian miniature painting from a feminist, post-colonial perspective, was at pains to emphasize that Muhammad’s removal and her installation were completely unrelated. “My figure is not replacing anyone or canceling anyone,” she said.

Much as Justice Ginsburg wore her lace collar to recast a historically male uniform and proudly reclaim it for her gender, Sikander said her stylized sculpture was aimed at feminizing a building that was commissioned in 1896. Writing in The New Yorker in 1928, the architect and author George S. Chappell called the rooftop ring of male figures atop the building a “ridiculous adornment of mortuary statuary.”

The aesthetic merits of the courthouse’s sumptuous Beaux-Arts-style architecture aside, the building’s symbolism has outsize importance in New York’s civic and legal identity and beyond: The court hears appeals from all the trial courts in Manhattan and the Bronx, as well as some of the most important appeals in the country.
Riaz Haq said…
#US Congressman Jamaal Bowman, #Democrat, #NewYork, introduces resolution in House to designate March 23 as ‘Pakistan Day’. He initiated the “landmark resolution”. It is the first such resolution introduced in the US Congress. #PakistanDay2023 #Pakistan
https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/international/world-news/us-congressman-introduces-resolution-in-house-to-designate-march-23-as-pakistan-day/articleshow/98982639.cms


The resolution emphasised the importance of recognising and paying tribute to those who foster ethnic pride and enhance the profile of cultural diversity, which strengthens the fabric of the US communities.

Bowman in fact stated that it was an honour for him to introduce the resolution and stressed the importance of standing with the people of Pakistan during their time of crisis.

Bowman expressed his solidarity with Pakistan, which has been hit by a natural disaster and conveyed his message of peace and love to the people of Pakistan.

The resolution also highlighted that Pakistan Day provides an excellent opportunity for all US residents to learn more about Pakistan’s rich heritage and foster an appreciation for its ancient culture among future generations.

Pakistan’s ambassador to the US, Masood Khan, thanked Bowman for his initiative, which would bring the two countries and their people closer to each other.


Riaz Haq said…
37 year old practicing #Muslim #British #Pakistani Humza Yousaf wins race to replace Nicola Sturgeon as #Scotland's next leader. Humza was born in #Glasgow. His father was born in Mian Channu #Pakistan and his mother was born in #Kenya | Reuters


https://www.reuters.com/world/uk/scotlands-next-leader-be-announced-with-independence-movement-crisis-2023-03-26/

LONDON, March 27 (Reuters) - Scottish nationalists picked Humza Yousaf to be the country's next leader on Monday after a bitterly fought contest that exposed deep divisions in his party over policy and a stalled independence campaign.

The 37-year-old practicing Muslim will succeed Nicola Sturgeon as leader of the governing Scottish National Party (SNP) and, subject to a vote in the Scottish parliament, take over as head of the semi-autonomous government.

Yousaf's victory was confirmed at Edinburgh's Murrayfield rugby ground on Monday afternoon after a six-week campaign where the three candidates spent much of the contest criticising each other's record in a series of personal attacks.

The SNP's unity, which had been one of its strengths, broke down over arguments about how to achieve a second independence referendum and the best way to introduce social reforms such as transgender rights.

Yousaf takes over a party with an overriding objective to end Scotland's three-centuries-long union with England.

But while about four in 10 Scots still support independence, according to a poll this month, the departure of Sturgeon - a charismatic and commanding leader - may slow some of the momentum behind a break up of the United Kingdom.

There is no agreed strategy for how to force a new referendum - one of the reasons Sturgeon resigned.

The often bad-tempered leadership contest has relieved some pressure on British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, who is dealing with divisions in his own party, waves of industrial action and high levels of inflation.

FRONTRUNNER
Yousaf won 24,336 of the votes of the SNP's members in the first round, while his main rival Kate Forbes 32, Scotland's finance minister, came second with 20,559 votes. Ash Regan, who quit the government because of her opposition to proposed changes to gender recognition, was third with 5,599 votes.

