Pakistan's Arshad Nadeem misses Olympic medal, wins hearts

Pakistan's Arshad Nadeem competes in the men's javelin throw qualification during the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games at the Olympic Stadium in Tokyo on August 4, 2021. (AFP)
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Updated 07 August 2021
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Pakistan's Arshad Nadeem misses Olympic medal, wins hearts

  • Poor boy from small town Mian Channu beat all odds to become first Pakistani ever to qualify for final of any Olympics track and field event
  • On Wednesday, he made it to final with third best throw of the day behind India’s Neeraj Chopra and Germany’s Johannes Vetter 

Rawalpindi/Lahore: Pakistan’s Arshad Nadeem finished fifth in men's javelin in Tokyo on Saturday, while all eyes were on the athlete who is the first Pakistani in history to qualify for the final of any track and field event at the Olympics.
Neeraj Chopra won Saturday's event with 87.58 meters. The Czech Republic filled out the podium at Tokyo's Olympic Stadium, Jakub Vadlejch taking silver with 86.67m and Vitezslav Vesely claiming bronze with 85.44m.
Nadeem was fifth with 84.62m, after Germany's Julian Weber with 85.30m.

On Wednesday, Nadeem made it through to the final with the third best throw of the day at 85.16m, behind Chopra (86.65m) and Weber (85.64m). Ahead of the final on Saturday afternoon, he asked the nation for prayers.
“Pray for me,” he said in a video uploaded to Twitter. “Inshallah I will not let down the nation. Destines are changed with prayers.”


On Friday, a day before the final, Nadeem shared a video of his coach also appealing for prayers. 

“Pray for us, he [Nadeem] has qualified with your prayers,” Fayyaz Bukhari, who is accompanying the sportsman. in Tokyo, said. 
Nadeem added in the same video: “I am thankful to the Pakistani public whose prayers were with me.”

 

On Wednesday, when Nadeem qualified for the javelin final, the government of Pakistan’s official Twitter account cheered for him with the words: “Arshad Nadeem you have made us all proud!” 

“Prayers and best wishes for #ArshadNadeem,” information minister Chaudhry Fawad Husain 
wrote on Twitter on Saturday morning.

 

