The life of a newspaper delivery man in Quetta.

Byline: Muhammad Akbar Notezai

QUETTA -- It's the month of December and the chowkidar of Mehraj Town is burning wood in a stove on a road. There is silence all around him. A few minutes later, a pack of stray dogs starts howling.

Quetta's mountains are blanketed with snow. It's 4:30am and I try to keep myself warm while I wait for newspaper delivery man Rafique Baloch. He arrives shortly to pick me up from Mehraj Town, to begin with him his delivery route.

Situated in the northwest side of Quetta city, Mehraj Town, with a population estimated to be in thousands, is an extension of the well-known and posh Jinnah Town. It is inhabited predominantly by middle-class families. The distance between Mehraj Town and the Akhbar (newspaper) Market is short. We reach our destination on Rafique's motorbike in 20 minutes. Other than two police mobiles and stray dogs which we encounter en route to the Akhbar Market, there is stillness on the roads. In the words of Rafique, 'the whole city sleeps around this time, except us'.

Hawkers often have to run after customers to clear their dues

Akhbar Market is situated on Adalat Road where vehicles are bringing newspapers to the market, their headlights bringing in illumination. I sit with Rafique inside the market watching him briskly fold and arrange newspapers for his customers. At around 6am, we leave for Nawa Killi to distribute newspapers at people's homes.

Nawa Killi is tucked into the northern side of Quetta, housing the rich and poor together. With a population estimated to be in several hundred thousands, there are just seven delivery men in the town. Rafique says he and other delivery men deliver around 700 newspapers in Nawa Killi daily.

At the first light of that Friday morning, the weather turns colder, and we begin to deliver newspapers to the residences of customers living in Nawa Killi. 'Whether it rains or snows, we have to deliver the newspapers,' Rafique tells me as he presses and throws a newspaper expertly into a house. 'There is no holiday in our profession. We deliver newspapers even on Eid days.'

Sleep like a baby

When it's time for customers to pay up, newspaper delivery men say they are never compensated on time. As we wait in front of a mammoth house, Rafique presses the doorbell for around 10 minutes. No one comes as we stand outside in the cold weather. According to Rafique, it takes delivery...