Riaz Haq said…
As of 2016, there were 12,454 Pakistani doctors and 45,830 Indian doctors out of 215,630 total in the United States.


https://stats.oecd.org/Index.aspx?QueryId=68336

India 45,830

Pakistan 12,454

Grenada 10,789

Philipines 10,217

Dominica 9,974

Mexico 9,923

Canada 7,765

Dominican Republic 6,269

China 5,772

UAE 4,635

Egypt 4,379

------------

Total Foreign Doctors in UK 66,211

India 18,953

Pakistan 8,026

Nigeria 4,880

Egypt 4,471

Foreign Doctors in Canada 25,400:

South Africa 2,604

India 2,127

Ireland 1,942

UK 1,923


US 1,263


Pakistan 1,087
Riaz Haq said…
The World’s Biggest Diasporas [Infographic]
Katharina Buchholz
Contributor

I am a Statista data journalist using charts to explain news topics.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/katharinabuchholz/2022/11/11/the-worlds-biggest-diasporas-infographic/?sh=573be4484bde

The list of countries with the biggest share of the native-born population living in the diaspora reveals stories of war and displacement but also of economic stagnation and a lack of perspectives. While there are many reasons why someone might leave the place where they were born, small countries are most often affected by the phenomenon as they are inherently at a disadvantage when offering opportunities and chances to move within the country first.

In regions where small countries are common and remoteness is added as another factor, for example in the Caribbean or Oceania, living in the diaspora is the most widespread. Out of all sovereign countries with at least 750,000 inhabitants, Caribbean nation Guyana had the biggest share of its native-born population—36.4%—living abroad. Jamaica comes fifth at 28.6%. Taking into account independent countries of all sizes, island nations dominate the top ranks with up to half of their populations having settled in other countries. Polynesia was the region with the highest overall diaspora share in 2020, at 28.7%, followed by the Caribbean at 17.7%.
Riaz Haq said…
A Facebook Internship That Led to a 650-Guest Wedding Celebration

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/07/28/style/zabreen-khan-hamza-choudery-wedding.html

In New York, Hamza Choudery and Zabreen Khan quickly bonded over a shared culture and cricket. This month they were married in Lahore.

Hamza Shabbir Choudery was trying to play it cool. He had casually asked his colleague Zabreen Akhtar Khan to grab a bite to eat after work one Friday in the fall of 2017.

Ms. Khan and Mr. Choudery, both 27, met in New York the year before as summer interns at Facebook, now known as Meta. After finishing college, each moved to Manhattan to join the company full time in the global sales department. They then became friends.

They worked on the same floor, and Mr. Choudery regularly made excuses to pass by Ms. Khan’s desk. Her office mates noticed. “When I wasn’t around, they would egg Hamza on, and when he wasn’t around, they would tell me, ‘Oh my God, he really likes you, has anything happened yet?’,” Ms. Khan said.

Their casual, after-work dinner lasted for several hours, with the two going out for dessert afterward, then chatting on the fire escape of Mr. Choudery’s East Village apartment. “That’s the anniversary that we celebrate, because that is when things got serious for us,” Mr. Choudery said.

Over the next few months their relationship slowly evolved. “I embarrassingly said, ‘I wonder what your parents will think of me,’” Mr. Choudery said, laughing. “I had a lot of faith in the relationship from the get-go.”


Ms. Khan, who is now a partner at the venture capital firm Phenomenal Ventures, was born and raised in Lahore, Pakistan. She has a bachelor’s degree in science, technology and society from Stanford and an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School.

Mr. Choudery, a founder of Autoblocks, an artificial intelligence start-up company, was born in Bangial, a village in Pakistan about three hours outside Lahore. His family moved to the United States when he was 3, and he grew up on a farm in Pocomoke City, Md. He has a bachelor’s degree in finance and information systems from University of Maryland and an M.B.A. from Stanford Graduate School of Business.

“There was a very easy bond between us because there were a lot of shared values and shared experiences,” Ms. Khan said. “We’re both a little bit Pakistani, a little bit American.”

Both also like cricket. “He knows all the players’ names, we can reference the same Pakistan cricket matches that happened 15 years ago,” Ms. Khan said. Mr. Choudery even joined the same cricket league as Ms. Khan’s older brother in New York, endearing him more to her family.
Riaz Haq said…
Robert F. Kennedy’s Granddaughter Sarah and Her Husband Celebrate His Pakistani Heritage with Wedding Mehndi

https://people.com/jfk-granddaughter-sarah-kennedy-and-husband-host-traditional-wedding-mehndi-7734882

When planning their wedding weekend, it was important for the couple to combine Kennedy’s Catholic family traditions with Sulahry’s Muslim and Pakistani family traditions.

“We look forward to celebrating with close family and friends and sharing our relationships and cultures," Sarah said. "Our wedding is unique because we combine Sarah’s Irish catholic roots with Jam’s Muslim Pakistani roots to celebrate our love joyfully. We look forward to having so many of our friends and family experiencing our take on the traditional Mehndi event on Friday night."

