Latest news with #Pirzada
Indian Express
03-08-2025
- Health
- Indian Express
This protein molecule in your body could be the answer to increasing your lifespan
Proteins are usually associated with good health, and they are even labelled as the 'building blocks' of our body. But what if we told you that blocking a certain protein in your body could possibly increase your lifespan by 25%? A new study shows that inhibiting IL-11, a protein that promotes inflammation, could be the key to increasing your lifespan. While the results have only been seen on mice, this study may have amazing benefits for humans in the near future. The researchers used an antibody to inhibit this protein in a sample of mice that were about 75 weeks old — roughly equivalent to 55 years for a human. It was found that these mice's life span was increased to about 155 weeks, while untreated rats lived an average of 120 weeks. The inhibition of IL-11 showcased other health benefits in the mice as well, including reduced cancer risk, improved muscle function, improved vision, and the absence of grey hair. Researchers say that similar antibodies are being tested in human trials. But what is IL-11? And how does it affect ageing so much? IL-11 is a protein that promotes inflammation. As we get older, our cells accumulate damage, and the immune system is triggered to spew out inflammatory molecules, one of which is IL-11. 'Small doses [of IL-11] might protect us from diseases; however, excess amounts can cause damage to the cells, which is believed to accelerate ageing', said Dr Roohi Pirzada, Senior Physician and Critical Care Specialist residing in Mumbai. She also said that anti-IL-11 therapies hold promise for treating kidney disease in Alport syndrome. The results of anti IL-11 therapies have showcased similar results seen in some studies when mice are treated with rapamycin. However, rapamycin has also been known for causing various side effects, which are not present in anti IL-11 treatments. 'The therapy might not be available for use in humans till further evidence based studies and trials are conducted' said Dr Pirzada. Determining the effects of this treatment on human longevity through clinical trial is a little more difficult, since there are many other factors affecting the life span too. Hence, it will be a long time before we could see this treatment being available for public use.
Business Recorder
03-08-2025
- Business
- Business Recorder
PSB establishes contributory pension fund to ensure pension sustainability
The Pakistan Sports Board (PSB) has established a Contributory Pension Fund to address future pension liabilities and ensure a sustainable retirement system for its employees. The fund is expected to generate around Rs73 million annually, easing financial pressure on the board's pension disbursement system. The decision was made during the 34th PSB Board meeting, where members unanimously approved amendments to the board's pension rules. Following the approval, Director General PSB Muhammad Yasir Pirzada formally issued a notification for the creation of the fund. 'The contributory pension fund is a long-overdue reform aimed at strengthening the financial foundation of the PSB and securing the future of our pensioners,' the DG PSB said in an official statement. Under the new framework, serving employees and retired employees will each contribute 10% of their basic pay/pension, while pensioners aged above 72 will contribute 20%. The PSB will match this with a 20% contribution from its commercial/revenue account. The fund is expected to collect approximately Rs6.161 million per month, including Rs1.569 million from serving employees, Rs1.454 million from pensioners, and Rs3.138 million from the PSB's own contribution. The fund will be managed through a dedicated account jointly operated by two officers nominated by the Director General. Surplus funds may be invested in profit-generating schemes, further boosting the financial viability of the pension system. Leave encashment restricted to one year The board has also approved an amendment to Rule 88 of the PSB Service Rules, 2000, effectively capping leave encashment at 365 days for employees retiring, resigning, or deceased. Previously, employees could encash 50% of unused leave beyond 365 days, which imposed a significant financial strain on the board. 'This change is necessary to curb long-term liabilities and align PSB's service structure with modern financial management practices,' DG Pirzada added. The reforms come as part of broader efforts to modernize the board's internal financial regulations and bring transparency and discipline to its human resource and pension systems.
