Current Final

Blog

  • Channel boasts getting construction of first Hindu temple in Islamabad stopped, backtracks later

    Channel boasts getting construction of first Hindu temple in Islamabad stopped, backtracks later

    A private media outlet that had claimed credit for getting stopped the construction of Islamabad’s first Hindu temple later retracted its story amid severe backlash.

    As per the details, the construction of the first Hindu temple in the federal capital has been stopped by the authorities after fierce opposition from religious hardliners as well as an ally of the ruling party, Chaudhrys of Gujrat’s Pakistan Muslim League (PML).

    The Capital Development Authority (CDA) on Friday stopped construction of the boundary wall on the plot meant for the temple citing legal reasons.

    A joint team of the CDA’s enforcement and building control departments reached the site of the temple in Sector H-9/2 and directed workers to stop constructing the boundary wall.

    According to reports, a CDA official said that the building control laws of the civic authority clearly stated that no activity could take place on a plot until the building plan was approved.

    However, according to another CDA official, it was possibly the first time that this clause had been enforced as all owners were allowed to construct boundary walls and ensure possession of their plot while formalities regarding approval of the map continue.

    READ: Islamabad to get its first Hindu temple

    Meanwhile, a private media outlet, 92 News, claimed the credit for stopping the construction of the temple.

    “Owing to successful efforts of 92 News, the CDA stopped the construction of a temple in Islamabad on Friday,” the news channel said in a report titled “92 News Efforts Bear Fruit As CDA Stops Construction Of Temple In Islamabad“, which has now been retracted.

    Earlier, the construction of the temple had been opposed by religio-political among other right-wing organisations.

    A leading religious school had issued a fatwa against construction of the temple, calling it “un-Islamic”, while parties like Jamiat Ulemae Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) had voiced their concerns over the same for they said it was “against Pakistan’s ideology”.

    PML leader and Punjab Assembly Speaker Pervaiz Elahi had also said that Pakistan was created in the name of Islam and construction of a temple on its soil “was against the very spirit of Islam”.

  • Low testing rate bigger a reason for drop in coronavirus cases than govt efforts

    Low testing rate bigger a reason for drop in coronavirus cases than govt efforts

    Federal Minister for Planning, Development, Reforms and Special Initiatives Asad Umar has said that the coronavirus situation in the country is improving as the number of COVID-19 cases “decrease owing to effective measures taken by the government and a majority of people following social distancing guidelines”.

    But the statement the minister made while addressing a press conference at the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) last Friday, has been contradicted by the government itself as its data suggests that COVID-19 cases have declined over the past one week because of low testing rate.

    READ: Govt is grossly under-reporting coronavirus deaths and infections: PM’s task force head

    As many as 5,000 to 6,000 cases were being reported on a daily basis in Pakistan by mid-June, which had prompted the government to impose selective lockdowns in different parts of the country, especially Punjab and Sindh, and the number of daily infections has now dropped to 3,000 to 4,000.

    While data from June 15 to June 29 shows that the number of cases reported in the country after June 19 has comparatively been lower, contrary to Umar’s claims, a major reason behind the drop has been that the number of tests performed to diagnose COVID-19 across the country also dropped significantly during the said period.

    The rate of testing came down from 31,000 to 20,000 while the target set by the government to achieve in July was the enhancement of Pakistan’s testing capacity to 100,000.

    LIVE BLOG: COVID-19 pandemic

    If you look at the statistics, it is clear that Pakistan has conducted 1,327,638 (1.3 million) tests so far, while according to Worldometers, Pakistan ranks 32nd out of 49 Asian countries in terms of testing capacity. Countries including Iraq, Bhutan, Iran and Maldives have a higher testing capacity than that of Pakistan.

    According to Punjab health officials, the government is continuing to enhance testing capacity in the country but the testing rate has dropped because patients are less exposed to the virus amid lockdowns.