That fusion of cultures even seeped into the ceremony’s color palette, with the bride and groom choosing pinks and oranges “inspired by the beautiful surroundings of the Cape Cod coast, Sulahry’s Pakistani culture, [our] love for the water, and the natural gardens and landscape of the Kennedy Compound.”

A true melding of tradition, the wedding was a “joyous celebration of love and unity.”
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The Mehndi took place at JFK and Jackie's summer White House, where guests embraced traditional Pakistani culture

Congratulations are in order for Sarah Kennedy, granddaughter of Robert F. and Ethel Kennedy, and her husband, Jam Sulahry!

Ahead of their Aug. 19 wedding, the couple paid homage to Sulahry’s Pakistani heritage with a traditional Mehndi on Friday evening.

Held in Hyannis Port, Mass., at what was known as "the summer White House" of former President John F. Kennedy (Robert's brother) and First Lady Jackie, the ceremony featured “choreographed Bollywood-style dances, henna tattoos, Pakistani desserts, and traditional Pakistani and Indian music.”


“Guests are encouraged to wear vibrant colors and patterns in traditional Pakistani clothing to embrace the experience fully,” Sarah told PEOPLE exclusively.

On Saturday, the pair said "I do" on the historic Kennedy Compound with the ceremony and cocktail hour held at the RFK House, named after Sarah's grandfather.

Never miss a story — sign up for PEOPLE's free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.

The reception was then hosted at the JFK House, named after the bride's great uncle, John F. Kennedy. The wedding was planned and designed by Kate Murtaugh Events & Design, with florals overseen by Beach Plum Floral Design.

“We chose to host our wedding weekend events at the Kennedy Compound and surrounding family homes because of how special it is to us as a backdrop to our lives,” Sarah, the daughter of Chris Kennedy, told PEOPLE. “It is where we have celebrated the great times and come together in heartbreaking times. It truly feels like coming home.”

While their large celebration just happened this weekend, the pair was actually legally wed on June 17, 2022, in a small Pakistani ceremony called a Nikah. That date is the 72nd anniversary of Robert F. and Ethel Kennedy’s wedding date.


Riaz Haq said…
72,000 non immigrant visas issued in year 2022 to Pakistanis for USA.

In 2019 the number was 59,000

2020 and 2021 Covid time was 34 and 20k

So 2020 2021 2022 average is still around 40k which is lower than 2019 avg

I can sympathize with ppl who see lots of ppl leaving and feeling every one is leaving as number of ppl leaving is 3 times more than 2021 and twice as much as 2020 .

However fact is ppl are going as they have always done. In fact we haven't returned to pre Covid levels of Emigration and tourism outside Pakistan

Even in 1997 close to 50,000 ppl were issued non immigrant visa by US from Pakistan!

https://twitter.com/bilalgilani/status/1701139777494651226?s=20


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Who’s Getting U.S. Immigrant Visas?
Last year, more than 285,000 U.S. immigrant visas were issued. Here’s a look how that is distributed across every country worldwide:

Search:
Rank Country Immigrant Visas Issued (2021)
#1 🇲🇽 Mexico 40,597
#2 🇨🇳 China 18,501
#3 🇩🇴 Dominican Republic 17,941
#4 🇵🇭 Philippines 15,862
#5 🇦🇫 Afghanistan 10,784
#6 🇻🇳 Vietnam 10,458
#7 🇮🇳 India 9,275
#8 🇸🇻 El Salvador 7,813
#9 🇵🇰 Pakistan 7,213
#10 🇧🇩 Bangladesh 5,503
Total 285,069

https://www.visualcapitalist.com/countries-receiving-most-us-immigration-visas/

-----------------

H1 B visa from Pak to US

What is the H-1B Visa Category? The H-1B is a temporary (nonimmigrant) visa category that allows employers to petition for highly educated foreign professionals to work in “specialty occupations” that require at least a bachelor's degree or the equivalent.

In year 2022 , 1100 from Pakistan

166,000 from India !