Hindustan Times
09-06-2025
- Politics
- Hindustan Times
Daneesh Majid: 'History has mostly been written by those in power'
What made you address this important piece of our history and the unjustifiably long gap in public discourse? How did you approach writing about that politically sensitive moment? An epiphany back in early 2020 propelled me into action. A little before Covid, a video interview I conducted with Arshad Pirzada crystallized something I had been thinking about when carrying out some Hyderabad-centric features for The Hindu Business Line's weekly magazine two years earlier. Pirzada is a former Gulf NRI whose family came from a priestly lineage and had ties to the bureaucratic Asaf Jahi establishment. Post-1948, they had to adjust to life as numerical minorities in a democratic landscape unlike the old feudal setup in which the ruling Muslim minority held sway. The then chief editor, Ayoob Ali Khan, chided both of us for not emphasizing this fall and rise aspect of Pirzada's journey, one which included him becoming an economic migrant to Saudi Arabia and paving the way for his family's economic revival. There are plenty of such stories in Hyderabad that have remained undocumented (not only because many elders are no longer with us) and diluted through generations. A lot of these accounts have not been brought to the fore through crisp, timely and accessible narratives in the vein of works by authors like Urvashi Butalia, Anam Zakaria, Aanchal Malhotra and yourself. As for my approach, I could not solely rely on oral accounts. Besides my own enormous bookshelf, I scoured various bookstores, accessed personal libraries and found some academic articles to recreate the eras and build worlds that the 11 different families featured in the book lived in. My editor Vikram Shah's nudges in the right direction were key to this. Hyderabad is a city of syncretism, but also of stark divides – linguistic, religious, and class-based. How did you navigate these complexities while telling its story? Some of these divides existed pre-1948. For instance, many people believe that the Mulki agitation which began surfacing in the early 1950s was the earliest harbinger of the Telangana-Andhra divide. One story an acquaintance told me was about his father, a participant in the anti-Nizam and eventually anti-Indian government struggle. When his father was hiding out among Andhra Telugu cadres and interacting with ordinary citizens during the late 1940s in Bapatla, Madras Presidency, some of them either wondered how he was able to articulately communicate in Telugu while many poked fun at his Telangana dialect outright. That too, despite the fact that the Andhra Jana Sangham, which helped foment revolt in Telangana brought the Telugu populations from Madras Presidency and Telangana together on the basis of language. He also spoke of how Andhraites monopolized decision-making out of a sense of organizational superiority. So rather than only looking at these divisions through post-colonial, contemporary lenses, finding and citing primary/secondary sources that mention previous iterations of these divisions helped in navigating those present-day discords. Please tell us about your most important sources, and share any stories that surprised you or changed your thinking. Two important ones which altered specific notions come to mind — both my own and commonly held ones. Dr Rafiuddin Farouqui's compilation of the Aurangabad (then a part of the Nizam state)-born Maulana Maududi's letters, in which he beseeches Qasim Razvi to negotiate the best terms of accession with the Indian government. It showed a more farsighted, accommodating side to someone that many, including my own great-grandfather, who served as a Director in the Religious Affairs Department of Princely Hyderabad, saw as a hardliner. Chukka Ramaiah, the now 98-year-old activist who participated in the early days of the Telangana Revolt not only abhorred the ruled Hindu vs. ruler Muslim angle of looking at the anti-Nizam struggle, but a cruder version of the Andhra versus Telangana binary too. He was all praise for a class of Andhraites who arrived in Hyderabad state during the early 1950s, not as monopolisers of the commercial and ruling dispensations. This group of egalitarian-minded teachers from Andhra uplifted Telangana Telugus who previously didn't have access to education, especially in their mother tongue. Our respective works (mine on the Sindhis) trace the afterlives of two distinct but parallel communities deeply affected by the reshaping of India after Partition. What does this say about how we remember the 'unwritten histories' of India – the ones lived not by governments, but by people? History has mostly been written by those in power. Today, various political figures have been rewriting history especially through their election rhetoric. Since 2018, state, municipal and national polls saw certain opposition factions referring to then Chief Minister KCR as the 'New Nizam.'. The 'Nizam culture' was also blamed entirely for the city's so-called inability to become a global IT hub. All this amounts to a constant rewriting of the past by the powers that be as they evoke the powers that were! But it is the ordinary citizenry of today, the majority of which doesn't have the time nor resources to (re)evaluate bygone eras, who gets polarized as a result. Cinema, social media reels and WhatsApp forwards, backed by a robust ecosystem don't help either. Yes, the Nizam possessed his shortcomings, and princely Hyderabad had a dark side to it. But this us-versus-them prism, with the Nizam and the Razakars being equated as the sole aggressors, has gained too much currency. I was told first and second-hand stories from Kayasthas and Telangana Hindus about Osman Ali Khan's personal generosity and his patronage of temples. A lot of Telugu and Urdu literature chronicles how religious Muslims took to the onset of leftism against a feudal set up spearheaded by their 'own.' Micro-histories that ask the 'big' questions about historical occurrences, in the 'small' places are the need of the hour. Food, tehzeeb, language, architecture – Hyderabad's cultural distinctiveness is legendary. Which elements do you think are still thriving, and which are slipping away? Shervanis as well as Rumi topis are still worn at weddings and various functions. The food, for the most part, is still around. The feudal mentality that makes things more hierarchical while also inducing inertia among Hyderabadis won't disappear anytime soon. That being said, to varying extents, these elements certainly haven't been immune to the onset of McDonaldization. The Dakhani dialect, which isn't in danger of being fully cannibalized by shuddh Hindi or khaalis Urdu yet, can still be heard widely. But the nastaleeq script in which one can read Dakhani and standard Urdu literary gems, is rapidly fading away. Signboards on streets as well as government offices and Urdu 'jashns/anjumans' that often take place are in no way indicative of any substantive revival. Unless the prose is translated, which to some is code for 'diluted,' so much literature risks becoming obscure or an exotic relic of the past. In the past three years, some of my favourite Old City bookstores have closed or aren't selling non-religious content. Did you find yourself having to leave certain things out – whether due to space, sensitivity, or complexity? Are there stories you wish you'd been able to tell more fully? Yes. Throughout my research and fieldwork, I learned of some interesting reasons regarding why some Hyderabadis did or didn't undertake life-altering migrations to the West, the Gulf, other Indian cities, certain parts of Telangana/AP, or even Pakistan. There are some intriguing anecdotes about why some Muslims decided to either stay in India or make the move to Pakistan. After 1948, even the apolitical, professional class of Hyderabad's Muslims, regardless of whether they had ties to the nobility, considered settling in Pakistan. Despite the 1965 War, which put spokes in the wheel of Indo-Pak travel, many left for Pakistan in the 1970s out of personal grievances. Including such sagas would have provided a more personal, interior context as to why people decided to leave their families and native soil. However, if an interviewee requests for the omission of any detail or anecdote, out of respect and sensitivity, I have to oblige. Who did you imagine as your ideal reader while writing this book – and what do you hope they will take away from it? My ideal reader was always someone who wants to look at how people remember tragic episodes alongside common, sometimes militantly mainstreamed interpretations. Irrespective of whether the reader approaches my first book as such, at the very least, I hope that they get to experience the flavour of Hyderabad through its 11 diverse families. After all, a city's cultural distinctiveness isn't only defined by its monuments, cuisine and languages, but also by those who call(ed) it home. Saaz Aggarwal is the author of Sindh — Stories from a Vanished Homeland.
