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Pakistan licenses Salaam Family Takaful as ‘first ever’ digital only Islamic life insurance provider

Pakistan licenses Salaam Family Takaful as ‘first ever’ digital only Islamic life insurance provider
Officials pose for a group photograph as Akif Saeed, chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan, handing over the license to Rizwan Hussain, chief executive officer of the Salaam Family Takaful Limited, for Pakistan’s “first ever” digital Islamic life insurance provider in Karachi on May 17, 2024. (APP)
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Updated 17 May 2024
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Pakistan licenses Salaam Family Takaful as ‘first ever’ digital only Islamic life insurance provider

Pakistan licenses Salaam Family Takaful as ‘first ever’ digital only Islamic life insurance provider
  • Pakistan has lately encouraged the development of Shariah-compliant financial institutions in the country
  • In April, Islamabad licensed ZLK Islamic Financial Services Limited as first Shariah-compliant brokerage house
Updated 17 May 2024
Arab News Pakistan
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ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has licensed Salaam Family Takaful Limited (SFTL) as the country’s “first ever” digital Islamic life insurance provider, Pakistani state media reported Thursday.
Akif Saeed, chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP), handed the license to Rizwan Hussain, chief executive officer (CEO) of the Salaam Family Takaful Limited.
The SFTL will provide Shariah-compliant, end-to-end digital offerings as per the stipulations and guidelines of the SECP, the APP news agency reported.
“With this license of our new company, we will be revealing a new brand very soon, which will not only resonate with our values of customer centricity and innovation but will also introduce the much-needed game changing Islamic Life Insurance and Savings offering, never seen before in Islamic Life Insurance segment across the globe,” the report quoted Hussain as saying.
“We have done extensive work in developing a comprehensive infrastructure to be the first ever digital only Life Takaful operator, and in’sha’Allah our products will provide an exquisite digital experience.”
The SFTL said the endorsement signified that its operations and offerings were “completely Shariah-compliant,” according to the report.
The organization would introduce products that would not be the usual life insurance or family takaful products, but they would be disruptive in terms of policyholder benefits and include unique features such as real-time information availability.
Pakistan has lately encouraged the development of Shariah-compliant financial institutions in the country.
In April, the SECP approved amendments to the Securities Brokers (Licensing and Operations) Regulations, 2016 and issued license to ZLK Islamic Financial Services (Private) Limited as the first Shariah-compliant brokerage house in Pakistan.

Boy fishmonger in Karachi becomes Internet sensation with online videos

Boy fishmonger in Karachi becomes Internet sensation with online videos
Updated 35 sec ago
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Boy fishmonger in Karachi becomes Internet sensation with online videos

Boy fishmonger in Karachi becomes Internet sensation with online videos
  • Huzaifa Khan’s vlogs feature conversations with father on daily runs buying and selling fish
  • Speech impediment for which Khan is seeking therapy has not deterred him from making videos
Updated 35 sec ago
NAIMAT KHAN

KARACHI: On a Sunday morning earlier this month, twelve-year-old Huzaifa Khan walked through the narrow alleys of Karachi’s Frontier Colony, a portable microphone in his hand as his father pushed a wooden cart laden with fish.

The duo had just brought the catch fresh from the port city’s bustling seafood market and were now on their way to sell it in neighborhood markets and also make home deliveries. 

Along the way, as the father-son make their daily journey, Khan records conversations between them, talking about their lives as fishmongers and small businessmen trying to seek a living on Karachi’s mean streets. The videos, which Khan began posting in February last year, have made him an instant Internet hit. Vlogs uploaded to the ‘Khanvlogs240’ Instagram page have thousands and sometimes millions of views, with the comments full of people praising him and his father for working to make an honest living. 

Innocent questions from the bespectacled Khan, and a speech impediment that causes a minor stutter, has endeared him to a sizable online audience, which has in turn been a boon for fish sales.

