DUBAI: For a year and a half, a Pakistani man living in Dubai has been the primary, live-in caregiver to his former neighbor, an Indian expat who is visually impaired.
In a touching story of kindness that transcends politics, the two friends, Tomichan Puthuparambil Thomas, 63, from Kerala and Mohammed Asad, 36, from Azad Jammu and Kashmir, come from nuclear-armed, rival countries India and Pakistan, and presently share a tiny room with a bunk bed in Dubai’s busy Karama district.
When Thomas, an electrical engineer diploma holder, suddenly lost his vision in 2018 following two strokes, he was unable to leave Dubai and travel home because of unpaid business dues.
“I suffered two strokes and woke up one day to find that I couldn’t see at all,” Thomas told Arab News on Saturday.
It was then that Asad, a night-time crane operator who lived across from his apartment in Bur Dubai at the time, moved in to help him cope. He took the role of nurse seriously-- assisting Thomas on trips to the bathroom, feeding him and preparing his meals before leaving for work every evening.
“We have our differences and fights and I tell Asad to go away but he has never left me,” Thomas said.
In a week’s time, Thomas is finally flying home to Kerala to be with his family and to seek medical treatment with the support of the Indian expat community. Doctors have told him that with the right treatment, he could regain vision in one eye.
“It is the heart that should be big,” Asad said, sitting in their cramped Karama room with his knees almost touching the wall.
“Then there is space for everything else.”
For 16 years, Asad who is originally from the city of Muzaffarabad, has been living and working in the UAE. Despite his small income, he said he has no problem contributing what he can to Thomas’ care.
“One should do as much as one can. Don’t see if the person is Indian or Pakistani or whoever. Just do it for the sake of humanity,” he said.
On Saturday, Indian Member of Parliament, Shashi Tharoor also tweeted about the pair and said, “Humanity transcends the man-made divisions, territory and politics.”
Volunteers Rayees Poyilunkhal and Saman Abdulkhadar, who have been helping Thomas, told Arab News that his travel issues had finally been sorted with the help of the Indian Consulate in Dubai and that the expat community had stepped forward to support his treatment once he reached home.
For Thomas, Asad will always remain his savior.
“I will hang his photo in my house,” he said.
“And the moment I get my sight back, his face will be the first thing I will look at.”
'He never left me:' Pakistani man in Dubai devoted to care of blind Indian neighbor
https://arab.news/b8af4
'He never left me:' Pakistani man in Dubai devoted to care of blind Indian neighbor
- The unlikely pair presently share a cramped room with a bunk bed in Dubai’s Karama district
- ‘For sake of humanity,’ Muhammad Asad has been primary caregiver to Indian expat Thomas for 18 months
Pakistan to hold major spectrum auction early next year, paving way for 5G rollout
- Pakistan’s IT Minister Shaza Fatima says auction aimed for late January or early February to ease congestion, improve Internet quality
- ECC cleared auction framework after international benchmarking, as finance minister warns unsold spectrum causes economic losses
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan plans to complete a major telecom spectrum auction at the beginning of the next year, paving the way for the country’s first rollout of 5G services, Information Technology Minister Shaza Fatima said on Tuesday.
The planned auction comes amid mounting pressure on Pakistan’s telecom networks, with users and businesses complaining of slow Internet speeds and frequent disruptions as limited spectrum struggles to serve a population of about 240 million.
“Our effort is to complete this auction by the last week of January or the first week of February,” the minister told a joint news conference. “The quality of Internet service in Pakistan is not at par with international best practices or even regional standards, and one of the fundamental reasons for this is that spectrum is simply not available.”
She said Pakistan’s entire population currently operates on about 274 megahertz of spectrum, compared with around 600 megahertz in Bangladesh, leading to congestion that she likened to “trying to run eight lanes of traffic through two lanes.”
The minister said the government plans to auction nearly 600 megahertz of spectrum — the largest such auction in Pakistan’s history — including several frequency bands that have never been auctioned in the country before.
The move would improve 3G and 4G services and introduce 5G in Pakistan for the first time, she added.
Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb said earlier at the news conference that the Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) had approved recommendations for the auction prepared by the Spectrum Advisory Committee after extensive consultations with telecom operators, regulators and consumers.
“Unsold spectrum directly translates into economic loss,” he said, adding that the committee had engaged a reputable international consultant, National Economic Research Associates, to advise on spectrum pricing, payment terms and auction design based on international benchmarks.
He said the government had reviewed those recommendations using what he described as a “Pakistan-first lens” before securing ECC approval, with the proposal now set to go to the cabinet for final clearance.
