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Positive vibes Pakistan

Now here is something positive that I commend wholeheartedly: :D

Road show - Newspaper - DAWN.COM

Road show
By Editorial
Updated about 15 hours ago
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— Photo by Shazia Hasan


With the country embroiled in a seemingly never-ending political crisis, there are many who fear that the dark clouds will never lift, that nothing can be allowed to function as normal in Pakistan.

No wonder, then, that it is increasingly possible to detect in the citizenry a desperate desire for something other than the projections of gloom.

Happily, it is possible to turn to other interests, as Karachiites were reminded on Sunday when an automobile show brought together some 500 stately ladies of the mechanical kind at the Expo Centre.


Also Read: Automobile show attracts over 500 vehicles

Organised by PakWheels, one of the largest community-based websites in the country, the show had vehicles both of the classic and fairly new variety — a 1982 Suzuki FX and a 2000-model Honda Civic can’t be termed vintage but that doesn’t prevent them from being spectacular.

Jeeps, VWs, vans and trucks rubbed shoulders with sedans and motorcycles, a motley crew with one thing in common — they were all owned and kept in top condition by enthusiasts who clearly lavished time, expertise and money on motor vehicles.

On display were vehicles that, as many a visitor to the show must have fancied, reminded one of the gentler, more charismatic times when these designs and technologies tooled along the country’s roads.

There can be no denying that nostalgia for the Pakistan that once was is alluring.

But the organisers and attendees of events such as the automobile show, and the very many other similar efforts that are made across cities and towns, should be aware of the value of their work: they aren’t just providing an avenue of distraction, they are actively helping construct the country that aspires to be.

With every piece of good cheer, every show of normalcy, the tide is reversed to that little extent against those who wish to pull Pakistan towards darkness.

There is a large constituency for positivity, and more importantly, the willingness to work towards it is strengthened in a thousand small ways each day.

Published in Dawn, September 16th, 2014
 
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Full throttle: Meet Pakistan’s only certified professional F1 driver

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Saad believes that racing is a sport in which younger participants must start training as early as 5 to 7 years of age. PHOTO: SOCIAL MEDIA

ISLAMABAD:
“If you’ve lived your dream, you’ve accomplished your purpose in life.” This is the motto 27-year-old Saad Ali — the only certified professional Formula One racecar driver in Pakistan — lives by.


Ali dropped out of university, where he was enrolled as an undergraduate student in business administration, during his first semester in 2006 to pursue his passion for motorsports. The thrill for speed, adrenaline and to experience “life on the edge” is what inspired him to become a professional open-wheel racecar driver.

“Speed has always played a dominant role in my life – it makes me come alive,” said Saad, who started racing when he was 18. Most of the extreme sports practiced by adventure-lovers around the world have either speed or height as the prime ingredient, he added.

After finishing on the victory stand at his very first race in Bahrain, Saad realised that racing came to him naturally. His performance and lap-time greatly impressed his trainer who strongly advised him to pursue racing as a career. Ever since, he has participated in racing competitions in a number of countries including Abu Dhabi, Malaysia and Bahrain, where he has won several awards.

“Formula One is the pinnacle of auto racing and one of the world’s greatest sporting spectacles. The fact that it’s the highest level of racing that there is on four wheels inspired me to experience it,” he said. “Racing is not merely a competitive sport; it provides an excellent opportunity for people who love speed driving to have a go on a secure track.” It actually promotes road safety and minimizes the risk of mishaps, he added.

Saad believes that racing is a sport in which younger participants must start training as early as 5 to 7 years of age in order to develop and work on quick reflexes — necessary instincts and the skill-set required for this sport. Racing can severely strain the body and one can lose up to 5 kg of fluids per race. Endurance and stamina-building is an essential part of the training, and this only becomes more difficult as one grows older.

However, not many younger people are pursuing the sport in Pakistan today. This is due to the fact that racing is an expensive sport and Pakistan does not have the required infrastructure for its training which subsequently has to be acquired from other countries that offer specialized courses. It was only in 2013 that Pakistan’s first karting track was built in Lakeview Park in Islamabad. “The government should consider building a world standard racing track while the corporate world needs to start looking into auto racing from investment perspective because it’s an extremely profitable business worldwide,” Saad explained.