“Earlier, my father used to buy fish from here [fish market] and sell it on a cart only but since online orders started coming in, we now also take fish and deliver it to people’s homes,” Khan told Arab News. 

“People call and ask us to bring some specific fish, so we provide them with the fish they want.”

Selling fish isn’t an easy task, especially when one is also a student and a vlogger. 

Khan says he wakes up every day at the crack of dawn, offers his prayers, attends school and then joins his father in the afternoon to sell fish. On the weekends, when there’s no school, he accompanies his father and elder brother Talha Ubaid on early morning runs to the fish market 14 kilometers away from their home to make purchases. 

In the evenings, he also helps his father and brother run a cart selling French fries. 

“I WILL BECOME AN ENGINEER”

Khan’s journey to social media success began in October 2023 after the family arrived in the southern port city of Karachi from a remote village in the northwestern city of Swat. His first video, called “Chhoti Si Dukan,” or small shop, was posted in February 2024. 

Since then, he has posted hundreds of videos on different social media platforms.

“Now that I’m making videos, I feel good,” the boy said, as he shushed flies away from the fish on top of his father’s cart. 

In the evenings, fans arrive to meet him at the fries stall and Khan rarely disappoints them.

“When my fans come and take selfies with me, I feel very good,” he said with a smile. 

But despite his newfound online fame, the young fishmonger said education was his priority.

“I help my father and also study,” he said. “I will go to school and become an engineer.”

His father, Nadir Khan, who has two other children, said he always pushed Khan to never neglect his education.

“First of all, there are studies. Studies first and hard work later,” he told Arab News, expressing his gratitude for the recognition his son had received. 

“I am very happy that God has given him so much respect. He comes on screens all over the world,” Nadir said. “When he makes videos with me and conducts my interview, I feel very good.”

Khan hopes to pay it back someday. 

“When I grow up, I won’t let my father work, I’ll only give him rest,” he said. 

“I will earn money and give it to him and ask him and my mother to sit back and relax.”

Topics: boy fishmonger Huzaifa Khan vlogs Karachi Fishermen

New Zealand fast bowler Lockie Ferguson to miss the Champions Trophy with a foot injury

New Zealand fast bowler Lockie Ferguson to miss the Champions Trophy with a foot injury
Updated 18 February 2025
AP
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New Zealand fast bowler Lockie Ferguson to miss the Champions Trophy with a foot injury

New Zealand fast bowler Lockie Ferguson to miss the Champions Trophy with a foot injury
  • Coach Gary Stead calls Ferguson key part of the bowling group who was excited about the tournament
  • His place will be taken by Kyle Jamieson, who played his most-recent ODI match in September, 2023
Updated 18 February 2025
AP

WELLINGTON, New Zealand: New Zealand has had another setback ahead of the International Cricket Council’s Champions Trophy in Pakistan, losing fast bowler Lockie Ferguson to a foot injury.
Ferguson was injured in a warm-up match against Afghanistan on Sunday. He will return home immediately and his place in the New Zealand squad will be taken by Kyle Jamieson, who played his most-recent one-day international in September, 2023.
The injury to Ferguson follows the loss of another fast bowler, Ben Sears, to a hamstring injury.
“We’re really disappointed for Lockie,” New Zealand coach Gary Stead said. “Lockie is a key part of the bowling group and brings a lot of major tournament experience and we know how much he was looking forward to representing New Zealand at another major event.
“We wish him well for his recovery and hope he is back firing soon.”

Stead said Jamieson has a skill set which makes him an effective replacement for Ferguson.
“Kyle brings plenty of pace and extra bounce which will suit the conditions here in Pakistan,” Stead said. “He’s shown since returning in the (New Zealand domestic cricket) how effective he can be in the shorter forms of the game and he’s bowled with real pace and energy, which is what you’re looking for.”
New Zealand plays its first match in the Champions Trophy against host Pakistan on Wednesday.

