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Author: News Desk

  • Pakistani rupee nearing an all-time low

    Pakistani rupee nearing an all-time low

    On Monday, the Pakistani rupee (PKR) fell for the third consecutive session as depleted foreign exchange reserves and uncertainty over the renewal of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) programme weighed on the local currency.

    The PKR lost 0.48 per cent of its value against the US dollar in the interbank market.

    The rupee ended the day at Rs187.53, down 90 paisas, or 0.48 percent, according to the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP). After a 0.5 per cent decline, the rupee finished at Rs186.63 on Friday.

    Considering the latest decline, the local currency is only 65 paisas away from reaching an all-time low of Rs188.18 on April 7, 2022.

    Oil prices fell on Monday alongside equities, driven down by a strong dollar and demand fears stemming from China’s continued coronavirus lockdowns.

    Read more: Bitcoin falls to lowest since January after stock market

    The key cause driving the rupee’s decline against the greenback, according to Arif Habib Limited Head of Research Tahir Abbas, is uncertainty on the IMF front.

    Uncertainty about the programme led to a surge in selling pressure in Pakistani stocks, which fell throughout the day.

  • Heard it but know it? Who are Mir Jafar and Mir Sadiq?

    Heard it but know it? Who are Mir Jafar and Mir Sadiq?

    Former Prime Minister and PTI Chairman Imran Khan at many instances hit out at the opposition by calling them the ‘Mir Jafars and Mir Sadiqs’ of present time.

    Mir Jafar and Mir Sadiq are two people from 18th-century India who are symbolised as the subcontinent’s ultimate sin of ghaddari (treason), like a South Asian version of Brutus, the man who betrayed Roman Emperor Julius Caesar. But who were they really? Let’s find out.

    Who Was Mir Jafar?

    Mir Jafar was born in the late 17th century. He served as a Bengal crown major general. Jafar replaced Siraj-Ud-Daulah as the eighth Nawab of Bengal with the help of the British under Robert Clive. Mir Jafar was forced to cede some area around Calcutta in exchange for British assistance in the conspiracy that brought him to the throne, to confirm and expand British economic advantages, and to make large public and private payments as rewards and indemnities to his British supporters. These payments bankrupted the state, and his power was quickly lost.

    Who was Mir Sadiq?
    Tipu Sultan of Mysore appointed Mir Sadiq as a minister in his cabinet. He supposedly betrayed Tipu Sultan during the Siege of Srirangapatana in the Fourth Anglo-Mysore War in 1798–99, clearing the door for a British triumph. He betrayed Tipu by assassinating Tipu’s loyalist Ghazi Khan and then trapping Tipu behind sealed doors. Following the loss, Sadiq was assassinated by some of the bewildered Mysorean forces as he attempted to cross the border to greet the Brit

  • Who is going to be the next governor of Sindh?

    Who is going to be the next governor of Sindh?

    The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) led government has decided to appoint their party ally Muttahida Qaumi Move­ment-Pakistan’s (MQM-P) senior leader Nasreen Jalil as the governor of Sindh.

    If Jalil becomes the next governor, she would be the second female governor in the province’s history after the first Prime Minister (PM) Liaquat Ali Khan’s wife Begum Raana Liaquat Ali Khan who served in the 1970s.

    The office of the Sindh governor fell vacant on April 12 when Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s (PTI) leader Imran Ismail resigned, hours before PM Shehbaz Sharif took oath as the premier of Pakistan.

    Nasreen Jalil was born in Lahore but she spent most of her time in Karachi. In her childhood, she lived in London. She went to Paris for her education. She joined MQM and started her political career in Karachi. She served as a senator two times. Nasreen Jalil had been elected as chairperson of the Senate Standing Committee on Human Rights in 1994 and 2012.

    Following the news, the former Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry took to Twitter, saying the “crime minister” has proposed the name of Nasreen Jalil as Sindh governor. He claimed that Jalil had written a letter to the Indian high commissioner on June 18, 2015, and sought ‘help’ against Pakistan’s law enforcement agencies.

    Similarly, PTI’s Imran Ismail and former Sindh governor said that it appears that in order to become part of the present government it has become ‘imperative’ that one should be on bail or an “expert of vicious attacks” on security institutions.