Indeed, when Nadeem went through to the final of the men’s javelin this week, his family, coaches and the public couldn’t help but marvel at how far the boy from a poor family and a small town he had come.
Nadeem was born in Mian Channu, a small city in Khanewal District, one of nine children of daily wage laborer Liaqat Ali. From a young age, he showed great versatility as an athlete, dabbling in whatever sports were on offer at school, from cricket to football to badminton.
By the time he was in the seventh grade, Nadeem had his heart set on being a cricketer. But his father told Arab News in an interview that he realized that he neither had the financial resources nor the connections to support his son in achieving a successful career in cricket. Already, upon the insistence of his elder sons, Ali had been convinced not to send Nadeem to work like his other male children but to help him instead pursue his passion for athletics.
“We are very poor people, I could not afford to send my children to high schools,” Ali said. “After a few classes, I told them to find themselves some work so they could contribute to the family income.”
One of his sons became a driver, another a police constable and one a clerk. But Nadeem was given a chance to pursue his dreams: “On seeing Arshad’s enthusiasm for sports and pressure from his elder brothers to let him make his career in sports, I took him to Khanewal Athletic Federation where, after some basic trials, he was admitted,” his father said.
Soon after, the boy caught the eye of Rasheed Ahmad Saqi during an athletics competition when he was just 12 years old. Saqi had a history of developing sportspeople in the division and became Nadeem’s first coach and mentor.
Saqi told Arab News he could not be prouder of Nadeem’s throw at the Olympics this Wednesday.
“God willing, he can throw up to 90 meters and bring glory for Pakistan,” Saqi said as he prayed for Nadeem to win at the javelin final today, Saturday.
He recalled how he saw a “spark” in 12-year-old Nadeem when he first arrived at the Federation, and “a restlessness to be the best.”
“Therefore, I took him under my supervision as a trainer,” the coach said. “I started taking him to inter-cities athletic competitions where he would leave the stamp of a true sportsman.”
“I decided to train him for javelin throw,” he added, saying Nadeem, at 6 feet 3 inches tall, had the right height and physique for the javelin throw.  
“Arshad’s family was so poor they could not even arrange shoes and sports kits for him, and the Federation had to arrange everything for him,” Saqi said.
The training and support paid off. 
In 2014, after Nadeem secured first place in a Punjab youth festival, Saqi decided “it was high time to induct him in any government department to raise and polish his talent more.”
“My job is to hunt talent, train athletes and introduce them to government sports departments to further their careers as athletes,” he added. “Therefore, I took him to WAPDA, Lahore, where another senior coach, Fayyaz Bukhari, took him under his supervision and trained him to reach the Tokyo Olympics.”
Before Tokyo, in May 2017, Nadeem won a bronze medal with a best throw of 76.33 meters at the Islamic Solidarity Games in Baku. In April 2018, he set a new personal best of 80.45 meters in the qualification round of the javelin throw event at the Commonwealth Games held on the Gold Coast, Australia. In August 2018, he won a bronze medal at the Asian Games in Jakarta, Indonesia, where he set a new personal best and national record of 80.75 meters.
As the only Pakistani athlete at the 2019 World Athletics Championships in Doha, Nadeem achieved a new personal best and national record of 81.52 meters. In November 2019, Nadeem set a national record when he recorded 83.65 meters throw to win gold for WAPDA at the 33rd National Games in Peshawar. In December 2019, he won a gold medal with an 86.29 meters games record throw at the 13th South Asian Games in Nepal.
Now, all eyes are on the athlete’s performance at the javelin throw final.
On Friday, at Nadeem’s modest family home in Khanewal, his family and neighbors arranged a Qur’an recitation to pray for his success.
“We request the nation to pray for Arshad so that he may win the gold medal and make us all proud,” Nadeem’s elder brother Shahid Azeem said. 
Nadeem’s mother burst into tears while talking to Arab News.
“I always wanted to see my son on TV,” she said. “I always wondered how other people’s kids come on TV. ‘When will my son come on TV and we will see him hoisting Pakistan’s flag,’ I always used to think this.”
“There has never been, nor will there ever be, anything quite so special as the love between a mother and a son,” she added, “and my son has made me so proud.”


Pakistan’s defense minister reports ‘death threat’ to British police, received during subway ride

Updated 14 November 2024
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Pakistan’s defense minister reports ‘death threat’ to British police, received during subway ride

  • Individuals who heckled Khawaja Asif recorded a video, warning he could be stabbed with a knife
  • Pakistani ministers have also complained of harassment by Imran Khan’s followers in the past

ISLAMABAD: Defense Minister Khawaja Asif has lodged a report with the British police over the alleged death threat and abuses hurled at him during a train ride in London, the Pakistan High Commission in the United Kingdom said on Thursday.
A viral video surfaced on social media a day earlier, showing an unidentified man hurling abuses at the Pakistani minister in the native Punjabi language, saying, “Take him away before someone stabs him with a knife.”
While Asif chose to ignore the incident and got off the next stop, he visited the Pakistan High Commission on Thursday to formally report the “death threat” to the UK police and demanding an investigation.
“Khawaja Muhammad Asif lodged a report of the train incident with the local police at the Pakistan High Commission,” said a statement released by the Pakistani diplomatic facility. “He informed the police about the details of the knife threat and harassment incident on the train.”
The incident that took place on the Elizabeth Line is now being investigated by the London Transport police, it added.
“I am on a private visit to London,” Asif was quoted as saying. “I was going to Reading via the Elizabeth Line with a loved one.”
He added that a family of three to four persons “harassed and threatened to kill with a knife and used abusive language” against him while making the video.
“I do not know anyone involved in the incident,” the Pakistan High Commission quoted him as saying. “London Transport Police should use CCTV footage to track down the suspects.”
Asif further said death threats and harassment were a “source of shame” for 1.7 million Pakistanis residing in the UK apart from British citizens.
This is not the first time Pakistani ministers belonging to Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s coalition government, led by the Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz party, have been heckled or harassed in the UK.
In the past, Pakistan Information Minister Ataullah Tarar and Punjab Minister Marriyum Aurangzeb have endured the same treatment allegedly by the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party supporters of jailed former PM Imran Khan.
 