And if there’s one piece of advice Saad has for avid racing fans and motorsport enthusiasts: start as early as possible and understand the challenges and limitations associated with the sport in a developing country like Pakistan.
 
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Is this just another rich college dropout being financed by his daddy?
 
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Sincerity pays. having lost someone very dear to renal failure, I can understand the importance of what this man is doing - God bless him.


BBC News - Pakistan's 'miracle' doctor inspired by NHS
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Dr Adib Rizvi says he and his team still has "a long way to go" to improve healthcare in Pakistan

Pakistan's shambolic public health system suffers from corruption, mismanagement and lack of resources. But one public sector hospital in Karachi provides free specialised healthcare to millions, led by a man whose dream was inspired by the UK's National Health Service.

Dr Adib Rizvi's most distinguishing feature is not just his grey hair. You can spot him in a crowd of people in a cramped hospital corridor by the respect he commands among patients and staff.

It doesn't only come from being the founder and the head of one of Pakistan's largest public health organisations.

Quite the opposite, for a man who's spearheaded a life-long mission of providing "free public health care with dignity," Dr Rizvi is unassuming as he walks around the hospital wards checking on his patients.

Many of them he knows by name. They include children as well as the elderly, Muslims as well as non-Muslims.

The rapport he enjoys with them is striking. He's seen as a friend, someone they trust, someone who's not after whatever little money they may or may not have.



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SIUT hospital now has 800 beds in two multi-storey buildings and three more are being built

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The hospital has grown from a shabby eight-bed ward in 1971

Most of these patients would have nowhere to turn to for the specialised care their life depends on if it wasn't for the free treatment they get at the Sindh Institute of Urology and Transplant (SIUT).

Located in an old congested neighbourhood, the institute is an extended arm of Civil Hospital Karachi - one of the largest teaching hospitals in Pakistan.

Since it was set up as an eight-bed ward 40 years ago, SIUT has seen phenomenal expansion to emerge as a world-class kidney disease centre in Pakistan.

Now the hospital says it has the distinction of performing the highest number of successful renal transplants, dialysis sessions and treatment of kidney stone disease anywhere in the world.

None of this would have been possible without the selfless leadership of Dr Rizvi.

Adib Rizvi was barely 17 when Hindu-Muslim communal riots forced him to migrate from India to the newly created country of Pakistan.

Without a family, he spent much of his time as a medical student in Karachi in the 1950s living in boarding hostels.

"In those days, I had plenty of time to roam about and observe what goes in our hospitals," he remembers.

What he experienced there would leave a deep impact on him for the rest of his life.

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SIUT provides free specialised healthcare to millions across Pakistan and beyond

"I saw people being abused for not being able to pay for treatment. I saw elderly women taking off their earrings and pawning them to pay for medicine.

"People would beg for healthcare, but they would be demeaned. It was like people were required to pawn off their self-respect to get a service which I felt should have been their right as citizens in the first place."

After completing his medical degree in Karachi, Dr Rizvi went to Britain for a fellowship in surgery. There, he spent a decade working in hospitals.

"I was inspired by the National Health Service (NHS). It showed me that providing free healthcare was doable," he says.

But when he returned to Pakistan in 1971 and joined Civil Hospital Karachi as assistant professor of urology, most people around him told him he was talking utopia. "They said it can't be done here."

At the time, he had a choice.

He could have opted to set up his own private hospital. He could have built up his own lucrative empire while keeping his day job at the poorly run government hospital - a path taken by many highly qualified physicians in Pakistan.

"But the option never really appealed me," he says. "I always felt that in order to really make a difference, I had to be committed to this public sector hospital. Because when you contribute to public sector institutions, you help the common man. That's what I wanted to do."

No obstacle was big enough. Lack of funds, beds, medicines, surgical instruments didn't discourage him. Neither did the lack of enthusiasm among health officials to change or improve things.

Contributions were collected from a close network of friends and well-wishers. A team of publically-spirited doctors and medics started to come together. They got on with whatever they could manage to expand their services. A few second-hand dialysis machines were imported from Britain and added to the small urology ward.

