An interesting incident of theft recently took place in Islamabad. A thief in Bani Gala, Islamabad took off the tyres of a citizen’s car and left a note apologising for his actions.
“I am sorry sir,” read the note. “I am a very poor person and I am doing this because I am helpless. Sir, I have little kids. Please do not curse me for this.”
Meanwhile, police have registered a case and have started investigating the case.
A viral video has shown a person with uncanny resemblance to a younger Imran Khan, riding a rickshaw in Sialkot.
“Look, there’s Imran Khan on a rickshaw in Sialkot,” the person recording the video from his own vehicle can be heard as jokingly saying.
WATCH VIDEO:
While the unnamed person from the undated video isn’t really Pakistan’s cricketer-turned-politician and now Prime Minister (PM) Imran (unless he travelled to 2021 from the 1990s), this isn’t the first time such a video has left netizens second-guessing what they just saw.
In 2018, the video of an Imran lookalike driving a Mehran had gone viral soon after his election as the country’s premier.
With the video doing the rounds on social media, people, especially Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) supporters, had started trending tags such as “#NayaPakistan”, “#SayNoToProtocol” and “#ImranKhanOurLeader” on Twitter.
In the said video, those filming the scene could be heard shouting “Naya Pakistan!” and “Wow, Imran Khan!”, to which the person was seen responding with a wave.
Unfortunately, the incident had followed a series of criticism aimed at the PM and his ministers after they did opt for protocol.
Prime Minister Imran Khan said the leaked WhatsApp conversation between Indian journalist Arnab Goswami and another Indian senior media official proved that the Indian government led by Narendra Modi used the Balakot strikes for electoral gains.
Imran was referring to WhatsApp conversations between Goswami and Pratho Dasgupta — the incarcerated head of ratings company Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC).
According to the conversation that was a part of a chargesheet filed against Goswami in a ratings scam, the firebrand anchor knew about the strikes three days before the Indian air force bombed an alleged militant camp inside the Pakistani territory.
In the conversation on Feb 23, 2019, Goswami said that ‘something big will happen’ and three days later, the Indian jets carried out a strike in Pakistan, bringing the two countries on the brink of a full-fledged war.
The conversation had also suggested that the strikes were conducted to boost ruling Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) popularity ahead of the national elections.
In a comment on this conversation, PM Imran Khan made a series of tweet. He recalled that in a speech at the United Nations General Assembly in 2019, he had told the international community that the ruling BJP had “used the Balakot crisis for domestic electoral gains”.
“Latest revelations from communication of an Indian journalist, known for his warmongering, reveal the unholy nexus between the Modi govt & Indian media,” he said, referring to Goswami having access to the “confidential information”.
“Now India’s own media has revealed the dirty nexus that is pushing our nuclearised region to the brink of a conflict it cannot afford,” the premier said.
“I want to reiterate that my government will continue to expose India’s belligerent designs towards Pakistan and Modi government’s fascism. Int(ernational) community must stop India from its reckless, militarist agenda before the Modi government’s brinkmanship pushes our region into a conflict it cannot control.”
Meanwhile, Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi said that India stood further exposed with the leaked chats revealing a “staggering new low”.
The Foreign Office issued a statement on the issue as well. It said the anchorperson knowing the plan to attack Pakistan “further exposed India’s sinister designs and vindicated Pakistan’s long-held position”.
In a statement on Sunday, the FO said: “The latest revelations further confirm… [that] BJP government stages ‘false-flag’ operations; maligns Pakistan with terrorism-related allegations; stokes hyper-nationalism in the country; claims to have launched so-called ‘surgical strike[s]’; and then deviously manipulates national sentiment in its bid to win elections.”
REPUBLIC TV RESPONDS TO PAKISTAN STATEMENTS:
Meanwhile, Republic TV issued a statement, rejecting the “allegations against Goswami” by the Pakistan government.
“Goswami…as India’s leading journalist exposed every sinister design…. of the government of Pakistan and ISI (Inter-Services Intelligence),” it said in response to the statements by the Pakistani officials. It also termed these statements as part of “deep conspiracy” to target Arnab Goswami.
“The desperations with which government of Pakistan has attacked the Republic Media Network in an open forum today also lays bare the involvement of anti-India forces in the conspiracy,” it added.
The statement also took a potshot at Congress, saying the opposition party should stop working in tandem with the government of Pakistan to spread lies against India’s interests.
