ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Football League (PFL) on Wednesday announced a cash prize of Rs1 million [$3,573] and a “prominent position” in the league for struggling footballer Muhammad Riaz, who made headlines recently after a video of him selling a popular street to make ends meet went viral on social media.
The announcement came days after Riaz, who represented Pakistan in the 2018 Asian Games, was seen in a video frying popular street snacks jalebis in the northwestern city of Hangu. The video went viral online, with netizens criticizing the government and sports bodies for ignoring the footballer.
Sports athletes in the subcontinent, including Pakistan, usually come from economically disadvantaged backgrounds before becoming household names overnight and attaining financial success.
“I on behalf of PFL would like to reward Muhammad Riaz with a prize money of Rs1 million and a prominent position in PFL as he is not only an excellent player but has also represented Pakistan at the global fronts on the soccer field,” the league quoted PFL Chairman Farhan Junejo as saying in a statement.
“And such amazing talent deserves all the support we can offer in our maximum capacity“
The PFL is a franchise league that says it is driven by a UK-based company with foreign investment solely committed to uplifting football from the grassroots to a professional level in Pakistan.
PFL said it took notice of the viral video and established contact with Riaz, describing him as a “prime example” of thousands of talented footballers who are forced to quit their profession due to financial constraints.
“PFL remains committed in its objective to revive football in Pakistan and provide international training for all other footballers like Riaz,” the league said.
Riaz thanked the PFL for recognizing the hardships he had to deal with following the previous government’s decision to suspend departmental sports.
“I am thankful to PFL for providing me an opportunity to showcase my lost love for football and ensure that I will be working together with PFL to make sure no other player remains neglected,” Riaz was quoted as saying.
The PFL said it would also make arrangements to provide Riaz training as per international standards to ensure football talent in the country doesn’t go unnoticed.
It added that PFL would also offer free football kits and training facilities to footballers in Hangu.
The plight of football in Pakistan is a tale of unfulfilled potential, administrative chaos and lack of investment. Despite a passionate fan base and a pool of talented players, the sport has suffered due to mismanagement by governing bodies, political interference and inadequate infrastructure.
The Pakistan Football Federation (PFF) has been marred by internal disputes and FIFA suspensions which have hindered the development of the game at all levels.
Pakistan Football League announces cash award, job for financially struggling footballer
https://arab.news/bdvct
Pakistan Football League announces cash award, job for financially struggling footballer
- Video of Muhammad Riaz frying popular street snack to make ends meet recently went viral on social media
- PFL says will provide training as per international standards to Riaz to ensure football talent is not neglected
Pakistan’s army chief meets Trump at White House amid tensions with India, Iran-Israel conflict
- Two-hour-long meeting took place amid renewed fears fighting between Israel and Iran could spill over, destabilizing wider region
- Trump and Munir also discussed cooperation in trade, economic development, critical minerals, AI, crypto, energy, IT
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s Chief of Army Staff, Field Marshal Syed Asim Munir, has held a rare and extended meeting with US President Donald Trump at the White House, the military said on Thursday, a high-level engagement that underscores Islamabad’s deepening security and economic dialogue with Washington.
This was the first time in many years that a Pakistani army chief was hosted by a sitting US president at the White House, highlighting Washington’s renewed interest in maintaining influence in South Asia as regional tensions flare.
According to a statement from Pakistan’s military, Munir met Trump at a luncheon in the Cabinet Room on Wednesday before visiting the Oval Office, accompanied by Pakistan’s National Security Adviser Lt Gen Asim Malik. On the US side, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Special Representative for Middle Eastern Affairs Steve Witkoff joined the discussions.
During the meeting, Munir conveyed Pakistan’s “deep appreciation” for Trump’s role in brokering a ceasefire that ended last month’s flare-up between nuclear-armed Pakistan and India — the most intense fighting between the neighbors in decades. From May 7-10, the two militaries exchanged drones, missiles and artillery fire before Trump announced a truce.
