‘Everybody should help’: Indian tennis superstar Sania Mirza calls for flood aid for Pakistan

Indian tennis player Sania Mirza poses during the book launch of her biography in Hyderabad on July 13, 2016. (AFP/File)
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Updated 20 September 2022
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‘Everybody should help’: Indian tennis superstar Sania Mirza calls for flood aid for Pakistan

  • Mirza became the first Indian to win a Women’s Tennis Association event in 2005
  • The 35-year-old has spent the past year setting up a tennis academy in Dubai

KARACHI: Indian tennis star Sania Mirza has appealed for help for flood-ravaged Pakistan, saying that she and her husband, Pakistani cricketer Shoaib Malik, were doing “everything that we can in our own, silent way” for people affected by the deluge.

The death toll from floods itself has touched 1,559, including 551 children and 318 women, with at least nine people dying on Monday of infectious and water-borne diseases that have attacked tens of thousands of people in Pakistan. The disease deaths have crossed 300.

“It’s devastating to see calamities happening in so many places in the world. My heart goes out to the people who are losing their lives because of no fault of their own and may Allah ease it for them,” Mirza told Arab News in an interview earlier this month. “I don’t like to talk about what we do or contribute, but we are doing everything that we can in our own, silent way. Every little bit means a lot so everybody should help.”

Mirza became the first Indian to win a Women’s Tennis Association event in 2005, which marked the beginning of her contributions to several firsts for tennis in the country.

Now, the 35-year-old is carving out plans for a future beyond the court, and has spent the past year setting up a tennis academy in Dubai, after establishing several similar facilities in India. Two chapters of the academy are currently up and running in the UAE.

“Dubai is my second home, it has been for a long time,” she said, speaking from her UAE house. “Our dream is to try to encourage young boys and girls to not just pick up cricket, but to pick up tennis and actually be good at it. Who knows, maybe we’ll have a champion from Dubai someday.”

“If I’m able to inspire even one girl to pick up a tennis racket, it would mean a lot.”

Mirza last month announced her withdrawal from the US Open because of a torn tendon, adding that the injury would lead to a change in her retirement plans. In January this year she had announced she would be retiring at the end of the 2022 season.

“I still haven’t recovered from my injury, so I am unsure about my [retirement] plans at the moment,” she said. “Once I recuperate and begin training and playing, I will plan my next move.”

Mirza, who first picked up the racket when she was six, has won six Grand Slam titles, including three mixed doubles trophies. When her singles career was cut short by wrist injuries, she reinvented herself as a doubles player and went on to become the first Indian to reach the top of the WTA doubles rankings in April 2015.

But the accomplishments that catapulted her to international fame were not without their challenges, Mirza said.

“I was the first to be able to win so many titles, but what people don’t realize is that it was difficult to be the first one because there is no path to follow, you’re learning from your own mistakes,” she said.

The athlete said she faced scrutiny when she decided to return to the court after taking maternity leave in 2018 to give birth to her first child.

Before getting pregnant, Mirza said people had assumed the couple, who got married in 2010, could not conceive children.

“People are constantly judging my abilities as a mother. I should not have to choose between being a good mother and being a tennis player. Why can’t I be both? Why am I being questioned if I’m able to give my family time, but a man is not being questioned for the same thing?”

“It didn’t occur to them that I am a professional athlete and that maybe my career was more important to me than having a child at that time,” she added.

Believing that she had a “bigger purpose” than merely winning competitions, Mirza’s experience compelled her to be more outspoken about challenges women face in sports.

“I’ve been put in this position where I can reach out to a lot more people and I feel it’s my responsibility to speak about such issues,” Mirza said.

The tennis superstar was also vocal about ageism in sports and said her decision to retire was due to her many injuries.

“The only thing that should matter is if you’re able to win. For me, age is just a number. I’m retiring because I feel like my body is giving up on me.”

With plans to encourage a new generation of young athletes and expand her tennis academy in the UAE, Mirza said a biopic might be in the works, though there was “nothing concrete yet”:

“I want to highlight that everything comes with a price, and every effort to be successful at anything requires sacrifice and commitment. But once you get there, it is special.”


Pakistan says wants ‘strongest relations’ with US despite iron-clad partnership with Beijing

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Pakistan says wants ‘strongest relations’ with US despite iron-clad partnership with Beijing

  • Pakistan Deputy PM Dar says his Friday meeting with US secretary of state was “very cordial” 
  • Pakistan maintains a tricky balance in its relations with the US and its traditional rival, China

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar said on Sunday Islamabad wished for “strongest relations” with the United States (US) despite enjoying an iron-clad partnership with Washington’s rival, Beijing.