    “A test is conducted when a suspected patient comes forward after complaining of symptoms or as part of a random testing drive in hotspots,” they said, adding that both instances had seen a significant drop amid lockdown restrictions

  • Netizens are calling for unpaid internships to be cancelled

    Netizens are calling for unpaid internships to be cancelled

    Though we’re not living in normal times or circumstances currently, summertime for students studying in colleges and universities usually means internships. Proper internship programs in Pakistan are limited and most interns are required to work free of cost and are promised “exposure and experience” in return. Recently, Pakistani Twitter was lit with a debate on unpaid internships with netizens demanding a ban on them.

    The debate started when an old tweet resurfaced in which a Twitter user had called out a prominent influencer for promoting unpaid internships and had mocked them.

    The internship advertisement posted by Syed Muzammil Hasan Zaidi stated that he needed an intern/assistant to work on several projects with him. He clarified that the position is unpaid and that the successful candidate will get no leaves for three months. Incentives included getting a chance to work with top government officials and top creators in the digital media industry.

    Following that, Twitter users began to slam the influencer for promoting this and called for the culture of unpaid internships to be cancelled.

    https://twitter.com/theD_inDNA/status/1278712145866301441?s=20
    https://twitter.com/MeshalMalikk/status/1279026695920631809?s=20

    The debate is not just limited to Pakistan. People across the world are calling for a ban on this practise and are urging workplaces to be more inclusive.

    https://twitter.com/awkward_duck/status/1278000313581088769?s=20
  • ‘Tum Tum’: Asim Azhar releases the ‘biggest collaboration of the year’

    ‘Tum Tum’: Asim Azhar releases the ‘biggest collaboration of the year’

    Asim Azhar’s latest song Tum Tum, which had received a lot of hate for featuring Tiktoker Areeka Haq, has finally released.

    Touted as the “biggest collaboration of the year”, the song features Asim, Areeka, Shamoon Ismail, Mooroo, Talha Anjum and Talha Yunus. Hania Aamir and Asad Siddiqui have a guest appearance in the song.

    While the song garnered more than a million views within hours of being released, the storyline is not so impressive and shows Areeka as a heartless gold-digger who gets together with boys and fleeces them of their money.

    Even the music video begins with the quote: “If you choose money over love, you will always be poor.”

    Watch it here:

    Despite the views, the song did not resonate well with the audiences who took to social media to voice their criticism.

    https://twitter.com/bhaibutnotyours/status/1278738716480147457?s=20
    https://twitter.com/Iam_Mian1/status/1278722463262785536?s=20
    https://twitter.com/jerrytweetzzz/status/1278702346399354881?s=20
    https://twitter.com/Farisal06709906/status/1278868522173636614?s=20

    Some people even said that Taher Shah’s Farishta was better than this.

  • EU arrests 746 organised criminals: murderers, assassins, money launders, hitman

    EU arrests 746 organised criminals: murderers, assassins, money launders, hitman

    European Union (EU) police agency, Europol, has arrested at least 746 criminals after decrypting a phone network of 60,000 organised criminals, including murderers, cartels, hitmen, assassins and money launders.

    French police first hacked the network of EncroChat by deploying a “technical device” to penetrate so that they could read millions of messages “over the shoulders” of suspects as they communicated with custom-made devices.

    “This is an unprecedented look into the heart of organised crime groups that led us to foil violent attacks, corruption, attempted murders and large-scale drug transports,” said Wil Van Gemert, deputy director of Europol, during a press conference in The Hague.

    According to Van Den Berg, chief constable of the Dutch police’s central unit, some of the encrypted messages were so worrying that it went “far beyond the authorities’ imagination”.

    In 2017, French authorities launched an investigation after finding that EncroChat phones were regularly found in operations of criminal groups and the company was operating from servers in France.

    EncroChat sells customised Android handsets with GPS, camera and microphone functionalities removed. These devices are loaded with encrypted messaging apps as well as a secured secondary operating system, in addition to Android.

    The phones also come with a self-destruct feature that wipes the devices after a PIN code is entered.

    EncroChat had in June sent a message to its estimated 60,000 users to throw away their 1,000 euro devices as its servers had been “seized illegally by government entities”. The company has also been shut down.

    EncroChat had customers in 140 countries globally. More than 90 per cent of EncroChat clients were linked to organised crime as between 50,000 to 60,000 of the phones were being used by hardened criminals.

