Miss Pakistan World pageant

[Nahraf]

Organizers criticized for running Pakistani pageant in wake of flood disaster - The Globe and Mail

Organizers criticized for running Pakistani pageant in wake of flood disaster
Crowning of a beauty contestant.

Crowning of a beauty contestant. Copyright Corbis

It’s inappropriate for Miss Pakistan World to continue while more than 1,600 have died, critics say

Kate Allen

Toronto — From Friday's Globe and Mail Published on Thursday, Aug. 19, 2010 10:30PM EDT Last updated on Friday, Aug. 20, 2010 3:17AM EDT

Organizers of a Toronto beauty pageant that will crown the queen of the global Pakistani diaspora on Friday have attracted controversy for not calling off the event.

Critics say it is inappropriate for the Miss Pakistan World pageant to continue while more than 1,600 have died and four million have been left homeless since flooding began in July in Pakistan. Naomi Zaman, a Toronto singer who won the event in 2005, is one of them.

“I just think that it’s more important to donate and to give to the flood victims, and to help out in the community, rather than doing a pageant right now,” Ms. Zaman said.

Organizers disagree. Sonia Ahmed, president of the pageant, says the whole point of the event is to generate positive news about Pakistan.

“It’s the best time in the world to have a pageant. I would never change it even if I was given a million dollars,” she said. “Miss Pakistan is that beacon of hope, because all the news coming out of Pakistan is negative.”

Friday will be the eighth Miss Pakistan World pageant, which is held every year in Toronto. Seven women from Canada, the United States, England, and Norway will jostle for supremacy in beauty, brains and poise – similar to an American pageant, but with a few twists.

The women will strut for the judges wearing both evening gowns and traditional Pakistani dress. During the talent portion, contestants will demonstrate jazz dancing, belly dancing, and katha, a classical South Asian dance that originated in the third century BC. In a question and answer period, the contestants will be quizzed on Pakistani politics.

The swimsuit round was nixed several years ago.

The event was the brainchild of Ms. Ahmed, who thought of the idea of a pageant while she was still studying commerce at the University of Ottawa. Originally, the pageant was only for Pakistani-Canadians, but it generated so much attention that she decided to expand the event to include the entire diaspora.

This year’s furor is nothing new. “Every year Miss Pakistan falls into one controversy or another,” she said – and attracting attention is partly the point.

“The pageant is just there to bring about a change [for] Pakistani women. Women have always been told to stay at home, they’ve never been asked to change along with civilization,” Ms. Ahmed said. “The idea of Miss Pakistan is to open up the girls to more.”

 

[Nahraf]

Pakistani beauty pageant organizer faces criticism
Published On Fri Aug 20 2010

Contestants in Friday's Miss Pakistan World beauty contest in Brampton. The event went ahead despite calls by many to cancel the pageant in view of devastating flooding in Pakistan, the worst in the country's 63-year history.

Contestants in Friday's Miss Pakistan World beauty contest in Brampton. The event went ahead despite calls by many to cancel the pageant in view of devastating flooding in Pakistan, the worst in the country's 63-year history.
CARLOS OSORIO/TORONTO STAR
Denise Balkissoon Staff Reporter

As tens of millions of Pakistanis struggle with the ongoing devastation of devastating flood now in its third week, sequin-clad contestants strut across a Brampton stage hoping to be Miss Pakistan World.

Sonia Ahmed, organizer of the eight-year-old event, said it takes her a full year to plan the contest which attracts entrants from around the world.

“People these days say to postpone but it’s not easy,” said Ahmed, a University of Ottawa business graduate for whom the pageant is a full-time job. “People’s paycheck depend on Miss Pakistan World.”

This week, the 2005 Miss Pakistan World, Naomi Zaman, told the Star it was somewhat insensitive to run a glitzy contest considering the situation in Pakistan.

About 20 million people have been affected by the floods across an area bigger than England. The floods, which have stricken about one-fifth of Pakistan’s territory, were set off by torrential late July monsoon rains in the northern highlands.

Floods tore through the upper part of the country with terrifying velocity, and are now spreading out through the floodplains of central Punjab and southern Sindh provinces on its way to the Arabian Sea.

“There should have been an attempt to at least postpone it,” former pageant winner Zaman said on Thursday. “We should focus more instead on raising funds. I’m hoping there will be some type of fundraising going on at the pageant.”

Late this week Ahmed invited the Red Cross to set up a donation table in the foyer of the Pearson Convention Centre in Brampton and in her opening address, MC Gulé Sheikh encouraged the audience to donate.

“I’m going to donate afterwards,” said Sheikh’s friend J.D. Dorka, 29. “So I think it’s actually a good thing.”

There were only about 200 or so attendees. The pageant began at 8 p.m. when many Muslims fasting for Ramadan would have been starting their evening meal.

“There was controversy a few years before,” said Sultan Khan, a former judge. He was referring to past criticisms that a beauty pageant was unsuitable for women from a Muslim country.

“That was only fundamentalists.”

Khan said his own family and friends in Pakistan mostly live in the big cities and not much has changed in their daily lives despite the natural disaster.

Of the five finalists three were from the U.S., one was from Norway and one was from Mississauga. Three of them said their families came from Karachi.

On Friday, in New York, Pakistan’s ambassador to the United Nations said the actual number of people killed by the flooding remains unknown because large areas of the country are inaccessible.

Pakistan’s administration has already come under heavy international criticism for its initial response to the disaster.

