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  • Taher Shah reveals the first look of his new song

    Taher Shah reveals the first look of his new song

    Taher Shah is all set to make a comeback with First Look.

    After teasing his fans and followers in December with ‘Coming soon’, Shah took to social media to reveal the release date of his new music video.

    Shah shared an image that seems like a top shot from his music video, the picture shows roses arranged in a heart shape with something in the middle. He captioned the picture ‘#FirstLook’ leaving us confused with whether that is the name of the song or the first look of it.

    Shah had returned to social media in December after a break of almost two years. His last tweet, dated to February 2017, had shared that Shah’s song Angel had won an APEX Award, which is a short film and music video festival held in the United States.

    Taher Shah became a social media sensation in 2013 after his song Eye to Eye, which he took 20 years to write, went viral. It became so popular that even Ranveer Singh did a rendition of it.

    Following that, in 2016, Taher released his second music video Mankind’s Angel. While it did not have the same effect as Eye to Eye, it still managed to stir up a social media frenzy.

    In December 2016, it was reported that Taher had left Pakistan after receiving death threats. But it looks like after years of staying low, the singer is returning with a bang.

  • ‘Four become five’: Shahid Afridi welcomes baby daughter

    ‘Four become five’: Shahid Afridi welcomes baby daughter

    Former Pakistan cricket team captain Shahid Afridi welcomed another beautiful addition to his family – a baby girl. Lala shared the news and his excitement with his fans on social media.

    https://twitter.com/SAfridiOfficial/status/1228358607948984322?s=20

    Soon after Lala made the announcement, good wishes poured in for him from across the world.

    Afridi is currently gearing up for the fifth edition of the Pakistan Super League (PSL) in which he will be playing for Multan Sultans. This year’s PSL will commence on February 20.

  • Fake pir buries himself inside pit to impress devotees

    Fake pir buries himself inside pit to impress devotees

    To gain more respect among his devotees and gather more followers, a fake pir (faith healer) in Sialkot attempted to trap himself inside a deep underground pit for 41 days in a ritual but was arrested three days after being inside the pit.

    According to a report in Samaa News, Sagheer alias Mithay Shah decided to shut himself in a six-foot deep pit in Wanchal village and told his tearful and emotional devotees that he would stay there for 41 days. His devotees bid him farewell with drums and high emotions.

    However, Sagheer turned out to be a complete fraud after the police unearthed his pit which had water, electricity, food and bed arrangements. The police foiled his plans and arrested him three days into his ritual.

    Video footage shows the police removing the sand and wooden planks over the pit to arrest Sagheer. He had made arrangements for water, electricity, food and a bed.

    The police have also registered a case against the pir and have put him behind bars. SHO Tariq Mehmood shared that the police received information that a man in the village had shut himself in a grave-like pit and there was a possibility that he could die of suffocation because the pit had been covered with mud.

    He said several people had gathered around the pit when they reached. The law enforcers pulled the fake faith healer out of the pit.

    The SHO further revealed that when they interrogated the fake pir, he said that he was doing this to “help raise respect and pride” for himself among his devotees so that more people follow him.

    Meanwhile, Sagheer’s devotees defended his actions saying that the police pulled him out of the pit while he was praying.

  • KP govt hopes to limit grand weddings

    KP govt hopes to limit grand weddings

    Weddings in Pakistan are known to be extravagant affairs, often stretching over weeks. To limit the costs of the ceremony, the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (KP) Assembly adopted legislation almost two years ago.

    The bill titled ‘KP Marriage Functions (Prohibition of Ostentatious Displays and Wasteful Expenses)‘ was passed in February 2018 but 24 months later, the province is still trying to implement the law that puts a limit on wedding spending.

    The law imposed a ban on the decoration of houses, streets, and marriage halls across the province. It directs that the sound of the loudspeaker should be limited to indoor with many other restrictions.