    The Dutch police have busted 19 crystal meth labs, seized 10 tonnes of cocaine and thousands of kilos of crystal meth, said Andy Kraagm, head of Dutch police’s central investigation division at the press conference.

    After this massive operation, some users are throwing away their phones; some have gone offline completely while others are attempting to flee their countries.

  • LHC sacks controversial judge who convicted Nawaz Sharif

    LHC sacks controversial judge who convicted Nawaz Sharif

    Lahore High Court (LHC) Chief Justice (CJ) Muhammad Qasim Khan on Friday dismissed controversial judge Arshad Malik from his post, Geo reported.

    According to reports, the decision was taken by the administration committee of the LHC, which was chaired by LHC CJ and attended by seven other senior judges, including justices Ameer Bhatti, Malik Shahzad Khan, Ayesha Malik, Shahid Waheed and Ali Baqar Najafi.

    The career of the accountability court judge, who had sentenced former prime minister (PM) Nawaz Sharif to seven years in prison in the Al-Azizia Steel Mills reference, went down the hill after Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) in 2019 released a video clip purportedly showing him admitting to a lack of evidence against the ousted former premier in the same case.

    READ: ‘Judge who convicted Nawaz to be removed from post’

    PML-N Vice President Maryam Nawaz had showed the video and read out its transcript at a press conference lasting more than an hour.

    PML-N President Shehbaz Sharif, former PM Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, and other senior party leaders had accompanied Maryam at the press conference at the time.

    The video purportedly showed the accountability court judge speaking to a PML-N worker named Nasir Butt and claiming that he was coerced to hand down the prison sentence against Nawaz despite there being no proof of corruption against the deposed premier.

    READ: ‘Maryam distances herself from NAB judge’s scandalous video’

    PML-N leadership has since been demanding that Nawaz’s sentence be nullified. The convicted ex-PM is already out of prison to seek medical treatment in London.

  • Legendary Bollywood choreographer Saroj Khan passes away

    Another blow for Bollywoood. Renowned choreographer Saroj Khan died of cardiac arrest in a Mumbai hospital early Friday. She was 71.

    According to reports, the three-time National Award winner was hospitalized last Saturday after she complained of breathlessness. She tested negative for COVID-19.

    Khan choreographed more than 2,000 songs in her career spanning more than 40 years. Leading actresses including Madhuri Dixit and Sridevi danced to some of the most popular songs Khan had produced.

    Khan started her acting career at the age of 3 in a Bollywood film. She later shifted to choreography and got her break in 1974. She never looked back and created some of Bollywood’s most popular film songs.

    She won acclaim for songs in movies Mr India, Chandni, Beta, Tezaab, Don, Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge, Baazigar, Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam and Gulab Gang. Some of her most noted works include Hawa Hawai, Dola Re and Yeh Ishq Hai.

    Khan was buried in a Mumbai cemetery on Friday, her nephew Manish Jagwani told reporters.

    She is survived by her husband and three children.

    Read more – Sushant Singh Rajput’s death exposes the toxic side of Bollywood

    Soon after the news of her death was announced, Bollywood mourned her death and celebrities including Kareena Kapoor Khan, Madhuri Dixit, Akshay Kumar, Kajol and Amitabh Bachchan recalled their fondest memories of her.

    https://www.instagram.com/p/CCKvjDRJcQs/
    https://www.instagram.com/p/CCKsrQRnEHL/
    https://www.instagram.com/p/CCKyb1QhLyv/?utm_source=ig_embed
    https://www.instagram.com/p/CCK23xxJNwW/
  • Reports saying ‘Pakistan exported COVID-19’ upset Imran’s aide

    Reports saying ‘Pakistan exported COVID-19’ upset Imran’s aide

    Dr Moeed Yusuf, special assistant to the prime minister (SAPM) on national security, has denied the impression that Pakistan has been a source of the coronavirus in other countries, saying that the country has “been the most responsible” in the world.

    Last week, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) temporarily stopped receiving passengers on flights coming from Pakistan. The suspension, the UAE civil aviation authority said, will last until a special laboratory to conduct coronavirus tests is established. The decision was taken after as many as 30 passengers aboard an Emirates flight tested positive for coronavirus.

