Current Final

Author: News Desk

  • Pak Suzuki halts motorcycle production amidst raw material shortage

    In response to an acute shortage of raw materials, Pak Suzuki Motor Company (PSMC) has once again announced the suspension of its motorcycle production. This marks the third production halt in the current fiscal year, underscoring the challenges faced by Pakistan’s automotive industry.

    According to a report by The News, the automobile manufacturer formally communicated its decision through a notice to the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX). The production halt will extend for 12 days, commencing on September 1 and concluding on September 12, 2023. This move follows previous shutdowns from August 18 to 31 and from July 31 to August 15, 2023, due to inventory constraints, as reported by the company’s secretary.

    It’s worth noting that while production may be on hold, regular operations will persist at the vehicle manufacturing plant, as clarified in the bourse filing.

    Pak Suzuki’s ongoing struggle with raw material shortages can be traced back to July of the preceding year, primarily resulting from challenges in importing essential components. The nation’s dwindling foreign exchange reserves have further exacerbated these import disruptions.

    Sunny Kumar, an analyst at Topline Securities, provided insight into the impact of these disruptions: “PSMC produced 19,293 units with capacity utilisation of 26% in 1H2023 compared to 76,325 units produced with capacity utilisation of 102% in 1H2022.”

    In a glimmer of hope, the company’s management anticipates an economic rebound in FY24, driven by an upturn in agriculture output and eased import restrictions, with expected improvements in manufacturing and construction activities.

    Pak Suzuki’s predicament is not unique, as other prominent automakers such as Honda Atlas and Indus Motor Company, the local manufacturer of Toyota vehicles, have also faced repeated production stoppages due to raw material shortages. This scarcity has had a cascading effect, impacting the automobile parts industry and causing intermittent production halts.

    In a related development, Agriauto Industries Limited, a prominent automotive parts manufacturer, has announced a partial plant closure in September due to decreased production. Furthermore, Agriauto Stamping Company Pvt. Ltd., a wholly-owned subsidiary of the company, will also undergo a partial shutdown during the same period, as confirmed by the company secretary.

    The announcement of Pak Suzuki’s latest production halt has raised concerns among employees, stakeholders, and the general public. The motorcycle plant, a significant division within the company, plays a pivotal role in employment generation in the country.

    This situation has far-reaching implications, as experts anticipate that the closure will not only impact the company’s workforce but also reverberate through the broader economy. An industry observer emphasised the need for coordinated efforts between stakeholders and government bodies to address the root causes of raw material shortages and prevent further disruptions in Pakistan’s automotive sector.

  • Missing girl found after 12 years: The story of Saba Khalil

    Missing girl found after 12 years: The story of Saba Khalil

    On Friday, Urdu News published a detailed report on the return of a missing girl from Lari Adda.

    12 years ago, it was reported that 8-year-old Saba Khalil, a resident of Lahore’s Lari Adda, had gone missing. She had gone to the market and got lost on the way back home. After searching for her everywhere, the parents approached the police.

    Her father, Mohammad Khalil, used to sell naan chana on a cart in Lari Adda. He has two sons and a daughter.

    Failure of the system

    This year in May, Punjab’s Inspector General of Police (IGP) Dr. Usman Anwar tasked his subordinates to take an initiative to find the parents of missing children. Mustansar Feroze, Chief of City Traffic Police, has handed responsibility for listing down children who have no guardians and for tracing their relatives to a branch of his department that deals with education.

    When the traffic police team compiled the lists of abandoned children in all 42 centres, the Child Protection Bureau came to know of 68 girls whose cases have been closed and whose parents have become almost impossible to trace.

    After receiving the list, a three-member traffic police team headed by Traffic Warden Mohsin Abbas Malik started the process of interviewing the children according to the order of the list. Saba Khalil was first in the list.

    The traffic police personnel had no training for this work, but they were determined to finish the task. The head of the team, Mohsin Abbas, told Urdu News that when he was interviewing Saba Khalil, the team of the Child Protection Bureau was also present.

    “Gaining children’s trust is very difficult,” he stated. Then they started questioning the girl in order to get whatever information they could. “She remembered a few main things: father’s name is Khalil, that he used to drive rickshaws in the area of Lari Adda, and the shop of Mithu chaiwala was near her house. And the tandoor.”