Seven killed in Pakistan’s northwest as militant’s car bomb explodes accidentally

Updated 14 November 2024
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Seven killed in Pakistan’s northwest as militant’s car bomb explodes accidentally

  • The explosion took place in Mir Ali where a militant was fitting a bomb in a car at his residence
  • Blast damaged several nearby homes and wounded 14 people, with some in critical condition

PESHAWAR: A powerful car bomb accidentally detonated at the house of a Pakistani Taliban militant in northwestern Pakistan on Thursday, killing at least two children and five suspected militants, police said.
The explosion took place before dawn in the city of Mir Ali in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province when a man identified a local commander of the militants, Rasool Jan, was fitting a bomb in a car at his house, police official Irfan Khan said.
He said other militants from the Pakistani Taliban group quickly arrived at the scene and removed the bodies of the insurgents who died. Authorities later found the bodies of two children in the rubble of the house, which collapsed in the explosion.
The blast also badly damaged several nearby homes and wounded 14 people, including women. Some of the injured were in critical condition in a hospital, Khan said, but he did not provide details.
The Pakistani Taliban and other insurgents in the region often target security forces with assault rifles, rockets, grenades and suicide car bombings, and Khan said it appeared the car bomb was being prepared for such an attack.
The Pakistani Taliban, known as Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan, are separate from the Afghan Taliban but have been emboldened by the group’s takeover of Afghanistan in 2021.
Also Thursday, security forces raided a hideout of insurgents in Harnai, a district in restive southwestern Balochistan province, triggering an intense shootout in which a soldier and three insurgents were killed. During the operation, an army major was killed when a roadside bomb exploded near his vehicle, the military said in a statement.
Pakistan’s President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif paid tribute to whom they called the “martyred soldiers” in separate statements. They said the fight against terrorism will continue until the elimination of all insurgents.
 


Pakistan, Russia call for regional collaboration on Afghanistan amid shared security concerns

Updated 14 November 2024
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Pakistan, Russia call for regional collaboration on Afghanistan amid shared security concerns

  • The call comes as Moscow’s special representative for Afghanistan visits Pakistan for a day
  • Despite security issues, Afghanistan’s neighboring states view its stability as vital for progress

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan and Russia on Thursday called for greater collaboration among regional states to address the situation in Afghanistan, amid shared concerns over militant violence emanating from the war-torn country.
The call came during a visit by Moscow’s special representative for Afghanistan, Ambassador Zamir Kabulov, who met with Pakistan’s foreign secretary, Amna Baloch, and held detailed discussions with the additional secretary, Ahmad Naseem Warraich, at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Islamabad.
“The two sides exchanged views on relations with Afghanistan and called for enhanced coordination among regional countries for a peaceful and prosperous Afghanistan,” the foreign office said. “The two sides agreed to remain engaged toward this end.”
The talks come as both nations grapple with security threats linked to Afghanistan. Russia has voiced alarm over Daesh and its attacks, including a concert bombing in Moscow earlier this year that was linked to militants with ties to Afghanistan.
While the Afghan Taliban and Daesh are sworn enemies, Pakistan accuses the Afghan administration of facilitating the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), a proscribed militant network blamed for cross-border attacks, an allegation Kabul denies.
Pakistan’s approach to Afghanistan has grown increasingly confrontational since last year as it pressures Kabul to rein in the TTP. By contrast, Russia announced last month it would remove the Taliban from its list of terrorist organizations, signaling a step toward normalizing ties with Afghanistan’s rulers.
Beyond security, Russia is keen to retain its influence in Central Asia and engage in Afghanistan’s economic reconstruction, particularly in energy and infrastructure projects.
Initiatives such as the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (TAPI) Gas Pipeline and the Trans-Afghan Railway remain key priorities for Moscow, though persistent security challenges have delayed progress.
For Pakistan also, Afghanistan is critical for regional connectivity. Islamabad has offered landlocked Central Asian nations access to its ports, aiming to facilitate trade with global markets via sea routes.
Despite security concerns shared by Afghanistan’s neighboring countries, its stability is viewed as vital to unlocking the economic potential of regional projects.
 