'Clandestine' project

The impact of their dedication and hard work was such that, soon, public support and voluntary contributions started trickling in.

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Pakistan's hospitals are often overcrowded and lack doctors and medicine

Slowly but surely, Dr Rizvi's ward kept adding latest services to their offerings, always free of cost.

"I never waited for the government or a corporation to give us funds. I never planned any of this. Our expansion was purely organic - always driven by the needs of our patients."

By the late 1970s, the institute was serving hundreds of kidney patients hooked to dialysis machines. That's when Dr Rizvi and his team realised that it couldn't go on like this and that it was time to embark on the next phase of their journey - organ transplantation.

In those days, no medical facility in Pakistan offered renal transplant.

Once again, Dr Rizvi and his team were told it wouldn't be possible.

"I was advised to confine myself to being an urologist. I was told that I was wasting my time when I could be running a successful private practice," he said.

I have no doubt that long after I am gone, our next generation of doctors committed to serving the public will take this institution forward”

Determined to pursue transplant surgery, Dr Rizvi went back to Britain and then on to the US to brush up on the latest technology and practices.

"I was keen that we get it right because the operation involves live donors," he says.

He was also conscious of the possible religious opposition to transplantation of human organs. "For this life-saving procedure to become acceptable in Pakistan, we had to make sure it was successful," he said.

After returning home in the early 1980s, Dr Rizvi started developing a team of doctors, nurses, technicians and other staff to train them for transplant surgery.

The rooftop of one of the hospital buildings was quietly taken over and turned into an animal farm of sorts.

It would serve as their experimental lab where dogs, pigs, monkeys and other animals were brought in, looked after and operated on for training purposes.

It was an unofficial project, run rather clandestinely by Dr Rizvi and his team. Not many people knew what went on up there.

"Let's just say we were tolerated by the hospital administration because by then I managed to acquire a bit of autonomy within the system," he says with a smile.

"As long as I didn't ask them for any money, they were happy to let us get on with our work."

'National achievement'

Dr Rizvi insists the team was required to take utmost care, as if they were handling human tissues, and to make sure the animals had to survive the transplants.

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Dr Rizvi says he is proud of what his team has achieved

The experimental lab went on for a couple of years.

And so, when the time came for their first human transplant, Dr Rizvi and his team were ready for it. In December 1985, they performed Pakistan's first successful kidney transplant.

It was done rather quietly in the urology ward because, as Dr Rizvi puts it, "we didn't want to make a big deal of it".

When the Pakistani media and government ministers got wind of it a week later, it was celebrated as a national achievement.


The operation was a huge success as it allowed the patient, who was in poor health because of kidney failure, to live another 18 years.

From then on, Dr Rizvi and his team never looked back.

Over the years, the procedure has become routine at SIUT. To date, nearly 5,000 free organ transplants have been performed, in addition to 750 dialysis sessions on a daily basis.

All along, local philanthropists, members of the community and beneficiaries of SIUT donated millions to expand its services.

"We started with an eight-bed ward 40 years ago. Today, we have 800 beds. Back then, we used to have a small room in this hospital. Today, we have two multi-storey buildings and three more are being built."

Pushing 70 and still working round-the-clock, Dr Rizvi says he's proud of what his team has achieved at SIUT.

"But we have a long way to go," he says.

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Dr Adib Rizvi (centre) and his staff in the 1970s

With a growing population and a failing public health system, the pressure is on institutions like SIUT.

"We are constantly struggling to keep up with the rising number of patients who can't afford specialised care. We need to continue to expand, which means more donations, more hospitals and more doctors," he says.

Dr Rizvi is optimistic that public support and ownership of the institution will make sure that it continues to grow.

He says: "I have no doubt that long after I am gone, our next generation of doctors committed to serving the public will take this institution forward."
 
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HUNZA, PAKISTAN: A group of young Pakistani girls sit on a carpeted floor listening as their teacher writes on a whiteboard, preparing his students for the rigours of climbing some of the world's highest peaks.

This is Shimshal Mountaineering School, tucked away in a remote village in the breathtaking mountains of Pakistan's far north, close to the border with China.

