RAWALPINDI: Two decorated Pakistani athletes have reached Japan to participate in the 2020 Summer Paralympics which began today, Tuesday, with hopes to bring home medals from Tokyo.
The sporting event, which began as a small gathering in 1948, has gradually evolved into one of the largest and most inclusive competitions for athletes with disabilities to represent their home countries and compete on the world stage.
Organizers of the Paralympic Games have said that the event is more than a sports competition, and repeatedly cast it as a way to draw attention to the 15 percent of the global population with impairments.
“I was always fond of sports, and I seriously, very seriously, started them in college,” Pakistani all-rounder para-athlete Haider Ali, who has cerebral palsy and will compete in discus throw at the Paralympics, told Arab News on the phone from Tokyo.
The 37-year-old athlete from Gujranwala in Pakistan’s Punjab province has been participating in international competitions for about 15 years and been representing Pakistan since 2006. His memorable achievements include creating history at the 2008 Summer Paralympics in Beijing, China, where he won Pakistan’s first ever Paralympic games medal, a silver, in the F37/38 long jump.
Ali clinched gold in the F38 long jump event and bronze in the T-38 100-meters dash at the 2010 Asian Para Games held in Guangzhou, China. He also won gold for Pakistan in the long jump event at the Far East and South Pacific Games for the Disabled that were held in Malaysia in 2006.
“My family was and continues to be supportive of me both financially and otherwise,” he said. “The National Paralympics Committee of Pakistan is also there.”
Asked about government support, Ali said: “For 15 years, I have faced many hurdles. During this period, I received 30 percent support from the government and 70 percent was my own effort.”
Apart from Ali, Pakistan is also represented by discus thrower Anila Izzat Baig, the first female athlete from Pakistan to compete at the Paralympics. Baig has an impairment to her leg as a result of the effects of polio, which she contracted at age three.
Baig belongs to Faisalabad and has been participating in sports since she was in school. In 2008, she was spotted by Paralympics athletic coach, Mudassir Baig, who offered her a spot on the team for the 2009 Asian Youth Para Games in Tokyo, where she brought home a gold medal for discus throw.
Baig said the Pakistani government had helped her with funding to attend para-athletic competitions around the world.
“I cannot be more grateful since it helped me travel to get to this place,” she said, saying she was also supported by her family.
“My family and my school really supported me,” she told Arab News. “They encouraged me a lot and wanted me to be a part of para-athletic sports since they believed in me and what I could achieve.”
Both athletes share similar hopes for their performances at the Paralympics.
Haider said: “I hope and dream that I can take gold in Tokyo and lift the Pakistan flag with honor. That is my aim right now. I want to show the world what we are capable of.”
Baig echoed the sentiment: “I want to compete at the highest international level and win the medal for Pakistan. From my coaches at the National Paralympics Committee to everyone who has supported me, it is my dream that I can achieve and bring a gold medal for them.”
Two Pakistanis dream of gold as the Paralympics open in Tokyo
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Two Pakistanis dream of gold as the Paralympics open in Tokyo
- Haider Ali and Anila Izzat Baig will participate in the discus throw competition at 2020 Summer Paralympics
- Both athletes have won several medals in various international sporting events in the past
Six of a family killed, four injured in roof collapse in Pakistan’s Karachi Authorities are investigating reason for roof collapse, says state-run media Dead include women and children, Injured persons shifted to nearby hospital
- Authorities are investigating reason for roof collapse, says state-run media
- Dead include women and children, Injured persons shifted to nearby hospital
ISLAMABAD: At least six members of a family were killed while four others were injured during the wee hours of Sunday when the roof of a house in Pakistan’s Karachi city collapsed, state-run media reported.
The incident took place in Karachi’s Gulshan-e-Maymar area at the Afghan Camp colony. Among the six dead were also women and children, the state-run Associated Press of Pakistan (APP) said.
The family living in the house was originally from the northwestern district of Bannu in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP), APP reported.
“Authorities have launched an investigation into the incident to determine its cause,” APP said. “Rescue sources shifted the injured to a nearby hospital for immediate medical attention.”
Roof collapses, especially during extreme weather conditions, are common in Pakistan. Thousands of makeshift houses built using scrap or locally available materials such as corrugated metal sheets, wood, plastic, mud and cardboard are more susceptible to collapses.
These homes are typically found in informal settlements, slums and squatter areas.
Pakistan, Bangladesh resolve to strengthen ties and trade cooperation during OIC meeting
- Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar meets Touhid Hossain, Bangladesh’s adviser on foreign affairs, in Jeddah
- Once bitter foes, ties between both countries improved after fall of Sheikh Hasina’s government last year
ISLAMABAD: The governments of Pakistan and Bangladesh this week expressed satisfaction at the upward trajectory of ties between the two nations, resolving to enhance bilateral cooperation in trade and other sectors during a meeting between their senior officials, state-run media reported.
After decades of strained ties between the two nations, Islamabad and Dhaka have warmed up to each other after the fall of former prime minister Sheikh Hasina’s government last year.