If the exodus is 1100 ppl then we have nothing to fear

If 1100 is exodus than what is 166k

Why the one with 166k is rising India and one with 1100 failing Pakistan

https://x.com/bilalgilani/status/1701143387145945294?s=20
Riaz Haq said…
Latest US Census Data Released in 2023

https://data.census.gov/table/ACSSPP1Y2022.S0201?q=S0201:+Selected+Population+Profile+in+the+United+States&t=-02:-04:070:Ancestry:Income+and+Poverty

Pakistani-Americans Median Household Earning: $106,281, Mean Earnings: $149,178

---------------


White Americans: Median household Income $78,636 Mean Earnings $112,415

African Americans : $52,238 $76,888

American Indian Alaska Native $61,778 $85,838

Asian Indian $152,341 $197,732

Bangladeshi $80,288 $116,500

Chinese $101,738 $160,049

Taiwanese $122,952 $180,906

Filipino $109,090 $122,635

Pakistanis $106,286 $149,178

Nepal $92,262 $120,146

Asians $104,646 $149,363
Riaz Haq said…
US Visa issuance 2018 to 2023: Non-immigrant visas showed a steady increase from 40,679 in 2018 to 80,852 in 2023, and while Immigrant visas fluctuated, they too increased from 10,114 in 2018 to 16,320 in 2023 – Gallup Pakistan Digital Analytics Report on Immigration and Non Immigration Visas to US from Pakistan

https://gallup.com.pk/post/36260#:~:text=US%20from%20Pakistan-,US%20Visa%20issuance%202018%20to%202023%3A%20Non%2Dimmigrant%20visas%20showed,Visas%20to%20US%20from%20Pakistan

Has there been an increase in influx from Pakistan to US between 2018 to 2023?

Non-immigrant visas showed a steady increase from 40,679 in 2018 to 80,852 in 2023. Conversely, immigrant visas fluctuated, with 10,114 in 2018 experiencing a noticeable drop in 2020 with only 3,750 visas issues, most likely due to Covid-19, however, they rebounded by 2023 with 16,320 immigrant visas issued within the year. These numbers reflect the dynamic nature of travel and immigration patterns over the past few years.

KEY FINDINGS FROM THIS PRESS RELEASE:

There was a fluctuating trend of non-immigration US visas issued for Pakistanis in 2023, with peaks in October (9,565) and December (7,483), and low points in July (4,795) and April (5,723), highlighting potential seasonal patterns or shifts in travel behaviour.
Across categories: “Business & pleasure” lead with 85.11% of the visas issued, followed by “Student” making up 3.67% of the visas issued, while “Temporary Workers” only made up 1.33% of the total Non-Immigration US Visas issued in 2023.
Immigrant US visa issuance for Pakistanis fluctuated month-to-month, reflecting varying demand.
Across categories: “Special immigrants” lead with 46.65%, closely followed by “Immediate relatives of US citizens” at 32.22%, while “Employment based” visas only made up 1.41% of the Immigrant US Visas issued in 2023, indicating a lesser reliance in work-related sponsorship.
Non-immigrant visa issuance showed a steady increase from 40,679 in 2018 to 80,852 in 2023.
Immigrant visa issuances fluctuated, with 10,114 visas issued in 2018, experiencing a noticeable drop in 2020 with only 3,750 visas issues, most likely due to Covid-19, however, they rebounded by 2023 with 16,320 immigrant visas issued within the year. These numbers reflect the dynamic nature of travel and immigration patterns over the past few years.
Examining the Non-Immigrant Visa issuances in Pakistan, Islamabad Consulate led with 52.2%, while the Karachi Consulate followed with 47.8%.
Riaz Haq said…
To Buy This Rare Bugatti, He (Pakistani Canadian Bilal Hyderi) Needed Money, Patience and a Trip to France - The Wall Street Journal.


https://www.wsj.com/lifestyle/cars/bugatti-chiron-16-cylinder-cost-5b1864e7?st=pork3ks64dcdckq&reflink=article_email_share

Bilal Hydrie’s dream of owning a 2023 Bugatti Chiron came true after paperwork, interviews, travel—and a $1.5 million deposit

Bilal Hydrie, the president and CEO of an energy company and an investor in oil-and-gas companies, who lives in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, on his 2023 Bugatti Chiron, as told to A.J. Baime.

Luxury, to me, is not about material possessions. My philosophy is, you have to work really hard in life for your dreams, but you have to enjoy your life, too. Having dreams can be an important motivator to do the best you can. I have been passionate about cars going back to when I was young, growing up in Pakistan. I have owned Ferraris and Lamborghinis, but, for me, Bugatti was always the ultimate dream. I never thought I would achieve this dream, but the journey has been amazing.

You cannot just walk into a dealership and buy a Bugatti because so few exist. I had bought several cars through a dealership in Toronto called Grand Touring Automobiles and, nearly three years ago, I asked if they could get me an allocation for a Bugatti. They said they would try.

