Forgotten football hero struggles to make ends meet

KARACHI: From international fame to abject poverty, this is a story of a Pakistani international football star who was forgotten too soon.

Allah Bakhsh, who represented Pakistan in several international football tournaments in his youth, now parks cars as a security guard for a living. Old, frail and ill, he limps every day to work and back home.

Forced to live hand to mouth, Allah Bakhsh cannot even afford a bed and has to struggle to sit on the floor. Supporting an ill wife and two daughters, he is barely making it and blames the state for neglecting its heroes.

“Nobody cares what happens to me now. I served my country on international platforms but here I am now, discarded and forgotten too soon,” he says.