The Current’s next Sunday guest Ahsan Khan has pledged to work towards the protection of children. He has been appointed ambassador for Child Protection and Welfare Bureau by the Government of Punjab.
The Alif actor has been actively working for children rights and welfare for a while now.
Child Protection and Welfare Bureau Punjab appoints prominent Pakistani Film and TV actor Ahsan Khan as their ambassador. pic.twitter.com/NIxu3Ty3OB
Always making our fraternity proud my freind the superstar @Ahsankhanuk Ambassador for Child Protection and Welfare Bureau Punjab ..All the Best Buddy😇 pic.twitter.com/6axJHajpPi
Looks like launching your own clothing brand is the new fad in town.
Following the Hocane sisters, Urwa and Mawra, and the Khan twins, Aiman and Minal, popular morning show host Nida Yasir is launching her own clothing line.
Nida teased her fans with a short video of her latest venture Nida Yasir Collection. Though the collection can be anything, the threads at the beginning of the video hint towards a clothing collection.
Following the immense backlash on social media, The Arts Council of Pakistan has modified their upcoming panel on feminism and have added three women to it.
According to an updated shared by Chairperson Electronic Media and Aesthetic Committee Uzma Alkarim, the panel of speakers now includes two women: senior journalist Quatrina Hosain and senior politician Mehtab Akbar Rashidi. Meanwhile the title of the talk has also been changed to Understanding Feminism. Meanwhile, Uzma, another female, will act as moderator. Filmmaker Nabeel Qureshi (Actor-in-Law, Load Wedding) has been removed from the speaker’s list.
Hello all, We are now re-framing the event and including a more diverse group of speakers. Requesting all of you to attend as your participation will add value to the conversation around understanding "feminism” together. pic.twitter.com/CYbv4NApp1
On Monday, a poster for a panel discussion hosted by The Arts Council of Pakistan started circulating on social media. The panel discussion titled Feminism: The Other Perspective featured five speakers and interestingly they were all men. The men on the panel included Duraid Qureshi, Jibran Nasir, Mohsin Sayeed, Muaaz Ahsan and Nabeel Qureshi.
Needless to say the panel given the topic of conversation received immense backlash from the public who took to express their frustration on Twitter.
sir @MJibranNasir why are you on this manel? shouldnt you make space for women and other non binary bodies to talk?
Jibran Nasir was first to respond to the controversy.
Erum the title of the panel is misleading and I've requested the organizers to change it. I was informed the panel is about men talking to other men about rethinking masculinity and why as men we need feminism. It wasn't to explain feminism or talk about women issues as men.
Perhaps the title miscommunicates the intent. Panel is about men speaking to other men about why views on masculinity need to change, how as men we must support women around us and why men need feminism. Im a vocal critic of manels. But this is about men speaking to other men
Uzma had also issued a statement and explanation on the matter.
Hello all, as a female it feels great that we have strong feminists around us. My idea was simple that as electronic media build opinions; what do the Male decision makers of EM think and perceive about feminism. (The other Perspective) But it hurts the sentiments of many 1/2
so now I am adding the female speaker in the panel. Requesting all of you to attend .. will share the new invite by eve.. mark the date as your participation will add value to understand the meaning of feminism more clearly. 22nd nov. 4-6 pm at arts council auditorium II 2/2
Lahore on Thursday once again topped the global list of cities with poor air quality as monitors showed an average “hazardous” Air Quality Index (AQI) of 335.
According to Newsweek Pakistan, residents of the capital of the country’s most populous province woke up again to the sight of a haze covering the city, with residents complaining of sore throats, itchy eyes and other ailments linked to inhaling toxic material through the smog that has increasingly become a regular fixture.
While the average AQI for the entire city stood at 335 around noon, parts of the city with individual air quality monitors showed the figure rising as high as 763, which posits a PM2.5 of nearly 900 ug/m3 — the equivalent of smoking nearly 40 cigarettes.
