ISLAMABAD: Skipper Babar Azam’s Peshawar Zalmi this week vanquished table-toppers Multan Sultans for a second time but if it wasn’t for Mehran Mumtaz’s economical bowling, Multan may have snatched the victory.
Zalmi defeated the Sultans by four runs to grab two important points on Tuesday when the two sides locked horns for a Pakistan Super League (PSL) clash in Rawalpindi. While skipper Babar Azam and Saim Ayub made important contributions to Zalmi’s victory with scores of 64 and 46, slow left-arm orthodox bowler Mumtaz took the vital wicket of Reeza Hendricks, and gave away only 20 runs from his four overs.
Mumtaz, who has played for Pakistan’s Under-16 and Under-19 cricket circuit with superstars Shaheen Shah Afridi and Naseem Shah, however, comes from humble beginnings. Before he was picked for this year’s PSL, Mumtaz used to work for meager wages at Rawalpindi’s Sunday market.
“The ground where I played in, there is a Sunday market set up outside it,” Mumtaz told Independent Urdu in an interview this week. “I used to work at the Sunday market with my brother because he used to do that. So, I’ve done that work too.”
In his message to other players, Mumtaz said there is no shortcut when it comes to garnering success as a professional cricketer.
“You have to struggle a lot and if I am Mehran Mumtaz today, then there are 10-11 years of struggle behind it,” he said.
The 20-year-old cricketer credited his parents and coach for supporting him throughout his professional career.
“My message to youngsters would be that if you are here to play cricket then you will have to give it all your time,” Mumtaz said.
Mumtaz, who received his debut cap in the last match, is already looking forward to the next couple of games.
“I am very confident and in the next couple of matches, I will try to do even better, which helps my team win,” he said.
Meet Mehran Mumtaz, Peshawar Zalmi’s budding star who came from humble beginnings
https://arab.news/v6nks
Meet Mehran Mumtaz, Peshawar Zalmi’s budding star who came from humble beginnings
- Mehran Mumtaz bowled economically to help Peshawar Zalmi beat Multan Sultans on Tuesday
- Mumtaz used to work at Rawalpindi’s Sunday market before getting picked for Peshawar Zalmi
UN says 270,000 Afghans have returned from Iran, Pakistan this year
- UNHCR says 110,000 Afghans returned from Iran while 160,000 returned from Pakistan since start of 2026
- Return numbers seem to have risen since Gulf war erupted on Feb. 28, says UNHCR official in Afghanistan
GENEVA: Some 270,000 Afghans have returned to their country from Pakistan and Iran so far this year, the UN said Tuesday, warning that the escalating Middle East war risked pushing the numbers higher.
UNHCR, the United Nations’ refugee agency, said that 110,000 Afghans had returned from Iran and another 160,000 had returned from Pakistan since the start of 2026.
And the numbers seem to have risen since the Middle East erupted on February 28, with the United States and Israel unleashing a barrage of strikes on Iran, and Tehran responding with drone and missile strikes on Israeli and US interests across the region.
Since then, there have been some 1,700 returns from Iran to Afghanistan each day, Arafat Jamal, UNHCR’s representative in Afghanistan, told reporters in Geneva.
Speaking from Islam Qala, on the Afghan-Iranian border, he said the situation there was “deceptively calm.”
“Returns are orderly but freighted with tension and apprehension,” he said, adding that with the hostilities elsewhere escalating, “I do fear there is more to come.”
“We are preparing for massive returns.”
He pointed out that Afghanistan was “facing the ramifications of what is happening with Iran,” while clashes have erupted along the Afghan border with Pakistan.
The new Middle East war, he warned, was “layering itself on top of an existing war on another frontier,” Jamal said.
UNHCR highlighted that the latest crises came after returns to Afghanistan had already been “exceptionally high” in recent years.
More than five million Afghans had returned from neighboring countries in the past two years, including 1.9 million returning from Iran last year alone.
Jamal warned that “many Afghan families are now facing cycles of displacement: first forced to flee Afghanistan, later displaced again inside Iran due to conflict, and now returning once more to Afghanistan.”
“And upon return in Afghanistan, the triply-displaced enter a spiral of precarity and uncertainty.”
Returns from Pakistan had meanwhile stabilized in recent weeks, as the main crossing point at Torkham remained closed due to the tensions there, Jamal said.
But he warned that “movements could increase sharply once the border reopens.”
UNHCR and the UN children’s agency UNICEF said Tuesday they were working to strengthen their capacity to operate at the borders and within Afghanistan.
But “given the scale of returns and the financial constraints facing humanitarian operations, additional support will be needed if arrivals increase,” UNHCR said, without specifying the amount needed.