    Journey back home

    With this basic information, the traffic police team started the process of tracing Saba’s parents.

    Mohsin Abbas says that there were three people and all three of them reached the Lari Adda and went in different directions. The child was kept in the car with the child protection team. It was 10:30 in the morning and we decided to ask all the porters at the Lari Adda about Khalil. We had asked everyone for three hours, but no one was found.

    When Saba Khalil went missing 12 years ago, the area looked different at the time. Now major changes have taken place including the roads and paths. And for 20-year-old Saba sitting in the car, everything was new now.

    Theteam started searching all four sides of Iqbal Park up to Bati Chowk one by one. And they found a man named Khalil, but he was not Saba’s father.

    According to Mohsin, a shopkeeper in Taxali said that he knew a Mithu chai wala in a street adjacent to the Lari Adda. “We took him with us and took him to that street, but this Mithu was not the same person because Saba did not recognize that street. But in the same street we found three things together, there was a naan shop and a milk-yogurt shop. There were about 50 houses in this area. We decided to knock on the door of each house.”

    At around 2:30, the team went out to the other side of this street and saw another naan shop. Mohsin says that “The owner of this shop, Faqir Hussain, who was working inside, saw the girl and came out and said that he seems to have seen this girl. He asked ‘Is her father’s name Khalil?’ to which we nodded yes,” Abbas recalled.

    “He used to live here on rent and a few years ago he set up a shop in the old city side and shifted there. His daughter is also missing.”, recalled Hussain.

    It was around 3:30 PM when the traffic police team took Faqir Hussain and left for Phaja Siripaye Chowk.

    Mohsin Abbas says that they parked the car, taking Saba with them and started walking towards the naan shop which according to Faqir Hussain was Khalil’s shop. Outside this shop, a person was sitting on a chair and eating. As soon as he mouthed the first bite, his eyes fell on Saba and he became still.

    Mohsin says that every single moment is imprinted in his eyes. That man was standing there and his eyes were fixed on the girl. When we got close and he didn’t even notice us, I grabbed his shoulder and shook him. So he came to his senses. I asked if your name is Khalil. So he said yes. I told him to stand and I asked him, “Do you recognize this girl?” To which he replied, “This is my daughter Saba”, and he started crying.

    Saba’s father said while crying that “I just observed Friday prayer and cried and prayed for my daughter to find her.”

    Many people gathered at the spot. And every eye was full of tears. The father hugged his daughter and remained in a state of disbelief for a long time.

    Saba is still with the Child Protection Bureau as she will be handed over to her parents only after completing the legal process.

    Urdu News writes that many aspects of this story pose questions about the system itself, about the extent to which there is a lack of communication between the responsible agencies. Saba was just 10 km away from her home for 12 years.

    According to official data, the traffic police team has reunited 10 such children with their parents in the last two months.

  • VIP protocol; BCCI officials to get bulletproof cars for Pakistan visit

    VIP protocol; BCCI officials to get bulletproof cars for Pakistan visit

    Punjab Home Ministry has approved the use of bulletproof vehicles by Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) Chairman Roger Binny and Deputy Chairman Rajeev Shukla when they visit Lahore during the 2023 Asian Cup.


    The BCCI Chairman and BCCI Vice-Chairman are expected to arrive in Lahore on September 4 and attend a dinner at Governor’s house on the invitation of Chairman Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) Zaka Ashraf.


    The Services and General Administration Department (S&GAD) has asked the Punjab Department of Home Affairs to take back the two double-cab vehicles it had previously provided and send them bulletproof Mercedes and Land Cruisers.

    Read More: BCCI president Roger Binny, vice president Rajeev Shukla to visit Pakistan


    Ministry of Home Affairs has approved PCB’s application and issued instructions to S&GAD.
    Roger Binny has already confirmed his and Rajeev Shukla’s visit to Pakistan.

  • PCB announces playing XI for biggest clash against India

    PCB announces playing XI for biggest clash against India

    PCB (Pakistan Cricket Board) has announced playing XI for the biggest clash of the Asia Cup 2023 against India. Here is the list of all players:

    Pakistan Playing XI

    Batsman: Fakhar Zaman, Imam-ul-Haq, Babar Azam (Captain), Muhammad Rizwan (WC), Iftikhar Ahmed, Agha Salman.

