Akmal Shahzad Ghumman

Islamabad, Capital Territory, Pakistan

Akmal Shahzad Ghumman's ‘Pinjre vich Ahalna’ (‘The Nest in a Cage’) is a deeply observant collection of short stories. The book explores the changing social and political fabric of Punjab, particularly its growing religious intolerance. With emotional honesty, empathy, and a sharp eye, Ghumman gives voice to people living through shifts of small hopes, quiet defeats and unexpected moments of resilience.

In the title story, a pigeon tries to build a nest in an old cage left on the terrace of a rented house. The narrator has recently relocated to one of the many sterile enclaves sprouting along the city's edges. He watches the bird’s struggle with quiet identification. The neighbourhoods, planned more for appearance than livability, are planted with ornamental, non-native trees—too delicate to offer shade, but potent enough to trigger allergies. They feed a growing market of clinics and pharmacies. The narrator, like the pigeon, is learning to adapt to a life shaped by displacement and quiet estrangement.

'Mussulman', the most layered and ambitious story, follows a Christian convert who survives as a mystic at a Sufi shrine. His presence is both a challenge to rising orthodoxy and a quiet reminder of older, shared values.