While most of Pakistan's overwhelmingly patriarchal society largely relegates women to domestic roles, in the northern Hunza valley, where most people follow the moderate Ismaili sect of Islam, a more liberal attitude has long prevailed.

Now the women of the region are breaking more taboos and training for jobs traditionally done by men, including as carpenters and climbing guides on the Himalayan peaks.

"You have to be careful, check your equipment and the rope, any slight damage can result in death," Niamat Karim, the climbing instructor warns the students.

Karim is giving last-minute advice to the eight young women who are about to embark on a practical demonstrations of climbing class.

They are the first batch of women to train as high altitude guides at the Shimshal Mountaineering School, set up in 2009 with support of Italian climber Simone Moro.

- Isolated community -

The women have spent the last four years learning ice and rock climbing techniques, rescue skills and tourism management.

At 3,100 metres (10,000 feet) above sea level, Shimshal is the highest settlement in the Hunza valley, connected to the rest of the world by a rough jeep-only road just 11 years ago.

The narrow, unpaved road twists through high mountains, over wooden bridges and dangerous turns with the constant risk of landslides to reach the small village of 250 households.

There is no running water and electricity is available only through solar panels the locals buy from China, but despite the isolation, the literacy rate in the village is 98 percent -- around twice the Pakistani national average.

It has produced some world famous climbers including Samina Baig, the first Pakistani woman to scale Mount Everest.

The people of Shimshal depend on tourism for their income and the village has produced an average of one mountaineer in every household.

The eight women training as guides have scaled four local peaks, including Minglik Sar and Julio Sar, both over 6,000 metres.

For aspiring mountaineer Takht Bika, 23, the school is a "dream come true".

"My uncle and brother are mountaineers and I always used to wait for their return whenever they went for a summit", Bika told AFP.

"I used to play with their climbing gear, they were my childhood toys -- I never had a doll."

For Duor Begum, mountaineering is a family tradition -- and a way of honouring her husband, killed while climbing in the Hunza Valley.

"I have two kids to look after and I don't have a proper means of income," she said.

Begum joined the mountaineering school with the aim of continuing the legacy of her late husband and to make a living.

"I am taking all the risks for the future of my children, to give them good education so that they can have a better future", she said.

But while the women are challenging tradition by training as guides, there is still a long way to go to change attitudes, and so far Begum has not been able to turn professional.

"I know its difficult and it will take a long time to make it a profession for females but my kids are my hope", she said.

- 'I had to support my kids' -

Lower down in the valley, away from the snowy peaks, Bibi Gulshan, another mother-of-two whose late husband died while fighting in the army has a similar tale of battling to change minds.

She trained as a carpenter under the Women Social Enterprise (WSE), a project set up in the area by the Aga Khan Development Network to provide income opportunities for poor families and advocate women's empowerment at the same time.

Set up in 2003, the WSE now employs over 110 women, between 19 and 35 years of age.

"I want to give the best education to my kids so that they don't feel the absence of their father," Gulshan told AFP.

"I started my job just 10 days after my husband was martyred, my friends mocked me saying instead of mourning my husband I had started the job of a men but I had no choice -- I had to support my kids."

With the 8,000 rupees ($80) a month she earns in the carpentry workshop, Gulshan pays for her children to go through school, and she has also used her skills to build and furnish a new house for her family.

As well as giving poor and marginalised women a chance to earn a living, the WSE project, funded by the Norwegian embassy, also aims to modernise local skills.

Project head Safiullah Baig said traditionally, male carpenters worked to a mental plan of houses they were building -- a somewhat unscientific approach.

"These girls are using scientific knowledge at every step right from mapping and design and their work is more feasible and sustainable," Baig said.

