Pakistan’s first satellite iCube Qamar has reached the lunar orbit. The satellite is performing as designed after reaching the orbit. The first image of the moon from iCube Qamar will be received on May 15 or 16.
The iCube was launched into lunar orbit by China’s Chang’e-six shuttle. IQBQ’s core team was also present at the Chinese control center. The team monitored scenes from the control center as they reached the lunar orbit.
According to spokesperson SUPARCO data from all satellite subsystems are giving excellent results. The iCube Qamar’s imaging payload is also fully functional. The iCube will receive the first image from Qamar on May 16. For seven days, verification of the planet’s control subsystems will continue.
The third and most important phase of the Indian elections is over where citizens of 11 states and union territories participated, locking the fate of 52 per cent of the 543 parliament seats in the parliament.
Elections were held in 94 seats spread over 12 states on Tuesday, including all 26 seats in Gujarat where Modi and his home minister cast their votes. The day’s contests included five seats in Bihar, four in West Bengal, 11 in Maharashtra, seven in Chhattisgarh, 10 in Uttar Pradesh, 14 in Karnataka, and nine in Madhya Pradesh, where Congress defector and BJP candidate Jyotiraditya Scindia was in the race. Of these states, Karnataka and West Bengal are ruled by the opposition.
The fate of 285 seats is now sealed.
The Election Commission of India (ECI) ordered X, formerly Twitter, to take down an anti-muslim animated video posted by BJP Karnataka but avoided directly sending a notice to the BJP.
The video features caricatures of Congress leaders Rahul Gandhi and Mallikarjun Kharge, advancing the party’s recent messaging that Congress is diverting funds and resources away from lower caste Hindus towards Muslims.
Set back in Haryana
In a setback to the ruling BJP in Haryana amid the Lok Sabha election, three independent MLAs have withdrawn their support to the Nayab Singh Saini-led government in the state, quotes Dawn in a report.
The three MLAs — Sombir Sangwan, Randhir Gollen and Dharampal Gonder — made the announcement at a press conference in the presence of senior Congress leader and former Haryana chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda and Haryana Congress chief Udai Bhan.
Anti-muslim campaign
There were reports of police chasing away Muslim voters from polling booths in a constituency in BJP-ruled Uttar Pradesh. Elsewhere, names of some voters had allegedly disappeared from the voters’ list.
Dip in the stock market
Indian stock market has been experiencing strong episodes of uncertainty in recent sessions, leaving investors confided, reports claimed. Analysts were reading the turbulence at the stock exchanges as a sign of difficulties for Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
COMSATS director Dr. Syed Asad Hussain has been accused by his wife of subjecting her to abuse in front of their children.
CCTV footage available with The Current shows that Asad Hussain, in a fit of fury, pushed his wife. Eventually, their children came out and tried to shield their mother. While the professor did not hold back, the children made an effort to bring the mother inside and expel their father from the gate.
COMSATS website explains that Dr. Asad Hussain is the Director, having studied at Cardiff University and postgraduate University of Sydney Australia in 2010.
In the First Investigation Report (FIR) registered with the police of an upscale housing society in Lahore, the victim states that in 20 years of marriage, her husband has allegedly physically abused her multiple times and has threatened her with divorce. However, she kept silent because of her three children.
On April 3, the husband started cursing her in front of the front gate of the house and pushed her in the car which the children witnessed from the terrace and rushed to help their mother. He again threatened to kick her out of the house or kill her. The children and victim took a stand and told him that the house is theirs. They eventually push him out of the main gate.
FIR states that while the children and mother tried to reconcile, Dr. Asad misbehaved and hurled abuses at them in front of the extended family. Thus, the victim requested the police to provide her with security as this has put her life at risk.
The Current has confirmed with ASI Adil Kamran of the police station where the FIR was registered yet no action has taken place till the time the story is being published.
Triggered by alleged torture and illegal detention, an angry mob of transgender persons vandalised Saddar Police Station in Kharian tehsil of Gujrat district.
On Sunday, a few transgender persons were on their way home after attending an event late at night when police personnel stopped them and tried to conduct a body search.
This prompted a fight between the transgender persons and the cops on the road. Meanwhile, paramilitary forces shifted them to the police station and reportedly subjected the transgender persons to torture.
After being informed about the assault, dozens of transgender persons led by their guru, attacked the police station, threw stones, and vandalised the premises.
Footage of the incident doing rounds on social media showed angry transgender persons throwing the furniture out of the police station onto the road. The video shows the transgender persons forcefully taking a police official out of the police station.
Later, the transgender community held a sit-in and blocked the GT Road in Kharian to record their protest.
Geo confirms that an inquiry has been launched in this regard and disciplinary action will be taken against the cops if found involved in the torture of transgender persons.
Kamran Faridi, a former gangster from Karachi, later serving as a high-profile agent of the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), has been released after serving nearly four years of his seven-year sentence in a Florida prison.