    Responding to Ismail’s tweet, Federal Minister for Maritime Affairs Senator Faisal Subzwari cleared that the letter was written to all diplomats.

    He admitted that it was the party office’s mistake that the name of the Indian diplomat was not excluded from the list of diplomats. However, this letter surfaced in 2015 and its contents were before everyone.

  • Microsoft to add a built-in VPN in Edge browser to improve privacy

    Microsoft to add a built-in VPN in Edge browser to improve privacy

    Microsoft is adding a free built-in virtual private network (VPN) option to its Edge browser in order to boost security and privacy.

    The tech giant is presently testing the Cloudflare-powered VPN service, dubbed ‘Edge Secure Network,’ and says it will roll it out to the public as part of a security upgrade.

    When enabled, Edge Secure Network should encrypt users’ online traffic so that internet service providers are unable to acquire browsing data that you’d prefer to keep secret, such as health-related searches or merely weird questions.

    Users will be able to mask their location by browsing the web using a fake IP address, according to the new capability. Users will be able to access content that is restricted in their country, such as Netflix or Hulu shows.

    Read more: Instagram is testing ‘pin’ feature for posts

    While the functionality is still under development and not yet accessible for early testing, Microsoft has provided instructions on how people can get a sneak peek.

    This means that it will first be available through one of the Microsoft Edge Insider channels, which users may download and join here.

  • ‘Maybe PTI does not trust the court’: Justice Athar Minallah

     Islamabad High Court (IHC) Chief Justice (CJ) Athar Minallah on Monday questioned former Interior Minister Sheikh Rasheed if he trusted the IHC.

    Justice Minallah said that it seemed as if the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) did not have faith in the courts.

    “It is said in rallies that courts are not independent. Political statements are made at rallies questioning why courts opened at night. It is said that the courts open at the behest of someone,” he said.

    IHC Chief Justice Athar Minallah heard the petition of the former interior minister against the appointment of Hanif Abbasi as a Special Assistant to Prime Minister (SAPM), with Sheikh Rasheed appearing before the court on Monday.

    The IHC CJ summoned Rasheed to the rostrum and said, “These courts are for everyone. Perhaps, people don’t believe this.”

    “Important cases of this country are being heard in this court,” he said, further telling Rasheed that the IHC would hear his plea if he had faith in his court. Justice Minallah said important and big cases are pending in the high court, like the cases of missing persons and Baloch students.

    “There are other courts and judges who, too, can hear your cases. But if Imran Khan does not have faith [in this court] … I will refer the case to another court,” he stated.

    “If you have faith in it, then this court would hear your case. Also, ask the PTI chairperson about this,” Justice Minallah said, adding that the courts had been “issuing judgements for the weak”.

    “Your lawyers must have told you that there are rules and the chief justice can take up a case at any time,” CJ IHC told Rasheed.

    Rasheed said that he had appeared before the court because he had faith in it. “I will talk to Imran Khan,” added Rasheed.

    Justice Minallah said, “One should have the respect for the judiciary in their heart.” He then told Rasheed to “decide by tomorrow” whether he had faith in his court.

    At that, Rasheed asserted that he was already decided on the matter.

    “I have been a minister 16 times and that is why I have appeared before the court,” said Rasheed.

    IHC directs PM Shehbaz to review Hanif Abbasi’s appointment as SAPM

    IHC on Monday directed Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif to review his decision of appointing Hanif Abbasi as his special assistant.

    Rasheed had filed the petition challenging Abbasi’s appointment on May 6. 

  • Samsung rolls out Android 12 based latest One UI 4.1

    Samsung rolls out Android 12 based latest One UI 4.1

    The Galaxy A32 5G received Android 12-based One UI 4.1 update in April, and now the LTE variants are getting Samsung’s latest custom Android interface.

    It also raises the Android security patch level for the smartphone to April 1, 2022, however, given that a few Samsung handsets have already received it, we expect the May patch to arrive soon.

    The smartphone gets a new update with firmware version A325FXXU2BVD6 that delivers a revamped UI and additional functionality.

    Read more: Samsung shipped 73.7 million cellphones in Q1 2022

    The One UI 4.1 update is already launched in several countries, and if you have not received it yet, you can manually check for it by going to Settings > Software update on your handset or wait for a few more days as Samsung takes a while to send updates to Pakistan.