Pakistan maintains a tricky balance in its relations with China and the US. While aligned with the US for military cooperation and counter-terrorism efforts, Islamabad has strengthened economic ties with Beijing through initiatives like the multi-billion-dollar China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC). 

Relations between Washington and Beijing have been strained over the past several years as both world powers compete for global influence in several domains. The US and China have disagreements over several issues such as trade, Taiwan, the South China Sea and China’s Belt and Road Initiative.

“Our government and we have emphasized and will continue to emphasize that our relations and iron-clad brother partnership with China, our relations [with the US] should not be looked at through that lens,” Dar, speaking to the Pakistani community in New York, said during a televised address. 

“We want strongest relations with the United States of America as well.”

Dar pointed out that Islamabad, under the previous government of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif from 2022-2023, had made it clear to Washington that this was its official policy. However, the Pakistani foreign minister said the Joe Biden administration did not engage with Islamabad. 

“I’m glad that they [Trump administration] have actively engaged themselves with us,” Dar said. 

Dar met US Secretary of State Marco Rubio in Washington on Friday in a face-to-face meeting, during which the American official recognized Pakistan’s “constructive role” for peace in the region and worldwide. 

The Pakistani deputy prime minister pointed out that this was the first time in nine years that the foreign ministers of the US and Pakistan had met each other.

“I would say the meeting was very cordial, we touched all the regional and global issues. We touched our bilateral issues,” he said.

Dar is currently on an eight-day visit to the US till July 28, where he kept a busy schedule in New York and chaired several high-profile United Nations Security Council meetings under Pakistan’s rotating presidency this month.


Pakistan reports three fresh polio cases, taking 2025 tally to 17

Updated 27 July 2025
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Pakistan reports three fresh polio cases, taking 2025 tally to 17

  • Two polio cases reported from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, one from southern Sindh province, say authorities
  • Pakistan has witnessed worrying resurgence in polio recently, reporting 74 cases of the disease last year in 2024 

KARACHI: Pakistani authorities on Sunday reported three new polio cases across the country, taking the 2025 tally to 17 amid Islamabad’s efforts to eliminate the disease. 

Polio is a highly infectious viral disease that primarily affects young children and can cause permanent paralysis. There is no cure, but it can be prevented through multiple doses of the oral polio vaccine and a complete routine immunization schedule, experts say.

Pakistan, one of only two countries in the world where polio remains endemic, the other being neighboring Afghanistan, has made significant gains in recent decades. Annual cases have fallen dramatically from an estimated 20,000 in the early 1990s to single digits by 2018.

However, the country has witnessed a worrying resurgence recently. Pakistan reported 74 cases in 2024, raising alarms among health officials and global partners supporting the eradication campaign. In contrast, only six cases were recorded in 2023 and just one in 2021.

“The Regional Reference Laboratory for Polio Eradication at the National Institute of Health (NIH), Islamabad, has confirmed three new polio cases— two from the districts of Lakki Marwat and North Waziristan in South Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and one from District Umerkot in Sindh,” Pakistan’s National Emergencies Operation Center said. 

 The new cases include a 15-month-old girl from District Lakki Marwat, a six-month-old girl from North Waziristan district and a 60-month-old boy from District Umerkot, the statement said.

Pakistan’s northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) province has reported the highest number of polio cases this year, 10, followed by five from Sindh and one each from Punjab and northern Gilgit-Baltistan region. 

The NEOC noted that despite “substantial progress” in polio eradication efforts, the new polio cases underscore the persistent risk to children, especially in areas where vaccine acceptance remains low.

“It is crucial for communities to understand that poliovirus can resurface wherever immunity gaps exist,” it said. “Every unvaccinated child is at risk and can also pose a risk to others.”

The NEOC said an anti-polio vaccination campaign is currently underway, which was launched from July21-27 in Pakistan’s union councils bordering Afghanistan. 

 It added that a polio vaccination campaign using doses of the IPV (Inactivated Polio Vaccine) and OPV (Oral Polio Vaccine) was started in southwestern Balochistan’s Chaman District on July 21, adding that the same campaign will expand to six more districts in the province starting from July 28.

The NEOC urged parents to cooperate with frontline polio workers in getting children vaccinated.

“Communities can protect themselves by actively supporting vaccination efforts, addressing misinformation, and encouraging others to vaccinate their children,” it added. 

