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Pakistan to conduct fitness tests of players after humiliating T20 World Cup exit

Pakistan to conduct fitness tests of players after humiliating T20 World Cup exit
Pakistan's cricketers warm up before the team practice session at the National Stadium in Karachi on December 15, 2022, ahead of the third cricket Test match between Pakistan and England. (AFP/File)
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Updated 08 July 2024
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Pakistan to conduct fitness tests of players after humiliating T20 World Cup exit

Pakistan to conduct fitness tests of players after humiliating T20 World Cup exit
  • The 2009 champions suffered a shock defeat to first-timers USA before losing to arch-rivals India in last month’s World Cup
  • The national team was dogged by allegations of internal discord and that some players were in squad because of favoritism
Updated 08 July 2024
KASHIF IMRAN
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LAHORE: The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) will be conducting fitness tests for the first time ever in 104 districts across the 16 regions in the country, the PCB said on Monday, weeks after the national side’s humiliating exit from the Twenty20 World Cup.
The 2009 champions crashed out of the World Cup on June 15 after the USA-Ireland match was abandoned because of rain. It was the earliest-ever elimination from a T20 World Cup for Pakistan. They suffered a shock defeat to first-timers USA before losing to arch-rivals India. Pakistan’s only win was against Canada.
Throughout the tournament, the team was dogged by allegations of internal discord and that some players were in the squad because of favoritism and not merit. A week later, PCB chief Mohsin Naqvi said players would now be selected only on the basis of fitness and performance in domestic cricket.
“Over 2,300 players are appearing in the ongoing countrywide fitness tests. These tests are being conducted as per the Chairman PCB Mohsin Naqvi’s vision for incorporating a culture of fitness at grassroots level,” the PCB said in a statement.
In order to assemble squads for the Regional Inter District Senior Tournament 2024-25, 23 players in each district have been shortlisted after the Challenge Cup that took place in April and May. These 23 players in each district are undergoing strenuous fitness and strength testing under the respective district and regional coaches and trainers, according to the PCB.
The players, after passing the fitness test, will be summoned for a 45-day camp in their respective districts leading to the Inter District Senior Tournament in September.
“The PCB has decided to conduct fitness tests at the district level instead of the regional level starting from this domestic season,” said Abdullah Khurram Niazi, a PCB director for domestic cricket operations.
“This initiative will surely push the players to prioritize their fitness right from the start and the culture will then expand to other domestic competitions. With more fitter players participating in the tournaments, the quality of cricket will also increase.”

Topics: Pakistan Cricket Board

For Karachi’s gravediggers, hard lives meet daily death at city’s over 250 cemeteries

For Karachi’s gravediggers, hard lives meet daily death at city’s over 250 cemeteries
Updated 54 sec ago
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For Karachi’s gravediggers, hard lives meet daily death at city’s over 250 cemeteries

For Karachi’s gravediggers, hard lives meet daily death at city’s over 250 cemeteries
  • Many gravediggers in the port city have been involved in the profession through generations but struggle to make ends meet
  • As space for graves runs out in the city of 20 million, locals complain of overcharging and bribery by officials and gravediggers
Updated 54 sec ago
NAIMAT KHAN

