‘Master Ayub’ open-air classroom transforms poor children’s lives in Pakistani capital

66-year-old Mohammed Ayub, better known as “Master Ayub,” speaks to Arab News in Islamabad, Pakistan on August 10, 2024. (AN photo)
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Updated 13 August 2024
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‘Master Ayub’ open-air classroom transforms poor children’s lives in Pakistani capital

  • Ayub’s park school has helped thousands secure educational qualifications, go on to find jobs since 1982
  • Pakistan currently has world’s second-highest number of out-of-school children at 26.2 million, UNICEF says

ISLAMABAD: The children sat huddled on the concrete floor of a park in Islamabad’s F-6 sector, scribbling on their notebooks as they listened intently to the teachers. 

This is the open-air classroom run by 66-year-old Mohammed Ayub, better known as “Master Ayub” to the thousands of students the retired government employee has taught in the federal capital since 1982. 

According to UNICEF, Pakistan has the world’s second-highest number of out-of-school children with an estimated 26.2 million children aged 5-16 not attending school.  Gaps in service provision at all education levels, socio-cultural demand-side barriers combined with economic factors and issues such as availability of school facilities and teachers together hamper access and retention of certain marginalized groups, in particular adolescent girls.

Ayub wants to change this. 

“These children should not become addicts,” he told Arab News at his open-air classroom. “If they study, someone will become a doctor, an engineer, someone will go to colleges and schools, my country will progress. This is my passion, this is my love for these children.”

Ayub moved to Islamabad in 1976 from his hometown of Mandi Bahauddin to provide for his seven siblings after his father passed away. He got a job at the government’s civic emergency services department and became a firefighter and would retire ultimately as the Chief Fire Officer at the Pakistan Secretariat.

Ayub was motivated to start a learning center for the underprivileged when he met a 12-year-old bussing tables at a restaurant in Islamabad in 1982. When the boy told Ayub his parents couldn’t afford tuition, Ayub started giving him lessons on a footpath initially and later at a park. 

His initial group of students came from Islamabad’s slums and grew in number as the years passed, with many going on to get admissions in colleges and universities and find jobs at hospitals and in the army and police departments, said Ayub, who has been given Pakistan’s national “Pride of Performance” award for his contributions to education.

“CHANGED MY LIFE”

Up to 270 students are enrolled at Ayub’s free school at any one time. One student who has passed through is Zafran Ali, AGE, who now works as a firefighter at the IT ministry. 

Ali became a child laborer after his parents moved to Islamabad to find domestic work but started studying at Ayub’s classroom in 2000, taking grade 1 lessons with his two sisters and a brother. Six years old at the time, Ali’s other classmates were daily wage laborers, flower sellers and car washers. He went on to pass his matriculation exams and get a Faculty of Arts (FA) qualification, degrees that helped him get a decent job. 

“My family was working in someone’s house and if I had not studied here or if Master Ayub had not worked so hard on me, I would also be working in someone’s house,” Ali told Arab News. 

Ali, who is now married with two children, said Ayub was so dedicated to his task he would show up at children’s homes when they did not come to class. 

“Master Ayub has changed my life, and not only mine but also the lives of many others,” Ali said, giving examples of other peers who went on to secure “good positions,” including as policemen. 

Azika Shehbaz, an 18-year-old intermediate student, was also Ayub’s student years ago and is now a volunteer teacher at his school.

“When he used to teach children, we were watching him from the beginning,” Shehbaz told Arab News. “So, in our hearts, we thought that we have to become teachers also.”

In 2022, Ayub’s classroom closed briefly for the first time in 40 years when he had an accident in which his wife, brother and child were killed while the teacher escaped with a broken arm and leg. 

Despite his grief, Ayub said people lifted his spirits and convinced him to resume classes for the children. 

“People came to me, Muslims and Christians alike, they said, ‘Master sahib, this is life, we all have to go’,” Ayub recalled. “They said to me, ‘Get up again. If you don’t, these children’s lives will be ruined’.”

Now, as the teacher’s classes continue, his request to people is not for funds but for donations of books and notebooks for the students.

“It is my intention that as long as there is a drop of blood in my body,” he said, “I will continue to educate these children.” 


