The Show Must Go on Despite Flood & Fasting!

NEW YORK: Neither the flood nor the fasting will stop the Pakistani pageant in Toronto. The show must go on!

The beauty pageant, with swimsuit portion and all, involving expatriate Pakistanis, is on this Friday after Iftar, despite three weeks of massive flooding that has plunged 20 million into chaos in an already fragile country.

The month of Ramadan kicked off last week. Austerity, abstinence are the hallmark of this Islamic practice.

But Pakistani-Canadian pageant president Sonia Ahmed told The Toronto Star the pageant represents hope for the country she once belonged to. The show must go on. Most Pakistani-Canadians maintain dual nationality, enjoy such activities but not in Ramadan, commented Huma - a Pakistani Canadian living in Toronto.

It would be impossible, we imagine, to cancel or change the pageant at this point. Seven women of Pakistani origin from Norway, the U.K., the U.S. and Canada are already in Toronto, preparing for the glitzy evening at the Pearson Convention Center, published reports said. The winner will represent Pakistan at international pageants, the paper said.

“People have paychecks depending on this event,” Sonia told The Toronto Star. “My heart goes out to the victims. Every Pakistani has certain ways of dealing with culture and tradition, and my duty is to make sure my country has a positive image through the world.”

Yahya Qureshi, from Markham, said if people want to have a pageant, they should be sensitive.

“It doesn’t look nice when our own are doing glamorous things, which are not warranted in this situation,” he said. “But if they have made pre-plans, and have their own unfortunate situation that they cannot cancel, that is different.”

“There should have been an attempt to at least postpone it,” said Naomi Zaman, who won the crown in 2005. “We should focus more instead on raising funds. I’m hoping there will be some type of fund-raising going on at the pageant.”

Zaman won’t be attending, it has emerged. She’s recording a song and video, and plans to donate proceeds to a number of “disasters around the world, especially flood victims,” the Toronto Star reported.

Khalid Usman, a member of the Canadian Friends of Pakistan, said organizers should be more considerate.

“They should understand people are suffering, anywhere you are celebrating does not make sense,” he said.

This is not the first time the eight-year-old pageant has been criticized. In the pageant’s early years, members of the Pakistani community complained about the nature of the event.

This year, the pageant falls in the holy month of Ramadan. Organizers said the show begins after the fast (Iftar) on Friday.

But “Religion is not going to stop us,” Ahmed told the paper. “We’re doing it for the Pakistani community.”

Sonia told TS said she received many applications from women in Pakistan, but there are no contestants from the flood-ravaged country because the visa process is too complicated.

Her pageant in 2006 produced Mariyah Moten as "Miss Pakistan Tourism 2006". DesPardes titled her Pakistan's Miss Bikini. Moten draped in Pakistan's crescent and star flag and her interview on DesPardes became a hit among Pakistanis (and desis) on the internet!

Read:
Pakistan's First Miss Bikini!

Her photo: http://www.despardes.com/Albums/hottie/20060724.htm

In April, 2008 DesPardes interviewed 2007's Miss Pakistan World and asked Mahleej Sarkari if she would like to date Musharraf. Her answer was a quick yes! Sarkari became another hit on the internet and the chanachoor circuit!

Read Sarkari's story:


http://misspakistanworldofficial.blogspot.com/2008/04/musharraf-is-hunk-despardescom.html