A replica of Koh-i-Noor, one of the largest cut diamonds in the world, has gone on display at the Pakistan Museum of Natural History (PMNH) in Islamabad.
The disputed original diamond, which weighs 105.6 carats (21.12g), and is believed to have been mined from the Kollur mine, Golconda, India and was acquired by Alauddin Khalji, Sultan of Delhi, is part of the British Crown Jewels.
The legendary diamond had also been part of the Mughal Peacock Throne (Takhat-e-Taoos) where it was lodged at the very top of the throne, in the head of a glistening gemstone peacock.
Persian ruler Nadar Shah invaded Delhi in 1739 and took the Peacock Throne along with other treasures but removed the Tamur Ruby and the Koh-i-Noor to wear it on his armband.
The diamond remained in Afghanistan for almost 70 years after which, in 1813, Sikh ruler Ranjit Singh won back all the Indian land and brought back the Koh-i-Noor to India.
Today, the diamond is on public display in the Jewel House at the Tower of London, where it is seen by millions of visitors each year.
The governments of Pakistan, India, Iran and Afghanistan have all claimed rightful ownership of the Koh-i-Noor and demanded its return ever since India gained independence from the United Kingdom (UK) in 1947. The British government insists the gem was obtained legally under the terms of the Last Treaty of Lahore and has rejected the claims.
Interior Minister Sheikh Rasheed has claimed that a Gulf country funded former prime minister Nawaz Sharif’s election campaign in the 1990s.
In an interview with Samaa, the minister said that he was a minister in the cabinet of Nawaz Sharif at the time. Rasheed said he was accompanying Nawaz Sharif when it was revealed that the country, that is rich in oil and gas and also has an LNG deal with Pakistan, funded the former PM’s party as a “token of love”.
According to the minister, the Arab country leader asked Nawaz: “Mr Prime Minister, we have given you a token of love on your election expenditure. Did you receive it?”
At this, Nawaz responded that yes, he had received the money, said Rasheed, adding that he asked Nawaz to send them a ‘thank you note’ at least.
It may be noted here that PM Imran Khan had alleged that the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) received funds from foreign countries. The comments by the PM came in the wake of the hearings of a foreign funding case against the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI).
Last week, the PTI had said that its agents managing two limited liability companies (LLCs) in the US could be responsible for any illegal funding and PTI Chairman Imran Khan had nothing to do with it.
In a response to the petition in the foreign funding case, the PTI, that had denied any links to the foreign funding, said that if the two LLC registered after the written instructions of party chief Imran Khan were involved in the illegal act, it would be due to its agents who were managing them in the US.
The case was filed by PTI founding member Akbar S Babar in 2014. The Election Commission of Pakistan had started fresh scrutiny of the PTI accounts — a process going on since March 2018.
Amid reports of a delay in the procurement of vaccine, senior journalist Sohail Warraich has claimed that the government is in no hurry to order the coronavirus vaccine as most of the senior government members have already been vaccinated against the deadly disease.
In an article published in Jang, Warraich implied the bigwigs of this country are in no hurry to inoculate the masses as they now consider themselves safe following the administration of the vaccine. His article was shared by former Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) minister Miftah Ismail, who retweeted the column on his Twitter handle.
A similar claim was made by journalist Saleem Safi as well. He tweeted that the senior government officials and aides of the prime minister have already been vaccinated. “These people are now distributing the vaccine to their near and dear ones,” he alleged.
Federal Minister for Information Shibli Faraz rejected these claims. Talking to The Current, Faraz said he hasn’t heard anything like this to the best of his knowledge.
Asad Umar, who heads the National Command Operations Centre to fight the virus, also denied these reports while talking to a media outlet.
He said a proposal for the earliest vaccination of strategic leadership was presented earlier, but it was rejected by the government. “I, however, do not know if someone got themselves vaccinated in secret,” he added.
As the pharmaceutical companies, such as Pfizer, started to roll out vaccines, the government announced that Pakistan will have the vaccine by March 2020. However, a recent report revealed that the government has not even placed the final order for the procurement nor has any manufacturer agreed to sell it to Pakistan as of yet.
PM’s aide on health Dr Faisal Sultan was quoted by The News saying that Pakistan has yet to place a final order and strike a deal with a manufacturer.
On Dec 31, it was reported that the government had decided to purchase 1.2million doses of a Chinese vaccine, Sinopharm, amid a worsening coronavirus outbreak across the world.
Pakistan had planned to vaccinate its population in three phases: In the first phase, frontline health workers will be inoculated; the second phase will be focused on the elderly; the third phase will be for the general populace.