    The law also tells the rules for the menu, limiting it to one dish only. Punjab already has a law which ensures one dish at marriage halls.

    Under the law, anyone who breaks or fails to obey the law shall be accountable to pay a fine of not less than Rs200,000 and an imprisonment term not exceeding two months.

    Similarly, depriving a bride of her wedding gifts could also be troublesome for the groom and his family. Violators could face a fine of Rs200,000 and a sentence of three months. The law also restricts the payment of dowry to the groom’s family.

  • Pakistani Love: Love in Expected Places

    Pakistani Love: Love in Expected Places

    I was 23 years old when I met my husband for the first time. After a whirlwind courtship of gorgeous flowers and overseas calling cards, we were married a short eight months later. By the time I was 28, I had three beautiful babies.

    Becoming a mother was the most momentous and profound turning point of my life. I realized with every sleepless night, with every poop call, every gurgle of laughter, the resilience I was capable of. It seems trite to say, but for the first time, I knew what it felt like to love unconditionally; blindly and completely. To know that forevermore, I will think of others before even beginning to consider myself.

    As the children’s demands grew, date nights were few and far in between, travelling seemed overwhelming, showering appeared to be a luxury and doing anything for myself, an unnecessary and guilty indulgence. In these years, I YouTubed fervently, teaching myself how to do my own hair. I researched to figure out the shortest and most effective forms of exercise at home and to keep my separation anxiety at bay, googled how to make my own candles while the kids were at pre-school.

    Juggling being a mother, a wife, a daughter and daughter-in-law occupied all of my time and my life was full to the brim. Occasionally, my husband and I would go out with friends. Out at dinner or to a party, in the midst of the fun and revelry I would realize that as much as I was glad to be out, I would much rather be doing something else.

    In 2014, we moved to Dubai. Being a pakka Karachite, it was emotional suicide. Outside my comfort zone, it was also when I realized I had stopped having an opinion. I began to wake up to the sudden thought that while living for others is a natural by-product of being a mother and wife, forgetting to think of yourself is not.

    But old habits die hard, and I continued delaying everything I wanted for the benefit of the greater good. It was always about what other people expected of me, what I needed to be doing, what I had to be responsible for. I seemed to be guided completely by the wants and needs of everyone around me.

    It took losing my father this year to absorb something multitudes of books and thousands of songs push on repeat: learn to love yourself.

    No one really explains how losing a parent changes you. For me, it made me reevaluate everything I have ever believed in. It’s almost as if something tangible breaks inside of you, and you have to put yourself back together again, piece by piece.

    Except now, you can decide what to put back and what not to.

    What tiny bit of yourself to leave out and what to glue back. There is also the huge piece of you that will remain forever missing, and you have to learn to factor that in too. With grief, you are irrevocably changed, in a way no motivational talk can achieve.

    Losing my father taught me that life is fleeting. You will never find the right time to be or do what you want- except now. So in the midst of my turmoil, I am learning to fall in love with myself again. To give myself time to heal, to be myself, to say no, to say yes. To teach the people around me to give me space; to learn it myself.

    I still have a long way to go, but I no longer accept invitations that I feel I have to. When I’m mired down in a conversation about clothes and jewelry, I feel no guilt in zoning out. When I really should go to that dinner, I stay in to watch Netflix. I stand up for what I believe in and no longer apologise for what I don’t. When I’m exhausted but bored, I force myself to get dressed up and go out. I make time for yoga, I order in that burger and when I get a strong feeling, I trust my instincts.

    But when my journey began to feel a tad too self-indulgent and a bit rebellious, one recent Sunday night the whole family was sitting and watching Jurassic Park. I got up to check why my seven-year-old wasn’t back from the bathroom. When I saw her peacefully coloring in her room, I asked her why she wasn’t watching the movie with the rest of us. What she said was a validation of sorts:

    “I don’t feel like watching Jurassic Park again, mama. I just want some me-time and do what I feel like”.