Despite decades of effort, Pakistan’s polio eradication drive has faced persistent challenges, including misinformation about vaccines and resistance from conservative religious and militant groups who view immunization campaigns with suspicion.

Some clerics have claimed the vaccines are a Western conspiracy to sterilize Muslim children or part of intelligence operations.

Vaccination teams and police providing security have also been targeted in militant attacks, particularly in remote and conflict-affected areas of KP and Balochistan. These threats have at times forced the suspension of campaigns and restricted access to vulnerable populations.
 


UAE activates visa waiver for Pakistani diplomatic, official passport holders

Updated 27 July 2025
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UAE activates visa waiver for Pakistani diplomatic, official passport holders

  • Pakistan, UAE signed agreement on mutual visa exemption for diplomatic, official passport holders of both countries in June
  • Islamabad considers the UAE a vital economic ally as it is Pakistan’s third-largest trading partner after China and the United States

ISLAMABAD: The UAE this week activated its visa waiver for holders of Pakistani diplomatic and official passports as per an agreement signed between the two countries last month, the Gulf state’s embassy in Islamabad said on Sunday. 

Pakistan and the UAE signed an agreement on mutual visa exemption for the holders of diplomatic and official passports of the two countries on June 25. The agreement was signed at the conclusion of the 12th session of the Pakistan-UAE Joint Ministerial Commission (JMC) in Abu Dhabi, Pakistan’s Deputy Prime Minister Ishaq Dar had said. 

“His Excellency Hamad Obaid Ibrahim Salim AlZaabi, the ambassador of the Embassy of the United Arab Emirates Islamabad feels immense pleasure to announce that the visa waiver for diplomatic and official passports entering the United Arab Emirates has been activated, effective July 25, 2025, at all UAE airports,” the UAE embassy in Islamabad said in a message to reporters. 

The two countries discussed collaborations in trade, investment, food security, aviation, IT and energy at the 12th JMC last month, Pakistan’s state broadcaster reported. 

Islamabad considers the UAE a vital economic ally as it is Pakistan’s third-largest trading partner after China and the United States.

Bilateral trade between the two nations reached approximately $10.9 billion in fiscal 2023–24, including $8.41 billion in goods and $2.56 billion in services. Exports from Pakistan to the UAE were around $2.1 billion in FY25, compared to $8 billion in imports.

The UAE is also a major source of remittances. In 2024, money sent home by the Pakistani diaspora was $6.7 billion, which is projected to exceed $7 billion in 2025.


In flood-hit Sindh, women revive barter trade to weather climate shocks

Updated 27 July 2025
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In flood-hit Sindh, women revive barter trade to weather climate shocks

  • With farming no longer reliable, rural women turn to cashless business models to survive inflation, displacement, environmental collapse
  • Backed by a German NGO, women entrepreneurs are exchanging scrap for household essentials to build low-cost livelihoods

JHUDDO, Pakistan: On any given morning in this flood-ravaged town in southern Sindh, Shamim Akhtar’s team of three men fans out on motorbikes, collecting scrap metal and plastic from doorsteps. 

In return, they hand over household essentials: pots, mugs, jugs — items many families need but can no longer afford.

It’s a barter economy, resurrected not by nostalgia but by necessity.

Once a farmer scraping by on unstable harvests, Akhtar, now 48, has become a self-made entrepreneur, running what she calls a modern twist on a traditional system. The shift has brought her stability and income — nearly Rs50,000 ($175) in monthly profit — in a region where formal employment is rare and inflation relentless.

“What we do [in this business] is that we take scrap from people’s houses and in return give them new things,” Akhtar told Arab News.

“In old times, our mothers used to give some junk or grain from home and take edible items or some vegetables … We now have revived the same system that we give house utensils [in exchange for their scrap].”

RETHINKING LIVELIHOODS AFTER FLOODS

The transformation began in the aftermath of Pakistan’s devastating 2022 floods, which killed over 1,700 people and displaced millions. In Jhuddo, where vast stretches of farmland were inundated, Akhtar lost her crops and her confidence in agriculture.

“All our crops would get destroyed whenever the flood would hit us,” she said. “In the initial days of flooding, the NGOs or government would help us but later we used to face very tough financial conditions.”

Farming, once her only means of survival, was no longer viable. So she pivoted, choosing to barter in utensils, essential items that every household needs. With capital provided by Germany’s Malteser International relief agency, she set up shop with wholesale goods from Hyderabad, sold scrap to local junkyards, and launched a low-cost business model tailored to village economics.