“During the meeting, the Chief of Army Staff conveyed the deep appreciation of the Government and people of Pakistan for President Trump’s constructive and result-oriented role in facilitating a ceasefire between Pakistan and India in the recent regional crisis,” the military statement said.
The army chief also acknowledged President Trump’s “statesmanship and his ability to comprehend and address the multifaceted challenges faced by the global community.”
The military statement added that Trump praised Pakistan’s counter-terrorism cooperation and lauded Munir’s “leadership and decisiveness” during a period of complex security challenges, including the ongoing Israel-Iran conflict.
The meeting is being widely seen as a rare direct engagement that signals a cautious thaw in ties between the two countries under Trump’s second presidency.
Pakistan’s powerful military plays a central role in shaping the country’s foreign and security policies. Direct outreach to its top commander reflects Washington’s effort to manage key regional security issues, including the aftermath of the Taliban takeover in Afghanistan, tensions between Pakistan and India after their deadly military exchanges last month, and the broader fallout of the escalating Israel-Iran confrontation.
Security analysts say the meeting also reflects Washington’s renewed effort to maintain its influence in a region where Beijing’s footprint is steadily expanding through infrastructure investment and defense ties with Islamabad.
ECONOMIC TIES
Trump and Munir also discussed expanding cooperation in trade, economic development, critical minerals, artificial intelligence, cryptocurrency, energy and emerging technologies — areas traditionally handled by civilian governments.
Analysts note that in recent years, Pakistan’s powerful army, known for its dominance in politics, has steadily expanded its influence beyond security and politics into economic and financial management, especially through bodies such as the Special Investment Facilitation Council (SIFC) — a civil-military platform that oversees major economic initiatives and foreign investment deals. Munir’s direct discussions on economic and technological partnerships with the US president are being seen by independent observers as further evidence of the military’s outsized role in shaping Pakistan’s economic agenda.
Trump told reporters after the talks he was “honored” to host Munir and confirmed that the Iran-Israel crisis had been discussed. He also said he wanted to thank the Pakistani commander for preventing the standoff with India from escalating further.
Munir, who has recently been elevated to Field Marshal in recognition of what the government called his “strategic brilliance” during the India clashes in May, extended an invitation for Trump to visit Pakistan, according to the statement. The White House has not commented on whether the president has accepted the invitation.
The meeting, initially scheduled for one hour but running for over two, took place amid renewed fears that fighting between Israel and Iran, now well into its seventh day, could spill over and destabilize the wider region, including Pakistan’s western border with Iran.
Pakistan has repeatedly called for de-escalation and a peaceful resolution to the crisis, while maintaining close ties with Tehran and Gulf allies, and expressing sympathy for the Palestinian cause amid an ongoing Israeli military offensive in the besieged enclave.
“Well, they [Pakistan] know Iran very well, better than most, and they’re not happy about anything [Iran-Israel conflict],” Trump said in response to a question by a reporter after his meeting with Munir on whether Iran came up in the discussions.
“It’s not that they’re better with Israel. They [Pakistan] know them both actually, but they probably, maybe, know Iran better, but they [Pakistan] see what’s going on. And he [Field Marshal General Asim Munir] agreed with me.”
Trump did not specify what the Pakistani general had agreed with him on.
Arif Habib Group submits bid as deadline nears for expressions of interest in PIA stake sale
- Chairman of group says going into process as consortium of Arif Habib Corporation, Fatima Fertilizers, Lack City Holdings, City Schools Group
- Islamabad is trying to offload 51-100 percent stakes in PIA under ongoing $7 billion IMF program to overhaul loss-making state-owned firms
ISLAMABAD: The chairman of the Arif Habib Group, a prominent Pakistani conglomerate with diversified interests across various sectors, said on Thursday the consortium had submitted its bid to acquire a stake in Pakistan International Airlines (PIA), the country’s loss-making national flag carrier.
Expressions of interest are due today, Thursday, for an up to 100 percent stake in PIA as the government moves forward with a long-delayed privatization plan aimed at easing pressure on its strained public finances.