    I felt like clapping, loving the fact that I was teaching my daughter to love herself.

    I have learnt, until I am as giving and kind to myself as I am to others, I can never really love completely. No one will look after you, except you.

    This Valentine’s Day, let that be a priority. Today, I hold my loved ones close and pray that of all the lessons I teach my children, I really, really hope they always remember this one.

    Read the other ‘Pakistani Love’ stories here:

    Pakistani Love: The Story of Survivors

    Pakistani Love: They wanted to dream

    Pakistani love: The Pleasure Quartet and Black Ships

  • Looking for recipes to cook for your Valentine?

    Looking for recipes to cook for your Valentine?

    It’s not like any of us needs an excuse to eat hearty and heavy, but if you do, cooking for your loved one(s) on V day is a good one.

    Here are three tried and tested recipes that taste amazing and are at an intermediate level of cooking. They are a mix of different recipes: A Paula Deen and Yossy Arefi mix of a decadent and super easy lava cake, a Mark Bittman and Tyler Florence potato gratin (fancy name for potatoes with cream) and a variation of Melissa Clark’s Chicken Parmesan with Marcella Hazan’s tomato sauce (All of these chefs are brilliant but need a bit of a variation to meet Pakistani palette standards.

    Chocolate Lava Cake

    250 grams of cooking chocolate (Dairy Milk and others work too but don’t put in too much sugar then)

    10 tablespoons butter

    1/2 cup flour

    1 cup icing sugar

    3 large eggs

    3 egg yolks

    1 teaspoon vanilla extract

    Directions

    Heat oven to 220 degrees C.

    Grease Four baking/ custard cups with butter (Muffin tins also work).

    Melt the chocolates and butter in the microwave/double boiler/low heat stove top. If you choose to microwave, don’t micro them in one go but stir it after every 30-40 seconds. Add the flour and sugar to chocolate mixture. Stir in the eggs and yolks until smooth and stir in the vanilla extract. Divide the batter evenly among the cup and place them in the oven and bake for 14 minutes. The edges should be firm but the center will be runny. Don’t be worried about taking it out too early. It tastes so good, it wouldn’t matter if it has ‘too much lava’. But definitely don’t take it out too late. It’s not a lava at all if it takes too long in the oven. Let it cool slightly and then run a knife around the edges to loosen and take out, upside down, onto plates.

    Potato Gratin

    8 medium potatoes, peeled and sliced paper-thin

    4 tablespoons butter semi melted

    2 cups heavy cream

    15 garlic cloves, split in half

    Italian herbs seasoning

    3 tablespoons chopped green onions, plus more for garnish

    1 cup grated Parmesan cheese (if you cant find this, try a mix of mozzarella and cheddar)

    Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

    Directions

    Preheat the oven to 195 degrees C. In a large bowl combine all the ingredients, and toss around to make sure all are coated. Season with salt and pepper. Put the potato mixture into a baking dish, flatten it out with a spatula, and bake for 40 minutes, until the potatoes are tender and the gratin is bubbly. Let stand for 10 minutes before serving. Garnish with spring onions.

    Chicken Parmesan

    1 kg boneless chicken cut into strips

    1/2 cup flour

    3 eggs

    3 cups Panko breadcrumbs

    12 large tomatoes

    5 tablespoons tomato paste

    6 tablespoons of butter

    One large onion

    12 garlic cloves (peeled)

    1 cup grated Parmesan cheese (if you cant find this, try a mix of mozzarella and cheddar)

    Salt and pepper

    Oil for frying

    Directions

    Heat oven to 204 degrees.

    First make the tomato sauce. Cut the tomatoes into four pieces and cut the big onion in two halves. Place the tomatoes and onion and garlic on a deep frying pan with the butter. Add the tomato paste and let it cook on very low heat for 30 minutes. Add salt and pepper

    Place flour, eggs and panko into three wide, shallow bowls. Season meat generously with salt and pepper. Dip a piece in flour, then eggs, then coat with panko. Repeat until all the meat is coated.

