Abdul Mueed Baloch: Story of Karachi’s fastest boy

KARACHI: While senior Pakistani athletes gear up for Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, a young boy from Karachi is running to create a story of his own.

Growing up in less privileged housing societies surrounded by drugs, crime and gangs, most youth are set up to fail from the start. To bloom through the cracks when the stats are stacked against you is rare. Even those only indirectly affected by the violence develop anxiety, have trouble concentrating and struggle in relationships. 

Dalmia, is one such housing society. Children of this crime-infested neighbourhood have been frequently exposed to shootouts between police and gangsters, as recently as last Monday and for the greater part of the last decade.

Even while surrounded by drugs, violence and hopelessness a boy can still dream. This teenager too has dreams, he dreams of running faster than anybody else, and in September last year he was crowned the “fastest” boy in Karachi.

Meet Abdul Mueed Baloch

— Photo by Jawwad Farid

In 2015, Baloch, a passionate footballer, came to run track for the first time in his cleats at the National Coaching Centre. Little did he know that despite the obstruction his cleats might cause in running, those hunting talent had their eyes fixed on him.

And so it happened.

Baloch clocked 12.50 seconds in Aman Tech 100m sprint in February 2015 — his first stint at a competition; and in April 2016 at the Quaid-e-Azam Trophy, the boy from Dalmia showed a massive improvement by clocking 11.08 seconds.

“I have to do something … For Pakistan … For my nation,” says Baloch. “My first target is South Asian Games, then Asian Games. God willing, I will also aim for the Olympics.”

Dalmia Dreaming - Abdul Mueed's Story 

Jawwad Farid, a Fellow Society of Actuaries and an MBA from Columbia Business School, has been writing extensively on athletics.

He fell in love with the sport 29 years ago and continues to wonder: “What made these kids run?”… “How do they handle the heart break of lost races and the stress of training?” and “how can they show the world what running really means to them?”

As Farid puts it, “Mueed has become an inspiration for young kids not just in Dalmia but across the athletic community in Pakistan.”

When Farid first saw Baloch running at the Jinnah Sports Stadium, he found in the young Karachi boy an “inspiration” to wrap up a yearlong search for the “perfect close” of a documentary series he was working on.

“Why did you come to Islamabad,” Farid asked. “To run,” Baloch replied.  What derives him was the next question.

“It is nothing, just hard work,” says Baloch. 

This documentary was filmed by Jawwad Farid and has been reproduced with permission by Geo.tv, more information on Abdul Mueed Baloch and the people helping him realise his dreams can be found here.