Earlier this month, Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari was criticized for continuing a trip to meet European leaders — and stop off at his 16th-century French chateau — while his nation was being ravaged by floodwaters, the worst crisis in the Pakistan’s 63-year history.

The official death toll is around 1,500 but the true number may turn out to be higher, Abdullah Hussain Haroon told the UN General Assembly on Friday at the end of a two-day conference on aid for Pakistan.

“We don’t yet know how many are dead and how many have perished,” Haroon said. “We can only hold our breath and hope that the casualty figures have been fewer.”

But on Friday night in Brampton, as dancers in hot pink dresses danced to Bollywood tunes, it seems a million kilometres away.

With files from Star wire services

 

[Nahraf]

Pakistani beauty pageant to go ahead - thestar.com

Pakistani beauty pageant to go ahead
Published On Thu Aug 19 2010

The flood in Pakistan will not stop the pageant in Toronto.

An international Pakistani beauty pageant will proceed, swimsuit portion and all, despite three weeks of flooding that has plunged 20 million into chaos in an already fragile country.

Pageant president Sonia Ahmed said the pageant represents hope for the country.

“Right now everyone is down and depressed, and this is a positive thing,” she said.

But not everyone, including a former winner, agrees.

“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 fundraising going on at the pageant.”

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

Yahya Qureshi was visiting his hometown near the Afghanistan border when the “horrendous” flooding began.

“People were drowning leaving their houses,” the Markham man said. “It was quite a panic.”

Qureshi 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.”

And that’s just it, organizers say — it would be impossible 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 Centre. The winner will represent Pakistan at international pageants.

“People have paycheques depending on this event,” Ahmed said. “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.”

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, conservative members of the Pakistani community complained about the nature of the event, Ahmed said. This year, the pageant falls in the holy month of Ramadan.

Organizers said the show begins after the fast on Friday.

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

Ahmed 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.

 

[AZADPAKISTAN2009]

SHAMEFUL , and its also sad that the girls in the pagents mostly are ugly as well
What a horrible time to worry about superficial beauti , and fake smiles and fake answers just to satisfy own desires for vanity

Bad horrible timing taking away attention away from floods and beauti pagent , like postpone the damn event for this year

 

[True_Pakistan_Zindabad]

SHAMEFUL , and its also sad that the girls in the pagents mostly are ugly as well

What is ugly about them? Yaar are you sure you aren't having boy fantasies like tribal elders? They are Pakistani like me or you.

What a horrible time to worry about superficial beauti , and fake smiles and fake answers just to satisfy own desires for vanity

So we all should force our women to sit at home and cry? Not allow them opportunity to advance their careers in all fields and help increase the middle class size of our country?

Bad horrible timing taking away attention away from floods and beauti pagent , like postpone the damn event for this year

Yaar flooding will not magically stop or fix itself if this event is postponed. If people were smart they would help raise funds through such an event.

 

[Imran Khan]

woooooooooooow look great . why ppl oppose it these girls are not aid workers nor living in pakistan . let them enjoy .

 

[eric_cartman]

As saying goes "Life is a kind of a Show, which must go on..." sums it all.

 

[somebozo]

There are lot of beautiful Pakistani women but only insecure skanks participate in these pagents shows due ther outright pervertness. I have friends looking better than any of the contestants.

 

[Al-zakir]

Is there any wonder why Allah's wrath come upon Muslims? A big portion of country under water, millions starving yet this munafiqs acting like J#ahil medieval Arabs. Not to mention this is supposed to be holiest month for Muslims.

 

[Awesome]

A whole industry dedicated to "Pretend Miss Pakistans".

Till these are not conducted in Pakistan with giving all of Pakistan a chance to participate, the Pakistani look will not emerge out of these beauty pageants.

 

[TOPGUN]

I support change for the nation.... and these gals are beautyful but at the time destress in the nation i think this could have been put on hold.

 

[Skies]

Few months ago there was an fire-accident in Dhaka and killed around 150 people. In that time there was a schedule for Dhaka Fashion Week - 2010. But later that show was canceled as mourning period due to death of people and arranged again after two months from that horrible fire-accident.

These so-called beauties have no value since they have no empathy for the flood affected people of their own country. Isn't it?

 

[AZADPAKISTAN2009]

k guys there are alot more good looking pakistani girls then these ladies in picture

I am not sure if their uncle or mama ji , setup the pagent , they would not even qualify for a model's role in any public advertisement

But I think the , question in mind is timing of this vanity fair

Its like you have fire in your backyard and you are promoting cigrettes ....

If they wanted to do something , help gather some donations

PS: Girl number 2 from right god her nose its like a parrot's nose ugly

 

[do_more]

Nice girls.. Post some vid please...

 

[TaimiKhan]

Is there any wonder why Allah's wrath come upon Muslims? A big portion of country under water, millions starving yet this munafiqs acting like J#ahil medieval Arabs. Not to mention this is supposed to be holiest month for Muslims.

How is this thing allow in Islamic Republic of Pakistan?

Bunch of bloody scumbag running the country.

Plz before uttering the nonsense, do read the reports carefully.

The event takes place in Toronto each year and not in Pakistan, nor is this an official event representing Pakistan.

The event is organized by private individuals for their own fun, there is nothing to represent Pakistan.

Even the participants seems to be from abroad, non from Pakistan.

But do agree with your first statement for the reason of Allah's wrath on us Muslims.