    Fill a large frying pan with oil Place over medium-high heat. When oil is hot, fry cutlets in batches, turning halfway through, until golden brown. Transfer to a paper towel-lined plate.

    Spoon a thin layer of sauce over the bottom of a baking pan. Sprinkle one-third of the cheese over sauce. Place half of the cutlets over the cheese. Top with half the remaining sauce and repeat the process. The final top layer should be of the cheese.

    Transfer pan to oven and bake until cheese is golden which is about 40 minutes. Let cool a few minutes before serving.

  • Shamoon Abbasi, Ayesha Omar’s spy-thriller based on Kulbhushan gets a teaser

    Shamoon Abbasi, Ayesha Omar’s spy-thriller based on Kulbhushan gets a teaser

    As the weather warms up, the Pakistani films are also rolling. A few days after the teaser of Farhan Saeed and Urwa Hocane’s Tich Button dropped, Shamoon Abbasi and Ayesha Omar’s Dhaai Chaal based on Indian spy Kulbhushan Jadav and his activities in Balochistan was shared on social media.

    The producer of the film Dr Irfan Ashraf shared the trailer on Twitter and said that his film was a response to Shah Rukh Khan’s Netflix venture: Bard of Blood.

    In an interview, the film’s lead Shamoon Abbasi while talking about the plot had shared that “the film is based on the time when Jadhav was active in the region of Balochistan and was appointed to sabotage the billion dollar China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) project.”

    While a release date has not yet been mentioned, the film directed by Taimoor Sherazi and written by Faiza Choudhry is expected to release sometime later this year. It is being made in collaboration with the Frontier Corps.

    Earlier, the Abbasi also shared a BTS video from the making of the film.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7s5jHKJyyGc

    Ayesha Omar, who plays the female lead, had also shared some details about her character Kanwal, adding that she was honoured to be playing this role.

    https://www.instagram.com/p/B4xFl_3jkHs/?utm_source=ig_embed
  • Imran wants treason case against Fazl ‘for trying to topple PTI govt’

    Imran wants treason case against Fazl ‘for trying to topple PTI govt’

    Prime Minister (PM) Imran Khan reportedly wants Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman tried under Article 6 of the Constitution “for trying to topple the government” back in November last year.

    According to media reports as well as some senior journalists, including Kamran Yousaf and Arshad Waheed Chaudhry, the premier wants Fazl tried under Article 6 — high treason — for the anti-government rally, dubbed by the JUI-F as ‘Azadi March’, towards Islamabad.

    While the rather disappointing finale of the Azadi March came just 18 days after it was launched, and without any of Fazl’s principal demands met, reports claim that PM Imran wants the leader of the religiopolitical party tried for trying to destabilise the country by ousting his government.

    Meanwhile, Twitterati are reminding Imran about his own infamous 126-day sit-in from 2014, when the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) had locked down Islamabad to oust the government of then PM Nawaz Sharif.

    JUI-F’S AZADI MARCH:

    Fazl had in June 2019 announced that his party would hold a long march towards Islamabad in the month of October. Four months later, the JUI-F chief had set October 27 as the date of the Azadi march but later deferred it to October 31.

    The JUI-F chief had demanded PM Imran’s resignation, blaming the premier for the country’s economic woes and other troubles. The PM, on the other hand, had said that Fazl’s march had a “special agenda”.

    Initially, other opposition parties had objected to the unilateral announcement about the Azadi March, but later extended their support to Fazl when he had taken them into confidence. The government had warned the opposition that anyone who tried to take the law into their hands would be dealt with strictly.

    ARTICLE 6:

    Article 6 of the Constitution of Pakistan, under which former military ruler Gen (r) Pervez Musharraf has also been found guilty, states: 

    “Any person who abrogates or subverts or suspends or holds in abeyance, or attempts or conspires to abrogate or subvert or suspend or hold in abeyance, the Constitution by use of force or show of force or by any other unconstitutional means shall be guilty of high treason.”

