Karachi’s Lyari neighbourhood has taken a meaningful step towards giving its young female boxers the training ground they have long gone without. The area has received its first portable boxing ring, donated by Sehan Vital Fusion, and it was unveiled during a women’s boxing exhibition that drew a large crowd.
The ring was formally introduced at the TMC Bhutto Wala School on Juma Baloch Road in Agra Taj Colony, close to the Pak Shaheen Boxing Club. The venue was modest, a school hall rather than a stadium, but the day carried real weight, because for many of the girls it was their first time boxing in a proper ring.
The exhibition featured six bouts across the 26kg, 30kg, 40kg, 42kg, 46kg and 50kg weight categories, with young boxers from clubs and institutions across Karachi taking part. Residents, schoolchildren and boxing enthusiasts turned out in large numbers. The winners on the day were Hafifa of the Shaheed Zahid Hussain Boxing Club, Nazmeen Sanghar of the Pak Shaheen Boxing Club, Hoorian of the Farid Colony Boxing Club, Eman of the Sindh Muslim Boxing Club, Seema of the Faqeer Colony Boxing Club and Manahil of the Benazir Bhutto Shaheed University Lyari.
Speaking at the event, Sehan Vital Fusion president Dr Naseem Shekhani said the donation was aimed at the shortage of sporting facilities in neighbourhoods that are too often overlooked, and at making sure a lack of money never stands between a talented child and sport. Children from underserved backgrounds should never be held back simply because they do not have access to basic facilities, he said, and every child deserves a platform to show what they can do. Lyari’s young girls, he added, have shown they are more than ready to claim that space.
Former national boxer and Pak Shaheen Boxing Club head coach Younis Qambrani welcomed the initiative, saying the new ring would help young female boxers prepare for bigger competitions. The children of Lyari have the grit and passion to excel, he said, but they need proper infrastructure and encouragement to turn that energy into results. A portable ring gives young athletes a genuine training environment in which to improve their skills and get ready for competitive boxing.
That point matters because Lyari’s relationship with boxing runs deep. The neighbourhood is home to twelve of Karachi’s sixteen boxing clubs, and its most famous son is Syed Hussain Shah, who grew up on the streets of Lyari and went on to win Pakistan’s first and still only Olympic boxing medal, a bronze at the Seoul Games in 1988. Shah also won five gold medals at the South Asian Games and received the Sitara-i-Imtiaz in 1989.
Qambrani is part of that story. He founded the Pak Shaheen Boxing Club in 1992 and coached boys for years before opening the club’s doors to girls in 2013, when his own daughter Anum became its first female member. The club’s most famous graduate is Aliya Soomro, who began her training there and went on to become the first Pakistani woman to win a world boxing title, knocking out her opponent from Thailand in just 45 seconds in Bangkok to claim the WBA Asia 105-pound title.
She is not alone. Fatima Zahra became Pakistan’s first female Commonwealth Games boxing medallist when she won bronze in the 60kg category in Glasgow, and the Crown of Lyari Boxing Championship at the Benazir Bhutto Shaheed University Lyari in early November included four women’s categories among the thirteen on the programme. Boxing has also been confirmed for the Los Angeles 2028 Olympics, with seven women’s medal events, and the first qualification chance comes at the 2027 World Championships, giving Lyari’s young boxers something to aim for.
Yet for all that talent and history, the daily reality for most female boxers in Lyari has remained difficult. Training sessions are held in modest rooms, on rooftops and in crowded gyms, because dedicated women’s facilities are still rare. A proper ring makes a real difference. It gives boxers the right dimensions to learn footwork and spacing, the right surface to move on safely, and the feel of a real bout. Just as importantly, a portable ring can be moved between schools and clubs, so the benefit is not confined to a single venue.
The new facility is expected to improve training and competition opportunities in the neighbourhood while encouraging more girls to take up the sport, and Sehan Vital Fusion says the initiative is part of its wider work to promote inclusive grassroots sport and support young talent from underserved communities. For now, the ring is a practical answer to a problem that has held back a generation of talent. Lyari has never lacked boxers, coaches or appetite for the sport. What it has lacked is the basic infrastructure that turns enthusiasm into achievement, and this ring begins to close that gap. If the girls who boxed in the exhibition are any guide, the next chapter of Lyari’s boxing story may well be written by the young women who now have a ring to call their own.