The sale of PIA will be the first major privatization for around two decades. Turning around loss-making state-owned enterprises is a condition of an ongoing $7 billion bailout by the International Monetary Fund.
The government tried unsuccessfully to last year offload a stake in PIA, which is a major burden on its budget, but the sale was aborted because of the poor state of the airline and the conditions attached to any purchase.
“We have submitted our bid for acquiring the PIA stake,” Arib Habib, the chairman of Arif Habib Group, told Arab News.
The group has a broad portfolio encompassing financial services, including brokerage and investment banking, fertilizers, cement, steel, real estate development, energy, and more. Some of its notable subsidiaries include Arif Habib Limited (AHL), Fatima Fertilizer Company Limited, Aisha Steel Mills Limited, Javedan Corporation Limited, and Sachal Wind Power.
“This time we are going into this process as a consortium that includes Arif Habib Corporation, Fatima Fertilizers Ltd., Lack City Holdings and City Schools Group.”
In an advertisement issued by the government last month, it had said the deadline for the submission of expressions of interest and Statements of Qualification for the “Divestment of Pakistan International Airlines Corporation Limited through privatization” had been extended to 4pm hours on Thursday, June 19, 2025. It did not provide a reason for the extension.
No changes had been made to the remaining terms and conditions, the privatization commission had said.
In April 2025, the commission invited expressions of interest from domestic and international investors to acquire a majority stake, ranging from 51 percent to 100 percent, in PIA, initially setting a submission deadline of Tuesday, June 3, 2025.
According to the public notice, each EOI must be accompanied by a non-refundable processing fee of $5,000 or Rs1.4 million, with consortia required to pay the fee through any one member. Eligible bidders include legal entities such as companies, firms, and corporate bodies, either individually or as part of a consortium.
Reuters reported on Wednesday that among those planning bids are Pakistani conglomerate the Yunus Brothers Group, owners of the Lucky Cement and energy companies, and a consortium led by Arif Habib Limited. Fauji Fertilizer Company, which is part-owned by the military, has also said it will be making an expression of interest.
“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 a notice to the Pakistan Stock Exchange this week.
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.
A group of PIA employees has also come forward to bid.
“The employees will use their provident fund and pension, in addition to finding an investor to place a bid. We’re doing this to save jobs and turn around the company,” Hidayatullah Khan, president of the airline’s Senior Staff Association, told Reuters this week.
This is 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.
With inputs from Reuters
Missiles in the sky, prayers in their hearts: Pakistanis recount perilous journey home from Iran
- Hundreds of Pakistani pilgrims, students and workers were stranded after Iran’s airspace closed following Israeli attacks
- Israel launched series of strikes on Iranian nuclear and military sites on June 13, triggering retaliatory missile strikes by Iran
ISLAMABAD: Hundreds of Pakistani pilgrims, students and workers have finally made it back home from Iran this week, telling stories of tense roads, sleepless nights and missiles flashing overhead as the conflict between Israel and Iran pushes the region to the brink of wider war.
A week of Israeli air and missile strikes against its major rival that started on June 13 has wiped out the top echelon of Iran’s military command, damaged its nuclear capabilities and killed hundreds of people, while Iranian retaliatory strikes have killed two dozen civilians in Israel.
In the immediate aftermath of Friday’s attacks, Iran closed its airspace to commercial traffic, leaving hundreds of expats, including Pakistani pilgrims, students and workers, stranded.
For Hassan Raza, a 22-year-old student at Al-Mustafa International University in Qom, the abrupt closure of the skies turned an ordinary day into a marathon journey through the heart of a country on edge.
“When Israel attacked Iran on 13th June, I was at Tehran International Airport, and after a few moments, all flights were canceled and we entered Pakistan from the border of Rimdan by road,” Raza told Arab News on Wednesday in a telephone interview.
Pakistan and Iran share a 909-kilometer (565-mile) border, which separates Balochistan from the Iranian province of Sistan-Baluchestan. Forced to abandon plane tickets, many stranded Pakistanis like Raza pooled resources to travel by bus, heading south from Tehran toward the remote border at Rimdan.