Express Tribune
29-05-2025
- Express Tribune
Ex-SHO dismissed over collusion with gutka mafia
The former SHO of Surjani Town police station, Ghulam Hussain Pirzada, has been dismissed from service after a departmental inquiry found him guilty of receiving regular bribes from sellers of the illegal carcinogenic substances of gutka and mawa. According to a formal notification of the dismissal issued by the Sindh Police Establishment Department, credible intelligence reports triggered the appointment of DIG Zulfiqar Mehr as the inquiry officer to investigate the allegations of corruption and negligence. A team of officers under his supervision collected detailed information about the network of those allegedly involved in the illicit gutka and mawa business in Surjani inquiry revealed that Pirzada was receiving weekly payments totaling Rs1.1 million from known figures in the illegal trade. Despite occupying the SHO position, Pirzada took no action against the organised sale of banned substances.
Kuwait Times
07-05-2025
- Politics
- Kuwait Times
Indian PM vows to stop waters key to rival Pakistan
JAMMU: A local resident uses his mobile on the shore near Chenab river near Sainth, the last village near the Line of Control (LOC), in Jammu district on May 2, 2025. — AFP NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi said Tuesday that water from India that once flowed across borders will be stopped, days after suspending a key water treaty with arch-rival Pakistan. 'India's water used to go outside, now it will flow for India', Modi said in a speech in New Delhi. 'India's water will be stopped for India's interests, and it will be utilized for India.' Pakistan has warned that tampering with its rivers would be considered 'an act of war'. Modi did not mention Islamabad specifically, but his speech comes after New Delhi suspended its part of the 65-year-old Indus Waters Treaty, which governs water critical to parched Pakistan for consumption and agriculture. New Delhi has blamed Islamabad for backing a deadly attack on tourists on the Indian side of contested Kashmir last month, sparking a series of heated threats and diplomatic tit-for-tat measures. Pakistan rejects the accusations, and the two sides have exchanged nightly gunfire since April 24 along the de facto border in Kashmir, the militarized Line of Control, according to the Indian army. United Nations chief Antonio Guterres on Monday said relations between Pakistan and India had reached a 'boiling point', warning that 'now is the time for maximum restraint and stepping back from the brink' of war. Islamabad on Tuesday accused India of altering the flow of the Chenab River, one of three rivers placed under Pakistan's control according to the now suspended treaty. 'We have witnessed changes in the river (Chenab) which are not natural at all,' Kazim Pirzada, irrigation minister for Pakistan's Punjab province, told AFP. Punjab, bordering India and home to nearly half of Pakistan's 240 million citizens, is the country's agricultural heartland, and 'the majority impact will be felt in areas which have fewer alternate water routes,' Pirzada warned. 'One day the river had normal inflow and the next day it was greatly reduced,' Pirzada added. In Pakistan-administered Kashmir, large quantities of water from India were reportedly released on April 26, according to the Jinnah Institute, a think tank led by a former Pakistani climate change minister. 'This is being done so that we don't get to utilize the water,' Pirzada added. The Indus River is one of the longest in Asia, cutting through ultra-sensitive demarcation lines between India and Pakistan in contested Muslim-majority Kashmir — a Himalayan territory both countries claim in full. Hindu-nationalist Modi had already threatened to use water as a weapon in 2016 after an attack in Indian-run Kashmir. 'Blood and water cannot flow together,' he said at the time. But India also is a downstream state of China — which controls the Tibetan headwaters of the Brahmaputra, the vast river key to India's northeast, and which then flows down through Bangladesh. — AFP
