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  • Girl’s Facebook status ‘robbers at my home’ gets them caught

    Girl’s Facebook status ‘robbers at my home’ gets them caught

    Facebook helped in capturing two robbers, who entered a house in Lahore after a girl posted a status on Facebook that two robbers have entered her house.

    As per reports, two robbers entered a house in Faisal Town, Lahore. A woman named Saba, who was in the upper portion of the house, posted a status on Facebook that two dacoits have entered her house after observing resistance from the family members.

    Reading the post, friends and the other family members of Saba, instantly called police helpline 15, who reached the house in no time and arrested the robbers after negotiations of half an hour.

     Saba said after the robbers broke into the house, she immediately shared a status on Facebook after locking her room in the upper portion of the building.

  • FIA acquits Imran’s health aide Dr Zafar Mirza in masks smuggling case

    FIA acquits Imran’s health aide Dr Zafar Mirza in masks smuggling case

    The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) has acquitted Special Assistant to Prime Minister (SAPM) on Health Dr Zafar Mirza after probing his alleged involvement in the smuggling of protective masks amid COVID-19 pandemic.

    According to FIA sources, no allegation was proved against Dr Mirza as the petitioner failed to provide evidence of his allegations during the agency’s investigation into the export of 20 million masks to China.

    Sources said that according to FIA’s report, no collusion was proved in issuance of permit for export of the masks and the Drug Regulatory Authority of Pakistan (DRAP) allowed the export under rules and regulations.

    It may be noted that the complaint in this regard was registered by Young Pharmacists’ Association (YPA) Secretary General Dr Furqan Ibrahim with the PM’s Complaint Cell.

    According to the complainant, 20 million masks were smuggled out of Pakistan allegedly by the SAPM in collusion with DRAP Deputy Director Ghazanfar Ali Khan.

    Meanwhile, the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) has also decided to launch an inquiry into the allegations against Dr Mirza.

  • Mansha Pasha says her upcoming drama is not inspired by Bollywood film ‘Judaai’

    Mansha Pasha says her upcoming drama is not inspired by Bollywood film ‘Judaai’

    Ever since the teasers of Mansha Pasha, Sonya Hussyn and Zahid Ahmed’s Mohabbat Tujhe Alvida released, audiences have been speculating and discussing the drama’s striking resemblance to Bollywood film Judaai starring Anil Kapoor, Sri Devi and Urmila Matondkar.

    Following extensive debate on social media, Mansha took to social media to clarify that the story of her upcoming drama is inspired by the Sindhi folk tale Lilan Chanesar. The actor added that the Bollywood film was also inspired by the same folklore. According to Wikipedia, Judaai is about a woman, Kajal, who lured by wealth, asks her husband, Raj, an honest engineer, to get married to Janhvi, the rich daughter of his boss. However, Kajal soon realises that the wealth has pulled her away from her family. The film also featured a song Mujhe Ek Pal Chain Na Aye which was copied from Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan’s qawwali Sanu Ek Pal Chain Na Aave.

    Meanwhile, it is being reported that Zahid has no idea that the drama’s plot was “inspired” or copied from somewhere.

    https://www.instagram.com/p/CBWeCLwFphO/

    Read more – Zahid Ahmed apologises to the nation for choosing a script ‘so blindly’

    Mohabbat Tujhe Alvida is set to air on Hum TV from March 17. Watch the teasers for the drama below:

  • U-turn? Shaan says ‘Diriliş: Ertuğrul’ is a ‘classic masterpiece’

    U-turn? Shaan says ‘Diriliş: Ertuğrul’ is a ‘classic masterpiece’

    Did Shaan just take a u-turn?

    After strongly criticising PTV’s decision to air the series, the actor in his latest social media post has praised the series and called it a “classic masterpiece”. He also thanked the creators, cast and technicians for making this “epic”.

    Read more – Diriliş: Ertuğrul’: The debate rages on

    When someone questioned if he took a u-turn, Shaan said that he watched the series on Netflix.

    To put things into perspective, it can be understood that Shaan is not against the series but is in fact against PTV’s decision to air the series as evident from the tweets below. The actor asserted that he is not against the drama but doesn’t understand why PTV charges a hefty amount to show foreign products.

