KARACHI: There are no layouts or drawings on the table, though such sketches are usually required to build high-quality boats that can navigate stormy waters and survive rough seas. Yet, workers are busy at the biggest boat-building yard in Pakistan that is located at the fish harbor in the port city of Karachi.
“Everything, right from drawing to layout and measurements, is there in our minds,” smiles 52-year-old Muhammad Arshad while doing his work.
A carpenter, Arshad is among the 3500 skilled workers who are employed by the country’s informal boat building sector. He has spent the last 35 years at this facility, which also employs a number of unskilled laborers.
Most workers here earn between Rs1200 ($11) and Rs1500 ($14) on a daily basis, though some of them, with exceptionally high skills, even pocket Rs1800 ($17) per day.
Since drawings, charts, and layouts are alien objects to the craftsmen here, they usually discuss the owner’s requirements in details while booking an order. Their standard conversation at such occasions may include questions about the material that needs to be used and the measurements of the vessel, among other things.
Despite the traditional methodology of its workers, the boat-building yard is known for its skilled craftsmanship. Its signature quality is reflected in the design, stability, and beauty of the products.
“We make fishing boats and cargo ships for domestic and international clients,” Hajji Muhammad, President of the Boat Builders’ Association, told Arab News. “We also supply our products to Iran, Yemen, Saudi Arabia and the UAE.”
A fishing ship manufactured at the yard can cost between Rs1 million ($9506) and Rs20 million ($190114), depending on its design and the quality of the material.
“A ship equipped with 400 horsepower engine costs about Rs20 million, depending on the wood we use,” he added. “The price may further go up, if additional material is consumed.”
Under normal circumstances, a medium size boat can take about a year to complete. Cargo ships take much longer, even though they demand more labor and work hours.
Currently, the builders are taking orders for cargo vessels since the demand for fishing boats has gone down due to a variety of reasons, including the use of over-aged vessels.
“The prices of cargo boats is usually between Rs30 million ($285171) to Rs120 million ($1140685),” said Hajji Muhammad.
Owing to the time-consuming nature of the job, about 30 to 40 fishing vessels are built every year. This is over and above the repair work at the yard that rarely comes to an end.
The average life of a boat is 25 years, but a significantly large number of fishermen rely on their old vessels since many of them cannot afford new ones. The Karachi Fish Harbor Authority (KFHA), which regulates the harbor’s affairs, plans to formalize the sector by introducing some basic facilities.
“We want to give it the status of an industry and make it one of the foreign exchange earning sectors by encouraging exports of fishing and cargo boats,” said Mudassir Iqbal, KFHA Managing Director.
Pakistan’s craftsmen build boats without layouts and sketches
Pakistan’s craftsmen build boats without layouts and sketches
Gas outages during Sehri, Iftar times pile on misery for Karachiites
- Gas supply company says annual decline in reserves creating demand-supply gap
- Citizens burn tyres, block traffic at Karachi's Golimar area to protest gas outage
KARACHI: Enraged citizens took to the streets in anger on Thursday to protest against gas supply disruptions during Sehri, Iftar times in the Golimar area of Pakistan's southern port city of Karachi.
According to a report prepared by Pakistan's Petroleum Division last year, the South Asian country has already utilized 66.6% of its total gas reserves, leaving only 33.4% untouched.
Pakistan needs 4.1 billion cubic feet per day (bcfd) of gas, with demand during the winter season peaking to around 4.5 bcfd against a local production of 3.22 bcfd. The shortfall is bridged through LNG imports.
Reportedly, misery piled on for residents living in Karachi's North Nazimabad, New Karachi, Nagin Chowrangi, Gulshan-e-Iqbal, and other areas of the city as they geared up to observe the first fast of Ramadan on Thursday but found little to no gas to light stoves.
Angry protestors blocked a main road at Golimar that connects southern and central Karachi, burning tyres, shouting angry slogans and causing traffic congestion.
Speaking to Arab News, Imran Rao, a resident of the city's Gulshan-e-Hadeed neighborhood in the eastern part of the city, said the low gas pressure was not enough for him to cook food.
“There is a gas crisis in our area, and our relatives living in Gulistan-e-Jauhar said they were also getting very low [gas] pressure," he said. "The gas is not enough to light the stove,” Rao added.
The government-owned Sui Southern Gas Company's (SSGC) Head of Corporate Communications, Salman Ahmed Siddiqui, admitted there was an “issue of gas supply” in the city.
“Today was the first Sehri, there might have been a few issues in some areas,” Siddiqui told Arab News, adding that the SSGC was trying to manage the load.
“We are trying our best to manage the load in the context of the overall shortage in the system due to annual depletion of gas reserves,” he added.
The power supply company, in a statement issued on Thursday, said gas pressure would remain low from 8:00 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. as it was facing a shortfall of 250 million mmBtu.
“Hopefully from tomorrow onwards all supplies will be streamlined as per the given schedule,” the SSGC said in its statement, adding that supply during Sehar and Iftar hours would be ensured.