Story First Published: October 22, 2014 09:37 IST

Source : High in Pakistan's Mountains, Women Break Taboos

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Pakistani students from the Shimshal Mountaineering School use ice axes to climb a slope on a glacier near the Shimshal village in the northern Hunza valley. (AFP Photo)


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Women work at their woodshop in Altit village in the northern Hunza valley. (AFP Photo)


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Pakistani students from the Shimshal Mountaineering School prepare to climb near the Shimshal village in the northern Hunza valley.(AFP Photo)

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Women carpenters at their woodshop in Altit village. (AFP Photo)
 
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CM Sindh announces to officially celebrate Diwali | Pakistan | Dunya News

KARACHI (Web Desk) – Chief Minister of Sindh, Qaim Ali Shah of Pakistan People s Party (PPP) has announced to officially celebrate the Hindu festival of Diwali on October 23. All government employees from the Hindu community would be given an official holiday on Diwali, said Shah.

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All government employees from the Hindu community would be given an official holiday on Diwali.

CM also promised to pay Diwali bonus to the government officials before the festival commences on October 23. Orders have been issued to the Sindh Finance Department regarding the advance salary payment to the Hindu government officials.

While minorities in Pakistan continue to live in a state of constant fear amid the growing terrorism, CM of Sindh’s announcement about official celebration of Hindu festival of Diwali comes as good news.

Earlier on October 19, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf celebrated Interfaith Harmony Day at Azadi Square. Imran Khan assured in his speech that the rights of the minorities will be protected as promised by Quaid-e-Azam. There was a representation from different religious communities including Christians, Hindus and Sikhs. Diwali was celebrated by the participants of the sit-in protests at D-chowk on the Interfaith Harmony Day by lighting sparklers and fire workers. A beautiful rangoli (folk art from India) was also created using colorful powders by PTI activists.

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Rangoli created by PTI activists to celebrate Diwali

Diwali, the ‘festival of lights’ is a Hindu festival which is celebrated in autumn every year. The festival signifies the victory of lightover darkness, knowledge over ignorance, good over evil and hope over despair.


Source: CM Sindh announces to officially celebrate Diwali
 
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Pakistan bags first prize at the One Young World summit this year





This year, at the fifth One Young World summit in Dublin, Pakistan won the first prize at the Rwanga Social Startup Competition.Representing Pakistan, Khizr Imran Tajammul, shared his vision to research and manufacture affordable energy solutions for low income communities. His idea is to use the potential of solar energy in Pakistan and to make solar energy solutions more accessible to the lowest common denominator.Among an array of potential utilities and products, he feels that solar water heating has great potential and that ‘greenhouse technology’ as opposed to evacuation tubes (used in most conventional solar water heaters) can prove more efficient and affordable and therefore have the immense potential to rapidly spread across Pakistan.


Jaan Pakistan, is the name of the organization Khizr has co-founded with his friends to launch this initiative. Jaan Pakistan has thus far received USD 20,000/- in prize money and is planning to venture into prototype development at the end of this year. Jaan Pakistan is also collaborating with international manufacturers and technology giants to fine tune the design for their first product – the solar water heater.


More about One Young World
One Young World was founded in 2009 by David Jones, Kate Robertson and Founding Corporate Partner: Havas. One Young World is a UK-based not-for-profit that gathers together the brightest young people from around the world, empowering them to make lasting connections to create positive change.

This year the conference was attended by a series of established global leaders such as Kofi Annan, Mary Robinson, Sir Bob Geldof, Professor Muhammad Yunus, Paul Polman, Doug Richard, Jimmy Wales, Former Latin American Presidents, Sol Campbell, Dame Ellen MacArthur, Martin Pollock, Hans Reitz, Professor Meghan ‘O Sullivan and Meghan Markle.

THREE PAKISTANI AUTHORS MAKE THE CUT

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Tapu Javeri for the Lahore Literary Festival

DSC PRIZE SHORT-LIST TO BE UNVEILED NOV. 27.
Three novels by Pakistani authors have made the long-list for the 2015 DSC Prize for South Asian Literature.

Keki N. Daruwalla, Indian writer and jury chair for the prize, unveiled the long-list of 10 books in New Delhi on Monday. The books on the long-list are (by author, in alphabetical order):

The Mirror of Beauty by Shamsur Rahman Faruqi
Noontide Toll by Romesh Gunesekera
The Prisoner by Omar Shahid Hamid
And the Mountains Echoed by Khaled Hosseini
The Gypsy Goddess by Meena Kandasamy
The Lowland by Jhumpa Lahiri
Mad Girl’s Love Song by Rukmini Bhaya Nair
A God in Every Stone by Kamila Shamsie
Helium by Jaspreet Singh
The Scatter Here is Too Great by Bilal Tanweer

“As expected, the variety is considerable,” said Daruwalla. “Obviously, there was a tremendous mix here of themes, landscapes, styles, issues—both political and personal. The narratives ranged from 18th- and 19th-century history to the Naxalite era in West Bengal, tribal rebellions to feudal atrocities … the novel(s) had to be situated in South Asia, that being one of the main requirements of the prize.”

