KARACHI: Pakistani woman athlete and journalist Mona Khan, who was arrested in Greece this week, has been released from prison, she said on Sunday, a day after the Pakistani Foreign Office said its mission was actively engaged with Greek authorities on the case.
Khan said she was stopped at a checkpoint on Friday afternoon when she was going to Mount Olympus along with a team of climbers, and upon checking her passport, Greek authorities held her for investigation, from where they took her to jail.
The athlete, who also works with Pakistan’s state TV as a host and participated in the Athens marathon last year, said she wanted to wave the Pakistan flag and Kalima Tayyaba on the highest mountain peak in Greece, that lies some 433 kilometers from Athens.
On Saturday, Mumtaz Zahra Baloch, a spokesperson for Pakistan’s Foreign Office, told Arab News the Pakistani mission in Athens was actively engaged with Greek officials to secure the release of the Pakistani athlete.
Speaking to Arab News after her release on Sunday, the Pakistani athlete said her release was “conditional” even though she had violated no rules of the host country, while she would also not be able to return to Greece for five years.
“They arrested me just when they saw my Pakistani passport and later questioned me when they found Kalima Tayyaba in my bag,” Khan said.
“I am completely clueless as to why they arrested me, deprived me of a chance to accomplish my goal, and then asked me to leave.”
She said she was asked to sign documents that she would not enter another European country despite having visas and would return to Pakistan within 20 days.
“It’s my right to know what laws I have violated,” Khan said. “I was there for a healthy activity, but what happened to me caused me mental stress.”
Greek authorities have not issued any statement on Khan’s detention, while the Pakistani Foreign Office spokesperson did not respond, when asked about reasons for her detention and whether Pakistan had protested with Greek authorities in case Khan had not violated any laws of the host country.
“Jailed for doing nothing and just because of being Pakistani,” Khan said, after reuniting with her son, who was waiting for her to return after completing the mission to wave the Pakistani flag and Kalima Tayyaba on Mount Olympus.
“He asked for the video where I was supposed to wave the flag. I didn’t end his excitement and didn’t tell him about my ordeal.”

ISLAMABAD: Doctors in Pakistan’s Multan this week advised citizens to exercise caution during the ongoing heat wave, as the administration of the city’s main hospital said it has recorded an increase in the number of patients in recent days owing to the extreme temperature. 

The Punjab Disaster Management Authority (PDMA) last week warned that the southern districts in Punjab, namely Multan, Bahawalpur, Rahim Yar Khan and Dera Ghazi Khan would experience a heat wave from May 21-27. Authorities in the province ordered schools to remain shut from May 25-31 due to the extreme heat. 

Heat waves become severe and frequent due to climate change. These events, occurring in summer, are caused by slow-moving high-pressure systems leading to prolonged high temperatures.

“These days the temperature is rising already, it’s almost touching 48 and 47, so the patients are coming with minor symptoms,” Dr. Farooq Ahmad, medical superintendent at Multan’s Nishtar Hospital, told Reuters.

“During summer, we face two things, one is the heatwave, the other is the diarrhea season, both basically cause for dehydration and the losses and everything.”

Health experts advise citizens to take special precautions against the heat and not venture out unnecessarily. 

“We try our best to inform people coming in [to the hospital about the dangers of heat stroke],” Dr. Ayub Qazi, deputy superintendent at the hospital, told Reuters. 

“We tell them to not to leave their homes unnecessarily, and cover their heads when they do.”

Pakistan experienced its first severe heat wave in June 2015 when temperatures as high as 49 degrees Celsius struck the country’s south, causing the deaths of about 2,000 people from dehydration and heatstroke, mostly in the southern port city of Karachi. 

Increased exposure to heat, and more heat waves, have been identified as one of the key impacts of climate change in Pakistan, with people experiencing extreme heat and seeing some of the highest temperatures in the world in recent years. The South Asian country of more than 241 million, one of the ten most vulnerable nations to climate change impacts, has also recently witnessed untimely downpours, flash floods and droughts.

Climate change-induced extreme heat can cause illnesses such as heat cramps, heat exhaustion, heatstroke, and hyperthermia. It can make certain chronic conditions worse, including cardiovascular, respiratory, and cerebrovascular disease and diabetes-related conditions, and can also result in acute incidents, such as hospitalizations due to strokes or renal disease.

According to the Global Climate Risk Index, nearly 10,000 Pakistanis have died while the country has suffered economic losses worth $3.8 billion due to climate change impacts between 1999 and 2018. A deadly heat wave that hit Pakistan’s largest city of Karachi, the capital of Sindh, claimed 120 lives in 2015.

In 2022, torrential monsoon rains triggered the most devastating floods in Pakistan’s history, killing around 1,700 people and affecting over 33 million, a staggering number close to the population of Canada. Millions of homes, tens of thousands of schools and thousands of kilometers of roads and railways are yet to be rebuilt.