"Every year, there is an evident shortfall in the supply of gas system of Sui Southern Gas due to an annual decrease of eight to ten percent in the country's gas reservoirs," the statement said.
On Wednesday, the Pakistan’s power ministry announced uninterrupted power supply during Sehri, Iftar and Taraweeh prayer times throughout the country in Ramadan.
However, a resident also said his neighborhood was subjected to power outage during Sehri time.
“Our area plunged into darkness during Sehri despite announcements that there would be no load-shedding during these hours,” Muhammad Younus, a resident of Karachi's Steel Town area, told Arab News.
The city's main power supply company, K-Electric, did not respond to Arab News' request for comment.
Pakistan receives over 26,000 Hajj applications in a week
- The last date for submitting Hajj applications in Pakistan is March 31
- Over 179,000 Pakistani pilgrims are expected to perform Hajj this year
ISLAMABAD: Pakistani banks have received over 26,000 Hajj applications from March 16 to 22, the country's religious affairs ministry said on Thursday, as the deadline to apply for the spiritual pilgrimage nears.
The Hajj is a spiritual journey that every Muslim adult must undertake once in his lifetime, to the holy sites in Makkah and Madinah, if he is sound of mind and financially and physically able to do so. It is one of the important five pillars of the Islamic faith.
The deadline to apply for the Hajj pilgrimage will expire on March 31. This year, 179,210 pilgrims from Pakistan are expected to travel to the kingdom after Riyadh restored Pakistan's pre-pandemic Hajj quota and also scrapped the upper age limit of 65 years to perform the pilgrimage.
"Banks have received over 26,000 [Hajj] applications till March 22," Pakistan's Ministry of Religious Affairs and Interfaith Harmony said in a statement. It added that the government would issue further directives to banks to facilitate pilgrims in the process after receiving their feedback.
The ministry added that overseas Pakistanis would also be able to submit their medical fitness certificates that they received abroad. It said Hajj pilgrims who have not been vaccinated against coronavirus, can submit their applications after receiving a single dose of any of the vaccines approved by the kingdom.
"However, they will have to get themselves fully vaccinated before departure and submit their certificates," the ministry said. "Apart from NADRA, any foreign vaccine certificate will also be accepted."
The ministry said that to accept Hajj applications, specified branches of designated banks would remain open on Saturday, March 25 and Sunday, March 26.
It said that pilgrims would have to buy the "Qurbani" [sacrifice] coupons in Saudi Arabia themselves, adding that the Pakistani Hajj Mission in the kingdom would facilitate them in doing so.
"The Qurbani coupon costs between SR700-1,000," the religion ministry said, adding that Hajj pilgrims would be informed when they would be required to submit their passports or get their biometric for the journey done.
"Hajj applications will only be processed through selected banks," it added.
'Art has no boundaries,' says Pakistan's Ali Xeeshan on designing wedding dress for Indian actress
- Bollywood actress Swara Bhasker bought the dress for a whopping Rs1,800,000 ($6,359) from Ali Xeeshan
- Bhasker, who married an Indian politician last month, wore the dress at her Valima reception this week
KARACHI: Top Pakistani designer Ali Xeeshan, who recently designed a wedding outfit for famous Bollywood actress Swara Bhasker, spoke about their collaboration on Thursday, saying art had no boundaries and the people of India and Pakistan had "the same DNA."
Bhasker, a prominent Indian actress who has starred in Bollywood flicks such as Raanjhanaa, Tanu Weds Manu, Veere Di Wedding, Manto, and Prem Ratan Dhan Payo, tied the knot with Indian politician Fahad Ahmad last month.
Earlier this week, the two held a Valima reception in the Indian city of Bareilly. In a Twitter post, Bhasker revealed Xeeshan had designed her dress, saying that the Pakistani designer had it delivered to her all the way from Lahore to Bareilly, via Dubai, Bombay and New Delhi.
Bhasker said in her Twitter post that she had "long marveled" at Xeeshan's talent, adding that his "warmth and generosity" made her admire him.
Arch-rivals India and Pakistan have fought three wars over the past seven decades, two times over the disputed Himalayan region of Kashmir that both sides claim in full but administer only parts of.
Cultural exchanges between the two nations have almost entirely ceased since August 2019, when India revoked the autonomy of Indian-administered Kashmir, prompting Islamabad to cut diplomatic and trade ties.
“We [Pakistan and India] have the same DNA, we eat the same food, we breath the same air, we are cut from the same cloth,” Xeeshan told Arab News on Thursday.
“I’m an artist, I am [a] visual person. Art has no boundaries," he said, adding that tensions between the two countries exist due to political reasons. "Our family systems are the same. We are both very passionate nations.”
Xeeshan says he has a lot of Sikh, Muslim and Hindu clients based in Canada and other parts of the world.
“Because of internet and social media, the world has become so small. I don’t think these boundaries will last forever," he said. "The passion is there; the mutual admiration is there. This [the boundary] is mostly in our heads.”
