Current Final

Category: National

  • Amir Khan requests Indian govt to allow Sikhs to visit Kartarpur

    Amir Khan requests Indian govt to allow Sikhs to visit Kartarpur

    British-Pakistani boxer Amir Khan visited Kartarpur on Wednesday and requested the Indian government to allow the Sikh community to visit Guru Nanak’s shrine.

    Calling the Gurdwara a true symbol of interfaith harmony, Amir in a video, said that Pakistan is giving real religious freedom to all minorities while India is taking steps against its minorities.

    “I request the Indian government to allow Sikh people to visit Pakistan Kartarpur and to open the gates,” he said.

    The sportsman also posted pictures and videos from his trip on his Instagram account. The boxer can be seen exploring the shrine and interacting with members of the Sikh community.

  • Police arrest Engin Altan’s Pakistani host for having criminal record

    The police have arrested Mian Kashif Zameer, the man who hosted Diriliş: Ertuğrul star Engin Altan Düzyatan throughout his Lahore for having a criminal record.

    As per reports, Zameer was allegedly booked in nearly eight cases pertaining to matters of fraud, betrayal of trust, car theft and robbery.

    Earlier it was reported that Zameer struck a deal worth one million dollars with the Turkish actor but paid only half of it.

    Zameer later denied the allegations of deal violation and has said that the media is spreading rumours. 

  • PML-N leader thinks BBC Urdu is more credible than BBC News

    PML-N leader thinks BBC Urdu is more credible than BBC News

    Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leader Hina Pervaiz Butt seems to think that BBC Urdu is a credible source of information compared to BBC News.

    The PML-N leader was talking about the number of people present in the Lahore jalsa during her appearance on Mansoor Ali Khan’s show on Express News when she made this faux pas.

    According to Hina Butt, independent media outlets, such as Al Jazeera and BBC Urdu, did “good reporting” on the jalsa compared to the local news channels.

    At this, Mansoor said if she has no qualms about the credibility of the BBC then its programme HardTALK, wherein Ishaq Dar was grilled for allegedly owning assets beyond means, was credible too.

    Hina quickly cut her off, saying no, she only “meant the BBC Urdu“, prompting laughter in the studio. Firstly, I didn’t call BBC’s English channel credible or compromised,” she said, adding that she only raised questions about the ban on Dar’s interview on the Pakistani media.

    DAR ON HARDTALK:

    Last month, Ishaq Dar, who is in a self-imposed exile after corruption cases were filed against him, had said that he and his wife owned only a single property that’s located in Pakistan.

    Dar had made these comments during his appearance in BBC show, HardTalk.

    During the show, the host had asked Dar: “Is it your contention that the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) has no integrity? To this, Dar had responded that NAB has lost its integrity. “It is an institution that has been used against political opponents.”

    Dar, 69, is currently in London, “undergoing medical treatment”. He is absconding from several cases in Pakistan since 2017 and has been declared a proclaimed offender by the courts. He is facing charges of accumulating assets beyond known sources of income.

  • Vawda claims Musadik Malik, a PhD, served as ‘doctor to royal family’ in Dubai

    In another spat on live TV, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) lawmaker Faisal Vawda accused Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leader Dr Musadik Malik (a PhD) of being a “doctor to a royal family in Dubai” before he supposedly joined hands with military dictator General (r) Pervez Musharraf.

    This took Malik by surprise, who retorted he has a PhD in Healthcare Administration and Policy that has nothing to do with an MBBS degree. “How can you say I was a doctor to a royal family when I don’t have the required qualification,” he questioned Vawda, who appeared alongside him on a Dunya News show.

    But this did not stop Vawda from speaking further.

    The PTI lawmaker then accused Malik of serving as a caretaker minister during Musharraf era. “I didn’t ask why you were made a caretaker minister by Musharraf,” Vawda said, adding that this helped Musadiq Malik “manipulate pharmaceutical sector for personal gains”.

    Vawda reiterated that the PML-N leader was introduced as a doctor to the royal family during Musharraf’s time. “Which royal family,” asked Malik.

    “You were a doctor to the royal family in Dubai,” Vawda said. Dr Malik responded: “I’ve never even lived in Dubai.”

    The PML-N leader asked Vawda does he live in the same world as the rest of us. “Where are you getting your information from,” Malik hit back at Vawda, saying his “lies cannot go on”.

    At this, Vawda said: “I don’t know, I haven’t joined politics to study your personal history.”

