Rizwan vows to serve Pak athletes

If one has the privilege, it is incumbent upon them to use it for the benefit of others, and Registered Dietician Rizwan Aftab Ahmad is ensuring he fulfills his duty.

"It is about building a legacy and continuing one to serve the country for me," he explained in the exclusive conversation with this correspondent.

The 44-year-old is leading a movement that involves most of the top Pakistani athletes that can help spread awareness about health and the importance of meeting dietary needs while sponsoring them for events abroad and taking care of their general medical treatment and specialised treatment for sportspersons.

It has been almost two years that leading Pakistani stars like the Paris Olympic gold medallist and record-maker Arshad Nadeem, Paralympics multi-medallist including, the 2020 Tokyo Olympic discus thrower Haider Ali, and the Commonwealth Games record-setting weightlifter Nooh Dastgir Butt among others are all endorsing the multi-vitamin and multi-mineral supplement Activit brand.

The Activit roster of several athletes and legends includes cricketers like Salman Agha and Shan Masood along with Shoaib Akhtar as well.

At first, it looked like any other company sponsoring the leading talent, but there is more than meets the eye.

Rizwan is filling a gap for athletes as the Director at National Hospital DHA, Lahore, where he provides them with free medical treatment for life. The same free-of-charge treatment is extended to the family members of these athletes as well.

One of the examples of how he has subtly helped shape the Pakistani sports landscape was by assuring Arshad received adequate treatment for his long-standing elbow and knee injuries throughout 2023 and before going to the Paris Olympics. Rizwan was instrumental in getting Dr Ali Bajwa from England on Arshad's case.

It was a connection that Arshad and, consequentially, Pakistan hugely benefited from when the 28-year-old became the first Pakistani to win an Olympic gold medal in 40 years.

Had Dr Bajwa not come into the picture, Arshad's recovery would have been even more painful, jeapardising his chances of winning the international accolades.

Rizwan's empathy for the athletes comes from the fact that his grandfather Iftikhar Ahmed Shah was a trailblazing swimmer who represented Pakistan in the 1948 Olympics and his third great-grandfather Raja Ghazanfar Ali Khan served as Pakistan's Minister of Food, Agriculture, and Health after 1947 and was the first president of the Pakistan Hockey Federation and later served as a diplomat.

Given the state of neglect by the government and even the sports bodies when it comes to athlete welfare, Rizwan and his brand have been helping them to go to international events, financing those trips but mainly completely setting the athletes free of the burden of medical expenses and giving them the access to the best facilities completely free of charge.

But its vision remains that athletes can spread the awareness of a healthier lifestyle and Pakistanis too can have a shot at affordable supplements that are essential for good health, however, they do not get them due to poor quality of food products.

"The driving force behind supporting the athletes and also making this product that can help everyone is patriotism and activism, there is the need to serve my country, it has been a tradition of my family and so I am walking in those footsteps," the Aitchisonian and Queen's University Canada graduate told this correspondent.

He has certification as a registered dietitian and men's health specialist (Cornell University & Harvard Medical School) in his credentials, but mostly his pride comes from the rich heritage of his family he has been well-respected and even revered as Syed Ghulam Haider Shah, Rizwan's the 4th great-grandfather from his maternal side, was a spiritual figure of Jalalpur Shareef, whereas from his paternal side he is related to Faiz Ahmed Faiz. The Cambridge-educated diplomat Sultan Muhammad Khan, Faiz's father, was Rizwan's great-grandfather.

"It is about the optimal lifestyle that people can achieve. I have seen people in their 80s and 90s who feel great but those in their 30s don't, and there comes the difference in the diet and the nutrients they are getting from it," Rizwan highlighted.

The young CEO believes that while he is serving the athletes and the people of the country from Activt Foundation, his true motivation comes from the example of his father Prof. Dr. Aftab Ahmed, who is a pioneer of orthopedic surgery in Pakistan, founder of National Hospital DHA Lahore and the first Orthopedic Wing at Services Hospital.