Faridi was sentenced to 84 months of imprisonment on his convictions for “transmitting threats in interstate commerce, threatening to assault a federal officer, and obstruction of justice,” on December 9, 2022.
On March 18, 2024, a New York federal judge, reduced the sentence of Kamran Faridi to 72 months.
Faridi was recently released on some conditions which most prominently include surrendering his US citizenship and agreeing to leave the United States permanently before August.
Faridi, now 60, grew up in Gulshan-i-Iqbal, Karachi. He was affiliated with the Peoples Students Federation (PSF), and was a close associate of PSF leader Najeeb Ahmed, who was assassinated in 1990.
His family sent him to Sweden after he was found involved in several violent acts.
Faridi migrated to the US in 1991, and within four years, he purchased a gas station in Atlanta, Georgia. There he met some FBI agents who were impressed with his proficiency in Urdu, Punjabi, Hindi, and Spanish. In 1996, they formally recruited him as a full-time informant and agent, according to Dawn.
Faridi’s journey from a street hustler to FBI agent came to light when he played a pivotal role in the arrest of a Karachi businessman Jabir Motiwala in London in 2018. He orchestrated a plot, posed as a Russian mafia operative, to trap Motiwala in illegal activities. However, a rift developed between Faridi and his FBI handlers when he threatened to expose their manipulation of evidence against Motiwala. This led to the end of his career and he was arrested by Scotland Yard shortly afterwards.
In a report by Geo News, Murtaza Ali Shah explains the extraordinary journey of the Pakistani-origin FBI agent, whose residence permits in UAE and Turkey, issued by FBI have been revoked and he is released only on the condition of never coming back to the US.
We have known since long that our politicians believe in pirs and palmists. Now we have another juicy anecdote about what a palmist told Imran Khan.
In the latest episode of Intekhab Jugnu Mohsin Kay Sath on Samaa News, political analyst and Imran Khan’s disgruntled brother-in-law Hafeez Ullah Niazi made an appearance.
During the interview, Mohsin narrated that back when Imran Khan was young, she asked him if he would ever join politics, to which Khan responded, “No”.
According to Mohsin, Khan revealed that he once visited a Spanish soothsayer who told him to never get into politics, because “You will be assassinated.”
The alleged warning was probably ultimately ignored by Imran as he did join politics and went on to become Prime Minister.
There are only four days left for the commencement of Hajj flights, but a permanent minister for Religious Affairs and a Secretary in the ministry, have not been appointed yet.
No progress could be made on the issue of 5,633 applications that failed in the Hajj lottery due to the non-appointment of a permanent minister and secretary of the department, reports Geo News.
No request has been sent to the Prime Minister for the pilgrims who failed in the lottery.
As per statistics, this year about 160,000 pilgrims will go to Hijaz to perform Hajj, while 19,500 Hajj quota is being returned to Saudi Arabia.
Sources of the Ministry of Religious Affairs further told Geo that the Hajj quota has been returned to Saudi Arabia for two years but if the Hajj quota is returned in the future, Pakistan’s quota may be reduced.
Federal Foreign Minister Chaudhry Salik Hussain was given the additional charge of the Ministry of Religious Affairs on April 3, while Additional Secretary Syed Atta-ul-Rehman was given the additional charge of the Secretary of Religious Affairs on October 30 last year.
Sweat-infused rice balls, shaped in the armpits of young pretty girls is a surprising culinary hit in Japan.
The rice ball snack, locally known as onigiri, is a traditional food item in Japan. The recipe has been given a culinary twist which is making waves locally and said to fetch prices as high as ten times those of regular Onigiri in certain restaurants.
According to the South China Morning Post (SCMP), young women use their armpits to shape the balls in this new bizarre twist to the onigiri. Strict measures are taken to ensure hygiene and safety in the process. Before commencing, all ingredients and body parts that will come into contact with the food undergo thorough disinfection. The chefs then partake in physical activity to induce sweating, using their armpits instead of their hands to shape the rice balls.
Review of the taste
As per SCMP, a diner who tried the new version expressed that it is not different or does not have a distinctive flavour from the usual taste of rice balls.
The Balochistan government has taken action against more than 2,400 absent teachers and employees in more than 8,500 schools in the province, dismissing 68 teachers while 98 have been suspended.
Up to 33 employees were dismissed in Pishin, 13 in Quetta, six in Washik, five in Kachhi, four in Dera Bugti, reported Geo News.
Director Monitoring and Evaluation Education has released a report stating that 8646 schools out of 15168 schools of the province were visited in the month of April, in which 2454 employees, including teachers, were found absent.
That figure includes 238 employees from Quetta, 177 from Kohlu, 173 from Zhob, 164 from Pishin, 133 from Dera Bugti, 123 from Awaran, and 110 from Naseerabad were found to be absent.
The report states that in April 2024, except for the dismissed and suspended teachers, 913 were issued show cause notices and 778 were asked to explain their absent.