The bus route took Raza and his group past Natanz, a name known worldwide for being the site of Iran’s main uranium enrichment facilities and one of the prime targets of repeated Israeli attacks since Friday.
“We passed by Natanz, which is a nuclear power plant in Iran and has been targeted multiple times by Israel,” Raza said.
As they continued, they witnessed firsthand the flashes and arcs of missiles fired in retaliation.
“We saw that many missiles were launched from Iran toward Israel and made videos of this as well,” he said. “After 20 to 22 hours, we reached the Rimdan border crossing and entered Pakistan.”
Along the road journey, Raza added, despite the echo of distant missile exchanges, daily life seemed remarkably calm.
“JUST IN TIME”
Syed Nadeem Abbas Shirazi, a pilgrim from Mandi Bahauddin in Punjab province, had arrived in Mashhad, a sacred city for Shiite Muslims, to visit holy shrines when the attack threw the region into uncertainty.
“When Iran was attacked, I was in Mashhad. We went out and interacted with the local people, and they showed no signs of fear. In fact, they were very emotional,” Shirazi said.
“They were chanting slogans against Israel and the United States, and many said they had no fear of martyrdom, they desired it,” he added.
As the situation remained tense, Shirazi and his group decided to return by road rather than wait for flights to resume.
“From Mashhad, we boarded a bus at 1pm and reached Chabahar at noon the next day,” he said.
The group then hired a taxi for the final stretch to the Pakistan border near Gwadar.
For others, the trip home meant navigating jam-packed highways and rationed fuel in a country bracing for more strikes.
Syed Ali Hassan, an electrician from Layyah who worked near Tehran, said he felt the atmosphere change instantly when the attacks began on Friday.
“People were not openly panicking, but you could feel the fear in the air, everyone seemed to be preparing for the worst,” Hassan said.
Amid the quiet fear, Hassan and a handful of other Pakistanis found a bus heading west toward the Taftan border in Pakistan’s Balochistan province.
“The journey wasn’t easy. Highways were packed with vehicles, fuel stations had long lines, and we traveled all night with brief stops, mostly in silence,” he said.
Some passengers were worried about possible airstrikes or roadblocks, but the group managed to reach the border without incident.
At Taftan, exhausted and emotionally drained, many Pakistanis breathed a sigh of relief as they stepped back onto home ground.
“It felt like we had made it out just in time,” Hassan said.
Expressions of interest due today for up to 100% stake in Pakistan International Airlines
- Islamabad is trying to offload 51-100% stakes in PIA under $7 billion IMF program to overhaul state-owned firms
- 2024 auction drew only one offer of $36 million, which was far below government’s $305-million floor price, and was rejected
ISLAMABAD: Expressions of interest are due today, Thursday, for an up to 100% stake in Pakistan International Airlines (PIA), the country’s loss-making national flag carrier, as the government moves forward with long-delayed privatization plan aimed at easing pressure on its strained public finances.
The sale of PIA will be the first major privatization for around two decades. Turning around loss-making state-owned enterprises is a condition of an ongoing $7 billion bailout by the International Monetary Fund.
The government tried unsuccessfully to last year offload a stake in PIA, which is a major burden on its budget, but the sale was aborted because of the poor state of the airline and the conditions attached to any purchase.
In an advertisement issued by the government last month, it had said the deadline for the submission of expressions of interest and Statements of Qualification for the “Divestment of Pakistan International Airlines Corporation Limited through privatization” had been extended to 4pm hours on Thursday, June 19, 2025.
No changes had been made to the remaining terms and conditions, the privatization commission had said.
In April 2025, the commission invited expressions of interest from domestic and international investors to acquire a majority stake, ranging from 51 percent to 100 percent, in PIA, initially setting a submission deadline of Tuesday, June 3, 2025.
According to the public notice, each EOI must be accompanied by a non-refundable processing fee of $5,000 or Rs1.4 million, with consortia required to pay the fee through any one member. Eligible bidders include legal entities such as companies, firms, and corporate bodies, either individually or as part of a consortium.
