PARIS, France: A 73-year-old newspaper vendor originally from Pakistan is set to receive one of France’s most prestigious honors after more than 50 years of selling dailies on the terraces of cafes and restaurants in Paris’ fashionable Latin Quarter.
Ali Akbar began hawking newspapers after moving to France in 1973, employing a blend of humor and energy to charm locals and ward off falling sales.
In September, President Emmanuel Macron will make him a knight of the National Order of Merit, which recognizes distinguished service to France in a civilian or military capacity.
A native of Rawalpindi in northern Pakistan, Akbar began by hawking copies of the satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo to students in the Sorbonne and neighboring institutions.
Kerb-side newspaper sellers were already a dying breed in Paris in the 1970s as television steadily replaced the printed word as the main source of news — a process that only accelerated with the advent of the Internet.