KARACHI: This year, it will be over four decades since Muhammad Jameel, 52, first began digging graves as a nine-year-old.
Earlier this month, Jameel used his rusty shovel to break the soil for a new grave, looking forward to the $5 he will take home to his family of eight from Karachi’s Yasinabad Graveyard, one of over 250 cemeteries in the southern port city. The cemetery is officially closed, having run out of space, but the funerals keep coming.
Indeed, hundreds of graveyards have filled to capacity and become prime real estate in the city of over 20 million people. Yet, people like Jameel, who have been involved in the profession of gravedigging through generations, struggle to make ends meet.
“I have been working here since I was 9 years old,” Jameel, a third-generation undertaker, told Arab News as he wiped sweat from his brow and began to dig. “I used to pour water [on the graves]. My maternal grandfather used to be here. With him I would dig graves.”
Today, Jameel’s responsibilities involve digging new graves, lowering the dead into the ground, and washing and repairing graves and tombstones for little reward in terms of both money and respect.
“If a funeral or body comes, we work on it as if it were a member of our own family, it feels as if someone in our home has died, we work like that,” the gravedigger said.
“But people don’t think much of us … Making ends meet is very difficult for us. The children also bring in some income from various sources and that’s how we manage to get by.”
Younus Khan Niazi, a 40-year-old second-generation gravedigger at Karachi’s Mewa Shah Graveyard, said there were days when he went home empty-handed.
“A laborer who goes to work in the morning earns a daily wage and brings some money home, but in our cemetery, there’s a chance to earn something only if a body arrives,” he said.
Despite the small pay-off, the nature of the work of death means gravediggers often have to stop all of their life’s activities in the lime of duty.
Jameel recalled one such instance when he missed the birth of his child: 
“The delivery was happening there [at hospital], I was digging a grave here.”
And while Jameel said his family was likely to quit the profession due to a lack of respect and money, Niazi, who has four sons, said he intended to pass on the tradition to his children.
“Just as I took over after my father, my son will take over after me. Skill is wealth, and this cemetery work, grave digging and laying blocks, is a skill.”
Niazi acknowledged that his line of work meant he often had to miss out on important family occasions but said he could not be ungrateful that other people’s grief was putting food on his table.
“When someone passes away, they will come to me to dig the grave,” Niazi said. “I will dig the grave and it will provide livelihood for my children.”
GRAVE BUSINESS
Of the over 250 graveyards in Karachi, only 38 are managed by the state Karachi Municipal Corporation (KMC), and of these, six have reached capacity and are officially closed, namely Yasinabad, Paposh Nagar, Society, Model Colony, Qur’angi and Mehmoodabad. 
And while many of the cemeteries like Yasinabad and Society no longer have space for new graves, locals and experts say this has created opportunities for both officials and gravediggers to make money by overcharging grieving families and asking for bribes. 
One mourner, Owais Ali, an electronics trader, said he had wanted to bury his mother in the Society graveyard near his house but was asked by the supervisor of the graveyard and on-duty gravediggers to pay over $300 for a spot, instead of the KMC fee of around $35. Ali managed to negotiate the amount down to Rs35,000 ($126) “by using a contact,” he said. 
Those who don’t have such contacts end up paying as much as Rs200,000 ($719) for “prime locations,” said Zahid Farooq, a joint director at the nonprofit Urban Resource Center.
“People are forced to bury their loved ones in existing graves due to a lack of space. They are also forced to buy graves at exorbitant prices,” Farooq said, calling the graveyard business a “mafia.”
But he commiserated with gravediggers who he said received little in return for their hard work while cemetery supervisors enjoyed a “good lifestyle.” He said everyone from police to municipal and district administration authorities shared in the profits. 
“They all together share in the expensive graves and the excessive costs,” Farooq added. 
KMC spokesperson Ali Hasan Sajid admitted that graves were regularly sold at rates higher than the KMC fee but blamed gravediggers and families of the deceased for the corruption. 
People often wanted burials in graveyards where their relatives were already buried, he said: “They strongly insist on being accommodated, often tempting the gravediggers with money.”
Low paid gravediggers accepted bribes and assigned graves without the approval of KMC authorities, Sajid insisted. 
“When we investigate and ask the gravediggers if they made such a demand [for higher fee], they deny it,” the KMC spokesman said, admitting that burials were still taking place at the six officially closed graveyards in the city.
“People insist that they need a grave [at this place] in any case and at any cost.”
Gravediggers say they aren’t involved in either the politics or business of the trade. 
Muhammad Abid, a 38-year-old gravedigger, said his community barely made ends meet and had no say in the allocation of graves or how much they cost.
“Our job,” he said, “is only to dig graves.”

Topics: Karachi graveyard

Pakistan PM, Bangladesh chief adviser agree to revive bilateral ties and enhance cooperation

Pakistan PM, Bangladesh chief adviser agree to revive bilateral ties and enhance cooperation
Updated 8 min 22 sec ago
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Pakistan PM, Bangladesh chief adviser agree to revive bilateral ties and enhance cooperation

Pakistan PM, Bangladesh chief adviser agree to revive bilateral ties and enhance cooperation
  • Shehbaz Sharif meets Muhammad Yunus at UN headquarters in New York
  • Both sides agree to revive SAARC platform, promote cooperation in various sectors
Updated 8 min 22 sec ago
Shahjahan Khurram

