Originally posted by Jehan Ara

After all he is the only Pakistani to have won a medal at the Paralympic Games in Beijing. He suffers from Cerebral Palsy. Haider created history when he won the silver medal for Pakistan in the Long Jump competition. Haider covered the distance of 6.44 meters, equal to the Tunisian competitor who covered the same distance but won the Gold Medal. Haider missed out on the Gold because in the preliminary rounds one of his five jumps, was rejected.

Pakistan has never won a medal in the Paralympic Games. This is a big deal. Why is there no celebration? Why is it that his photos are not plastered all over the print media? Why is he not being interviewed on all the television channels? Why hasn’t the government announced a cash prize as a reward?

If a cricketer makes a century (which hasn’t happened recently) everyone is talking about it, writing about it, zillions of prizes are announced, the President/PM call him to congratulate him. So anyone know if any of this happened when Haider won the only medal for Pakistan in Beijing? I googled and all i saw was a paragraph in The News and on APP – no photographs, no prize announcements, nothing … Do we really know how to recognize our achievers? Haider Ali is certainly someone we should shower with accolades.

Similar Articles at PakFellows Blog: