KARACHI: Thousands of people visit a seafood street near the Karachi port to indulge in the finest fish dishes offered by different eateries in winter. Among them, a particular stall at Keamari Seafood has captured the spotlight for several years. While some buyers merely snap a quick selfie with the “peculiar creature” hanging over a large boiling pot before moving on, those who dare to try its taste end up loving it.
The distinctive stall specializes in crab soup at a place where most customers are unfamiliar with crab as a culinary ingredient.
“Those who come for the first time may not have tried it initially, but once they taste it, they really enjoy it and come back for the crab soup again,” Usman Safi, a restaurateur and owner of the stall told Arab News, adding the taste appeals to people.
“As soon as the weather gets colder, the demand for crab soup with seafood increases,” he added.
Crabs are relished globally in various culinary styles, from Southeast Asia’s spiced masala and chili crab to the Chesapeake Bay’s Old Bay Seasoning-steamed blue crab in the US. In Karachi’s seafood scene, the introduction of crab soup in 2019 coincided with the onset of COVID-19, contributing to the stall’s popularity as many believed it had immune-boosting properties.
The street now hosts three stalls, with two later established by the most famous Rashid Seafood.
At Safi’s stall, Chef Abdul Baseer crafts his signature crab soup by taking a live crab and skillfully cutting and cleaning it before putting it on boil. Once that is done, he adds a blend of spices, simmering the concoction for half an hour to create a flavorful and aromatic dish. The inclusion of hot spices, turmeric and Chef Baseer’s “secret spice blend” enhances the unique appeal of his crab soup.
“It has become quite popular, with people coming from far and wide to savor it. It was enjoyed then, and it continues to be a favorite now,” Safi said.
“The taste is good and excellent in every aspect,” Muhammad Arif Awan, a loyal customer, who visits weekly, agreed, attesting to the flavors that keeps him coming back.
Saira Khalid, a new customer, noted the weather was making it a good choice.
“Since the weather is cold for Karachi so the soup is good, it’s warm,” she said, adding that the soup had a lot of peppers, making it enjoyable for those who like it spicy.
“It’s a little spicy and there is good amount of crab meat in it. The serving is quite big, enough for two people,” she said.
Khalid recommended people to visit the seafood street, enjoy fish and prawns, but don’t return home without trying out crab soup.
Karachi’s new winter sensation, crab soup, attracts food enthusiasts from across Pakistan
https://arab.news/ywxwe
Karachi’s new winter sensation, crab soup, attracts food enthusiasts from across Pakistan
- Keamari Seafood market offers all types of fish and shellfish dishes but crab soup becomes crowd puller in winter
- People come to try the spicy soup as a hearty appetizer or main course which chefs say is made with secret spices
Pakistan to host World Boxing Championship in Lahore this month
- Leading Pakistani fighter Usman Wazir says boxing plays a crucial role in promoting the country’s image
- He requests the Punjab provincial administration to sponsor the event, saying the sport inspires the youth
ISLAMABAD: A leading Pakistani boxer has announced that his country is set to host the World Boxing Championship in Lahore on January 25, marking a significant step for the sport in Pakistan, the state media reported on Saturday.
Boxing is a popular sport in Pakistan, but aspiring athletes often face challenges due to a lack of institutional mechanisms to identify and nurture talent across the country. Success in the sport largely depends on individual effort and determination.
Renowned boxer and World Youth Champion Usman Wazir said players from five countries, including Indonesia, Iran, Thailand and France, would compete in ten matches for the championship title.
“I want to promote the country internationally in boxing,” the Associated Press of Pakistan news agency quoted him as saying. “I am trying to organize such a mega event in Islamabad in the future.”
Wazir highlighted that unlike cricket, other sports in Pakistan received less attention but still played a crucial role in promoting the country’s image on the international stage. He maintained that boxing was inspiring the youth, leading many to take up the sport.
He called on the Punjab government, including Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz and Governor Sardar Saleem Haider Khan, to sponsor the event.
Emerging Pakistani boxer Khushal Khan, who will represent the country in the championship, said he drew inspiration from Wazir to pursue boxing.
Undefeated in his last 14 fights, Khan is determined to win the event and bring pride to Pakistan both nationally and internationally.
Five injured in shooting at aid convoy en route to violence-hit Pakistani district
- More than 130 people have died in the remote district since Nov. 21 in clashes over land, sectarian disputes
- The clashes have disconnected Kurram from the provincial capital, causing medicine, food and fuel shortages
ISLAMABAD: Five people, including a top administration official, were injured after unidentified gunmen opened fire on an aid convoy en route to a restive Pakistani district that has been hit by sectarian clashes in recent weeks, officials said on Saturday.