The meeting between Pakistan’s Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar and Bangladesh’s Adviser for Foreign Affairs Md. Touhid Hossain took place in Jeddah during the sidelines of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) Council of Foreign Ministers summit.
“The meeting took place in a cordial environment, reflecting the fraternal sentiments from both sides,” state broadcaster Radio Pakistan reported on Saturday.
“Both the dignitaries expressed satisfaction over the upward trajectory of bilateral relations,” it added. “They agreed to enhance bilateral cooperation in all areas of mutual interest.”
Dar highlighted the two countries’ historical, religious, and cultural linkages, expressing Pakistan’s desire to enhance bilateral cooperation in areas of trade and people-to-people contacts, Radio Pakistan said.
Established together as one independent nation in 1947, Bangladesh won liberation from then-West Pakistan in 1971. Relations between the two countries continued to deteriorate Hasina’s administration, which prosecuted several members of the Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) party for war crimes relating to the 1971 conflict.
However, relations between Pakistan and Bangladesh have improved since Hasina was ousted in a bloody student-led protest in August 2024. Islamabad’s ties with Dhaka have also improved as Bangladesh’s relations with India, where Hasina has sought refuge, have deteriorated.
Last month, Bangladesh confirmed it was resuming direct trade with Pakistan after 50 years. The country’s food ministry said it would receive 50,000 tons of rice from Pakistan in March.
China rolls over $2 billion loan to Pakistan, confirms official
- Debt rollover commitments from China, Saudi Arabia and UAE helped Pakistan secure IMF bailout last year
- Development takes place as IMF delegation holds first review of Pakistan’s $7 billion loan program in Islamabad
KARACHI: China has rolled over a $2 billion loan to Pakistan, the adviser to the finance minister of Pakistan confirmed on Saturday amid Islamabad attempts to strengthen its financial reserves.
The development takes place as an International Monetary Fund (IMF) delegation is in Islamabad to conduct its first review of the $7 billion loan agreement reached between the two sides last year. The IMF delegation will assess the government’s performance in meeting key conditions of the loan. A successful review would secure the release of an additional $1 billion for Pakistan.
Debt rollover commitments from Pakistan’s allies and regional partners China, Saudi Arabia and UAE were instrumental in helping Islamabad secure the bailout program last year to keep its fragile economy afloat.
“Yes, it is confirmed that China has made this rollover,” Khurram Schehzad, the adviser to the finance minister, told Arab News on the phone. He confirmed the amount of the rollover was $2 billion.
Pakistan needs to repay over $22 billion in external debt in fiscal year 2025, including nearly $13 billion in bilateral deposits, Fitch said.
Pakistan’s Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb has repeatedly said the country aims to escape its prolonged macroeconomic crisis by boosting exports, undertaking long-term financial reforms and ensuring economic growth led by the private sector.
As per its deal with the IMF, Pakistan has agreed to undertake reforms in its energy sector, widen the tax net and privatize loss-making state-owned enterprises.
Pakistan was able to build some trust with the IMF by completing a short-term nine-month program last year. Previous loan programs in Pakistan ended prematurely or saw delays after the governments at the time faltered when it came to meeting key conditions.
Pakistan warns against heavy rains, snowfall from Mar. 12-16 in KP and Punjab
- Westerly wave to enter northern parts of country from Mar. 9, persist till Mar. 16, says disaster management agencies
- Disaster management authorities advise citizens against traveling unnecessarily, alets district administrations
PESHAWAR: The provincial disaster management authorities (PDMA) in Pakistan’s northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) and eastern Punjab provinces have warned against heavy rains and snowfall from Mar. 9-16, alerting district administrations to act against any untoward situations.
The PDMA in both provinces said that a “shallow, westerly wave” will enter the northern parts of the country form Mar. 9 and is expected to gain strength from Mar. 12 and persist till Mar. 16.
The PDMA KP warned that during this period, intermittent rain with thunderstorms/snowfall on mountains is likely in Chitral, Dir, Swat, Kohistan, Shangla, Battagram, Mansehra, Abbottabad, Haripur, Malakand, Buner, Bajaur, Mohmand, Khyber, Orakzai, Kurram, Waziristan, Peshawar, Charsadda, Nowshera, Swabi, Bannu, Karak and Kohat districts.
“PDMA has issued a letter to all district administrations to deal with any untoward incident due to rain/snowfall in advance,” PDMA KP said in its notification on Saturday.
Meanwhile, rain with thunderstorms and snowfall is expected in Punjab’s Murree and Galiyat region Mar. 9-16, PDMA Punjab said in a notification on Sunday.
It said rain with thunderstorms is expected in Rawalpindi and Attock, Jhelum and Chakwal on Mar. 10 while rain with thunderstorms (moderate with few heavy falls) is expected in Rawalpindi, Attock, Jhelum, Chakwal, Hafizabad, Gujranwala, Mandi Bahauddin, Sargodha, Khushab, Gujrat, Sialkot, Narowal, Lahore, Sheikhupura, Sahiwal, Faisalabad, Jhang, T.T Singh and Mianwali from Mar. 12-16.
