Prime Minister Imran Khan has started interviewing some of the elected members of the Azad Jammu Kashmir Legislative Assembly for the slot of AJK prime minister, reports Dawn.
Barrister Sultan Mahmood, Khawaja Farooq, Sardar Tanveer Ilyas Khan, and Azhar Sadiq had separate meetings with PM Imran.
PM Khan is expected to announce the name of the new AJK premier before August 5.
Speaking withDawn, Information and Broadcasting Minister Fawad Chaudhry said, “Yes, the prime minister has started interviews of candidates and now no one can call himself as the most favourite one.”
Chaudhry said four to five candidates for the office of AJK premier met PM Khan on Thursday and almost the same number of people would meet him on Friday.
“The prime minister is taking lengthy interviews of the candidates in which he is asking questions about the environment, tourism, economy, border issues, and their future plans,” he added.
Fawad said PM Khan would also finalise the names of the president and speaker and deputy speaker of the AJK Legislative Assembly.
Fawad Khan and Mahira Khan created history on television with Humsafar in 2011 as the drama broke all the ratings records. The dynamic duo will be seen together in the upcoming feature film Neelofer.
In an interview the Raees diva mentioned that this is her most challenging role till date. A few behind the scene pictures from the film’s shoot are circulating on social media.
The film’s shoot was wrapped up earlier this year in the Walled City of Lahore.
They blockbuster reel pair will also be seen together in Bilal Lashari’s The Legend of Maula Jatt , that also stars Hamza Ali Abbasi, Gohar Rasheed and Humaima Malick.
Mahira is also making her television coming back on the small screen with her forthcoming drama, Hum Kahan Ke Sachay Thay which is set to go on-air this weekend.
Actors Aagha Ali and Yasir Hussain are all set to make their directorial debut’s with the upcoming web films. The Mere Meherbaan star will be directing a thriller, Raat starring Hina Ali whereas the Lahore Se Aagay actor will be directing Fahad Sheikh and Mansha Pasha in Koyal.
“Super happy and proud to announce this one. This is not just my directorial debut but my first one as the Producer as well. I present to you the first official poster of “RAAT” our upcoming Web-Film,” wrote Agha while making the announcement on his Instagram handle.
Yasir Hussain is directing a series based on sister rivalry Koyal. The script is written by Zanjabeel Asim and it also features Fareeha Jabeen, Muhammad Noor-ul-Hassan, Maham Aamir, Yasir Taj, Umer Aalam, Faysal Shahzad, and Sajeel Meer.
A decision on whether a two-week lockdown will be imposed in Karachi or not will be taken today during the provincial task force on coronavirus meeting at the Cheif Minister (CM) House on Friday.
The Sindh health department has recommended clamping a two-week complete lockdown to contain the spread of the pandemic in Karachi as the positivity rate has gone beyond an alarming 30 per cent in the megacity.
Given the unsettling circumstances of the COVID-19 cases in Karachi, the task force has received a strong proposal to impose a complete lockdown in the metropolis.
Medical experts and the health department suggested halting inter-city and intra-city commute for two weeks.
It has been proposed that the educational institutes also remain closed for two weeks.
Two rival monkey gangs clashed on a street in Thailand’s Lopburi in a fight over the food near a traffic junction.
The video of the incident went viral on social media. Hundreds of monkeys on the street brought the traffic to a halt as people on motorbikes and cars waited to get a clear way out of there while being frightened.
As per daily mail online “Hundreds of hungry monkeys swarm across Thai street as 'rival gangs' fight over food after tourists who normally feed them stay away because of coronavirus.” Have you seen this coming ‘gang wars’ among monkeys bcz of #CoronaVirus. pic.twitter.com/e9s4BdcDO5
“Monkey battles in Lopburi occur frequently. It’s not strange. It’s about the power struggle, the food fight, the fertilization of the females,” a spokesperson for the Department of National Parks told Matichon.
According to Daily Mail, Covid-19 might be the reason behind the gang war.
Drama serial Laapata starring A-list stars like Ayeza Khan, Sarah Khan and Ali Rehman Khan went on-air on July 28th. The drama has been scrutinized by a blog for treating the conduct of harassment insensitively.