    “Over the past three months, Pakistan conducted tests and quarantined several people so that they won’t be the source of spread. No one appreciated us for that […] We will not allow Pakistan to be singled out,” Yusuf said while addressing a press conference in Islamabad on Thursday.

    He said that Pakistan’s government had also contacted the British High Commission and the latter’s officials had assured that this was not the position of the United Kingdom’s government.

    Yusuf told reporters that only 30 people who had travelled from Pakistan had tested positive. “This [impression to ‘export’ coronavirus] is absolutely false,” he said.

    Yusuf also urged people to avoid unnecessary travel as the government “cannot guarantee that the airspace will remain open three weeks from now”.

    He said that Pakistan has been “the most responsible among all developing countries in repatriating people as well as sending them away”.

    According to him, any passenger who is showing symptoms will not be allowed to leave the country. The SAPM told people to follow the guidelines set by the airlines they are travelling from and their destination countries as it would be a source of embarrassment for the country if the rules were violated.

  • Indian family lands in hospital after confusing methi leaves with marijuana

    A family from Uttar Pradesh, India ended up in a hospital after confusing marijuana leaves with methi and mistakenly making a ‘ganja sabzi’ out of it. 

    A local vegetable seller, Naval Kishore sold a packet full of weed claiming that it was methi to a villager’s son, Nitesh as a prank. 

    Nitesh gave the packet of weed to his sister-in-law to cook it. According to reports, the family of six unknowingly ate the cooked marijuana leaves.

    Minutes after they ate their food, the family started feeling uncomfortable and asked their neighbours to call a doctor. While their neighbours were calling a doctor, the entire family fainted. 

    The neighbours immediately called the police after which the family was hospitalized. The police cracked the mystery after they found a cooking pot with the leftover food next to an uncooked pack of weed. 

    The cooked marijuana and raw leaves were detained and the police went on to investigate the vegetable vendor for his irresponsible act.

    The police has caught the vegetable vendor for putting so many lives at risk. Authorities further confirmed that a case will be registered after a formal complaint is filed. 

  • ‘At least 229 killed in occupied Kashmir within first half of 2020’

    ‘At least 229 killed in occupied Kashmir within first half of 2020’

    Indian occupied Kashmir (IoK) has seen at least 229 killings during more than 100 military operations since January, a rights group has reported.

    The Jammu and Kashmir Coalition of Civil Society (JKCCS), which operates in the region, said in its bi-annual report that from January 1 to June 30, the region witnessed the extrajudicial executions of at least 32 civilians and the killing of 54 armed forces personnel.

    It also saw 55 internet shutdowns and the destruction of 48 structures, it said.

    The report said three children and two women were also killed, while at least “107 cordon-and-search operations and cordon-and-destroy operations were conducted in the region”.

    In addition, during search operations and encounters, “vandalism and destruction of civilian properties were reported”.

    The report said that in the first six months of 2020, the media continued to be at the receiving end of pressure, intimidation and harassment by authorities, with several incidents involving the beating of journalists.

    “Besides physical assaults, a few Kashmir-based journalists were also booked under stringent charges and cases were filed against them,” it said.

    The report noted that the police filed cases against two Kashmiri journalists under the Unlawful Activities Act, which clearly infringes on the right to freedom of expression and freedom of the press as “such tactics signal a forewarning for media personnel to adhere to the state narrative”.

    It also said that high-speed mobile internet services have remained banned since August 5, 2019, noting that in the last six months, there were 55 instances of internet blockades.

    The report said India is paving the way for demographic change in occupied Kashmir on a large scale, thus institutionalising a system of domination over indigenous populations.

    “The order is a clear violation of the 4th Geneva Convention,” it noted.

    The report cited observers as warning that the new domicile law could permanently alter the demography of the disputed region.

    It also touched on the recently introduced new media policy wherein the government will examine the content of the media.

    According to the policy, the government will decide what is “fake,” “unethical” or “anti-national” news and take legal action against the journalist or media organisation concerned, including sharing information with security agencies.