I’ve been off the airwaves on Sundays since last year. Now that I’m back you’re getting me for 2 hours. It’s a real pleasure to be on this show again. Especially when my great producer Amraine has come up with a Pakistan theme for our first programme. We will hear old and young voices, hear stories of survival from the disasterous flood of last summer and hear how young Scots are facing up to issues of identity now. Sadly the only thing we can’t do is eat the cuisine – we’ll save that for another time!
Joining me in the first hour is Habib Malik, the head of Islamic Relief Scotland. Habib is a tireless worker for a great charity. This year he was honoured by the Pakistani Government for raising so much money from Scotland for the Flood Appeal. We’re lucky to have him as he is about to hop on a flight to Nairobi to get stuck into the famine problems of Somalia and Kenya.
Later on I’ll be joined by two great Scottish Asians. Firstly Bashir Mann, who has served as Scotland’s first Muslim politician and as a Justice of The Peace and from Chicago Azeem Ibrahim a self-made millionaire and founder of the Solas foundation which specialises in educating young people away from violence. They’ll be talking about Scottish/Pakistani identities and the future of Pakistan itself. We’ll also hear from The Sunday Herald’s foreign editor, David Pratt about how he has seen Pakistan change and develop over his time reporting from there.
It’s also important to know where things are going artistically so we will speak to Alina Mirza who organised the first ever Pakistani film, media and arts festival in Glasgow in 2005.
Lastly Arifa Farooq will help me discover how young Scottish Muslims reconcile faith and lifestyle choices.
Oh, yes…..and we’ll give you a very wide sample of Pakistani pop, jazz and classical music. All in two hours from 7 on Sunday morning.
That looks to be a fascinating programme – must set the alarm…