    Shaan had also appealed to Prime Minister Imran Khan to support the entertainment industry and stop cultural imports like these. It is pertinent to mention here that Shaan was also very critical of Bollywood films being released in Pakistan and had always voiced his dissent against them.

    Meanwhile, in response to another user’s question on whether he will make a series like Ertuğrul, Shaan said that it costs a lot to make one.

    Diriliş: Ertuğrul is being aired on PTV on the recommendation of Prime Minister Imran Khan. Set in 13th century Anatolia and based on the struggle of Ertuğrul Gazi, father of Osman I – the founder of the Ottoman dynasty, Diriliş: Ertuğrul has been trending in the country ever since its first episode aired on the first of Ramzan. According to PTV, 133.38 million people have watched the drama series from April 25- May 14. PTV’s YouTube channel has also registered an exponential rise in its viewership with 5.65 million subscribers and episodes trending every day on the social media platform.

    Read more – Yasir Hussain vs Turkish dramas: the debate heats up

    In an exclusive interview with The Current, Senator Faisal Javed Khan had revealed that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan had gifted the drama series to Pakistan as a goodwill gesture.

  • Selective lockdown

    Selective lockdown

    Prime Minister (PM) Imran Khan has reiterated that there will not be another lockdown. “It is tantamount to shutting down the entire economy to contain the spread of coronavirus. My views have been quite clear on this from the first day.”

    He said that Pakistan is not like Singapore or New Zealand or Taiwan with smaller populations and is also not a rich country to afford a lockdown. PM Imran said smart lockdown will be imposed after identifying hotspots and blamed the people of Pakistan for not following SOPs.

    Pakistan’s coronavirus cases are more than 141,000 while deaths are 2,647. The number of cases keeps rising rapidly each day, which hospitals seem unable to deal with. Oxygen cylinders are unavailable in most cities or are available at exorbitant prices while prices of oximeters, medicines and other supplies have also shot up. Pakistan’s health sector will not be able to deal with such a huge crisis in the coming days.

    “I have been saying this repetitively that you must take precautions… I am disappointed to see that our people have been very careless,” said PM Imran who had once likened COVID-19 to flu.

    He said that masks are now mandatory and both the administration and volunteers of the Tiger Force will ensure this.

    It is easy for the government to ask people to follow the SOPs and take precautions while not taking responsibility for its policy failure. When lockdown was first imposed in the country, it should have been extremely strict followed by aggressive testing. Lockdown should not have been lifted for Eid when cases were on the rise. The government not just lifted the lockdown but also kept downplaying the virus despite warnings from health workers and senior doctors. No wonder then that people are not taking coronavirus seriously. It is the government’s responsibility to implement rules; people all over the world are not responsible unless rules and laws are strictly implemented. The government should consider temporary lockdown in cities where administration finds it difficult to control the spread of coronavirus, increase the number of tests, create more awareness by telling people how serious this virus is.

    Countries that locked down early and strictly have been able to return to normal much faster and are open to a large extent. In Pakistan, we have been busy in comparisons or criticism of other countries’ strategies while no effective policy has been in place here.

    Reports indicated that the Punjab government was considering imposing a strict two-week lockdown in Lahore at the recommendation of the World Health Organization (WHO) due to the rising number of cases but PM Imran rejected the proposal.

    Selective lockdown is not a solution because its implementation will be extremely difficult. It seems as if the government has adopted the policy of ‘to each his/her own’ when it comes to dealing with the coronavirus. Let’s not forget that countries that have gone down this road have not been able to save their economy either. We should act before it is too late.

  • Legendary Pakistani actress Sabiha Khanum passes away at 85

    Legendary Pakistani actress Sabiha Khanum passes away at 85

    Legendary Pakistani actress, popularly known as the First Lady of Pakistan’s silver screen, Sabiha Khanum passed away in the United States at the age of 85, leaving behind a rich legacy.

    “It is with great sadness that we share the news of the demise of our beautiful and beloved Sabiha Raza (Sabiha Khanum) who passed away earlier today, June 13th, 2020,” her granddaughter, Sarish Khan, said in social media update.

    https://www.instagram.com/p/CBZHxVPAeGH/

    According to reports, Sabiha who ruled the silver screen in the 1950s and 1960s with superhit movies including Kaneez, Mukhra, Anokha and Tehzeeb, was suffering from renal disease.

    Though Sabiha starred in a number of movies, she was mostly cast opposite her husband, the late Santosh Kumar (Syed Musa Raza). Sabiha and Santosh were branded as the “perfect couple”.

    Sabiha and Santosh
    Sabiha and Waheed Murad

    Sabiha also received the Pride of Performance award from the president of Pakistan in 1986.

    Having been in the public eye for four decades, she finally retired, and migrated to the United States where she lived with her eldest daughter. Her son and the youngest daughter are also settled here.

    Several Pakistani actors including Mahira Khan, Iqra Aziz, Yasir Hussain and Ali Rehman Khan mourned her death and remembered her rich legacy.

    https://www.instagram.com/p/CBZygRGj36f/
    https://www.instagram.com/p/CBZaleLHPyO/
  • Bollywood actor Sushant Singh Rajput dies by suicide

    Bollywood actor Sushant Singh Rajput dies by suicide

    Bollywood actor Sushant Singh Rajput, who was famous for his roles in PK and M.S. Dhoni: The Untold Story, was found dead at his home in Mumbai. The police have said that the actor committed suicide. He was 34.

    According to reports, the award-winning actor was found hanging from his ceiling in his Bandra residence, where he was living alone. While no suicide note was recovered from the scene of the incident, it is believed that the actor was suffering from severe depression.

    https://www.instagram.com/p/CBaVk-wnEBS/

    Read more – Rishi Kapoor’s unfulfilled wish: a visit to Pakistan

    Sushant’s sudden death has sent waves of shock across the world and many Bollywood stars including Akshay Kumar and Farhan Akhtar have condoled his death.

    https://twitter.com/karanjohar/status/1272111382905802753?s=20

    Born in Patna, Rajput studied engineering in New Delhi before dropping out to pursue a career in acting. He began in television, rising to stardom in the Balaji soap Pavitra Rishta.

    Sushant made his Bollywood debut in 2013 with Kai Po Che! and later starred in a plethora of films including Kedarnath, PK, Shuddh Desi Romance and M.S. Dhoni: The Untold Story. His last appearance was in the 2019 film Drive.

    Sushant’s new film Dil Bechara, co-starring Saif Ali Khan, was scheduled to release in May but was postponed because of the COVID-19 lockdown.

  • ‘Unrealistic and meaningless’: Economists react to PTI govt’s second federal budget

    ‘Unrealistic and meaningless’: Economists react to PTI govt’s second federal budget

    The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government has unveiled a Rs7.13 trillion budget for the upcoming fiscal year, which was presented before the parliament by Industries Minister Hammad Azhar amid opposition members’ protest against the same for being “anti-people”.

    But while the budget, which Prime Minister (PM) Imran Khan’s team claims will bring relief to the masses in coronavirus times, is drawing mixed reactions from political leaders and the general public, what do economists have to say about it?

    MUZZAMMIL ASLAM:

    “Given the GDP [gross domestic product] projections (2.1%) for next year, it is apparent that the government has failed to provide impetus to the economy. This has highlighted resource constraints the current government is facing. The government is basically relying on the stimulus of 1.2 trillion it provided during COVID-19 and is now consolidating its finances due to [the] IMF [International Monetary Fund] programme.”

    YOUSUF NAZAR:

    “Budget making has been reduced to a meaningless annual ritual given the overall dismal performance in meeting the targets, a performance which had little to do with the pandemic. Given that Pakistan’s economy is contracting for the first time in history, I had hoped that the government will come up with a plan to revive growth. A big near term risk to growth is the locust attack. I don’t see anything in the budget to help the agriculture sector face this threat. On a broader note, the government seems lost and overwhelmed by the economic contraction. I don’t see how it succeed in meeting the revenue target through privatisation when the business confidence is so low and the premier appears to be, honestly, clueless about we need to do to reform the economy, reset spending priorities and revive confidence in the government.”

