Pak Tea House was an intellectuals’ café in Anarkali, Lahore. Initially it was called India Tea House and run by a Sikh family. It was renamed to Pak Tea House after the partition. Great names like Faiz Ahmed Faiz, Ibn-e-Insha, Ahmed Faraz, Saadat Hassan Manto, Muneer Niazi, Mira Ji, Kamal Rizvi, Nasir Kazmi, Prof. Sayyid Sajjad Rizvi, Ustad Amanat Ali Khan, Dr. Muhammad Baqir, Intezar Hussain, Syed Qasim Mahmood etc. were regular visitors to Pak Tea House. It was a great time in the intellectual history of Pakistan.
Now there is hardly a platform like Pak Tea House where we, the youth, can look for knowledge and motivation. Instead we are suppressed and forced just to earn degrees for a living. We feel unable to contribute towards society. We need a place like Pak Tea House to learn and empower ourselves.
Zunaira Khan
Kinnaird College, Lahore
(Published in The Laaltain — Issue 6)