KARACHI, April 16: May 23, 2003 was a red-letter day for the people of Lyari when President General Pervez Musharraf drove to KPT sports complex, near Lyari, hub of boxing, to congratulate local lad Meherullah for winning boxing gold medal at the 2002 Busan Asian Games. The president embraced the young pugilist and presented him a cheque for Rs. 4.5m for his feat at the Asiad.
Lyari is known for the abilities that exist among the Baloch and Kutchi tribes for boxing and soccer. Olympic bronze medalist, Syed Hussain Shah and Meherullah are household names in Lyari where most of the residents are labourers or earn their livelihood through fishing.
Hundreds of boxing prodigies, who lack proper nutrition and sports gear, throng the clubs every evening to better their skills under whatever facilities are available to them, with sole aim to emulate Hussain Shah or Meherullah’s feat. The former turned pro after winning the country’s only Olympic boxing medal at Seoul and is coaching in Japan nowadays.
President Musharraf’s reward to Meherullah has also opened new vistas for the promising pugilists. No head of state had eulogized Lyari sportsmen in similar way. In addition, the boxers who won gold at the SAF Games earned one million rupees each.
The president also gave Rs. 10m to Prof. Anwar Chowdhry for the promotion of boxing. According to Prof. Chowdhry, the amount was spent to prepare the team for Islamabad SAF Games. He insisted that another 10m was promised for Athens Olympics which were not given in time. He has, however, received 4.0m recently.
A survey conducted by Dawn reveal that there are 13 affiliated clubs in the former district South of Karachi of which 12 are in Lyari. The late Ustad Muhammad Satto, a labour contractor and mentor of Prof. Anwar Chowdhry, the AIBA (International Amateur Boxing Association) chief, was instrumental in promoting the game in Lyari. He died at the age of 90 plus a decade back.
Boxers in these clubs are groomed in four tiers - boys under-15; cadet under-17, juniors under-19 and seniors 19 and above. Previously, the youngsters used to take boxing as it was a passion of their ancestors for national pride, but now it has monetary charm, said Muhammad Asghar Baloch, Secretary, District Boxing Association (South).
Though the number of boxers is on the rise, they lack the basic facilities for training. This correspondent is a witness of boxers having their work out on footpath outside the RCD club on Nishtar Road.
The club is run by veteran international pugilist and coach, Jan Muhammad Baloch.
Presently, only KPT and KESC are patronizing boxing in the city while teams in Railways, Pakistan Steel, MCB and Sindh Government Press have now ceased to exist.
Meanwhile, a healthy trend of getting education is witnessed among the boxers. Meherullah, for instance, is appearing in Matriculation examinations this year while Sohail Baloch, Shahid Khan, Dur Muhammed, Jan Muhammad, Ali Muhammad, Sattar Sona etc appeared in Matriculation examination last year.
Some promising boxers who are coming up fast and have the potential to prove their mettle in the near future are Ali Muhammad (KPT), Nisar Sona (KPT), Qadir Khan (Muslim Azad), M. Farooq (Green Flag), Aneel Hussain (KPT), Rasheed (Pak National), Waheed Jan (Young Baloch) and Ilyas Katchi (Pak Shaheen).
A veteran of Olympics, Commonwealth Games and four Asian Games including two as a coach, Jan Muhammad Baloch regrets that nobody came to his rescue as he lost his brother while his daughter was paralyzed.
Jan, who served as national coach from 1988 to 2001 now runs RCD club, established on a small piece of land of KMC workshop at Nishtar Road. He has produced a number of international boxers. A dejected Jan has many interesting stories to tell.