  • Start wearing masks again: Pak detects case of Omicron sub-variant

    Start wearing masks again: Pak detects case of Omicron sub-variant

    Pakistan has detected its first case of Omicron sub-variant, the National Institute of Health (NIH) announced.

    “NIH has detected the first case of Omicron sub-variant BA.2.12.1. This new sub-variant is causing an increasing number of cases in different countries.”

    NIC also advised citizens to take preventive measures.

    “The best preventive measure (besides mask-wearing at crowded places) is Covid-19 vaccination. We strongly recommended getting vaccinated and all those due for boosters must get the shots immediately.”

    Read more- NCOC decides to lift all covid related restrictions

    The National Command Operation Centre (NCOC), which was tackling Covid-19 in Pakistan, was shut down on March 31.

    On March 16, NCOC decided to lift all the Covid-19 related restrictions amid the decline in cases.

  • Bitcoin falls to lowest since January after stock market

    Bitcoin falls to lowest since January after stock market

    Bitcoin on Monday, May 9 fell to its lowest level since January 2022, as falling equity markets weighed on cryptocurrencies, which are now trading in line with riskier assets like tech stocks.

    In early trade, bitcoin fell as low as $33,266 to test the January low of $32,951. If it drops below that level, it will be at its lowest since July of 2021. The price then settled at roughly $33,500, down 1.4 per cent.

    A Singapore-based crypto platform, Stack Funds said that everything in crypto is still classified as a risk asset, and most cryptocurrencies are pummelling in the same way that the Nasdaq has been.

    The Nasdaq, which is heavily weighted in technology, plummeted 1.5 per cent last week and is down 22 per cent year to date, as persistent inflation forces the US Federal Reserve to raise rates despite slowing GDP.

    On Monday morning Nasdaq futures were down another 0.8 per cent.

    Other factors in bitcoin’s weekend slide were the crypto market’s notoriously low liquidity on weekends, as well as short-lived fears that an algorithmic stablecoin dubbed Terra (UST) could lose its stability against the US dollar.

    Read more: Pakistan’s foreign currency reserves down by $328 million

    The crypto world is keeping a close eye on UST because of its unique method of maintaining a 1:1 dollar peg, as well as its founders’ aspirations to construct a $10 billion bitcoin reserve to support the stablecoin, implying that UST volatility might potentially leak over into the bitcoin markets.

    On Monday, Ethereum, the world’s second-largest cryptocurrency, plummeted to $2,421, its lowest level since late February.

  • Shoaib Akhtar reveals he was his mother’s driver for 11 years, pays tribute

    Shoaib Akhtar reveals he was his mother’s driver for 11 years, pays tribute

    Pakistani cricket star Shoaib Akhtar recalled his relationship with his mother on the occasion of Mother’s Day during an interview with Sportskeeda. Akhtar said that he was very close to her.

    “After my retirement, I served my mother for 11 years as a driver. I used to drive a car for my mother for almost three hours every day,” said Akhtar, adding that he used to go with his mother wherever she wanted to go, regardless of being a star.

    Shoaib said that Allah rewards those who sever their parents. “If you serve your parents as a servant, then Allah blesses you so much that you feel like the king of this world. If a person respects their parents, Allah makes sure to bestow that person with equal respect in the eyes of society and makes them successful.”

    He said that it does not matter who your parents are, you should never take them for granted.

    The fast bowler also said that many people say that he is famous in India because he says good things about them. “No, I don’t think bad or negatively about them [Indians]. This is the reason why Allah blesses me with respect.”

  • Bilawal to visit the US this month: report

    Bilawal to visit the US this month: report

     Foreign Minister (FM) Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari is expected to visit the United States (US) in the middle of this month, reports The News.

    United States (US) Secretary of State Antony Blinken invited FM Bilawal to visit the US.

    Read More: US Secretary of State calls Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto

    Antony Blinken invited Bilawal to participate in the Ministerial meeting on Global Food Security to be held in New York on May 18, 2022. Secretary Blinken also invited Pakistan to the Second Global Covid Summit to be held virtually later this month.

    Blinken telephoned Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari on May 6 to congratulate him on becoming the country’s new foreign minister.