 

Topics: ICC Champions Trophy 2025 ICC Champions Trophy  Champions Trophy 2025 Lockie Ferguson

Pakistan to hold week-long Qur’an recitation event at Shah Faisal Mosque in Ramadan

Pakistan to hold week-long Qur’an recitation event at Shah Faisal Mosque in Ramadan
Updated 18 February 2025
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Pakistan to hold week-long Qur’an recitation event at Shah Faisal Mosque in Ramadan

Pakistan to hold week-long Qur’an recitation event at Shah Faisal Mosque in Ramadan
  • Fourteen Qur’an reciters from all over the country to take part in competition from Ramadan 21-27
  • Shabeena is an event in which holy Qur’an, which has over 6,000 verses, is recited in up to three nights 
Updated 18 February 2025
Hasaan Ali Khan

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s religion ministry announced on Tuesday it will hold a week-long Qur’an recitation event or ‘Mehfil Shabeena’ at the iconic Shah Faisal Mosque in Islamabad from Ramadan 21-27, saying that renowned reciters of the holy book from all over the country will partake in it. 

Shabeena is an annual event in which the entire holy Qur’an, which has over 6,000 verses, is recited in up to three nights during the last days of Ramadan. Muslims around the world visit mosques frequently in the last ten nights of Ramadan, considered the most blessed of the holy month and in which believers around the world spend late hours saying voluntary prayers and reading the Qur’an.

Among one of these odd-numbered nights, Muslims believe, is the “Night of Power” in which Islam says the first verses of the holy Qur’an were revealed to Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him). Ramadan in Pakistan is expected to begin either at the end of February or beginning of March, depending on the sighting of the moon.

“Preparations are underway to hold the national Mehfil Shabeena from Ramadan 21-27 under the Ministry of Religious Affairs,” the religion ministry said in a statement.

It said that out of a total of 56 nominated Qur’an reciters from Pakistan’s four provinces, Islamabad, Gilgit-Baltistan and Azad Kashmir areas, only 14 have been selected to take part in the event. 

The ministry said four Qur’an reciters from Punjab, two each from Sindh, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan provinces have been selected for the event. One Qur’an reciter each from GB and Azad Kashmir have been selected. 

The Faisal Mosque is a landmark of Pakistan’s capital Islamabad, spread over 54,000 square feet that can accommodate over 250,000 people at a time.

It is the largest mosque in Pakistan and the fourth largest in the world, breaking from traditional Islamic structures like domes and instead built along clean modern lines resembling the tents used by nomadic Arab Bedouin tribes, with sloping roofs and a unique angular body.

Topics: Ramadan 2025 Shah Faisal Mosque Islamabad Holy Quran

4 Pakistani troops killed while responding to attack on aid trucks in restive northwest

4 Pakistani troops killed while responding to attack on aid trucks in restive northwest
Updated 18 February 2025
AP
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4 Pakistani troops killed while responding to attack on aid trucks in restive northwest

4 Pakistani troops killed while responding to attack on aid trucks in restive northwest
  • Two were killed on Monday when convoy of aid trucks was attacked by militants in northwestern Kurram
  • At least 130 have been killed in recent months due to clashes between rival Sunni, Shiite groups in district
Updated 18 February 2025
AP

PARACHINAR, Pakistan: Militants in Pakistan overnight ambushed security forces who were responding to an earlier attack on aid trucks in the country’s troubled northwest, leading to a shootout in which four troops were killed, officials said Tuesday.

The ambush happened hours after authorities dispatched reinforcements to respond to Monday’s attack on a convoy of aid trucks in which a driver and security official were killed in Kurram, a district in the restive Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.

Some security forces were also wounded in the overnight ambush in Kurram, where at least 130 people have died in recent months in clashes between rival Shiite and Sunni tribes, officials said. Several trucks that were heading to Parachinar, the main city in Kurram, were looted and burned, authorities said.

