It took a while for me to figure out why the turnout at a recent fashion show at Karachi’s Pearl Continental Hotel wasn’t as high as one had anticipated: after all, some of the most established names in the industry were showing, including Khaadi Khaas, Hasan Shehryar Yasin, Maheen Khan and Nomi Ansari. One of the conclusions I came to was that people were scared.
Earlier in the day, before the show, Peshawar’s Qissa Khwani bazaar had been bombed. Just the day before, a bomb had also exploded in the office of Lahore’s Rescue 15 office. As a result, people seemed generally cautious about going to ‘public’ places.
In spite of the backdrop of country-wide turmoil, life moved on and culture seemed determined to thrive. Some might term it as indifference by several individuals belonging to the privileged class for choosing to host the show despite the above-mentioned events having occurred in the city, others might term it a determination by a section of the society to move forward despite the odds that threatened to impose upon them.
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