DUBAI // More than 1,000 children from schools in Pakistan and across the UAE are taking part in an inaugural sports tournament that seeks to nurture and honour ties between the two countries.
The five-day International Sports Festival begins on Tuesday and features football, basketball, table tennis and throwball matches for boys and girls.
The competition forms part of Pakistan Association Dubai’s ongoing Solidarity Celebrations to mark UAE National Day and runs until Friday.
The tournament is being run in partnership with the Foundation Public School (FPS) in Karachi and is an expansion of the tournament it has run in Pakistan for more than a decade.
“The relationship between Pakistan and the UAE has always been positive and based on mutual respect and understanding,” said Zahid Tirmzi, vice present of Pad.
“Whenever we have had an earthquake or flooding in Pakistan, the UAE has always helped and that is something which all Pakistanis are thankful for.”
To celebrate that relationship FPS has organised the competition along with Pad and the Ministry of Education’s UAE Interschool Sports Association.
“We have about 12 schools taking part this year but we plan to make it an annual event so hopefully next time we will get even more schools to take part,” said Mr Tirmzi.
Along with FPS, also taking part from Pakistan are Head Start School and Dawood Public School, which are both in Karachi.
In total, 1,200 pupils under the age of 16 will be taking part.
“We have been running these sports festivals for about 15 years now in Karachi and they have proved to be very popular,” said Murad Hussein, senior manager at FPS.
“It has grown in popularity every year and we wanted to expand it to the UAE so we approached the Pad to help us organise it.”
The sports festival is one of a number of events Pad has organised to mark National Day this year.
On November 21 it will host “Iqbal and National Identity”, which focuses on the importance of national identity in the UAE and is being run with Dubai’s Community Development Authority.
From November 26 to 29 Pad headquarters in Bur Dubai will host a food festival featuring Shireen Anwar and Rida Aftab, who host a Pakistani cooking show on Masala TV.
More than 12,000 people are expected to attend during the course of the event.
The main focus of the celebrations will be on the 2km solidarity walk in Bur Dubai on November 28, with more than 10,000 people expected to take part.
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The smuggler
Eldarir had arrived at JFK in January 2020 with three suitcases, containing goods he valued at $300, when he was directed to a search area.
Officers found 41 gold artefacts among the bags, including amulets from a funerary set which prepared the deceased for the afterlife.
Also found was a cartouche of a Ptolemaic king on a relief that was originally part of a royal building or temple.
The largest single group of items found in Eldarir’s cases were 400 shabtis, or figurines.
Khouli conviction
Khouli smuggled items into the US by making false declarations to customs about the country of origin and value of the items.
According to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, he provided “false provenances which stated that [two] Egyptian antiquities were part of a collection assembled by Khouli's father in Israel in the 1960s” when in fact “Khouli acquired the Egyptian antiquities from other dealers”.
He was sentenced to one year of probation, six months of home confinement and 200 hours of community service in 2012 after admitting buying and smuggling Egyptian antiquities, including coffins, funerary boats and limestone figures.
For sale
A number of other items said to come from the collection of Ezeldeen Taha Eldarir are currently or recently for sale.
Their provenance is described in near identical terms as the British Museum shabti: bought from Salahaddin Sirmali, "authenticated and appraised" by Hossen Rashed, then imported to the US in 1948.
- An Egyptian Mummy mask dating from 700BC-30BC, is on offer for £11,807 ($15,275) online by a seller in Mexico
- A coffin lid dating back to 664BC-332BC was offered for sale by a Colorado-based art dealer, with a starting price of $65,000
- A shabti that was on sale through a Chicago-based coin dealer, dating from 1567BC-1085BC, is up for $1,950