Singer Meesha Shafi and Actor Adnan Malik took to their Instagram stories to slam the makers of the show for trivializing a sensitive subject like harrasment, that too in a play starring some of the biggest names of the industry.
Appalled 2 c Pakistani drama ‘laapata’ depicting ‘harassment’ as a blackmailing tool by women. Harassment is real, hurtful & destructive! It’s not comics! It’s time we showed seriousness 2 issues faced by our women. It’s destroys you.. pic.twitter.com/uIUJ41x7K2
— Dr. Sharmila Sahibah Faruqui (Phd) s.i (@sharmilafaruqi) July 30, 2021
The ongoing rise in crimes against women in Pakistan makes the content of the scene even more problematic for the society and the mindsets of the viewers.
The Meray Paas Tum Ho star posted the same scene and mentioned that her character will get into negative circumstances because of her wrongdoings.
Earlier actress Iqra Aziz was panned by audiences for trivialising domestic violence in her drama serial Jhooti co-starring Yasir Hussain and Ahmad Ali Butt.
Shaniera Akram took to her Twitter account to express her anger over the rape and murder of a six-year-old girl Maham, in Karachi who was raped and then killed in Karachi on Wednesday. The child went missing from Karachi’s Korangi area and was later found dead in a dumpster in the city.
As per reports, her dead body was shifted to the hospital for postmortem. The autopsy report confirmed that the girl was killed after being sexually assaulted.
“Things have got to change, It’s got to stop. Things have to change as it stands today, no child in Pakistan is safe”, said Shaniera in a tweet.
Things have got to change! This is happening every week! It’s got to stop. Things have to change!!!!!!
She highlighted the deep-rooted issue of child sexual abuse in Pakistan in a series of tweets.
We are not just dealing with groomers and hidden rock spiders amongst our communities. We are currently dealing with predators who’s sole intention is to go out to rape and kill our children!
Cases like Noor Mukadam’s makes us wonder: what happened to the murderers and rapist of the major violence against women cases in Pakistan? We follow up on seven major cases in Pakistan.
Motorway Gang Rape Case- 2020
In September 2020, a woman was gang-raped at gunpoint in Lahore’s Gujjarpura area in the presence of her children after her car ran out of fuel. She was waiting for help on the Lahore-Sialkot Motorway (M-11).
What happened to the rapists?
An anti-terrorism court (ATC) in March 2021 awarded a death sentence to prime accused and co-accused – Abid Malhi and Shafqat Ali – in the motorway gang-rape case. The court also awarded life imprisonment to both convicts under the charges of abduction and 14-years imprisonment to each accused under the charges of robbery. They are currently serving their sentences in prison.
Zainab Ansari-2018
Zainab, who was only six years old, was raped and killed in Kasur. Her body was found in a rubbish dump.
What happened to the convict?
Imran Ali, 24, was convicted over the death of Zainab was sentenced to death was hanged in October 2018.
Khadija Siddiqi-2016
A law student, Shah Hussain, stabbed his class fellow, Khadija Siddiqi, 23 times in Lahore in May 2016.
What happened to the convict?
Shah Hussain was sentenced to jail for five years but he was released from jail on July 17 2021 without completing his five-year jail term. He got a 1.5-year remission for “good character and blood donation”.
Kainat Soomro-2007
In 2007, a 13-year-old schoolgirl, Kainat Soomro, was kidnapped and gang-raped for four days in her native village of Mehar in Sindh. After she spoke out against her rapists, the village elders decided that she should be killed for bringing dishonour to her family.
What happened to the convict?
Her parents rejected the decision; her brother was subsequently killed and her sister was divorced. She lost the court case against her rapists. The court ruled that the accused were innocent, stating that there was no corroborative evidence available on record. All four men accused of Kainat’s rape were hence acquitted.
Dr Shazia Khalid-2005
In January 2005, Dr Shazia Khalid, an employee of a state-owned natural gas firm, was raped in Sui (Balochistan). She was working at the company’s hospital for the past 18 months while living alone in heavily guarded government-provided accommodation.
What happened to the convict?
The rapist of Dr Shazia Khalid, Captain Hammad, was declared innocent by Former Army Chief and Dictator Pervez Musharraf and no inquiry report on the subject was made public.