    It may be noted here that Musadiq Malik didn’t serve as a caretaker minister during Musharraf era.

    According to a Dawn article, “Dr Malik first appeared on the national scene when he joined Gen Musharraf’s signature programme, the National Commission for Human Development (NCHD)” as a “volunteer”.

    He was later appointed as a caretaker minister in 2013 by then president Asif Ali Zardari.

  • Pakistanis prefer China’s COVID-19 vaccine over US, UK and Russia: Survey

    Pakistanis prefer China’s COVID-19 vaccine over US, UK and Russia: Survey

    A survey done by the Institute for Public Opinion Research (IPOR) has revealed that majority of the respondents would prefer a China-made coronavirus vaccine over Pakistan, United States, Russia and others. 

    According to details, 1,500 participated in the survey between December 2 and 14 this year. It found that 35% of the respondents preferred China’s vaccine while 14% backed Pakistan and 9% chose the US. A government-approved vaccine got the green-stamp of 15% of the respondents while 16% did not give any answer.

    The majority of respondents in the survey believe the virus to be a reality, while 25% said it doesn’t exist and termed it a global conspiracy.

    Most of the participants said they would take the vaccine. Five in 10 said they would be willing to be administered the vaccine. Most of the respondents mentioned different conspiracy theories about the corona vaccine behind the reason for not going for the vaccine. In a previous survey, 67 percent of respondents were willing to administer the vaccine.

  • Peshawar Zoo loses its fourth giraffe

    Peshawar Zoo loses its fourth giraffe

    Peshawar Zoo lost its fourth giraffe in 2020 on Monday, just a few days after a black bear’s alleged death.

    According to details, the male giraffe had been suffering from an intestinal infection for one week and was under treatment in the zoo. Zoo officials said that samples were collected from the dead body and sent to the National Veterinary Laboratory, Islamabad, and Veterinary Research Institute, Peshawar, for examination and to ascertain the exact cause of the death.

    A three-year-old giraffe was earlier found dead in June, while the other two died in April and May.

    “The earlier three died of shooting diarrhoea while this one now had a somewhat different cause of death,” stated Project Director of the Peshawar Zoo, Ishtiaq Wazir. “We had provided antibiotics to the giraffe but it did not recover,” added the official.

    He further said that giraffes are fragile animals and the symptom of their disease appears at the time when preventive intervention cannot succeed in treating them.

    Officials said the zoo was left with two female giraffes only.

    Animal rights activists have been campaigning for the condition of animals kept in Peshawar zoo. A petition about issues of the Peshawar zoo, including animal deaths and qualification of staff members, especially veterinarians, is also pending with the Peshawar High Court.

    Islamabad zoo shuts down after last animals moved

    Meanwhile, Islamabad’s Marghazar Zoo — which drew international condemnation for its treatment of lonely elephant Kaavan — shut down on Wednesday after its final occupants Babloo and Suzie were relocated to Jordan.

    Babloo

    The two Himalayan bears were the last to leave the Islamabad facility, almost three weeks after the country’s only Asian elephant was flown to a wildlife sanctuary in Cambodia.

    “The Islamabad zoo is now completely closed for both public and officials,” said Saleem Shaikh, a spokesman for Pakistan’s ministry of climate change.

  • VIDEO: Ertugrul star’s Pakistani host breaks silence on fraud allegations

    Kashif Zameer, the man who hosted Dirilis Ertugrul star Engin Altan Düzyatan during his Lahore visit, has responded to allegations that he paid only half of the decided amount to the Turkish actor.

    Zameer, in a video message, has said it is very sad that media is spreading “rumours” about him.

    “There are a few things that I would like to clarify. The agreement was to pay Engin Altan half the amount ahead of his first visit to Pakistan and the rest of the amount will be paid at the time of his next visit.”

    “There are a few brands that do not want this deal to happen. If there would have been any payment problem, the actor himself would have tweeted about it. Our media is only spreading rumours. Please have some shame. It means no international star would come to Pakistan again,” he said.

    Earlier it was reported that Zameer struck a deal of one million dollars with the Turkish actor but paid only half of it.

  • Maryam trolled for sharing ‘doctored’ image of Lahore jalsa

    Maryam trolled for sharing ‘doctored’ image of Lahore jalsa

    Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leader Maryam Nawaz was trolled by social media users after the PML-N vice president shared a supposedly edited picture of the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) rally held in Lahore last Sunday.