Qaiser Abbas, a doctor at a hospital in Parachinar, said they received the bodies of four security forces Monday night from Kurram, where authorities noted a large-scale operation was being planned to try to apprehend the perpetrators of the attacks.

No group has claimed responsibility for the latest attacks.

Shiite Muslims dominate parts of Kurram, although they are a minority in the rest of Pakistan, which is majority Sunni. The area has a history of sectarian conflict, with militant Sunni groups previously targeting minority Shiites.

Topics: Pakistan parachinar

Pakistan heightens security measures in Karachi, Lahore and Rawalpindi ahead of Champions Trophy 

Pakistan heightens security measures in Karachi, Lahore and Rawalpindi ahead of Champions Trophy 
Updated 18 February 2025
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Pakistan heightens security measures in Karachi, Lahore and Rawalpindi ahead of Champions Trophy 

Pakistan heightens security measures in Karachi, Lahore and Rawalpindi ahead of Champions Trophy 
  • Pakistan will host eight-nation Champions Trophy cricket tournament from Feb. 19-Mar. 9 
  • Police in Lahore, Karachi and twin cities have deployed over 20,000 troops for security 
Updated 18 February 2025
Arab News Pakistan

ISLAMABAD: Pakistani authorities have started implementing sweeping security measures in the southern port city of Karachi and Punjab’s Lahore and Rawalpindi ahead of the Champions Trophy tournament, the first multi-country cricket event in nearly 30 years to take place in the country. 

The South Asian nation hopes to erase worries of instability in the country and restore confidence in it as a tourism and investment destination despite its security challenges. Pakistan has suffered a surge in militant attacks in its western provinces bordering Afghanistan since November 2022 after a fragile truce between militants and the state broke down. 

A near fatal militant attack on the Sri Lankan cricket team in 2009 in Lahore scared away international teams from touring Pakistan for several years. For the Champions Trophy, police in Lahore, Karachi and the twin cities of Rawalpindi and Islamabad have deployed over 20,000 troops, including snipers on rooftops along key routes. Hotels where players will stay, stadiums and airports will be heavily guarded as will the roads connecting these locations.

“My team and all the members of all the relevant forces are engaged in this, and from the police side 5000 plus police officers will be deployed,” Maqsood Ahmed, the deputy inspector general of security in Karachi, told Reuters. “They will be doing the traffic duties, the rout protection, the venue protection, the crowd management and other duties along with the intelligence gathering and the operations before the event.”

Pakistan's para-military soldiers stand guard at the National Stadium in Karachi on February 17, 2025. (AFP)

Karachi police said they have set up an additional SWAT unit to respond to emergencies and conducted preventive intelligence operations to identify potential threats. Ahmed said other law enforcement agencies such as Rangers and the Pakistan Army will cover emergency situations as a secondary reaction force.

Meanwhile, Punjab Police have updated surveillance systems and installed around 10,000 AI-powered facial recognition cameras and additional CCTV cameras across the two cities.

Mohammad Taha, a Karachi resident, pointed out that in the past, authorities would not only block the main thoroughfare but all streets surrounding the National Stadium in the city when international cricket newly returned to Pakistan.

“Now the situation is different,” he told Reuters. “Yes, the main thoroughfare Shahrah-e-Faisal will be closed but the traffic will keep flowing on other roads and flyovers surrounding the stadium.”

Pakistan's police commandos stand guard outside the National Stadium in Karachi on February 17, 2025. (AFP)

Mohammad Munaf, another Karachi resident, agreed. 

“This time the planning seems to be good that the matches are going on and there is no hindrance in traffic flow,” Munaf told Reuters. “The security is also very good. We can easily go to watch matches. We can go toward stadium or anywhere near it anytime. So, we don’t face these issues.”
 

Topics: Pakistan Champions Trophy 2025 Lahore Security Karachi Rawalpindi

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