    FARHAN BOKHARI:

    “It is an unrealistic budget that is based on an unrealistic tax collection target. The budget should have included a bold plan to cut losses in public sector companies and an equally bold plan for tackling losses in the energy sector. Pakistan additionally needs an emergency plan to raise agricultural productivity as agriculture is the only sector of the economy that has recorded some growth. Such big moves require a national political consensus which is missing as the premier refuses to talk to other mainstream political leaders.”

    According to Hammad Azhar, the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) revenue target for next year has been kept at Rs4.95 trillion, while defence allocations amount to around Rs1.3 trillion.

    READ: Twitter loses it over Rs1.29 trillion budget for defence, Rs83.63 billion for education

    The federal development programme has been budgeted at Rs650 billion to support growth prospects.

    The budget for fiscal year (FY) 2020-21 comes at a time when the country is battling the COVID-19 pandemic that has served a severe blow to the economy. According to reports, it has been formulated considering the impact of the virus and to give relief to the citizens, as part of which no new taxes have been imposed.

    Check out the budget document here.

  • Twitter slammed in China, Turkey, Russia after removing ‘manipulative’ accounts

    Twitter slammed in China, Turkey, Russia after removing ‘manipulative’ accounts

    Twitter has removed over 200,000 handles for spreading pro-China and Russia messages while also boosting support for Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

    https://twitter.com/TwitterSafety/status/1271186240323432452?s=20

    The company said “a core network” of 23,750 highly active Chinese accounts had been removed, along with another 150,000 “amplifier accounts”.

    Amplifier accounts share content to increase engagement that increases word-of-mouth exposure.

    Twitter said the Chinese network had links to an earlier state-backed operation dismantled last year by Twitter, Facebook and Google’s YouTube, which had been pushing misleading narratives about political dynamics in Hong Kong.

    Twitter said 23,750 accounts were the main focus while other accounts were identified as helping to boost the messages.

    Twitter also revealed it has shut down more than a thousand Russian-based misinformation accounts.

    In an official statement on fake Turkish Twitter accounts, they said that “those accounts were fake profiles designed to support the president and were single-handedly managed by a central authority”.

    However, Erdogan’s Communications Director Fahrettin Altun denied the allegations through his official Twitter handle while stating that it was an “attempt to smear the Turkish government and a popular political movement, which was unacceptable”.

    In general, the entire network was involved in a range of manipulative and coordinated activities. They were tweeting predominantly in Chinese, Russian and Turkish languages and spreading geopolitical narratives for political agendas.

    Last week, Twitter also accused United States (US) President Donald Trump of making false claims in some of his posts, although the platform has come under fire for not removing coronavirus misinformation.

    Earlier this week, the company said it was trialing a new “read before you retweet” pop-up aimed to promote “informed discussions”.

    A message will appear on articles that users share without actually following the link to the article.

  • Fakhar-e-Bannu: Mardan appoints first female AC in 50 years

    Fakhar-e-Bannu: Mardan appoints first female AC in 50 years

    Hailing from KP’s Bannu district and stationed in Mardan Gul Bano is serving the people the best way she can. Gul Bano is the first female Assistant Commissioner in the 50-year history of Mardan Tehsil.

    Gul Bano was called ‘Fakhar-e-Bannu (Pride of Bannu)’ soon after she passed her Competitive Superior Services (CSS) exams. In an interview with Independent Urdu, Bano said, “After clearing my CSS exams, I was worried about what the villagers would think. But now they are proud of me and after seeing my photos on social media, they call me ‘Fakhr-e-Bannu’.”

    https://twitter.com/theSahira_/status/1176935618296909824?s=20

    Gul Bano’s success has paved a way for other girls in her area. Gul Bano completed her early education from City Model School, Peshawar. Then she did her intermediate from Jinnah College for Women. She then went to Peshawar University from where she obtained an MBA degree.

    Speaking to the media outlet, Gul Bano said that she developed an interest in Civil Services after her brother passed the exam.

    Her husband Dr Zahidullah was also appointed as a district police officer (DPO) in Mardan, the same district where Gul Bano is serving as assistant commissioner for the past eight months.