    The PDM held a gathering in Lahore on Dec 13. The government had played down the number of people who attended the gathering, saying only 10,000 people attended the rally. The opposition, on the other hand, put the number above 100,000.

    However, the picture of the rally shared by Maryam added to the controversy and also attracted flak for being “fake”. PTI wrote: “Decisive moment in PDM; after #LahorePDMJalsa turnout, PDM has resorted to utilizing its trump card; Clone Stamp Tool in Photoshop.”

    Prime Minister’s aide Shahbaz Gill tweeted that Maryam has “such a bad luck that she always gets caught”.

    Federal minister Hammad Azhar also didn’t miss the chance to troll the PML-N de-facto president.

    A user advised the PML-N leader to “fire her graphic designer”.

    Another user used this opportunity to make a meme.

  • 77% Pakistanis believe country is heading in wrong direction: survey

    At least 77 per cent Pakistanis believe that the country is heading in the wrong direction, whereas 23 per cent think there’s nothing wrong with Pakistan, said a survey by research company IPSOS.

    According to The News, the survey was conducted in the first week of December and over 1,000 people participated in it. “The findings were released on Tuesday for the last quarter (Q4) of 2020 and compared with people’s responses from the same period a year ago,” it added.

    Last year, 21 per cent people believed that Pakistan was on the right track, while 79 per cent contested this view.

    This year, 36 per cent said that their current personal financial situation was weak, while 51 per cent said it was neither strong nor weak, and 13 per cent said they were in a strong financial position.

    In comparison with the results of the last year, the people are in a better financial position: the data showed that 38 per cent believed that their financial situation was weak, 5 per cent viewed it as strong, and 57 per cent said it was okayish.

    Meanwhile, on province-wise assessment, the report found that a “poor financial situation” featured in almost all the provinces and inflation ranked number 1 among the list of top four contributors.

    “In Sindh, the second-highest contributor was viewed to be unemployment (20 per cent), followed by COVID-19 (17per cent) and poverty (16 per cent). In Punjab, 23 per cent people felt the province’s poor financial situation was due to unemployment, 8 per cent thought it was due to COVID-19 and 14 per cent believed poverty played a key role,” the newspaper stated.

    Meanwhile, in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa about 18 per cent believed the poor financial situation was the result of unemployment, 12 per cent viewed coronavirus and 8 per cent felt it was poverty that was behind the province’s financial situation.

    Similarly, in Balochistan about 25 per cent responded by blaming unemployment, a mere 2 per cent felt COVID-19 played a role, and 25 per cent felt it was poverty that has led to the province’s dismal state of financial affairs, said reports.

  • PM Imran’s adviser ‘secretly visited’ Israel with offer to start diplomatic ties, foreign media claims

    PM Imran’s adviser ‘secretly visited’ Israel with offer to start diplomatic ties, foreign media claims

    An adviser of Prime Minister Imran Khan visited Tel Aviv in November on his British passport to relay an official message that proposed normalisation of ties between Pakistan and Israel in return for its support “to halt down Pakistan’s current cold situation with the Arab countries as well as to support it in many international issues”, claimed foreign media reports.

    According to a global think-tank director, the visit took place in the last week of Nov. “The PM’s adviser [sent to Israel] lives in the UK and has also close relations with the Trump administration.”

    According to the report, the unnamed adviser was welcomed by the Israeli officials at the airport as the visit was approved by the US. The adviser was escorted to the “foreign ministry of Israel where he met several political officials and diplomats and delivered the message of the Pakistani PM”, the reports claimed.

    “He stayed a few days in Israel where he met with the director of Israeli intelligence Mossad Yossi Cohen and delivered a secret message of Pakistan army chief,” it went on to claim.

    According to the reports that cite unnamed Israeli sources, Pakistan has sought the support of Israel to “halt down the current cold situation with the Arab countries as well as to support it in many international issues such as the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) as well as Indian lobbying against Pakistan”.

    “In return, Pak would start political ties at a slow place due to the fear of religious bloc within the country,” they claimed, adding that the offer was welcomed by the state of Israel.

    Meanwhile, the Foreign Office has not responded to these reports yet. However, the FO has many times rejected the reports pertaining to the normalisation of ties with Israel as baseless.

    Last month, the prime minister had told a journalist on TV that some Muslim states and the US were putting pressure on Pakistan to recognise Israel.