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Bangladesh’s Chief Adviser Professor Muhammad Yunus held a bilateral meeting in New York on Wednesday during which the two agreed to revive bilateral ties and expand cooperation in various sectors, a statement from Sharif’s office said.
The Pakistani prime minister met Yunus at the sidelines of the 79th United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) session in New York at the UN headquarters.
Historically bitter ties between the two countries have seen a thaw in recent weeks after the government of former Bangladesh prime minister Sheikh Hasina was dismissed following violent student-led protests in August. Both sides have since then expressed the desire to improve relations with each other.
Sharif highlighted Pakistan’s strong fraternal ties with Bangladesh, noting that they were based on common faith, history, and culture, the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) said.
“He also emphasized that both sides need to work together to further strengthen the bilateral relations,” Sharif’s office said, adding that he called for fostering relations through parliamentary exchanges, people-to-people contacts and interactions among sportspersons, academics, artists and students.
The Pakistani premier also invited Yunus to undertake an official visit to his country, stressing the importance of regional cooperation and dialogue.
“Both sides agreed that there was a need to work closely at bilateral, regional, and multilateral levels for the progress and development of the peoples of both countries,” the PMO said.
Separately, Yunus’ office said the Bangladeshi leader called for the revival of the South Asian Association of Regional Cooperation (SAARC) as a top platform for cooperation in South Asia.
Yunus said reviving SAARC could be “a good way” to revitalize ties between the two countries and sought Pakistan’s support in that regard, his office said.
“Shehbaz Sharif promised his support for the initiative and suggested the countries move step by step in reviving the regional platform,” Yunus’ office said.
“Sharif said Bangladesh and Pakistan should open a ‘new page’ in their relations to enhance cooperation in various aspects,” it added.
Meanwhile, the Pakistani prime minister expressed his country’s interest in investing in Bangladesh’s textile and leather sectors while Yunus proposed an exchange of youth programs between the two countries.
“The two countries also discussed renewing foreign secretary-level talks and reactivating the joint commission between the two countries,” Yunus’ office 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 during Hasina’s administration, which prosecuted several members of the Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) party for war crimes relating to the 1971 conflict.
Pakistan’s foreign office said Islamabad desired “robust, multifaceted and friendly relations” with Bangladesh after Hasina’s ouster.

Topics: Pakistan at UNGA Pakistan Bangladesh UNGA 79

Pakistan to announce new policy promoting electric vehicles ‘soon’— minister 

Pakistan to announce new policy promoting electric vehicles ‘soon’— minister 
Updated 25 September 2024
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Pakistan to announce new policy promoting electric vehicles ‘soon’— minister 

Pakistan to announce new policy promoting electric vehicles ‘soon’— minister 
  • Minister says policy to accelerate sale of two-wheelers and three-wheelers in country
  • Pakistan’s urban areas exhibit some of the world’s highest levels of air pollution
Updated 25 September 2024
Arab News Pakistan

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s government plans to introduce a new policy “soon” to promote electric vehicles in the country, Power Minister Sardar Awais Ahmed Khan Laghari said on Wednesday, as Islamabad seeks to cut its expensive fuel import bill and shore up its foreign exchange reserves. 

Pakistan approved an ambitious National Electric Vehicles Policy (NEVP) in 2019 with the goal that electric vehicles would comprise 30 percent of all passenger vehicles and heavy-duty truck sales by 2030. It set an even more ambitious target of electric vehicles comprising 90 percent of all vehicle sales by 2040. 

Pakistan’s urban areas exhibit some of the world’s highest levels of air pollution, primarily due to sub-2.5 μm particulate emissions. This issue significantly impairs both the country’s economy and the quality of life of its residents. Road transport is a significant contributor to air pollution as around 23 percent of Pakistan’s greenhouse gas emissions originate from vehicles.

“The minister highlighted that a policy that encourages the adoption of electric vehicles will be announced soon, which will accelerate the adoption of electric vehicles in the country, particularly two-wheelers, and three-wheelers,” Pakistan’s power ministry said in a statement. 

Leghari was speaking at an event titled, “Pakistan Power Reforms Project” at the Institute of Business Administration in Karachi. The minister spoke about a roadmap for reforms that needed to catalyze industrial and economic growth in the country. 

“Such an intervention will not just increase electricity demand, but also reduce household expenditure on transport, as well as significantly reducing import bill associated with fuel imports,” Leghari said. 

In August, Warren Buffett-backed Chinese electric vehicle giant BYD announced its entry into the country, saying that up to 50 percent of all vehicles bought in Pakistan by 2030 will be electrified in some form in line with global targets. 

Investment company ADM Group also announced in August it would invest up to $250 million for the manufacturing of electric vehicles in Pakistan in a move likely to boost technological advancements in the country’s automobile industry and curtail pollution.

