10-year-old Arshiyan Kashif - who belongs to Mirpur Sakro, a remote coastal town in district Thatta - has clinched the title of "Best Shaheen Scout of Pakistan" and has become eligible for the President Gold Medal Award for Best Shaheen Scout. The Pakistan Boys Scout Association announced the results of the final competition held from February 10–13 at the National Scouting Academy headquarters in Islamabad.
He trounced his rival scouts in all categories at the event and was eventually declared the winner. He and his family had shifted to Karachi in search of quality education, where he joined the Darkhan Ismaili Boys Scouts in 2019 and was trained there by different trainers.
Kashif Sayani - the father of Arshiyan - expressed his joy at the achievement of his son and said that his son’s constant efforts have brought tremendous results, adding that achieving this marvelous feat was not easy at all.
He further said that, prior to that, his son had won the Sunehra Shaheen Award and the Quaid-e-Azam Award at the local level, and thereafter he qualified for the competition at the provincial level.
Jubilant Arshiyan said that "Darkhana Boys Scouts" will organize weekly training to teach the prescribed syllabus of scouting, designed by the Pakistan Boys Scouts Association, to compete in the events that are held annually at the district, and national level.
He went on to say that scouts are required to attend camps like campore and comporal, where they are trained to deal with emergency situations."They teach us gadget making, tent-pegging, cooking without utensils, and lighting fire with stones," he said.
He said that they had to complete different stages of first aid training to qualify for the second round of this competition.
Speaking about the background of scouting, he said that in 1907, Robert Baden-Powell, a Lieutenant General in the British Army, held a scouting encampment on Brownsea Island in England. Baden-Powell wrote Scouting for Boys (London, 1908), partly based on his earlier military books. The scouts have to pass district-level rounds and provincial-level rounds before reaching the finals.
In the first decade of the twentieth century, both the Boy Scout and Girl Scout movements were well established. Arshiyan was hopeful for the bright future of Pakistan and vowed to serve his country by seeking quality education.