Pakistan and Indonesia conclude week-long, joint military exercise to counter militancy

Updated 5 sec ago
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Pakistan and Indonesia conclude week-long, joint military exercise to counter militancy

  • Pakistan routinely holds joint air, ground and sea exercises with friendly nations
  • These military exercises help foster interoperability and joint deployment concepts

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan and Indonesia have concluded a week-long, joint military exercise, Elang Strike-II, to counter militancy, the Pakistani military said on Monday.
This was the second exercise between the two countries in the counter-terrorism domain, according to the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), the Pakistani military’s media wing.
It began on September 8 and continued for a week at the National Counter Terrorism Center (NCTC) in Pabbi town of Pakistan’s northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) province.
“The exercise was aimed at mutually beneficial sharing of experience and training methodology between the two armies which have strong brotherly relations,” the ISPR said in a statement.
Senior officials of Pakistan Army and Col. Budi Wirman, defense attaché of Indonesia, attended the closing ceremony.
Pakistan routinely holds joint air, ground and sea exercises with friendly nations. These drills help foster interoperability and joint deployment concepts to counter threats to regional and global peace.
The South Asian country, which has fought back militancy for decades, also hosts cadets from these brotherly nations each year to undergo specialized military training.


Pakistani man to appear in US court on assassination plot charges

Updated 36 min 45 sec ago
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Pakistani man to appear in US court on assassination plot charges

  • Federal prosecutors in Brooklyn say Asif Merchant, 46, spent time in Iran before traveling to the United States to recruit people for the plot
  • Merchant told a confidential informant he also planned to steal documents from one target and organize protests in the US, prosecutors said

NEW YORK: A Pakistani man with alleged ties to Iran is set to appear in US court on Monday on charges of scheming to assassinate an American politician in retaliation for the killing of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards top commander Qassem Soleimani.
Federal prosecutors in Brooklyn say Asif Merchant, 46, spent time in Iran before traveling to the United States to recruit people for the plot.
Merchant told a confidential informant he also planned to steal documents from one target and organize protests in the United States, prosecutors said.
The defendant named Donald Trump as a potential target but had not conceived the scheme as a plan to assassinate the former president, according to a person familiar with the matter who spoke on condition of anonymity.
Court papers do not name the alleged targets, and no attacks were made. As president, Trump had in 2020 approved the drone strike on Soleimani.
There are no suggestions that Merchant was tied to an apparent assassination attempt on Trump at his Florida golf course on Sunday, or a separate shooting of the Republican presidential candidate at a rally in Pennsylvania in July.
Merchant faces one count of attempting to commit terrorism across national boundaries and one count of murder for hire.
He is expected to enter a plea before US Magistrate Judge Robert Levy in Brooklyn at 12 p.m. EDT (1600 GMT). Merchant was arrested in Texas on July 15.
Iran’s mission to the United Nations said in August that the “modus operandi” described in Merchant’s court papers ran contrary to Tehran’s policy of “legally prosecuting the murder of General Soleimani.”


Pakistan says global commodities trader Gunvor Group ‘keen’ to invest in petroleum sector

Updated 41 min 27 sec ago
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Pakistan says global commodities trader Gunvor Group ‘keen’ to invest in petroleum sector

  • Last month, Gunvor Group signed an agreement to acquire 50 percent shares of Pakistan’s Total Parco oil marketing company
  • PM Shehbaz Sharif informs Gunvor Group chairman of reforms undertaken to increase foreign investment in Pakistan

ISLAMABAD: Global commodities trader Gunvor Group has expressed its “keen” interest in investing in Pakistan’s petroleum sector, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s office said on Monday.
The statement came after Sharif’s meeting with Gunvor Group Chairman Torbjorn Tornqvist and Total Energies Vice President Oceania & Southeast Asia Mehmet Celepoglu
During the meeting, the prime minister highlighted the rapid reforms that were underway to increase investment and business activities in Pakistan, according to PM Sharif’s office.
“Chairman Torbjorn Tornqvist expressed the Gunvor Group’s keen interest in investment in the petroleum sector of Pakistan,” it said in a statement.
The prime minister was informed that the Gunvor Group had signed an agreement in August to acquire 50 percent shares of Total Parco Pakistan Limited, a subsidiary of French oil giant Total Energies.
A joint venture between Total Energies and Pak-Arab Refinery Limited in Pakistan, Total PARCO Pakistan Limited has a retail network of more than 800 service stations and is involved in fuel logistics and lubricants.
“The prime minister directed the relevant authorities to provide all possible facilities to the Gunvor Group,” Sharif’s office said.
Since avoiding a default last year, Islamabad has been making attempts to boost foreign investment and trade to drive economic growth in the South Asian country.
In recent months, Pakistan has reached multiple investment deals with a number of countries, mainly the Gulf states, in infrastructure, energy, maritime, ports and other sectors.


