Kulsoom Nawaz was tuned to the finer sensibilities of life

Begum Kulsoom Nawaz. (AFP)
Updated 14 September 2018
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Kulsoom Nawaz was tuned to the finer sensibilities of life

  • A student of Urdu literature, she was an ardent supporter of Bhutto too
  • Dedicated to her husband, she once stood up against Musharraf to fight for his release

LAHORE: As the nation continues to mourn for its beloved Begum Kulsoom Nawaz, who will be buried in Lahore on Friday, many who knew Pakistan’s “iron lady” describe her a tender-hearted individual with great appreciation for the finer sensibilities of life. 

Born in 1950 to a middle-class Kashmiri family in Lahore, Kulsoom’s father was a doctor who ran his own clinic in Misri Shah. Kulsoom, on the other hand, acquired a postgraduate degree in Urdu Literature from the University Oriental College. A lover of art and literature, she indulged in left-leaning activism during her student life and was known to be extremely articulate in conducting herself from an early age. A thesis titled “Study of Cultural Awareness in Rajab Ali Baig Saroor’s era” went on to become a book and was later published by Sang-e-Meel, in 1985.

“Kulsoom Rehana Hafeez [her maiden name] always espoused left-wing politics. She was an ardent admirer of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and participated in political activities that supported his [Bhutto’s] movement,” Khawaja Muhammad Zakaria, former dean of the Faculty of Arts and Literature, University of the Punjab, who was also Kulsoom’s teacher, told Arab News on Thursday. 

All that changed after her marriage to Nawaz Sharif on April 2, 1971 when she was thrown into the deep end of politics, with Nawaz holding office as prime minister for three terms. 

And while she did not participate in any political activity, Kulsoom spearheaded the movement for the restoration of democracy in the country and fought for the release of her incarcerated husband after he was overthrown in a military coup, led by former president General Pervez Musharraf, in October 1999. In  July 2000, placed under house arrest, she defied the regime’s order and left her Model Town residence to lead a protest rally against the incumbent government.

This was also the time when differences between Sheikh Rashid, federal minister for railways, and the Sharif family began to emerge, following comments made by Rashid where he had said that “we will not allow any woman in Pakistan to become Rabri Devi”. Devi is an Indian politician from Bihar who served three terms as chief minister of her province after her husband, Lalu Prasad Yadav, resigned in the wake of corruption charges. 

Salman Ghani, a senior journalist and a confidante of the Sharif family, told Arab News that Kulsoom was hurt by those words and “broke into tears in front of her husband who was confined in the Attock Fort”. 

A major change came in her life when she was made party president in 1999 and held office until 2002. “This was not her choice since she never wanted to actively participate in politics,” Ambreen Adeel, a close family friend, said. Instead, Kulsoom preferred to “lead a domestic life and take care of her husband and children”. 

With Nawaz imprisoned for corruption charges, Kulsoom contested the National Assembly seat from Lahore this year and won, but could not take the oath of office due to her fragile health. 

Life dealt a blow in August last year when Kulsoom was diagnosed with early-stage lymphoma. She began treatment at London’s Harley Street Clinic, undergoing multiple surgeries and at least five chemotherapy sessions during the time. She was finally placed on life-support from July this year.

She died at the age of 68, in London, on Tuesday.

Reflecting on how ambitious she was to pursue a PhD degree, Fakharul Haq Noori, Principal of University Oriental College and a family friend, said: “She submitted a synopsis titled ‘Reflection of Nature in Urdu Poetry’ in 1992, though she could not pursue her passion”.

Noori added that Kulsoom chose her family over her future education – something which had become “difficult as she was now married to the country’s prime minister”.

Or “Bao Gee” – the term she used to refer to Nawaz throughout the duration of their married life. It all began when Kulsoom’s elder brother, Latif Hafeez, decided to get married to Nawaz’s distant relative. It was there that the future power couple saw each other and eventually decided to get married. 

Former Punjab Governor, Mian Azhar, recalls an interesting observation he had made about Kulsoom. When someone told him that she was spearheading the campaign for her husband’s release from prison, he said: “She is a brave lady. As someone born into a family of pehalwans (wrestlers), she has to be brave” – a veiled reference to the fact that Kulsoom was the granddaughter of legendary wrestler Rustam-i-Zaman Gama Pehalwan.

And while observers said she will be remembered for her feistiness and her warmth, it was her positivity that left a lasting impression on anyone she met. “I interviewed her for my magazine on telephone. Later, we met at Alhamra Hall where she had come to attend a seminar on education. When I told her my name, she recognized me immediately and met so warmly that it seemed we had been friends for life,” Ambreen Fatima, a feature writer at the Nawa-e-Waqt magazine, said.


