ISLAMABAD: Pakistan street football team on Friday lost the semifinal of Norway Cup to Club Forde 3-4, bowing out of this year’s tournament.
The match between Pakistan and the Norwegian club ended in a 1-1 draw, after going into extra time. Mohammad Adeel scored the equalizer goal for Pakistan in the second half.
The game was ultimately decided on penalty shootouts, wherein Club Forde edged Pakistan out.
“Despite the loss, the team showcased remarkable resilience and skill,” Muslim Hands Pakistan, a non-government organization that has sponsored Pakistani street footballers, said in a statement on Saturday.
Pakistan were eager to lift the title this time after having finished as runners-up in the last edition. Their loss to Club Forde reminded of last year’s final where the Green Shirts also faced a heartbreaking defeat in penalty shootouts.
The Pakistan team will now compete for the third position against Norway’s Sutra Club today, Saturday.
In 2022, Pakistan finished runners-up in the Street Child World Cup in Qatar. They were also the runners-up in the previous edition in Russia in 2018 and finished third in the 2014 edition in Brazil.
Pakistan out of Norway Cup title race after losing semifinal to Club Forde
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Pakistan out of Norway Cup title race after losing semifinal to Club Forde
- The match between Pakistan side and Norway’s Club Forde ended in a 1-1 draw, after going into extra time
- The game was ultimately decided on penalty shootouts, wherein the Norwegian club edged Pakistan out 4-3
Military-linked Fauji Fertilizer to bid for stake in Pakistan’s PIA
- Islamabad is trying to offload 51-100 percent stakes in PIA under $7 billion IMF program to overhaul state-owned firms
- 2024 auction drew only one offer of $36 million, far below government’s $305-million floor price, and was rejected
ISLAMABAD: Fauji Fertilizer Company Ltd. (FFC), a unit of the Pakistan army-run Fauji Foundation, said on Monday its board had approved submitting an expression of interest to acquire a stake in loss-making national carrier PIA, according to a filing with the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX).
Islamabad is trying to offload a controlling stake of 51-100 percent in PIA under a $7 billion International Monetary Fund program aimed at overhauling state-owned firms. Authorities last month pushed back the deadline for expressions of interest to June 19.
“The board … has approved submission of an expression of interest and pre-qualification documents to the Privatization Commission … and undertaking a comprehensive due-diligence exercise,” FFC said in the filing.
FFC is Pakistan’s biggest fertilizer maker and has diversified interests in energy, food and finance. Any deal on PIA would expand the military group’s footprint into aviation, though final terms will hinge on the government’s privatization process and regulatory approvals.
FFC’s move marks Pakistan’s second attempt to sell PIA.
A 2024 auction drew only one offer – Rs10 billion ($36 million) for 60 percent of the airline from real-estate developer Blue World City – far below the government’s Rs85 billion ($305 million) floor price and was rejected.
Pakistan had offloaded nearly 80 percent of the airline’s legacy debt and shifted it to government books ahead of the privatization attempt. The rest of the debt was also cleaned out of the airline’s accounts after the failed sale attempt to make it more attractive to potential buyers, according to the country’s privatization ministry.
In April, PIA posted an operating profit of Rs9.3 billion ($33.1 million) for 2024, its first in 21 years.
The airline has for years survived on government bailouts as its operational earnings were eaten up by debt servicing costs.
Officials say offloading the debt burden and recent reforms like shedding staff, exiting unprofitable routes and other cost-cutting measures led to the profitable year.
Ahead of the attempt to sell the airline last year, PIA had faced threats of being shut down, with planes impounded at international airports over its failure to pay bills and flights canceled due to a shortage of funds to pay for fuel or spare parts.
The state carrier’s 34-plane fleet commands only 23 percent of Pakistan’s domestic market, while Middle Eastern rivals take about 60 percent of overall traffic, thanks to wider route networks and direct connections.
Punjab to unveil new budget today, pledges ‘people-friendly’ spending amid economic pressures
- Punjab, home to over half of Pakistan’s 240 million population, contributes roughly 60 percent to GDP
- Punjab’s budget for fiscal year 2024–25 was about $19.6 billion, with development outlay of $3 billion
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s Punjab province, the country’s most populous and economically crucial region, will present its budget for the 2025–26 fiscal year today, Monday, with officials promising a “people-friendly” plan, Radio Pakistan reported.