Pakistan reports sixth case of mpox virus in Islamabad

Updated 16 September 2024
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Pakistan reports sixth case of mpox virus in Islamabad

  • Patient admitted to the isolation ward of Islamabad’s Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences
  • Mpox is mild but people with weakened immune systems are at higher risk of complication

ISLAMABAD: Pakistani health authorities on Monday confirmed a sixth case of mpox virus in the federal capital of Islamabad, saying the patient was admitted to the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS) hospital.

The Border Health Staff (BHS) detected mpox symptoms in a 44-year-old man during screening at the Islamabad International Airport, according to the federal health minister.

Since confirming its first mpox case last month, Pakistan has implemented stringent screening protocols at all airports and border crossings for the screening of travelers.

“The sixth case of mpox has been reported in Pakistan,” a health ministry spokesperson said in a statement. “The travel history of the 44-year-old man is from Gulf countries.”

Patients who contract mpox get flu-like symptoms and pus-filled lesions. Mpox is usually mild but can kill. Children, pregnant women and people with weakened immune systems are at higher risk of complications from the infection.

On Sept. 8, health authorities declared Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province mpox-free after all four patients previously infected with the virus recovered.

Dr. Mukhtar Bharath, the prime minister’s coordinator for health, said the health ministry was working closely with provincial authorities to monitor new cases and around 630,000 passengers had so far been screened at airports.

“Effective measures are being taken to protect people from mpox,” Dr. Bharath said.

The World Health Organization has declared a global health emergency over the spread of a new mutated strain of mpox named clade I, which first emerged in the Democratic Republic of Congo and has since spread to several countries, leading to increased monitoring and preventive measures worldwide.


Sindh minister orders security for polio worker who says she was raped on duty

Updated 16 September 2024
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Sindh minister orders security for polio worker who says she was raped on duty

  • The polio worker testified before a local court on Friday that she was raped while she was on duty
  • But the woman later retracted her statement amid threats by her husband for being an ‘adulteress’

KARACHI: Provincial Health Minister Dr. Azra Fazal Pechuho on Monday took notice of alleged rape of a polio worker in the Jacobabad district of Pakistan’s southern Sindh province and instructed police to provide her round-the-clock security.
The incident occurred in Allah Baksh Jakhrani village of Jacobabad. The polio worker testified before a local court on Friday that she was raped while on duty, Pakistan’s Dawn newspaper reported. A day later, the polio worker retracted her statement and said she was robbed, reportedly amid threats by her husband for being a ‘Kari,’ an adulteress, who deserves death. 
The Sindh health minister has instructed police to provide security around the polio worker’s current residence and requested Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah to provide the woman with monetary compensation to help her take care of her children.
“Our female polio workers are the backbone of the polio program and protecting them has always been the utmost priority of the program,” Dr. Pechuho said. “I am taking every necessary action to ensure that she gets the justice she deserves.”
On Sept. 9, Pakistan launched a week-long, nationwide polio campaign amid a spike in militant attacks. The potentially fatal, paralyzing disease mostly strikes children under the age of five and typically spreads through contaminated water.
Two days later, a roadside bomb hit a vehicle carrying officers assigned to protect health workers conducting polio immunization in the northwestern South Waziristan district, in the same province, wounding six officers and three civilians. The militant Daesh group later claimed responsibility for the attack.
Anti-polio campaigns in Pakistan are regularly marred by violence. Militants target vaccination teams and police assigned to protect them, claiming that the campaigns are a Western conspiracy to sterilize children.
Since January, Pakistan has reported 17 new cases of polio, jeopardizing decades of efforts to eliminate polio in the country. Pakistan and Afghanistan are the only countries in which the spread of polio has never been stopped.