“Now in its fifth year, the DSC Prize has been rewarding the best writing about the South Asian region and bringing it to a global audience,” said Manhad Narula, member of the DSC Prize Steering Committee. “I feel each of the books on the long-list is a must-read.”

The long-list selection, from a pool of 75 submissions, was made by a five-member jury comprising Daruwalla; literary critic and former Granta editor John Freeman; Maithree Wickramasinghe, who teaches at the University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka, and at the University of Sussex; Michael Worton, professor emeritus at the University College London who has written on modern literature and art; and Razi Ahmed, the founding chairman of the annual Lahore Literary Festival (LLF).

The short-list of five to six books will be announced on Nov. 27 in London. The winner of 2015 DSC Prize will be named on Jan. 22 at next year’s Zee Jaipur Literature Festival and will also receive $50,000.

Pakistan’s H. M. Naqvi won the inaugural DSC Prize in 2011 for his debut novel, Home Boy. Other winners of the annual prize are: Shehan Karunatilaka for Chinaman, Jeet Thayil for Narcopolis, and Cyrus Mistry for Chronicle of a Corpse Bearer.
 
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Full throttle: Meet Pakistan’s only certified professional F1 driver

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Saad believes that racing is a sport in which younger participants must start training as early as 5 to 7 years of age. PHOTO: SOCIAL MEDIA

ISLAMABAD:
“If you’ve lived your dream, you’ve accomplished your purpose in life.” This is the motto 27-year-old Saad Ali — the only certified professional Formula One racecar driver in Pakistan — lives by.


Ali dropped out of university, where he was enrolled as an undergraduate student in business administration, during his first semester in 2006 to pursue his passion for motorsports. The thrill for speed, adrenaline and to experience “life on the edge” is what inspired him to become a professional open-wheel racecar driver.

“Speed has always played a dominant role in my life – it makes me come alive,” said Saad, who started racing when he was 18. Most of the extreme sports practiced by adventure-lovers around the world have either speed or height as the prime ingredient, he added.

After finishing on the victory stand at his very first race in Bahrain, Saad realised that racing came to him naturally. His performance and lap-time greatly impressed his trainer who strongly advised him to pursue racing as a career. Ever since, he has participated in racing competitions in a number of countries including Abu Dhabi, Malaysia and Bahrain, where he has won several awards.

“Formula One is the pinnacle of auto racing and one of the world’s greatest sporting spectacles. The fact that it’s the highest level of racing that there is on four wheels inspired me to experience it,” he said. “Racing is not merely a competitive sport; it provides an excellent opportunity for people who love speed driving to have a go on a secure track.” It actually promotes road safety and minimizes the risk of mishaps, he added.

Saad believes that racing is a sport in which younger participants must start training as early as 5 to 7 years of age in order to develop and work on quick reflexes — necessary instincts and the skill-set required for this sport. Racing can severely strain the body and one can lose up to 5 kg of fluids per race. Endurance and stamina-building is an essential part of the training, and this only becomes more difficult as one grows older.

However, not many younger people are pursuing the sport in Pakistan today. This is due to the fact that racing is an expensive sport and Pakistan does not have the required infrastructure for its training which subsequently has to be acquired from other countries that offer specialized courses. It was only in 2013 that Pakistan’s first karting track was built in Lakeview Park in Islamabad. “The government should consider building a world standard racing track while the corporate world needs to start looking into auto racing from investment perspective because it’s an extremely profitable business worldwide,” Saad explained.

And if there’s one piece of advice Saad has for avid racing fans and motorsport enthusiasts: start as early as possible and understand the challenges and limitations associated with the sport in a developing country like Pakistan.