Speaking about the government’s reforms, Leghari said that the country’s power division was working toward improving the governance standards of distribution companies “while pushing for a radical transformation of transmission infrastructure to improve efficiency and reduce losses.”

Talking about surplus generation capacity, Leghari said plans were in place to “stimulate industrial demand” to accelerate industrial and economic growth.

The minister highlighted that Pakistan has one of the cleaner energy mixes in the world, with more than 55 percent of electricity generated from clean hydel, nuclear and renewable sources. 

“More importantly, the same would exceed 70 percent within a few years,” he concluded. “Similarly, almost 75 percent of electricity generated in the country is through indigenous sources, and the same is expected to increase to more than 90 percent over the next few years.”

Topics: ‘Electric Vehicle Policy

25 people killed in days-long sectarian clashes in Pakistan

25 people killed in days-long sectarian clashes in Pakistan
Updated 25 September 2024
AFP
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25 people killed in days-long sectarian clashes in Pakistan

25 people killed in days-long sectarian clashes in Pakistan
  • Last round of hostilities in northwestern Kurram district killed 35 in July 
  • Heavy weapons including mortar shells are being used in ongoing clash.
Updated 25 September 2024
AFP

PESHAWAR: The death toll from sectarian clashes between two tribes in northwestern Pakistan has risen to 20, a local official said Wednesday, as a deadly feud entered its fifth day.

The dispute has injured 75 people in Kurram district near the border with Afghanistan, an area with a history of bloody clashes between Shia and Sunni tribes.

The last round of hostilities in July killed 35 people and ended only after a jirga, or tribal council, called a ceasefire. Officials are now attempting to broker a fresh truce.

“Dozens of homes have been damaged... all efforts by the government and other tribes to end the fighting have failed,” a senior administrative official stationed in Kurram told AFP on condition of anonymity.

Heavy weapons including mortar shells are being used in the ongoing clash.

“One side is reportedly using Iranian-made weapons, though this will be investigated later,” said Aftab Alam, the law minister of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.

Feuds can be particularly violent in the northwestern province, where clashes between tribes are common.

In Pakistan, a predominantly Sunni Muslim country, the Shiite community says they have long suffered discrimination and violence.

Topics: Kurram Agency sectarian clashes

Pakistan reports fresh polio case from Balochistan, taking 2024 tally to 22

Pakistan reports fresh polio case from Balochistan, taking 2024 tally to 22
Updated 25 September 2024
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Pakistan reports fresh polio case from Balochistan, taking 2024 tally to 22

Pakistan reports fresh polio case from Balochistan, taking 2024 tally to 22
  • Poliovirus detected in 30-month-old boy in Balochistan’s Pishin district, says country’s anti-polio program
  • Pakistan, along with neighboring Afghanistan, remains the last polio-endemic country in the world
Updated 25 September 2024
Aamir Saeed

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s national anti-polio program said on Wednesday that the country had reported another case of the disease from the southwestern Balochistan province, taking the tally of polio cases reported this year to 22. 

The latest case was reported in a 30-month-old boy from Pishin in Balochistan, where already 14 poliovirus cases have been detected this year. The southern Sindh province has reported four while Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Punjab and Islamabad have each reported one polio case this year. 

Pakistan, along with neighboring Afghanistan, remains the last polio-endemic country in the world. Starting from late 2018, Pakistan saw a resurgence of cases and increased spread of polio, highlighting the fragility of gains achieved in the preceding three years.

“Each case represents a child whose life has been tragically and unnecessarily affected by polio,” Prime Minister’s Focal Person for Polio Eradication Ayesha Raza Farooq said.” And the only solution is timely and repeated vaccination.”

She said every polio case is a “tragic reminder” that the country has failed its children. 

“I urge all parents to take responsibility and ensure their children receive the polio vaccine to fight back against polio,” she added.

The Pakistan Polio Eradication Program said two large-scale, door-to-door vaccination campaigns are planned for later this year to close immunity gaps and curb the spread of poliovirus.

Pakistan’s polio eradication program began in 1994, and the number of cases has declined dramatically since then. 

Pakistan continues to face challenges in its fight against polio, including militancy, with polio workers targeted by attacks, particularly in the KP province. 

The polio program has adapted to respond to climate disasters such as floods but continues to face disruptions. There are also gaps in supplementary immunization activities, especially in areas where the virus is still present. 

Topics: Polio Polio Campaign anti-polio program

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