Pak Tea House

Pak Tea House was an intellectual cafe in Lahore, Punjab, Pakistan that has traditionally been frequented by the city's artistic, cultural and literary personalities. Some of the most well-known regulars were Faiz Ahmed Faiz, Ibn-e-Insha, Ahmed Faraz, Saadat Hasan Manto, Muneer Niazi, Mira Ji, Kamal Rizvi, Nasir Kazmi, Professor Sayyid Sajjad Rizavi, Ustad Amanat Ali Khan, Dr. Muhammad Baqir, Intezar Hussain and Syed Qasim Mahmood.

Before Partition, Pak Tea House was known as India Tea House and a Sikh family ran it. After Partition, Siraj-ud-Din got this place on rent from the YMCA administration and renamed it as Pak Tea House. From 1960 to early 1970’s, meetings of Halqa-i-Arbab-e-Zouq were held in the YMCA building, which later shifted to Pak Tea House.

Due to the active involvement of the Progressive Writer's Association, it had a left-wing inclination. Along with the writers who frequent it, it was also a favourite haunt of that section of the youths of Lahore with non-mainstream points of view. It acted as a forum for people of diverse backgrounds to voice their opinions in a non-judgmental atmosphere and had maintained this reputation over the years.

A few years back, it was being shut down by its owner due to less business. This decision was being criticized by the intellectual community of the city. But on February 02, 2012 on the orders of the Lahore commissioner, Pak Tea House has now again come under control of the Young Men’s Christian Association (YMCA). Pak Tea House is located on the Mall Road Lahore, near Anarkali Bazaar and Neela Gumbad.

Internet culture

A popular Pakistani blog by the name of Pak Tea House, named after the intellectual cafe, is run by a group of bloggers led by Raza Ahmad, who is a writer based in Lahore. The group at Pak Tea House have described their blog as the following: "Pak Tea House is a little corner in the blogosphere that will endeavour to revive the culture of debate, pluralism and tolerance. It has no pretensions nor illusions but the motivation of a few people who want to see Pakistan a better place - where ideas need to counter the forces of commercialism, adverse effects of globalisation and extremism. And, ideas must translate into action that leads us to an equitable, just and healthy society."

See also: Progressive Writers' Movement

External links

• [1]
• Lahore tea house under threat
• [2]
• The Cyber Rebirth of Pak Tea House
• Rebirth of Pak 'chai shop' in virtual world