It warned residents against traveling to these areas in Punjab during this time period, calling on them to save essential items such as food and warm clothing.
Parts of Pakistan last month received rains after a months-long drought severely impacted crops like wheat, a staple food, as well as vital cash crops like potatoes in several regions, according to the Pakistani climate change ministry.
Torrential rains during the monsoon season of 2022 triggered flash floods across the country, with scientists attributing it to climate change impacts. The floods killed over 1,700 people and inflicted damages worth $33 billion on Pakistan, as per official estimates.
Pakistani sister duo rebrands grandfather’s 50-year-old leather bag business, makes it online success
- Marium and Sakina Hussain manage most domains of the leather goods business they have named after their grandfather
- Offering a range of products, the sister duo now plans to not only launch a physical outlet, but expand it beyond Pakistan
KARACHI: Turab Ali Ismail Ji Munniwala, a skilled craftsman, set up a small leather retail shop in Pakistan’s commercial capital of Karachi in 1975 and put his heart and soul into making leather bags of various shapes and sizes. His son, Aqeel Hussain, took over the business ten years later and focused it on corporate giveaways, but after the passing of Munniwala more than three decades later, it became difficult for Hussain to run the business alone.
In conservative Pakistan, people often expect a male heir like Hussain, now in his 60s, to carry forward the family’s business and legacy, but Hussain had no son and his daughters, Marium and Sakina, determined to honor their late grandfather’s 50-year legacy, took it upon themselves and amazed many by making Munniwala’s leather bag business an online success.
The sister duo, 32-year-old Marium and 25-year-old Sakina who both had full-time careers as a graphic designer and a corporate lawyer respectively, set out to take their grandfather’s business online in February 2022. Today, their venture, named ‘Turab’ after Munniwala, is breathing new life into a legacy that could have faded away without them.
“It wasn’t a planned thing initially, but it just sort of came into being that ‘okay, who’s going to help Abbu [our father]?’,” Sakina recalled how Turab came to life.
“When we basically started to grow up, it was always a thing that who is going to take this business forward because we don’t have a brother. Living in a desi [local] household, it’s always a thing that businesses are being led forward by sons in a family.”
Born and raised in Karachi, the sisters belong to the Dawoodi Bohra community. The family’s shop in Saddar still exists, with their grandfather’s working table still intact. Two of the workers, who started out with their father years ago, still work at the shop and mainly look after the production side of affairs with Hussain.
“People nowadays kill to buy pure leather products, but we don’t have the kind of market for pure leather products here. The players that we have in the market are really expensive for the masses to buy,” Sakina told Arab News.
“And that’s kind of where the idea of Turab came into being. We wanted to create something that’s not only good quality leather but also really affordable.”
Both Marium and Sakina have since been pushing their family legacy forward with a fresh, modern touch.
“As far as the designing is concerned, that’s where we come in. We decided to make the most modern and minimal products that you don’t find in the market,” Marium told Arab News.
Turab offers a range of leather products including tote bags, cross body bags, duffel bags, wallets, travel organizers and laptop sleeves in shades of red, green, orange, yellow and blue.
“Being two women, who like to carry good bags [and] funky colors, the inspiration comes from within. All the players in the market that we have for pure leather, they typically go around the shades of browns [and] blacks,” Sakina said.
“And while that’s a big classic, the youth of today really resonates with vibrant and funky colors and that’s something that we’ve tried to incorporate in our brand.”
As co-founders, the two sisters manage most domains of the online business themselves. The branding is taken care of by Marium.
She also does product photography herself, with Sakina modelling for it.
“It’s a home-based setup [and] that’s how it started. We started making all of our products at the shop and then we brought it home. We converted our dada’s [grandfather’s] room basically into the Turab room and that’s where we store all of our products,” Marium said.
The sisters have been to pop-ups and exhibitions, which they say has really helped elevate their business.
But it has its challenges too.
“When people see two women behind the table, specifically men, they come and try to question the knowledge that we have about leather [and] about the product we are selling,” Sakina shared.
“They probably think that we don’t know enough or not more than them.”
Marium, on the other hand, was initially not taken seriously by the artisans at her grandfather’s shop.
“I often go to [our shop in] Saddar to discuss the production side and the karigars [artisans] often don’t take me very seriously. They give me that look that, ‘we will talk to your dad. He knows, you don’t know’,” she said, adding that she hasn’t see any women anywhere near the leather goods production side at least.
However, her father vouched for the skill of both sisters to run the business.
“They catch everything very quickly,” he said. “The leather business is a bit technical. It took them about a year and a half [to learn], but now they can feel everything and tell you what is leather and what is not.”
The two sisters have carved a niche and the future looks promising as they plan to launch a physical outlet and make Turab a “household name” not just in Pakistan, but beyond.
“From packing orders every two days to one week, now packing every single day [and] multiple orders in a day, we have come a long way. And just going forward,” Marium said.
“We got a couple of orders from Dubai. Right now, I am talking to someone in Canada [and] the USA.”