Reuters reported on Wednesday that among those planning bids are Pakistani conglomerate the Yunus Brothers Group, owners of the Lucky Cement and energy companies, and a consortium led by Arif Habib Limited that includes Fatima Fertilizer, Lake City, and The City School.
Fauji Fertilizer Company, which is part-owned by the military, has also said it will be making an expression of interest.
“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 a notice to the Pakistan Stock Exchange this week.
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.
A group of PIA employees has also come forward to bid.
“The employees will use their provident fund and pension, in addition to finding an investor to place a bid. We’re doing this to save jobs and turn around the company,” Hidayatullah Khan, president of the airline’s Senior Staff Association, told Reuters this week.
This is 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.
With inputs from Reuters
Homeland insecurity: Expelled Afghans seek swift return to Pakistan
- Pakistan says it has expelled over million Afghans in the past two years, many have quickly attempted to return
- Since April and a renewed deportation drive, some 200,000 Afghans have spilled over the two main border crossings from Pakistan
PESHAWAR, Pakistan: Pakistan says it has expelled more than a million Afghans in the past two years, yet many have quickly attempted to return — preferring to take their chances dodging the law than struggle for existence in a homeland some had never even seen before.
“Going back there would be sentencing my family to death,” said Hayatullah, a 46-year-old Afghan deported via the Torkham border crossing in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province in early 2024.
Since April and a renewed deportation drive, some 200,000 Afghans have spilled over the two main border crossings from Pakistan, entering on trucks loaded with hastily packed belongings.
But they carry little hope of starting over in the impoverished country, where girls are banned from school after primary level.
Hayatullah, a pseudonym, returned to Pakistan a month after being deported, traveling around 800 kilometers (500 miles) south to the Chaman border crossing in Balochistan, because for him, life in Afghanistan “had come to a standstill.”
He paid a bribe to cross the Chaman frontier, “like all the day laborers who regularly travel across the border to work on the other side.”
His wife and three children — including daughters, aged 16 and 18, who would be denied education in Afghanistan — had managed to avoid arrest and deportation.
Hayatullah moved the family to Peshawar, the capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and a region mostly populated by Pashtuns — the largest ethnic group in Afghanistan.
“Compared to Islamabad, the police here don’t harass us as much,” he said.
The only province governed by the opposition party of former Prime Minister Imran Khan — who is now in prison and in open conflict with the federal government — Khyber Pakhtunkhwa is considered a refuge of relative security for Afghans.
Samad Khan, a 38-year-old Afghan who also spoke using a pseudonym, also chose to relocate his family to Peshawar.
Born in eastern Pakistan’s Lahore city, he set foot in Afghanistan for the first time on April 22 — the day he was deported.
“We have no relatives in Afghanistan, and there’s no sign of life. There’s no work, no income, and the Taliban are extremely strict,” he said.
At first, he tried to find work in a country where 85 percent of the population lives on less than one dollar a day, but after a few weeks he instead found a way back to Pakistan.
“I paid 50,000 rupees (around $180) to an Afghan truck driver,” he said, using one of his Pakistani employees’ ID cards to cross the border.
He rushed back to Lahore to bundle his belongings and wife and two children — who had been left behind — into a vehicle, and moved to Peshawar.
“I started a second-hand shoe business with the support of a friend. The police here don’t harass us like they do in Lahore, and the overall environment is much better,” he told AFP.
It’s hard to say how many Afghans have returned, as data is scarce.
Government sources, eager to blame the country’s problems on supporters of Khan, claim that hundreds of thousands of Afghans are already back and settled in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa — figures that cannot be independently verified.
Migrant rights defenders in Pakistan say they’ve heard of such returns, but insist the numbers are limited.
The International Organization for Migration (IOM) told AFP that “some Afghans who were returned have subsequently chosen to remigrate to Pakistan.”
“When individuals return to areas with limited access to basic services and livelihood opportunities, reintegration can be challenging,” said Avand Azeez Agha, communications officer for the UN agency in Kabul.
They might move on again, he said, “as people seek sustainable opportunities.”