Pakistan’s Muhammad Asif wins IBSF World Snooker Championship in Qatar

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Pakistan’s Muhammad Asif wins IBSF World Snooker Championship in Qatar

  • Asif defeated Iran’s Ali Ghareghozlou 5-3 to clinch the title for 3rd time
  • PM Shehbaz Sharif promises to set up world-class facilities for sportsmen

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has congratulated Pakistani cueist Muhammad Asif for winning the International Billiards and Snooker Federation (IBSF) World Snooker Championship in Qatar for the third time, Pakistani state-run media reported on Thursday.
Asif defeated Iran’s Ali Ghareghozlou 5-3 to clinch the title in a thrilling final on November 6, 2024. He outclassed Ali 5-3: 70-25, 7-87(84), 82(56)-8, 106(106)-08, 82-12, 43-91(58), 0-118 and 93(80)-4.
“Asif made the entire nation proud by winning the international championship for the third time,” PM Sharif was quoted as saying by the Radio Pakistan broadcaster. “The talented youth of Pakistan are highlighting the country’s name in the fields of sports.”
The IBSF, founded in 1971, is the governing body for billiards and snooker worldwide. It represents 85 member countries and is recognized by the World Confederation of Billiard Sports and the International Olympic Committee.
Asif, 42, first won the IBSF World Snooker Championship in 2012 and went on to win it again in 2019. His victory ties him with India’s Pankaj Advani who has also won the World Snooker Championship thrice.
The Pakistan prime minister said Asif’s family and coach also deserved recognition, adding that providing quality facilities to Pakistani players was top priority of his government.
“The government is making all possible efforts to provide international standard facilities to the players,” he added.
 


China, Pakistan discuss advancement of rail, road and economic zone projects under CPEC

Updated 08 November 2024
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China, Pakistan discuss advancement of rail, road and economic zone projects under CPEC

  • The discussions included sections of Main Line-1 railway project, Karakoram Highway as well as Gwadar port and economic zone
  • Beijing has invested over $65 billion in energy, infrastructure and other projects as part of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor

ISLAMABAD: China and Pakistan on Thursday discussed advancement of key infrastructure and economic projects under the multi-billion-dollar China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), the Pakistani government said, with the two sides also discussing security of Chinese nationals working in Pakistan.
CPEC, a part of China’s Belt and Road Initiative, aims to connect China to the Arabian Sea through a network of roads, railways, pipelines and ports in Pakistan and help Islamabad expand and modernize its economy.
The discussions on key CPEC projects were held during Chinese Ambassador to Pakistan Jiang Zaidong’s meeting with Pakistani Planning Minister Ahsan Iqbal, according to Pakistan’s Press Information Department (PID).
On the occasion, the Pakistani planning minister emphasized the need for concrete mechanisms to ensure smooth and effective implementation of bilateral projects.
“Both sides deliberated on advancing key projects, including the Karachi-Hyderabad section of Main Line-1 (ML-1) and Karakoram Highway (Thakot-Raikot Section) project, and agreed to accelerate the projects’ timely execution,” the PID said in a statement.
“Regarding the Gwadar Port and Free Zone, both sides expressed a mutual commitment to ensuring the continued development of Gwadar in a holistic manner.”
The meeting came two days after a security guard at a factory in the southern Pakistani city of Karachi shot and injured two Chinese nationals before fleeing, police said.
Last month, two Chinese nationals were killed in a suicide bombing near the international airport in Karachi. In March this year, a suicide bombing killed five Chinese engineers and a Pakistani driver in northwestern Pakistan as they headed to the Dasu Dam, the biggest hydropower project in the country. In 2022, three Chinese educators and their Pakistani driver were killed when an explosion ripped through a van at the University of Karachi. A blast on a bus killed 13 people in north Pakistan in 2021, including nine Chinese nationals.
China, breaking with tradition, publicly spoken out against security threats to its workers and nationals living in Pakistan, where hundreds of them work on Beijing-funded projects linked to CPEC.
Iqbal assured the Chinese ambassador the safety of Chinese citizens was a top priority of his government.
“Pakistan will continue working closely with China to ensure the security of Chinese citizens, projects, and institutions,” he was quoted as saying by the PID.
Ambassador Jiang expressed gratitude for Pakistan’s comprehensive engagement and said the Chinese side was ready for collaboration in areas of agriculture, mines and minerals, industrial cooperation, according to the PID.
Iqbal shared that his ministry was in coordination with the National Development and Reform Commission of China to arrange high-level workshops to bring together experts from both sides to outline the future direction of CPEC’s second phase.
China has lately shown willingness for the second phase of CPEC and has given assurances for the establishment of five new corridors, including that of growth, livelihood, innovation, green economy and open regional inclusive development.
 


