RAWALPINDI: As recent floods have devastated Karachi and surrounding areas in Sindh province, three young Pakistani artists have launched Artists for Flood Relief, a fundraiser to help those affected by the calamity.
Numair Ahmed Abbasi, Shaheen Jaffrani and Shanzay Subzwari — graduates of Indus Valley School of Art and Architecture in 2014 — could not get over the countless images of destruction they saw on social media, as homes were washed away by floodwater. Footage showed buildings and bridges submerged in water, and furniture, cars and large containers floating through the streets. Dozens of people have died since last week in what is considered the worst flooding Karachi has suffered in its history.
“Saying they were horrifying is an understatement. And this was going on while we all sat in the comfort of our bedrooms,” Abbasi said.
The 28-year-old remembered he had works from his student days, which he could sell and donate the money. He realized it was likely his schoolmates would do the same. With support from fellow artists, he, Jaffrani and Subzwari wasted no time to launch Artists for Flood Relief.
“It was immediate crisis disaster management,” Jaffrani said, “It was now or never.”
On Saturday night, Jaffrani, Subzwari and Abbasi set up an Instagram page and by Tuesday had nearly 150 submissions from artists in Pakistan, Germany, Dubai, and India. The deadline for artist submissions is Friday, Sept. 4.
The artists are working with organizations run by persons they personally know to oversee every step of the initiative and make sure all donations will serve the relief purpose. “Knowing who we were working with and maintaining control was a main concern to us,” Jaffrani said.
They have partnered with The Environmentalist, The Garbage Can, Shine Sunshine, and Food for Thought, which cover different relief needs — water draining, waste removal, food distribution — in Karachi and other affected areas in Sindh.
Artists for Flood Relief will be selling art prints for a duration of three weeks on their social media accounts on Instagram and Facebook.
They say the coronavirus outbreak has made them realize how powerful a tool the social media is with its ability to keep people connected.
“During the pandemic, we have learned the power of virtual community,” Jaffrani said.
Earlier this summer, a similar fund relief initiative, Prints for Pandemic Relief, raised nearly Rs4.5 million for Pakistanis whose livelihoods were upended by the coronavirus outbreak.
“People want to donate, but I feel like when there is a creative twist or creative element added to anything people become more enthusiastic,” Subzwari said, “For artists, their art isn’t just a pretty picture for some people.
When artists realize through their creativity they can reach out and help a bigger cause — they do it.”
Karachi floods: Pakistani artists launch online fundraiser
https://arab.news/22m33
Karachi floods: Pakistani artists launch online fundraiser
- Launched on Saturday, Artists for Flood Relief is accepting artwork submissions until Friday, Sept. 4
- Dozens of people have died since last week in what is considered the worst flooding Karachi has suffered in its history
Pakistan opposition to continue protest over ex-PM Khan’s health amid conflicting reports
- Pakistan’s government insists that the ex-premier’s eye condition has improved
- Khan’s personal doctor says briefed on his condition but cannot confirm veracity
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s opposition alliance on Monday vowed to continue their protest sit-in at parliament and demanded “clarity” over the health of jailed former prime minister Imran Khan, following conflicting medical reports about his eye condition.
The 73-year-old former cricket star-turned-politician has been held at the high-security Adiala prison in Rawalpindi since 2023. Concerns arose about his health last week when a court-appointed lawyer, Barrister Salman Safdar, was asked to visit Khan at the jail to assess his living conditions. Safdar reported that Khan had suffered “severe vision loss” in his right eye due to central retinal vein occlusion (CRVO), leaving him with just 15 percent sight in the affected eye.
On Sunday, a team of doctors from various hospitals visited the prison to examine Khan’s eye condition, according to the Adiala jail superintendent, who later submitted his report in the court. On Monday, a Supreme Court bench led by Chief Justice Yahya Afridi observed that based on reports from the prison authorities and the amicus curiae, Khan’s “living conditions in jail do not presently exhibit any perverse aspects.” It noted that Khan had “generally expressed satisfaction with the prevailing conditions of his confinement” and had not sought facilities beyond the existing level of care.
Having carefully perused both reports in detail, the bench observed that their general contents and the overall picture emerging therefrom are largely consistent. The opposition alliance, which continued to stage its sit-in for a fourth consecutive day on Monday, held a meeting at the parliament building on Monday evening to deliberate on the emerging situation and discuss their future course of action.
“The sit-in will continue till there is clarity on the matter of [Khan's] health,” Sher Ali Arbab, a lawmaker from Khan's Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party who has been participating in the sit-in, told Arab News, adding that PTI Chairman Gohar Ali Khan and Opposition Leader in Senate Raja Nasir Abbas had briefed them about their meeting with doctors who had visited Khan on Sunday.
Speaking to reporters outside parliament, Gohar said the doctors had informed them that Khan’s condition had improved.
“They said, 'There has been a significant and satisfactory improvement.' With that satisfactory improvement, we also felt satisfied,” he said, noting that the macular thickness in Khan’s eye had reportedly dropped from 550 to 300 microns, a sign of subsiding swelling.
Gohar said the party did not want to politicize Khan’s health.
“We are not doctors, nor is this our field,” he said, noting that Khan’s personal physician in Lahore, Dr. Aasim Yusuf, and his eye specialist Dr. Khurram Mirza had also sought input from the Islamabad-based medical team.
“Our doctors also expressed satisfaction over the report.”
CONFLICTING ACCOUNTS
Despite Gohar’s cautious optimism, Khan’s personal physician, Dr. Yusuf, issued a video message on Monday, saying he could neither “confirm nor deny the veracity” of the government’s claims.
“Because I have not seen him myself and have not been able to participate in his care... I’m unable to confirm what we have been told,” Yusuf said.
He appealed to authorities to grant him or fellow physician, Dr. Faisal Sultan, immediate access to Khan, arguing that the ex-premier should be moved to Shifa International Hospital in Islamabad for specialist care.
Speaking to Arab News, PTI’s central information secretary Sheikh Waqas Akram said Khan’s sister and their cousin, Dr. Nausherwan Burki, will speak to media on Tuesday to express their views about the situation.
The government insists that Khan’s condition has improved.
“His eye [condition] has improved and is better than before,” State Minister Talal Chaudhry told the media in a brief interaction on Monday.
“The Supreme Court of Pakistan is involved, and doctors are involved. What medicine he receives, whether he needs to be hospitalized or sent home, these decisions are made by doctors. Neither lawyers nor any political party will decide this.”
