Hyderabad used to have a decent civil airport with a 7054 ft long runway and regular flights to Karachi, Lahore and Islamabad. The airport got closed in 1998 due to losses. There was an announcement recently to reopen the airport on July 26, 2008 but the event got postponed after the runway was declared not upto-mark for commercial service yet.
In the meantime, Government of Sindh announced 10,000 posts in Police department and found a novel use for the Hyderabad Airport runway. In the photo above, candidates for police posts are seen running on the runway of Hyderabad Aiprort as part of their physical fitness test.
Photo is from July 22, 2008. Looking at the ‘jazba’ (motivation) of the runners in the photo below, a poetic verse comes to my mind:
rau meiN hai rakhsh-e-umr, kahaaN dekhiye thamay
nay haath baag par hai na paa hai rakaab meiN
Photo Credits: Farhan Khan at APP
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Rafay Saheb, Hyderabad is second largest city of Sindh and 8th largest of Pakistan
@ Bhagaey jatein hein sab, aik hi janib,
baras reha ho atta, goya aasman sey
Hyderabad, the second largest city of Pakistan ?
Rafay Kashmiri
@ Bhagaey jatein hein sab, aik hi janib,
baras reha ho atta, goya aasman sey
Rafay Kashmiri
@ more potential corruption,
- a solution for enormous unemployement ??
- huge support force for establishment ??
- Going towards a ” Police state ” ?
Rafay Kashmiri
It is sad to see Hyderabad being neglected. Owais Sahib, your other photo is very interesting. It seems like someone has place Kaaba right in the middle and everyone is facing that. I hope they all get the job.
It’s sad to see that major cities in Sind other than Karachi have been neglected. Not only the airport but also sports facilites such as Niaz stadium have suffered. This is in sharp contrast to the cities in Punjab such as Faisalabad and Multan that have seen significant development in the last decade. The lack of facilities such as airports, hotels, convention centers, sports arenas, cultural venues hurts the cities economy and job opportunities in Hyderabad and Sukkur and puts more pressure on Karachi in Sind.
Here is another photo from the event
Running people will not deteriorate the runway, but I was amused to see the title photo, hence this post. It also happened to coincide with the ongoing controversy of opening/not-opening the Hyderabad airport amid claims that runway is not plane worthy.
I believe Hyderabad airport should be opened. It is the second largest city in Sindh and deserves a funtioning airport for its large populace.