Pakistan to press developed nations for unconditional climate funding at COP29

Updated 08 November 2024
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Pakistan to press developed nations for unconditional climate funding at COP29

  • Pakistan is ranked as the 5th most vulnerable country to climate change, according to the Global Climate Risk Index
  • Pakistan PM’s aide Romina Khurshid Alam says vulnerable countries are suffering from their own economic challenges

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan will urge developed countries attending the upcoming Conference of the Parties (COP29) in Baku to fulfill their pledges and provide easy access to climate funding without attaching conditions, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s coordinator on climate change said on Thursday.

The COP29 climate conference, scheduled to take place in Baku between November 11 and 22, will layout new policies and bring together representatives from various nations to discuss the adverse impacts of climate change and evaluate available solutions for adaptation.

Pakistan is ranked as the 5th most vulnerable country to climate change, according to the Global Climate Risk Index. In 2022, devastating floods affected over 33 million people and caused economic losses exceeding $30 billion, highlighting the country’s high susceptibility to extreme weather events.

“Pakistan is very clear on our stance that we need all the developed countries when it comes to the pledges, one, they need to complete their pledges, they need to fulfil their pledges, and two, easy access toward the fundings,” Romina Khurshid Alam, PM Sharif’s coordinator on climate change, told Arab News in an exclusive interview.

In this file photo, taken on August 30, 2024, people wade through flood waters after heavy monsoon rains in Multan. (AFP/File)

Due to the rising temperatures, extreme climatic phenomena, including floods, droughts, cyclones, torrential rainstorms and heatwaves, have been occurring more frequently and with greater intensity across Pakistan.

The South Asian country is among the most severely threatened countries in terms of climate–induced challenges, especially in the context of its dependency on climate-sensitive sectors such as agriculture, water, natural resources and the environment, and socio-economic issues such as poverty. The country’s adaptation to the adverse impacts of climate change is inevitable and likely to become critical in the future.

Alam said vulnerable countries were suffering from their own economic challenges and vulnerabilities, while at the same time, many countries faced additional restraints on climate funding.

“It’s not fair that we always get demands to ‘do more and to do this, to do that, these sanctions are coming,’ that is something which is on the human rights violation as well,” she said, adding that Pakistan wanted to raise its voice on what happened to the pledges, how many countries benefited from them and what straightforward mechanisms could be pursued to provide effective support.

Asked about the total amount pledged by developed nations, Alam said she would provide the exact figure after COP29, but noted that “the number is very low.”

“At COP29, we are talking about the data bank system like in a way that what countries are suffering and looking forward for the carbon credits policies,” she added.

In this file photo, taken on August 30, 2024, residents gather at the site of a landslide owing to heavy monsoon rains in the remote area of Patrak, in Upper Dir district, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. (AFP/File)

Last month, Pakistan proposed the establishment of a regional climate data bank to help Vulnerable Twenty (V20) group of countries prepare an evidence-based response to climate disasters.

Alam said the South Asian country had planned “many things” to showcase at Pakistan Pavilion during COP29.

Speaking about the prevailing smog issue, she said Pakistan would take it up with the Indian team at COP29.

“We are open to dialogues and open to come up with the solution, we want to get the things done by dialogue,” she said, noting that the chief minister of Pakistan’s Punjab, Maryam Nawaz, had also urged India to sit together to resolve this issue.

People walk along a street amid smog in Lahore on November 2, 2024. (AFP/File)

“CM Punjab very clearly said that ‘let’s sit together to sort out this issue because this cannot be done in a way that we are not doing this or you are doing this’,” Alam said.

“This is not a game, the main thing is to think about the children and to think about the future.”

Winter smog has become an annual crisis in Pakistan’s Punjab, particularly the provincial capital of Lahore, with air quality deteriorating to hazardous levels each season. The city consistently ranks among the world’s worst for air pollution, leading to a significant rise in respiratory issues and hospital admissions, especially affecting children and the elderly.

Last year, severe pollution levels prompted a surge in cases of asthma, lung infections and other respiratory problems among residents, according to media reports.

The problem this week prompted Punjab CM Nawaz to propose cross-border cooperation with Indian authorities to tackle shared pollution sources, such as crop residue burning, which exacerbate the region’s smog problem.


Pakistan PM performs groundbreaking of first private sector university in Gilgit-Baltistan

Updated 08 November 2024
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Pakistan PM performs groundbreaking of first private sector university in Gilgit-Baltistan

  • Ramday University is being built by a trust with construction set to complete by donations from overseas Pakistanis
  • Home to some of the world’s tallest mountains, semi-autonomous GB region is among Pakistan’s least developed areas

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif this week laid the foundation stone of first private sector university in Gilgit-Baltistan (GB), promising a bright future for the youth of the remote mountainous region.