    The second clause adds that any person aiding, abetting or collaborating in the acts will also be considered guilty of high treason, while clause 2A says that an act of high treason cannot be validated by any court, including the Supreme Court (SC) and a high court.

  • Posters we love on ‘Haya Day’

    Posters we love on ‘Haya Day’

    As the world celebrates Valentine’s Day today on February 14, Pakistanis are calling for the day to be celebrated as ‘Haya Day’. A group of people started this to boycott Valentine’s Day because they think that it is against our norms and culture many people joined them in the cause.

    Here are the posters we love for ‘Haya Day’:

  • Pakistani love: The Pleasure Quartet and Black Ships

    Pakistani love: The Pleasure Quartet and Black Ships

    There are only four things in life worth chasing:

    Serotonin, Dopamine, Endorphins and Oxytocin.

    Belonging. Reward. Achievement. Trust. Release. Butterflies in the stomach. Warm blankets. Enveloping hugs.

    Every feeling worth having is borne upon the backs of those little molecules of the Pleasure Quartet.

    We’re all addicts, because to be otherwise would be to be inhuman, or no kind of human worth being.

    Read more – Pakistani Love: They wanted to dream

    We throw ourselves off cliffs with oversized rubber bands attached to our waists, we bankrupt ourselves in games of chance and dice hoping for that jackpot cascade, we consume drugs of every size, shape and nature, hoping for the magical brain-fairies to work their happy wonders. (Or so I hear).

    Of these intoxicants, the most widespread, arguably most dangerous, certainly most sung-about (followed closely by heroin) is love.

    And like all intoxicants, it comes in a great many shapes and forms and ingenious varieties.

    That special burst of laughter that signals the moment you become inseparable friends. The nearly imperceptible but utterly unmissable flush on a cheek before a kiss. The soft shrinking of the world to a warm room with the sounds of rain outside. The sudden relief in the eyes of someone who’s been waiting to see you – a partner, a parent, a pet.

    Most of us try to fill our lives with people that pour us some combination of the Pleasure Quartet, whether we know it or not.

    And if you stumble into someone who inspires all four? It hits your brain like a cocktail stirred by lightning.

    There are a great many experiences that can be called “love”, just as there are a great many experiences that can be called, say, “sadness”.

    But there are times where you feel something with such an outsize intensity that it can hardly be called the same emotion. A Black Swan that, by its appearance, upends your idea of the world because heretofore you had never believed such a thing possible.

    Read more – Pakistani Love: The Story of Survivors

    For me, love was a pleasant, powerful but ultimately controllable phenomenon. I cherished it in all its forms, and it was worth chasing and worth mourning, but never more.

    My wife’s appearance in my life and impact on my idea of love was not just a Black Swan, it was a Black Ship like those that had steamed up to the bay of Edo in Japan, changing in an instant – and forever – how they saw the world.

    She would laugh and the sun would rise in her eyes and the world would lose its weight.  

    She dared me to chase her, with a look and a raised eyebrow, as she drove off into a night full of stars.

    She dismantled a wayward motorcyclist with linguistic savagery that would have made Shelly proud and sailors blush. Not coincidentally, that was the day I decided to marry her.

    None of this, most likely, means anything to you. It’s not supposed to.

    The Pleasure Quartet is True with a capital T whereas love, like art, is subjective. No two people experience it quite the same way.

    For some people, that intensity of feeling, that lightning cocktail, comes packaged within one person.

    For others, it comes from success, children, friends, meditating in the mountains – whatever. I promise you, where the Four Ingredients come from isn’t nearly as important as finding them. 

    Life is short. Don’t spend it agonizing over what SHOULD make you feel a certain way, find out what DOES.

    And if you find all the passions of your life to be pleasant, powerful yet ultimately controllable, pray for a Black Ship.