Speaking about the process of getting the dress made, Xeeshan said Bhasker reached out to him a month earlier to discuss the dress.
“I liked Swara [Bhaskar] anyway. I liked how gutsy and bold she was. Unafraid, unapologetic,” he said, adding that the Bollywood actress informed him she was getting married to a "Muslim boy."
"We just connected. It was easy."
The ivory gold outfit worn by Bhasker on her big day was mutually finalized by Xeeshan, his team and Bhasker. He went to Dubai to deliver the dress and since the actress couldn't travel, Xeeshan's team managed to deliver it to her in India.
According to Xeeshan, Bhasker bought the dress for a whopping Rs1,800,000 ($6,359).
"It [the outfit] was understated and yet it was flamboyant. I loved how the dupatta was wrapped around her. It was a very Muslim nikkah outfit,” Xeeshan said. “We have named this design Rajkumari so it has that grandeur, that old school charm to it. It wasn’t trying to be a statement outfit.”
Xeeshan asked Swara to give him a few lines to write on the dupatta (long scarf) for the groom.
The designer said the dress was hand-made, adding that his team had to bring its most senior artisans on board "whose generations are working with us.”
The dress, Xeeshan said, was 70% ready when Bhasker placed her order. Usually, he said such "star articles" take about six months to make hence the base is usually prepared while the order is customized according to the client's needs.
“It was designed and curated considering her personality,” he said. “She just wanted it to be warm. This is something she could give to her next generation, it could be her heirloom piece," Xeeshan added.
One person dies in stampede for free flour as Ramadan begins in Pakistan
- Eight others were injured during free flour distribution in northwestern Pakistan's Charsadda city
- Decades-high inflation in Pakistan has pushed prices of basic food items out of many people's reach
PESHAWAR: One person was killed and eight others injured during a stampede for free flour in inflation-wracked Pakistan on Thursday, the first day of the holy month of Ramadan.
The price of basic food items has rocketed in recent months, with inflation at a near 50 year-high as the country grapples with a balance of payments crisis that has seen it forced back into negotiations with the International Monetary Fund.
“Nine people were trampled and were taken to hospital where one person died,” said Muhammad Arif, police chief for Charsadda in northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province where the incident happened.
Arif said hundreds of people gathered at the local market for the handouts, one of hundreds of distribution points set up by the government during Ramadan.
Millions of low income families across the country are registered under the scheme.
In a nearby district, a man died and four others were injured when a wall they were sitting on collapsed as crowds amassed for free flour.
Authorities told AFP it was not clear why the wall collapsed.
Pakistan’s finances have been wrecked by years of financial mismanagement and political instability — a situation exacerbated by a global energy crisis and devastating floods that left a third of the country under water last year.
The South Asian nation is deeply in debt, and needs to introduce tough tax and utility price increases to unlock another tranche of a $6.5 billion IMF bail-out and avoid defaulting.
Pakistan drafting fuel pricing scheme despite IMF concerns – minister
- PM Sharif last week announced government's plans for fuel pricing scheme to help poor
- Package envisages charging affluent consumers more for fuel, reducing prices for the poor
KARACHI: Pakistan is drafting a fuel pricing scheme aimed at helping the poor, the petroleum minister said, a programme that some economists fear could hinder a crucial International Monetary Fund pay out needed to prevent economic collapse.
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif first announced the government's plans for fuel pricing last week.
Petroleum Minister Musadik Malik told Reuters his ministry had been given six weeks to draft the relief package, which envisages charging affluent consumers more for fuel and using that money to reduce prices for the poor who have been hit hard by inflation, which in February was at its highest in 50 years.
"It is not a subsidy. It is a pricing scheme. It is a relief programme for the poor," Malik said. A ministry spokesman said the price difference would be in the range of 100 Pakistani rupees (around 30 U.S. cents) a litre for the rich and the poor.
With enough foreign reserves to only cover about four weeks of necessary imports, Pakistan is desperate for the IMF agreement to disperse a $1.1 billion tranche from a $6.5 billion bailout agreed in 2019.
The government has implemented several fiscal measures, including devaluing the rupee, lifting subsidies and raising energy prices as preconditions for the agreement, which the finance minister said this month was "very close".
The resident IMF representative, Esther Perez Ruiz, said this week that the government did not consult the fund about the fuel pricing scheme.
She said the fund would ask the government for more details about the proposal, including how it will be implemented and what protection would be put in place to prevent abuse.
Asked about the IMF's concerns, Malik said the scheme was not a subsidy. "We haven't heard any concerns from the IMF," he said. "It is same like we did in the gas sector, and that was okay with the IMF," he added.
Earlier this year, the government implemented different prices for natural gas based on the amount of fuel consumed.
Economists said the scheme could derail the progress Pakistan had made so far in negotiations with the IMF.
"It seems this was not discussed with the IMF and, therefore, could delay the staff level agreement," said former central bank deputy governor Murtaza Syed.
($1 = 282.7200 Pakistani rupees)