Mukhtaran Bibi-2002
Mukhtar Mai was gang-raped by order of her tribal council as punishment for her younger brother’s alleged relationship with a woman from another clan.
What happened to the convicts?
In August 2002, an anti-terrorism court sentenced six out of the 14 accused persons to death. Four of them were sentenced for rape, while the other two were convicted as being members of the village council. Eight others were released.
In 2005, the Lahore High Court acquitted five, and subsequently released, of the six convicts while one person’s death penalty was converted to life imprisonment. Mai challenged the decision in the Supreme Court, but her appeal was rejected in 2011.
Farhana (Veena)- 1991
November 1991: Farhana, known as a friend of Benazir Bhutto, was assaulted, raped, and tortured for 12 hours at gunpoint by five men. What happened?
A court case was filed against Irfanullah Khan Marwat for being behind the rape. No evidence was found against Marwat. After Marwat’s acquittal, Farhana moved out of Pakistan.
Fahad Mustafa is amongst the biggest superstars of Pakistan. Be it his highest grossing films, critically acclaimed dramas or a blockbuster game show, the actor has carved a solid position for himself in the industry.
The Actor In Law star graced Maria Wasti’s morning show, Sunrise From Istanbul in 2016 on which he shared that once at an industry’s event, he was standing with his colleagues, and suddenly Meera pointed at him and instructed him to come to her.
The Load Wedding hero stated that he was taken aback and when he went close to her, she told him to go get a water bottle for her. The Parey Hut Love star acted as if Fahad is a spot boy or a servant on the event. Fahad mentioned that he felt very strange as he was an established actor by then and Meera knew who he was. He said that despite her mistreatment, he provided her with a water bottle.
The Jawani Phir Nahi Aani 2 actor also confessed that once he lost his cool on Meera when she appeared on his morning show as a guest. Fahad revealed that it was one of those rare moments when he had to lash out on a female actor as she was being rude on the live show, Meera reverted back in anger too.
Although when the Naagin star met him after a while on a flight, she pretended as if nothing ever happened.
Recently the Baaji star appeared on his show, Jeeto Pakistan and even posed for a picture with him.
On the work front, Fahad will be seen next in Nabeel Qureshi’s Quaid-e-Azam Zindabad opposite Mahira Khan.
Last year, the Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP) had demanded the expulsion of the French ambassador and a boycott of French products, asking the federal government to take “practical steps” otherwise it would be compelled to take “extreme action”.
After the government’s refusal, a rally was led by then-TLP chief Allama Khadim Hussain Rizvi, who urged the federal government to “declare jihad” against France.
Protests erupted across major cities in Pakistan.
On April 12 after the now-proscribed Tehreek-i-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP) chief Saad Hussain Rizvi was detained by security forces in Lahore, TLP again started protests and threatened the state to adhere to the parties demands.
After the violent rallies, TLP was placed in the list of proscribed organisations, under the 1st schedule of Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJ &K) Anti-Terrorism Act (ATA), 2014.
TLP was involved in political activities and carrying out its election campaigns in AJK, for the polls which were to be held on July 25.
Under ATA, banned organisations are not allowed to engage in any political activities.
However, despite the ban, TLP also participated in the NA-249 by-elections in Karachi on April 28. TLP came third in the Karachi by-election.
Yesterday, in Sialkot, PP-38 constituency, a candidate from the TLP participated as a candidate for the election.
Talking to The Current, Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry while commenting on the recent participation of the party in the by-elections said, “The government went about it in a legal way, which was to first announce that Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP) has been banned.”
“It gave them (TLP) the right to appeal the government’s decision. Their appeal was reviewed by the federal cabinet, which dismissed their appeal,” added Fawad.
“Now when it comes to their political participation in the Sialkot elections: they were not allowed to take part in any electoral activity,” said the federal minister.
Fawad added, “The government has notified that the TLP has been proscribed and therefore cannot take part in any activities. Now, this notification will go to the Supreme Court (SC) and proceedings will take place in the apex court as per Pakistan’s Election Act.”
“TLP will not be able to take part in the elections if the SC decides to uphold their ban and consequently bans them under the Election Act, 2017,” stated the information minister.