    All Rounders: Shadab Khan, Muhammad Nawaz

    Bowlers: Haris Rauf, Shaheen Afridi, Naseem Shah

    Weather Conditions

    There is a prediction of rain on the day of the match from early morning to mid-night. The Pitch of this ground is most favorable for Spinners if the climate is not overcast.

  • TW: Four rape cases registered in Lahore on August 28

    TW: Four rape cases registered in Lahore on August 28

    TRIGGER WARNING: DISCUSSION OF RAPE, SEXUAL ASSAULT.

    In a horrifying case, four women were reportedly raped on August 28 in Lahore, according to Dawn. While First Information Reports (FIR) have been lodged against the suspects, some media reports have stated that the suspects have gotteb pre-arrest bails, while others have not been caught as yet.

    Two of these cases involve the survivor being tricked on the promise of finding a job. A student of class 9, who lives in Old Anarkali, filed an FIR revealing she was gang-raped by two men in a hotel room. The survivor said she met suspect A on social media. He offered her a job abroad and claimed he knew friends who were working in big businesses in other countries. On Aug 28, the suspect offered the survivor to work part-time at a hotel for a couple of months, picking her up from Kalma Chowk, took her to a juice corner, after which she was taken to a hotel belonging to his friend in Gulberg to discuss the job offer. The survivor said she was taken to a room where the suspect and his friend gang-raped her, and made video clips to further blackmail her. The culprits threatened to upload the videos on social media if the survivor filed an FIR.

    Another girl, a resident of Faisal Town, said her friend got her in touch with a man who promised to get her a job. The man picked her up from a restaurant where she was waiting with a friend, along with another man. Both men took the survivor to a house where they gang-raped her, fleeing the scene later. So far, no arrests have been made.

    The third case was from a resident of Amir Town, who said his friend, the suspect, had offered his wife a job to work at a hostel with a handsome salary. On August 28, the FIR states, the wife was out shopping, when the suspect called and asked her to reach a location from where he could take her to the hostel for the job. When the woman reached the given location, the man took her to a house and raped her, and then fled the scene.

    The fourth case was from the Manawan area, where the suspect took a woman to a house to return her Rs 45,000, but instead when the survivor reached the house she was raped and later the suspect escaped.

  • ‘Never leaving home again’: social media is in tears after ANOTHER petrol price hike

    ‘Never leaving home again’: social media is in tears after ANOTHER petrol price hike

    Kuch rehnay nahi dena? Yesterday night, the caretaker government announced yet another price hike in petrol charges, taking it to a historic high of Rs 301 per litre.

    In a statement, the finance ministry said that the reason behind the hike included escalating prices in the international market as well as shifts in exchange rates.

    But social media users were in dismay that after exorbitant electricity bills, they will have to pay unheard of sums for fuel.

    Sab se pehle tou, get used to the social distancing times and start staying more at home, like this user put it.

    Waisay this would be a good excuse

    https://twitter.com/ShaanKohr/status/1697293232722280468?s=20

    Go back to ye olde times and send letters to your beloved?

    *Dances to the bop while wailing*

  • President Alvi wants elections in November

    President Alvi wants elections in November

    President Arif Alvi will likely defy the opinion of the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) and the law ministry as he is reportedly contemplating announcing the date for the next general elections, sources familiar with the development have said, reported Kamran Yousaf for The Express Tribune.

    It is expected that the president will write another letter to the ECP, suggesting a date in November for the elections. The sources said that President Alvi was in conversation with his legal team and was advised that an act of parliament could not override the provisions of the Constitution and that parliament might have amended the Election Act 2017 but the Constitution was clear that polls would have to take place within 90 days.

    “Based on that opinion, the president will communicate the election date to the Election Commission soon,” a source revealed.

    Previously, Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Sikandar Sultan Raja decided that he would not meet President Dr. Arif Alvi for a discussion on fixing the date for the general elections. After a recent amendment to existing laws, fixing the date for the election is at the discretion of the ECP.

    The CEC called a meeting of the commission last week to talk to its members about the matter of fixing the date before taking a formal position. It is not the ECP’s responsibility, according to the law, to consult with the president on this matter. “The law is very clear about it. The President has cited the wrong article for this purpose.”

    Alvi had invited Chief Election Commissioner Sikandar Sultan Raja, for a meeting on August 23 or 24, to fix an appropriate date for holding the general elections.