PM Sharif urges nation to perform rain prayers as toxic smog chokes Pakistani cities

Updated 14 November 2024
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PM Sharif urges nation to perform rain prayers as toxic smog chokes Pakistani cities

  • Shehbaz Sharif urges Islamic scholars to play their role in organizing ‘Istisqa’ prayers across the country
  • Toxic smog has enveloped Pakistan’s cultural capital, Lahore, and 17 other districts of Punjab province

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has urged the nation to perform prayers for rainfall, calling on Islamic scholars to take the lead in organizing “Istisqa” prayers, his office announced on Thursday, as worsening air quality continues to endanger the health of millions.
The Istisqa prayer is a special Islamic ritual performed to seek rain, primarily during times of drought or severe water shortages. It symbolizes the community’s humility, repentance and reliance on divine mercy for sustenance.
Toxic smog has enveloped Pakistan’s cultural capital, Lahore, and 17 other districts in Punjab since last month. Health officials report that more than 40,000 people have sought treatment for respiratory illnesses, prompting Punjab authorities to close schools until November 17 to safeguard children’s health.
“PM Sharif appeals to the nation to offer Istisqa prayers for rain,” his office announced in a statement. “Scholars should especially play their role in organizing Istisqa prayers.”
The prime minister noted the rainfall would improve the environment apart from aiding in getting rid of diseases.
“Istisqa prayers should be organized in all mosques under the auspices of the federal government and the provinces,” he was quoted as saying. “In the current situation, there is a dire need for rain.”
A day earlier, Pakistan’s Meteorological Department forecast light rains from Nov. 14-16 in most districts of the country’s populous Punjab province.
The UN children’s agency has warned that the health of 11 million children in Punjab is in danger due to air pollution.
South Asia, particularly India and Pakistan, gets shrouded in intense pollution every winter as cold air traps emissions, dust, and smoke from farm fires.
Pollution could cut more than five years from people’s life expectancy in the region, according to a University of Chicago’s Energy Policy Institute study last year.
 


Pakistan signs four-year pact with Global Green Growth Initiative to boost climate resilience

Updated 14 November 2024
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Pakistan signs four-year pact with Global Green Growth Initiative to boost climate resilience

  • The agreement will help Pakistan’s transition to a green economy, address water scarcity and deforestation
  • Pakistan has ranked as the fifth most vulnerable country to climate change, with its cities engulfed in smog

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has signed a four-year country program framework agreement with an international green economy organization to advance its sustainable development goals by enhancing climate resilience through green growth initiatives, according to an official statement released on Thursday.
The agreement was signed by Pakistan’s Climate Change Ministry Secretary, Aisha Humera Moriani, and the Global Green Growth Initiative’s (GGGI) Deputy Director-General, Helena McLeod, during a formal ceremony at the United Nations-led Global Climate Conference (COP29) in Baku, Azerbaijan.
Pakistan ranks as the fifth most vulnerable country to climate change, according to the Global Climate Risk Index. In 2022, catastrophic floods claimed over 1,700 lives, affected more than 33 million people, and caused economic losses exceeding $30 billion.
While international donors pledged over $9 billion last January to help Pakistan recover from the devastating floods, officials report that little of the pledged amount has been disbursed so far.
“The Ministry of Climate Change & Environmental Coordination and GGGI has signed a four-year Country Programme Framework agreement to advance Pakistan’s sustainable development goals through targeted climate action and green growth interventions,” said the official statement.
On the occasion, McLeod said her organization aimed to facilitate Pakistan’s transition to a green economy through collaboration with national stakeholders to address water scarcity, deforestation and energy challenges “compounded by climate change effects.”
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s Coordinator on Climate Change Romina Khurshid Alam thanked the GGGI for engaging with Pakistan to “mobilize green finance, support climate action frameworks and promote investment” to achieve climate resilience.
Pakistan also regularly faces other climate change-induced effects such as droughts, cyclones, torrential rainstorms and heatwaves.
Currently, record-high air pollution levels have triggered hundreds of hospitalizations, school closures and stay-at-home orders in the eastern city of Lahore and other cities in the populous Punjab province, which has been enveloped in thick, toxic smog since last month.
A mix of low-grade fuel emissions from factories and vehicles, exacerbated by agricultural stubble burning, blanket Lahore and its surroundings each winter, trapped by cooler temperatures and slow-moving winds.
The city of 14 million people stuffed with factories on the border with India regularly ranks among the world’s most polluted cities, but it has hit record levels this month, as has New Delhi.