Completely wrong information... He is not the only one... he is basically close wheel racer.. the open wheel (Formula Racer) is Yastoor Mirza, YASFORZA won Spain BMW De-volleta Formula, FG1000 Gulf, undisputed champ of karting Pakistan and so on.....
 
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Completely wrong information... He is not the only one... he is basically close wheel racer.. the open wheel (Formula Racer) is Yastoor Mirza, YASFORZA won Spain BMW De-volleta Formula, FG1000 Gulf, undisputed champ of karting Pakistan and so on.


Thanks for the Information .... Stupid journalisim
 
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Completely wrong information... He is not the only one... he is basically close wheel racer.. the open wheel (Formula Racer) is Yastoor Mirza, YASFORZA won Spain BMW De-volleta Formula, FG1000 Gulf, undisputed champ of karting Pakistan and so on.....

Formula driver and Formula 1 Driver are two different things, albeit related.

There is Formula 1, 2, 3 etc and then student formula etc.

Formula 1 being the top notch category.
 
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October 26, 2014

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Haji Daraz Khan devotes his spare time to the sad but necessary task of returning the bodies of workers who have died to their families in Pakistan. ’All of us return to Allah one day, but dying away from home is the most helpless situation,’ he says.

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Abu Dhabi-based social worker Haji Daraz Khan has spent the past 30 years helping fellow-Pakistanis cope with the loss of an expatriate family breadwinner.

Pakistani’s mission to repatriate dead workers from UAE

For more than 30 years, Haji Daraz Khan has been undertaking the sad but vital task of funding the repatriation of the bodies of Pakistani blue-collar workers.
Often, when they pass away unexpectedly it is a double tragedy because not only can their families not afford to have their body sent back home, but their sole breadwinner is also gone.

So, since 1983, Mr Khan has been raising money from the Pakistani community to fund the airfare costs as well as provide financial support to the bereaved family.

The 62-year-old, who works as a public relations officer for a private company, remembers his first case.

“The first dead body I repatriated to Pakistan was a middle-aged taxi driver who died in an accident,” said Mr Khan, who originates from the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.

Since then, he helps to repatriate an average of four to five bodies a month, most of whom are victims of traffic or workplace accidents.

Despite the amount of paperwork involved, Mr Khan strives to get the body home within 24 hours.

He also provides a payment to the families, although at first this was only a small amount.

“But now, by the grace of Allah and with the help of generous donations, we give 35 lakhs (about Dh125,000) to each family as financial support,” he said.

Mr Khan said most of the deaths were of young men who came here to earn a better future for their families back home.

“We cannot give them their sons back so, as a community, it is our responsibility to take care of their families afterwards,” Mr Khan said.

“As Muslims we believe that all of us have to return to Allah one day. But dying away from home is the most helpless situation.”

He was keen to praise authorities in the UAE and the Pakistan embassy for the help they provide to him.

His work in this field has made him popular among the Pakistani community in this country. He is also well respected back in his native land.

Obaid Ullah Khan is related to one of five workers from the same village in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province who died two years in ago in a traffic accident near Tarif.

He said the whole village was indebted to Mr Khan’s support.

“He is our superhero. He not only sent the dead bodies on time, he supported each family in a way so that they have been able to sustain themselves even after the loss of their breadwinners,” he said.

The Pakistani mission also acknowledged Mr Khan’s efforts in supporting members of the community in their darkest hours.

The ambassador to the UAE, Asif Durrani, said that people like Haji Draz Khan are a blessing to the Pakistani community because they inspire others to be humane and charitable.

“He is a selfless social worker who has evolved a system of helping his countrymen through a transparent system. Luckily, he has formed a dedicated team that is always ready to help Pakistanis in distress,” he said.

The Pakistani mission in Abu Dhabi facilitates the movement of about 30 to 40 bodies eachmonth. Pakistan International Airlines does not charge for transporting the body and also gives one free ticket to an accompanying person.

Mr Durrani urged Pakistanis to register with the embassy or consulate so their contact details and those of their next of kin back home are readily available in case of such a tragedy.

Pakistani's mission to repatriate dead workers from the UAE | The National
 
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