Researchers from Shah Abdul Latif University’s Department of Archeology have found traces of a third-century settlement in Brahmanabad, Sindh. Brahmanabad is believed to have been set up in the eighth-century by Muhammad Bin Qasim. The area was the historical capital of the Muslim Caliphate in Sindh during the eighth century, under the Umayyad Caliphate and then under the Abbasid Caliphate from the year 750 AD to 1006 AD.
According to a report in Arab News, a team of around 20 archaeologists started excavation on the site in December as part of a joint project of the Sindh culture department and Shah Abdul Latif University in Khairpur. The supervision was led by Dr Ghulam Muhiuddin Veesar.
Speaking to the publication, Veesar said: “Through [the] material we got, we can say that this settlement of Brahmanabad also existed in the third century AD and people lived here, proving that the settlement is of a pre-Islamic era.”
“We have done both vertical and horizontal excavations so that we may know its cultural phases to determine when the settlement started, how long people were living there,” said Dr Veesar, adding: “Another important feature we found is that the whole settlement is established on a riverbed. They formed the settlement on mounds of natural silt sand dunes of river bed.”
Sindh Minister for Culture, Syed Sardar Ali Shah referred to the findings as of “high importance”.
“It is a great achievement,” he said. “The detailed report is awaited, but in the future, these findings can be helpful in connecting the linkage with other archaeological sites like Mohenjo Daro.”
Read more – 1,300-year-old Hindu temple discovered in KP
This is the third such excavation on the archaeological site in the last 180 years. The first one took place in 1854 during British rule and the second one was in 1962 by a government of Pakistan team.
Prime Minister Imran Khan has stopped the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) spokespersons from sharing the details of the party meetings with after details of a spokesperson meeting were released to the media.
According to reports, the PM is not happy with the fact that the details of the party spokespersons meetings, organised on a regular basis to discuss the internal affairs and future strategy, make it to the newspapers even though there pertain to the internal affairs of the party.
According to the PM, the meetings of the party spokespersons are held to strengthen the party narrative and these decisions should not be made public. He said the details of the meeting have been “misreported” on multiple occasions while directing the party spokesperson to keep these details under wraps.
Recently, a news about PM aide Nadeem Afzal Chan’s resignation was being reported in the media before the resignation reached the PM, prompting a stern response from Imran. Recently, PM Imran Khan had also expressed annoyance with his ministers, saying if someone had a problem with the government narrative, they should step down from the cabinet.
The local administration in Peshawar on Saturday has imposed a smart lockdown in different areas of the city after a surge in COVID-19 cases.
According to details, the lockdown has been imposed in:
People in the aforesaid areas have been asked to avoid unnecessary movement.
Meanwhile, Pakistan has reported 2,432 new infections during the last 24 hours.
In the past 24 hours, 45 people lost their lives taking the death toll to 10,908. 2,793 patients have recovered from the virus in a day.
The country has reported 516,770 cases so far.
A man from Peshawar, Usman Khan has taken the initiative of spreading smiles after the area where he has lived has witnessed decades of suicide attacks, explosions, and threats from hardline militant groups.
The stand-up comedian wears Charlie Chaplin’s trademark oversized shoes, baggy pants, cane and black bowler hat and performs across the city.
“The sole purpose of this art is to bring a smile to the faces of people,” 30-year-old Khan told Arab News while walking on the streets of Peshawar.
“For the past decades, Peshawar and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa have faced terrible times. I know I can’t perform as well as the great Charlie Chaplin, but with limited resources, I am doing my best to spread happiness,” said Khan.
He added: “I have adopted Chaplin’s character and style in such a deep way that I perform even when I am sleeping. My wife has complained about this.”
Khan shared he started watching Chaplin’s films from childhood and was soon able to copy his iconic walk.
Now, when he travels through Peshawar imitating the famous actor, crowd around him claps for him and ask for selfies.
“This man has been among the few sources of smiles during the toughest times,” local shopkeeper Wali Afridi said. “Khan is now a kind of star in this area; he comes to our shops and takes what he wants and performs a few comic sketches.”
Four friends of Khan help him with his routine. The team is now recreating many of Chaplin’s old routines on video. They are hopeful that social media will help them gain larger audiences and turn their passion for comedy into an earning profession.
“Cheerful faces and crowds around us encourage us to do more funny videos,” Khan said, posing with a local for a selfie.