The first thing I had to do was fill out an application. A couple representatives from Bugatti interviewed me. They asked about my passion and why I wanted to become an owner. Then I was asked to visit the factory, so I flew to France. It was a totally different experience than what I expected.

Bugatti is a world-famous brand. You would expect a giant factory with hundreds of technicians. In fact, the place they took me to was a large house, called the Château St. Jean. [The company was founded by Ettore Bugatti before World War I in Molsheim, France, and has used this château to conduct business meetings going back to 1928.]

They showed me a presentation of the history of Bugatti and how every model tells a story of innovation. They took me to where the cars were built. There were just five or six technicians hand-building the next Bugatti.

To buy a car, I had to put down a deposit of $1.5 million. Every car is personalized. I had high expectations and specific things I wanted. But the company is so into the craftsmanship, they cannot do just anything you ask. They will not do anything that doesn’t meet their standards.

Two-and-a-half years after I filled out an application, I took ownership of my Chiron [pronounced Shee-RON]. Bugatti made 500 Chirons, and mine was the very last standard 1500-horsepower Chiron that will ever be built. Every executive and every technician who worked on this car signed the underside of the hood.

Riaz Haq said…
#NewYorkCity Mayor Eric Adams confuses #India with #Pakistan during #Indian #IndependenceDay2024 celebration. “…So I thank you for allowing me to come here. I’ve known this community for so long, from little Pakistan and Queens, little Pakistan and Brooklyn, you are a major foundation of our entire city,” he said at the parade. Earlier in the speech, he also said “Pakistani officers” when giving a shout-out to the law enforcement community that was on hand, the outlet reported.
https://nypost.com/2024/08/18/us-news/eric-adams-apologizes-after-confusing-india-with-pakistan-during-indian-independence-celebration-in-nyc/
Riaz Haq said…
Diaspora's role in promoting health care in Pakistan

https://tribune.com.pk/story/2501083/diasporas-role-in-promoting-health-care-in-pakistan

Shahid Javed Burki

Physicians of Pakistani origin living and working in the United States constitute an important part of their country's diaspora. The size of the Pakistani diaspora is now estimated at 700,000 or 0.2 per cent of the American population. Those who have moved to the United States account for 0.3 per cent of the Pakistani population. As I will take up later in this article, I and one Pakistani doctor have played active roles in getting the diaspora involved in the affairs of their country. While I established an institution based in Lahore that is now named after me, Dr Nasim Ashraf developed a close relationship with General Pervez Musharraf who gave him a position as a member of his cabinet.

Nasim Ashraf has recently self-published a book that provides a detailed account of the way Pakistani physicians under his leadership began to work together under an effective organisation called AAPNA. The acronym stands for the Association of Physicians of Pakistani descent in North America. Ashraf's book is appropriately titled Ringside, since it provides a view of the political ring that he watched from the sidelines in Pakistan. The book focuses on the role the Pakistani physicians have played in helping the country of their origin to improve the situation of health which has caused economists such as myself to worry how the country's poor performance in the sector of health is likely to affect its economic, social and political progress.

Nasim Ashraf has recently self-published a book that provides a detailed account of the way Pakistani physicians under his leadership began to work together under an effective organisation called AAPNA. The acronym stands for the Association of Physicians of Pakistani descent in North America. Ashraf's book is appropriately titled Ringside, since it provides a view of the political ring that he watched from the sidelines in Pakistan. The book focuses on the role the Pakistani physicians have played in helping the country of their origin to improve the situation of health which has caused economists such as myself to worry how the country's poor performance in the sector of health is likely to affect its economic, social and political progress.

Pakistan's health system as redesigned by the 18th Amendment to the Constitution has passed on the responsibility of providing healthcare of the citizens to the provincial governments. They have not been effective in performing this role. There are a number of problems with the system. Of these, four are important: lack of finance; deep differences in coverage provided in the urban and rural areas; not enough focus on child- and mother-care; and a serious shortage of paramedics, nurses in particular. Taking the last first.

A paramedic is a healthcare professional whose main role has been to respond to emergency calls for medical help. Following the response, the affected person is transferred to a well-established medical facility such as hospitals and clinics. This system was put to test during the Covid crisis when Pakistan performed better than neighbouring India in part because the pandemic there struck difficult-to-reach slums in the highly population-dense city of Mumbai. Pakistan has only 106,000 nurses to serve a population now estimated at 240 million. As discussed below, the Burki Institute of Public Policy (BIPP) has launched a programme to increase the number of paramedics in the country, in particular in the areas around the megacity of Lahore.

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