Kurram, a northwestern district of around 600,000 people in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, has been rocked by tribal and sectarian clashes since Nov. 21 when gunmen attacked a convoy of Shia passengers, killing 52.
The attack sparked further violence and blockade of a main road connecting Kurram’s main town of Parachinar with the provincial capital of Peshawar, causing medicine, food and fuel shortages in the area, as casualties surged to 136.
Saturday’s gun attack occurred near Bagan, a tense locality in the district’s center, as Deputy Commissioner (DC) Javedullah Mehsud and other officials led an aid convoy to Kurram, leaving the top officials and four security men injured.
“The deputy commissioner has been shifted from Alizai Hospital to Tal CMH [Combined Military Hospital],” said Muhammad Ali Saif, a spokesman for the KP provincial government.
“The deputy commissioner’s surgery is ongoing, but his condition is out of danger.”
Kurram police spokesman Riaz Khan told Arab News the attack injured DC Mehsud, his police guard and three members of the Frontier Corps (FC) paramilitary force.
“The deputy commissioner suffered gunshot injuries to his legs and shoulder,” the police official said.
Mehsud was leading the convoy of 17 trucks, which were carrying tents, blankets, medical kits, tarpaulins, solar lamps and sleeping bags.
“The convoy has been temporarily stopped,” Saif said. “The clearance process is ongoing, and the convoy will be sent to Kurram soon.”
Provincial authorities have previously air-dropped relief goods and airlifted ailing and injured people from Kurram to Peshawar via helicopters.
Saturday’s gun attack comes days after a grand jirga, or council of political and tribal elders formed by the KP provincial government, brokered a peace agreement between the warring Shia and Sunni tribes, following weeks of efforts.
Under the peace agreement signed on Wednesday, both sides had agreed on the demolition of bunkers and the handover of heavy weapons to the authorities within two weeks, but the attack on the aid convoy has once again cast a cloud on peace in the restive district.
“The situation is under control and security is on high alert. The government will restore peace in the region at all costs,” Saif said, urging both Sunni and Shia sides to remain peaceful and not fall prey to the “conspiracy.”
According to the peace agreement, any party that launches an attack after the signing of the deal will be considered a “terrorist” and action will be taken against it. Another point of the agreement says that a fine of Rs10 million ($35,933) will be imposed on those who would violate the terms of the deal by using weapons against each other.
Land disputes in the volatile district will be settled on a priority basis with the cooperation of local tribes and the district administration, according to the peace agreement. Opening of banned outfits’ offices will be prohibited in the district, while social media accounts spreading hate will be discouraged via collective efforts backed by the government.
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and KP Chief Minister Ali Amin Gandapur condemned the shooting incident near Bagan.
“The incident is a deliberate and nefarious but unsuccessful attempt to sabotage peace efforts,” CM Gandapur was quoted as saying by his office.
“The provincial government, with the cooperation of the area elders, will continue its efforts until complete peace is restored in the area.”
Pakistan tops world chart in financial losses due to internet shutdowns in 2024 — monitor
- Internet disruptions lasted 9,735 hours in Pakistan and impacted 82.9 million users last year
- The South Asian country of more than 240 million people incurred a total of $1.62 billion losses
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan suffered highest financial losses in the world this past year due to Internet outages and shutdown of social media applications, a global Internet monitor said this week.
The South Asian country of more than 240 million people remained the single most affected nation in the world in 2024, incurring a total of $1.62 billion financial losses.
This was higher than the cost in civil war-ravaged countries like Sudan and Myanmar, according to a report released by Top10VPN.com, an independent VPN reviewer, on Jan. 2.
The monitor said Internet disruptions lasted 9,735 hours in Pakistan and impacted 82.9 million users, citing election and protests as major reasons behind these outages in the South Asian country.
“Asia was by far the most-affected region, thanks to the particularly impactful Internet restrictions in Pakistan, Myanmar, Bangladesh and India,” it said. “These nations were four of the six most-affected countries in 2024.”
In Feb. 2024, Pakistan held its general election that was marred by a mobile Internet shutdown and unusually delayed results, leading to accusations that it was rigged and drawing concern from rights groups and foreign governments. Pakistani election authorities denied the allegations.
Opposition parties, mainly former prime minister Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party, held several protest rallies last year to demand an audit of the election results. Day later, social media website X went down in Pakistan, with the government saying the block was for “security reasons.”
Worldwide, according to Top10VPN.com, Internet shutdowns caused economic losses of $7.69 billion in 2024. These outages lasted 88,788 hours, a 12 percent increase from 2023 and highest to date, and affected 648.4 million people across the globe.