  • Bride and groom leave their wedding ceremony to meet Babar Azam

    Bride and groom leave their wedding ceremony to meet Babar Azam

    Every cricket fan worth their salt would go crazy at the opportunity to meet their favorite player, even if they are in the middle of their own wedding.


    A bride and groom reached the National Stadium in Multan to meet Pakistan’s ace batsman Babar Azam.

    A video of the two is going viral on social media in which the bride, wearing a lehnga, and the groom, wearing a Sherwani, reached the stadium along with their relatives.

    https://youtube.com/shorts/LfygAGdFT68?feature=share


    The couple stood outside the stadium to meet Babar Azam but unfortunately their wish did not come true.
    We hope Babar takes time out to visit them soon.

  • Mansha Pasha, Saboor Aly, Komal Aziz condemn attack on makeup artist Bryan

    Mansha Pasha, Saboor Aly, Komal Aziz condemn attack on makeup artist Bryan

    Prominent models like Mushk Kaleem, Javeriya Hanif have called out Robina Khan for the assault by her husband on Nabila Salon makeup artist Bryan William, after he refused to carry her personal belongings while she was busy with the shoot. The makeup artist released a statement on his official Instagram account, saying he had been dragged from the second floor to the ground floor by four to five armed gunmen, and was beaten by the model’s husband without even having a conversation about what had happened.

    Nabila Salon also condemned the incident on their official account, stating that they would only work with professionals who value the safety and importance of their makeup artists.

    Now, other actresses have also stepped forward to condemn the attack and defend Bryan William for simply doing his job. Actress Mansha Pasha took to Instagram to share that she had worked with the makeup artist on many occasions, and was shocked by the display of “blatant gundaghardi”.

    “It horrifies me to think that someone would think themselves so superior that they would resort to violence. No matter what the disagreement: that is just blatant ghundaghardi and there is no place for it in our work.”

    The ‘Idiot’ actress then went on to share the statement Robina Khan gave in defence of her attack, and slammed her excuse:

    “You just proved him right by your actions. Mother wife whatever is not excuse for any of this.”

    Actress Saboor Aly also came to the defence of Bryan William by resharing his statement on her social media account, sharing her grief over the brutal violence inflicted on the makeup artist:

    “There’s no justification for physical or verbal abuse. I’m so sorry you went through this. Just know you’re Amazing, my favorite and I love you so much.”

    Actress Komal Shah shared a picture of Robina’s husband, Mujtaba Shah, who had beaten the makeup artist.  “Another day in Pakistan where ‘rich men’ with daddy’s money think they can do whatever the hell they want,” she wrote.

  • Election Commission adamant about ensuring timely elections

    Election Commission adamant about ensuring timely elections

    After completing consultations with political parties, the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on Friday announced that the delimitation process will be finalised by November 30. 

    A statement issued by the electoral body said the purpose of reducing the duration of the delimitation process is to ensure elections are held as early as possible.

    The ECP also said that a date for the elections will also be announced keeping in view the schedule for the delimitation process, adding that the date was announced after deliberation with the parties. 

    A day earlier, the Election Commission said that polls would be held by mid-February at the most or by January end if the delimitation of constituencies is completed earlier. 

    The Election Commission has held consultations with political parties including Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PML-N), Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), Jamaat-e-Islami (JI), Muttahida Qoumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P) Jamiat Ulema Islam-Faiz (JUI-F) and others regarding the road map to general elections. 

    On August 17, the ECP announced the schedule of new delimitations to be carried out as per the new census approved by the Council of Common Interest (CCI) last month. 

    According to the schedule, the new delimitation of the constituencies was expected to be completed in December. However, the date has now been shortened to November. 

    Earlier, the ECP schedule had shown that the fresh delimitation would take nearly four months. 

    Last month, the CCI meeting chaired by then-prime minister Shehbaz Sharif approved the final results of the 7th Population and Housing Census 2023 reporting the country’s population at 241.49 million with a growth rate of 2.55%.

    The CCI approval made it constitutionally mandatory for the ECP to hold elections following fresh delimitations in the light of the results of the 7th census.

    According to Article 51 (5) of the Constitution, the seats of the National Assembly to each province and the federal capital shall be allocated on the basis of population in accordance with the last preceding census officially published.