“We don’t have a cost-intensive system of giving expensive stuff to the villagers which they can’t even afford,” Akhtar explained. “We are doing this trade at the village level and are giving stuff that the villagers can afford.”

The NGO-backed program, a €600,000, 36-month initiative implemented by the Sindh Rural Support Organization (SRSO), has helped more than 150 women launch nano-enterprises in climate-affected areas of Mirpurkhas district.

“Earlier, the people here mostly used to do farming and rear livestock, but now they have diversified [their sources of income] to business,” said Komal Jameel, a livelihood officer at SRSO.

“She [Akhtar] keeps giving us her data entry through digitalization on a daily basis. She tells our team how much loss and earnings she is making out of her business. This scrap exchange is a very good business.”

WOMEN LEAD NEW ECONOMIC MODELS

Across the region, other women are following suit. In Niaz Kapri village, 48-year-old Hameeda Tariq began a similar scrap-for-goods exchange after floods wiped out her family’s farmland and livestock. 

Working with her husband, who sources utensils from nearby cities, she now earns around Rs40,000 ($140) a month.

“Before starting this business, we used to work in the fields and domesticate livestock,” said Tariq, a mother of three. “What brought us here is the recurring incidents of flooding in our village that would damage our crops and kill our animals.”

In neighboring villages, women are testing other models: a cosmetics stall in Roshanabad, a spice business in Khuda Bux II, a beauty parlor and tuck shop in Mir Allah Bachayo union council. All operate on small grants and are tracked digitally via mobile apps provided by SRSO.

“So far we have given grants to 320 individuals for starting nano businesses, of which 50 percent are females,” said SRSO district project officer Maqsood Alam. 

“We are strengthening local stakeholders and communities so that they could head toward sustainable livelihood and we could protect them in terms of climate change.”

The return to barter, often dismissed as outdated, is gaining currency in places where cash flow is erratic, formal banking is inaccessible, and climate volatility threatens conventional trade.

“This is a miracle in the history of Jhuddo that a female shopkeeper is sitting there and five females are jointly running this business,” Alam said.

For Akhtar, the impact is not just economic, but personal.

“This [business] has had a huge impact on my family,” she said. “Now we are earning a very good income from this, Mashallah, and we are getting a lot of support because of this.”


Pakistan warns of more monsoon rains next week as death toll reaches 271

Updated 27 July 2025
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Pakistan warns of more monsoon rains next week as death toll reaches 271

  • Pakistan state media says westerly wave expected to approach country from Tuesday
  • Punjab issues flood warning for Chenab, Jhelum rivers and their adjoining tributaries 

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s state media on Sunday forecast more rain and likely flooding in several parts of the country from next week, as the death toll from monsoon downpours since late June reached 271. 

Intense monsoon rains have battered Punjab, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP), Sindh, Balochistan, Azad Kashmir, Gilgit-Baltistan and Islamabad since June 26, causing urban floods and glacial lake outburst floods in several parts of the country. 

Pakistan has received above-normal rainfall this monsoon season, raising concerns of a repeat of the devastating 2022 floods that submerged a third of the country and killed 1,737 people. 

“More monsoon rains with wind-thundershower have been predicted across the country from tomorrow (Monday),” state broadcaster Radio Pakistan reported. 

According to the Met Office, a westerly wave is also expected to approach on Tuesday.

The state broadcaster warned heavy rains may generate flash floods in local nullahs and streams across the country, adding that torrential rains may cause urban flooding in low-lying areas of major cities.

“Landslides and mudslides may cause road closures in the vulnerable hilly areas of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Gilgit-Baltistan, Murree, Galliyat, and Kashmir during the forecast period,” it added. 

Keeping in mind the rain forecast, the Punjab Disaster Management Authority (PDMA) has issued a flood warning for the Chenab and Jhelum rivers and their adjoining tributaries. 

The disaster management authority cautioned the public and authorities of possible low to medium-level flooding from Monday to July 31. 

It warned of an “unusual rise” in water levels in both rivers, urging authorities to take preemptive measures.

Monsoon rains have wreaked havoc across Pakistan, killing 271 and injuring 655 since June 26. As per the NDMA’s latest situation report, Punjab has reported the highest number of deaths with 145 killed, followed by Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) with 63 casualties, Sindh with 25 deaths, Balochistan with 20, the northern Gilgit-Baltistan region with eight deaths, Islamabad with eight and Azad Kashmir region reporting two deaths. 

In total, 1,191 houses have been damaged, and 367 livestock have perished due to rain-related incidents since June 26.