Punjab Finance Minister Mujtaba Shuja-ur-Rehman is scheduled to table the budget in the provincial assembly in Lahore after the cabinet’s formal approval.
Punjab’s budget is seen as politically significant for the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, which faces tough economic and governance challenges nationwide.
“This budget reflects Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz Sharif’s vision to prioritize people’s welfare and accelerate development projects across the province,” Rehman was quoted as saying by state-run Radio Pakistan.
Punjab, home to over half of Pakistan’s 240 million people, plays a dominant role in the national economy, contributing roughly 60 percent of the GDP. It also receives the largest share of federal funds under the National Finance Commission (NFC) Award. Last year, Punjab’s budget for FY2024–25 was about $19.6 billion, with a development outlay of $3 billion.
Officials have said the upcoming budget will maintain a focus on infrastructure upgrades, agriculture support and social welfare schemes to help shield the population from rising prices.
Local media reports suggest the government could announce new initiatives in education, health care and urban transport, along with efforts to address power shortages in rural areas.
In parched Karachi, mosques give back to the earth by saving ablution water
- Project started at Jamia Uloom Islamia Banuri seminary has now spread to 20 city mosques
- From India to Indonesia, communities have long explored ways to reuse water from places of worship
KARACHI: On a sweltering afternoon in Karachi’s Gulberg neighborhood earlier this month, rows of men lined up under shaded arcades at a seminary to perform wudu, the ritual ablution Muslims perform before prayers.
In a city battered by chronic water scarcity, each drop of this cleansing water is precious but until last year, gallons of it flowed straight into Karachi’s aging sewer lines, lost forever.
Now, at over 20 mosques scattered across this sprawling megacity of more than 20 million people, this water has found a second purpose. It is being stored underground to help replenish the city’s shrinking aquifers, drop by precious drop.
The unconventional fix is the brainchild of Dr. Syed Imran Ahmed, who heads the Panjwani Hisaar Water Institute at Karachi’s NED University. He convinced the administrators of Jamia Uloom Islamia Banuri, one of Pakistan’s biggest seminaries, to store ablution water in underground wells instead of letting it drain away.
And what started as a pilot at the Banuri mosque has since spread to more than 20 mosques citywide.
“A lot of people go to the mosque and use water there without any thinking. Now this water directly goes to wastewater, so it becomes part of wastewater,” Dr. Ahmed told Arab News.
“But what if you divert it to a tank or to a well in the mosque?”
Karachi is Pakistan’s economic engine but also one of its thirstiest cities. Official estimates show it needs about 1,200 million gallons per day but gets barely half that on average.
As residents bore deeper and deeper wells to tap the ground beneath them, they have left behind hollow pockets in the earth, literal sinkholes that are swallowing parts of the city.
A landmark study by Singapore’s Nanyang Technological University found Karachi ranks second in the world for urban land subsidence, just behind China’s Tianjin. Between 2014 and 2020 alone, parts of the city sank by as much as 15 centimeters due to excessive groundwater pumping.
“And that rate of sinking is higher than the sea level rise due to climate change. Now they are calling them bowl cities ... the city is like a bowl because different areas of it are sinking.” said Yasir Husain, founder of the Climate Action Center in Karachi.
The mosque project, he explained, addressed this destructive cycle in which countless homes had bore ever deeper into the earth for water.
“People have on every street two or three houses which have bores, and they suck water from the ground,” he said. “And they’ve gone deeper and deeper.”
Recharging wells, however small, could help restore the balance, Hussain added.
OTHER FAITHS, OTHER CITIES
The idea isn’t unique to Karachi. From India to Indonesia, communities have long explored ways to reuse water from places of worship.
In India’s Hyderabad, the centuries-old Charminar mosque installed a water recycling system in 2019 that filters ablution water for reuse in gardens.
In Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, a green mosque project uses treated wudu water for toilet flushing and irrigation.
In the Middle East, where water stress is even more acute, countries like the UAE have pioneered mosque greywater reuse for landscaping, transforming prayer halls into unexpected allies for urban water security.
At the Jamia Masjid Falah in the city’s Gulberg neighborhood, Abdullah Malik, a mosque committee member, said he could see the water recycling results firsthand.
“It’s essential that any sweet water used should be saved instead of being wasted into the gutter lines,” he said, estimating that 700–800 people performed ablution at his mosque daily.
Even saving three liters per person could mean thousands of liters recharging the earth every day, Malik added, a small, steady buffer against Karachi’s mounting water emergency.
