Pakistan’s national women football player Abiha Haider (Margalla FC, Islamabad) revealed in an exclusive interview with FootballPakistan.Com (FPDC) that she will be departing tomorrow from Islamabad Airport to the United States of America with two fellow club mates Roshnan Ali and Sara Mumtaz and coach Ishrat Fatima to take part in the “FIFA Women’s World Cup Developing Program”.
The ladies will be attending seminars, programs, meetings, and practice sessions in New York, New Jersey, Baltimore, and Washington DC during the two-week trip. They will also visit various local colleges and universities and hope to take part in matches with various American women teams. The group will also be hosted for a special dinner at the White House by the US Government for boosting bilateral relations through sports promotion and development.
Abiha Haider is a full Pakistan women’s international and played in last year’s inaugural SAFF Womens Championship in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh where the Pak girls won the hearts of football fans across Pakistan by reaching the semi-finals under captain Sana Mehmood and coach Tariq Lutfi.
Ishrat Fatima was also a captain of the Pakistan women’s team that took part in the South Asian Games 2010 also held in Bangladesh, and also won 3 national women championship medals with her Punjab University Sports Sciences Department over the years.
Abiha Haider belongs to a renowned family of footballers and athletes. Her father Masood Haider was a keen football that played at Punjab level, while her mother Zara Haider was a former women’s hockey player as well as being renowned television news caster. Abiha’s uncles Masroor Haider, Nayab Haider, and Hassan Abbas are ex players that are now involved in the day to the day running of football across Islamabad.
We at FootballPakistan.Com (FPDC) and the whole of Pakistan are proud of dedicated sportswomen like Abiha, Ishrat, Roshnan, and Sara. We wish them all the best on this ambitious two-week tour of the USA and hope that it will be a rewarding experience personally and professionally to help football in Pakistan grow at all levels to world standard heights in the near future.