Holder Waheed in six-way tie for lead at Rashid D. Habib golf.

KARACHI -- The winter gusts blew across the Karachi Golf Club and just when they had seemed to have unsettled Waheed Baloch, the defending champion hit back.

Waheed had bogeyed the par-5 14th hole in the opening round of the Rashid D. Habib Memorial National ProfAesAsional Golf Tournament but rebounded immediately with a birdie on the 15th which was followed by another on the penultimate hole as he posted a three-under 69 to be among six golfers who topped the leaderboard on Thursday.

Waheed, who also shot birdies on the eighth and 10th, was alongside Pakistan's top golfer Shabbir Iqbal, fresh from winning his 200th career title at last week's CAS Open, Mohammad Zubair, Zahir Shah, Mohammad Shehzad and Asad Khan.

Carrying his winning form, Shabbir had a splendid front nine as he sank four birdies, including three on successive holes from the fifth onwards, but then bogeyed two consecutive holes on the back nine before firing another...