Indeed, encouraged by the community response, Dr. Ahmed has mapped 27 flood-prone areas in the city where monsoon rain can also be stored in recharge wells.
He hopes local authorities will greenlight the proposal soon.
“I think that these 27 wells would be soon active, god willing,” he said.
Meanwhile, supporters like Husain believe mosques and local leaders could play a crucial role in changing habits.
“The water which is used for wudu [ablution] will not end up in your gutter,” he said. “That water is precious.”
No doubt, for Karachi, every drop saved, and returned to the earth, is a promise that the city’s lifeline might yet endure.
International Day of Family Remittances: Pakistani PM hails expats for record payments this year
- In current fiscal, overseas Pakistanis remitted record $34.9 billion, a 28.8 percent increase over the previous year
- Pakistan received $3.7 billion in workers’ remittances in May 2025 alone, a strong 13.7 percent year-on-year
ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Monday hailed the record $34.9 billion in remittances sent by overseas Pakistanis this fiscal year, describing it as a sign of their “growing confidence in the government’s economic policies.”
In a statement marking the International Day of Family Remittances, the premier said the 28.8 percent year-on-year rise in remittances had significantly bolstered the country’s foreign exchange reserves. Pakistan received $3.7 billion in workers’ remittances in May 2025 alone, a strong 16 percent increase month-on-month and 13.7 percent year-on-year.
“These historic figures are a testament not only to the hard work and loyalty of our diaspora but also to their growing confidence in the government’s economic policies,” Sharif said, calling remittances a “powerful pillar supporting Pakistan’s economic resilience.”
“This trust reinforces our resolve to redouble efforts for the revival and growth of our economy.”
With over 9 million Pakistanis living abroad, mainly in the Gulf, Europe, and North America, the prime minister praised the expatriate community for their enduring commitment to families back home and their role in sustaining the national economy.
Sharif reiterated the government’s commitment to attracting foreign investment and expanding exports to ensure long-term economic stability, stressing that remittances remained crucial to this goal.
“Let us renew our collective pledge to work hand in hand with our diaspora, development partners, and all stakeholders to overcome our economic challenges and usher in a new era of investment, prosperity, and national progress,” the premier said.
Pakistan closes pedestrian traffic at all Iran border crossings as Israel strikes escalate
- Closures affect crossings in Balochistan’s border districts of Chaghi, Gwadar, Kech, Panjgur
- All are key routes for cross-border movement, local trade between Iran and Balochistan province
QUETTA: Pakistani authorities have closed all major border crossings with Iran for pedestrian traffic amid escalating cross-border strikes between Iran and Israel, officials in the southwestern Balochistan province said on Sunday.
The closures affect the Taftan crossing in Chaghi district, the Gabd-Rimdan crossing in Gwadar district, the Chedgi and Jirrak crossings in Panjgur district and the Rideeg Mand crossing in Kech district. All are key routes for cross-border movement and local trade between Balochistan and Iran.
“All kinds of pedestrian movement at the Gabd-Rimdan border has been suspended due to the Iran-Israel conflict,” Jawad Ahmed Zehri, assistant commissioner for Gwadar, told Arab News.
Trade activity at the crossing would remain open and Pakistani citizens stranded in Iran would be allowed to return, he said, but no new entries into Iran would be permitted through this point until further notice.
In a separate order, authorities also said the Taftan border crossing in Chaghi district had been closed for pedestrian traffic.
“We have closed pedestrian movements at the Taftan border until further notice,” said Naveed Ahmed, assistant commissioner for Taftan, adding that trade and customs operations from the crossing were continuing as usual.
The Chedgi, Jirrak and Mand Radig border crossings have also been shut, officials in the Kech and Panjgur districts confirmed.
The closures come amid heightened tensions following Israeli strikes on Iranian cities since Friday with scores killed, including senior Iranian military commanders.
The blockade is expected to affect daily wage laborers, small-scale traders and local residents who depend on frequent cross-border movement for commerce, supplies and family visits.
Small items such as fruit, vegetables and household goods are commonly traded by hand or in small vehicles along these routes.
Bilateral trade volume between Pakistan and Iran reached $2.8 billion in the last fiscal year, which ended in June. Both countries have signed a memorandum of understanding with the aim of increasing this volume to $10 billion.
Iran also supplies about 100 megawatts of electricity to border towns in Balochistan.
