Pakistani Americans celebrate naming of street after Jinnah
AVENUE IN NEW YORK RENAMED TO HONOUR LEADER
■ Associate Editor - Online
Adream of Pakistanis living in New York came true after a road on Coney Island, Brooklyn, was named after Mohammad Ali Jinnah, the founding father of Pakistan.
Amid slogans of “Pakistan Zindabad” (long live Pakistan), a ceremony was held on Friday to rename Coney Island Avenue, which has become Mohammad Ali Jinnah Way.
“One day, we hope Coney Island, which is known as little Pakistan, will actually be renamed Little Pakistan due to the heavy concentration of Pakistani[s] living in the area,” said Mohsin Zaheer, a Pakistani journalist who lives in the neighbourhood.
Popular destination
Zaheer told Gulf News by the phone that Coney Island has been a favourite destination for Pakistani immigrants since the 80s. The area is informally known as Little Pakistan among residents because it hosts a large number of Pakistani restaurants and shops, while Urdu and regional languages from the country, including Punjabi, are widely spoken there.
This journalist visited Coney Island in 2010 on a family holiday in the US and ate “chicken Karachi” at a Pakistani restaurant on the same street.
The street is full of shops selling Pakistani products including garments, sweets, groceries and even butcher shops offering halal meat. You can get many delicacies from Pakistan including fruit chaat, samosas, jalebis and gulab jamun.