Home to some of the tallest mountains in the world, the semi-autonomous GB region is counted among the least developed areas administered by Pakistan.

Ramday University is located in Thagos area of GB’s Ghanche district at an altitude of 11,000 feet. The university is being built on a 200-kanal area of land under a trust, with construction set to be completed through the donations of overseas Pakistanis, the state-run Associated Press of Pakistan reported.

GB-based news portal Pamir Times said the university will offer specialized programs in environmental studies, climate change, hydrology and mineral studies subjects.

“The establishment of an institution of higher learning in a remote area like Ghanche in Gilgit-Baltistan is highly encouraging,” Sharif was quoted as saying on by the APP during the groundbreaking ceremony in Islamabad on Thursday.

The prime minister congratulated former Supreme Cour judge Khalil ur Rehman Ramday on establishing the university.

“He expressed his confidence that this university, located at an altitude of 11,000 feet in Thagos, will reach the peak of modern knowledge and research standards,” the APP said.

Sharif stressed that GB’s development and the welfare of its people were among the government’s top priorities.

The development takes place a day after Sharif visited the mountainous northern region, where he inaugurated a model village for flood-affected families during a day-long visit to Ghizer.

There, Sharif pledged to provide residents with ownership documents to help them acquire new houses that were destroyed by the 2022 floods.


Father accused of murder of British-Pakistani girl blames stepmother

Updated 08 November 2024
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Father accused of murder of British-Pakistani girl blames stepmother

  • Sara Sharif was found dead in her bed in southwest of London in Aug. 2023 with injuries including broken bones, burns
  • Her father, Urfan Sharif, had fled to Pakistan a day before the body was found, along with his wife and the girl’s uncle

LONDON: The father of a 10-year-old British-Pakistani girl on Thursday denied her murder and instead blamed the girl’s stepmother, calling her “evil” and “psycho.”

Sara Sharif was found dead in her bed in Woking, southwest of London, on August 10, 2023 with injuries including broken bones, burns and bite marks.

Her father, Urfan Sharif, 42, had fled to Pakistan a day before the body was found, along with his wife Beinash Batool, 30, and the girl’s uncle, Faisal Malik, 29.

Sharif then called police in the UK shortly after arriving in Islamabad and said he had “beat her up too much.” During the trial, Sharif said he made up this and another confession to “protect my family.”

All three adults were arrested upon their return to the UK a month later. They deny charges of murder and allowing the death of a child.

Details of the extent of Sara’s injuries have been detailed at London’s Old Bailey court, including claims from Batool that Sharif would beat his daughter badly.

Giving evidence for a third day, Sharif admitted slapping Sara “multiple times” but denied beating, burning, or biting her, insisting that he was “never at home” when she was injured.

Sharif broke down when his lawyer, Naeem Mian, questioned him about beating Sara, who was home schooled, with a cricket bat.

The taxi driver denied burning his daughter with an iron and instead said he was “made to” slap Sara by Batool, who constantly accused the girl of behaving badly.

Pointing to Batool sitting in the dock, Sharif shouted: “I should not have believed her... I didn’t realize I’m living with evil and a psycho.”

He also suggested that Batool was the one who bit her “like an animal.”

The jury was previously told that Sharif and Malik had provided their dental impressions but Batool had refused.

“I didn’t do it. Faisal didn’t do it. Who else was at home?” Sharif said.

He denied ever being aware of Sara being in pain. “She never told me that,” he said and indicated that he did not see injuries because Sara wore full-sleeve tops and long bottoms as well as a hijab head covering.

In the month leading up to Sara’s death, Mian said Sharif was out of the house at work from early in the morning to late at night while holing frequent telephone conversations with Batool, who would largely be at home.

Sharif wept as he recalled a time he came home and saw that Sara’s hands had been tied behind her back with brown packaging tape, accusing Batool of the act.

Asked why he did not call the police or ask Batool to leave, Sharif said that his wife was “manipulative” and that he believed her apology.

“I have been an idiot,” he added.

Forensic evidence shown to court included bundles of packaging tape and a white plastic carrier bag fashioned into a hood that could have been used on Sara’s head.

The bag had packaging tape stuck to it as well as long, brown hairs that matched Sara’s DNA, the court was told.

Both the bag and the non-sticky side of the tape had fingerprints that matched Sharif’s, who denied fashioning a hood out of the plastic bag or using it on Sara.

He said the fingerprints could be a result of him handling the items while sorting the garbage.

Sharif had previously accused Batool of being abusive toward him and preventing him from asking Sara about how she obtained her injuries.

In 2022, Batool texted her sister that Sharif had suggested using make-up to cover up bruises after beating Sara, to which the sister replied: “LOL it was going to happen you can tell.”

In the days before her death, Sharif said Sara, who did chores around the house, had asked him to “not go to work.”