“This kind of deliberate outage is Internet censorship in its most extreme form,” the monitor said. “Not only do they infringe on citizens’ digital rights but they are also catastrophic acts of national economic self-sabotage.”
The calculations were made using the Cost of Shutdown Tool (COST), based on indicators from the World Bank and other global institutions.
Pakistan weekly inflation records slight decrease after rising for three consecutive weeks
- Major decrease observed in prices of tomatoes, electricity, potatoes, eggs, liquefied petroleum gas and wheat flour
- Pakistan’s annual consumer inflation eased further to 4.1 percent in Dec. 2024, according to the country’s statistics bureau
ISLAMABAD: Short-term inflation, measured by the Sensitive Price Index (SPI), has witnessed a slight decrease in Pakistan, the country’s statistics bureau said this week, after increasing for three weeks in a row.
The SPI, which comprises 51 essential items collected from 50 markets in 17 cities, is computed on a weekly basis to assess the price movement of essential commodities at a shorter interval of time to review the price situation in the country.
The SPI for the week ending on Jan. 2 decreased 0.26 percent on a week-on-week basis, according to the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS). Weekly inflation last decreased by 0.34 percent in Pakistan in the week ending on Dec. 5.
“During the week, out of 51 items, prices of 18 (35.29 percent) items increased, 10 (19.61 percent) items decreased and 23 (45.10 percent) items remained stable,” the PBS said in its report.
Major decrease was observed in the prices of tomatoes (13.48 percent), electricity charges for Q1 (7.48 percent), potatoes (5.59 percent), eggs (0.23 percent), garlic (0.21 percent), liquefied petroleum gas (0.18 percent) and wheat flour (0.09 percent).
The items whose prices increased during the week included chicken (10.28 percent), onions (4.93 percent), bananas (1.68 percent), diesel (1.18 percent), sugar (0.95 percent), jaggery (0.58 percent), vegetable ghee 2.5 Kg (0.53 percent) and petrol (0.21 percent).
Pakistan’s annual consumer inflation eased further to 4.1 percent in Dec. 2024, according to the PBS. Consumer inflation cooled from 4.9 percent in November, a sharp drop from a multi-decade high of nearly 40 percent in May 2023.
Pakistan condemns Israel’s ‘deliberate’ targeting of Gaza hospitals, calls for accountability
- The statement comes a week after Israeli forces burned Kamal Adwan Hospital in Gaza, forcefully removing patients and staff
- Israel’s military campaign in Gaza has killed more than 45,000 people and forced hundreds of thousands to migrate since Oct. 2023
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has condemned Israel’s “deliberate” targeting of hospitals, patients and wounded people in Gaza, and called for its accountability over attacks on health infrastructure and other crimes.
The statement came a week after Israeli forces burned Kamal Adwan Hospital in Gaza and forcefully removed patients and medical staff from the facility, hospital officials said.
In its campaign since Oct. 2023 attacks by Hamas, Israel’s military has targeted hospitals, schools and residential neighborhoods in Gaza, killing more than 45,000 people and forcing hundreds of thousands to migrate, according to Palestinian officials.
Ambassador Asim Iftikhar, Pakistan’s alternate permanent representative to the United Nations, called the destruction of Kamal Adwan Hospital, the last operational major facility in northern Gaza, an “atrocity that shocks the conscience of humanity.”
“The deliberate targeting of hospitals, medical personnel, patients and wounded defies every principle of [international] humanitarian law and has no justification whatsoever,” he told a UN Security Council session on the collapse of health services in besieged Gaza.
“Not just condemnation, there must be accountability for these crimes.”
Between Oct. 2023 and Jun. 2024, at least 136 strikes were carried out on 27 hospitals and 12 other medical facilities, according to the Pakistani diplomat. More than 500 health care workers lost their lives due to the Israeli military campaign in Gaza.
He said 22 of Gaza’s 38 hospitals were rendered non-functional by June 2024 that had left the health care system on “the verge of collapse,” calling for a “decisive action” for an immediate and unconditional ceasefire to halt bloodshed and destruction in Gaza and lifting of the enclave’s inhumane blockade to ensure the flow of food, medical supplies and humanitarian aid for those in “desperate need.”
Pakistan does not recognize nor have diplomatic relations with Israel and calls for an independent Palestinian state based on “internationally agreed parameters.”
The South Asian country has dispatched several relief consignments for Gaza, besides establishing the ‘Prime Minister’s Relief Fund’ that aims to collect public donations for the war-affected people.