While smog is not a new phenomenon in Pakistan, it has taken on greater urgency this year amid ever worsening air quality that is particularly unhealthy for children, the elderly and the infirm. In 2007, the Lahore High Court (LHC) ordered authorities to prepare a smog response action plan to overcome the health crisis. The Punjab Environment Protection Council, however, adopted a plan that utilised a modified AQI classification system, which claims a PM2.5 rating of 60 is “satisfactory” even though US AQI adopted by much of the world declares it “unhealthy”.
PM2.5 refers to atmospheric particulate matter that has a diameter of less than 2.5 micrometers, so small that they can only be detected with an electron microscope. These fine particles, which can come from various sources including power plants, motor vehicle emissions, and agricultural burning, last longer in the air than heavier particles. This increases chances of them being inhaled by humans and animals, where they can bypass the nose and throat and penetrate deep into the lungs. The air pollution worsens during winter, emerging as smog, due to temperature inversion, which produces a layer of warm air that traps air pollutants.
Meanwhile, schools on Friday will once again remain closed across the city due to smog.Both public and private schools in Gujranwala and Faisalabad will also remain shut.
The Punjab School Education Department has issued a notification in this regard as well.
Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leader and former finance minister Ishaq Dar’s son Ali Dar has said that PML-N Vice President (VP) Maryam Nawaz’s presence in London is essential for her ailing father and former prime minister (PM) Nawaz Sharif’s treatment.
“Maryam is aware of her father’s deteriorating health and knows his medical history. His [Nawaz’s] sons haven’t lived with him for around 20 years,” Dar reportedly said.
Former premier Nawaz is in London after he was allowed to travel abroad for medical treatment despite his convition in corruption cases. His daughter Maryam, however, was denied the same due to the ongoing Chaudhry Sugar Mills case against her.
Granting her bail, the court had told her to submit her passport with the court.
Dar’s demand seeking foreign travel for Maryam to see her ailing father comes amid reports that she will soon be moving the Lahore High Court (LHC) in this regard. While PM Imran Khan has said that Maryam won’t be allowed to go to London come what may, according to some journalists, the government won’t be challenging the move if Nawaz’s health deteriorates any further.
A senior bureaucrat and former managing director (MD) of Lahore Waste Management Company (LWMC), Waseem Ajmal has told an accountability court that the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) is forcing him into becoming “approver” against former chief minister (CM) Shehbaz Sharif, Dawn reported.
According to the details, NAB had earlier arrested Waseem, BS-20 officer, on charges of embezzling Rs1 billion in LWMC project and presented him before the court to seek his physical remand as he was arrested the other day.
During his appearance, Waseem stated before the court that the investigating officer, during the interrogation, kept persuading him to become an approver against the former CM.
He added that the NAB possessed complete record of the case but it wanted to extract a ‘confessional’ statement from him.
“The NAB had also put same pressure on me in Saaf Pani case,” said Ajmal adding that the bureau previously kept him in custody for 48 days in the Saaf Pani case but did not interrogate him beyond two hours.
He further claimed that the NAB wasted precious time of his career and found nothing against him. The Lahore High Court (LHC) had earlier released Ajmal on bail in the Saaf Pani case on January 30 last.
The NAB prosecutor had argued that then CM Shehbaz Sharif awarded the contract of LWMC project to a Turkish company-Al-Bayrak on inflated rates which caused a loss of over Rs1 billion to the national exchequer.
The prosecutor said that Ajmal being MD and team leader of the LWMC held a meeting on April 26, 2014, in which he intentionally concealed details from other board members.
Ajmal’s counsel Mian Ali Ashfaq opposed the remand and said his client had to attend a three-month course for promotion in next grade. The court, however, granted 10-day physical remand of the accused to the NAB and sought his appearance again on Nov 30.
Two days after Prime Minister (PM) Imran Khan mocked Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) chief Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari for his “rainwater” gaffe, the premier himself has pulled a Bilawal.
“With more inflation, comes more poverty,” ruling Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chief and the country’s chief executive reportedly said while addressing a ceremony to distribute Rs30 billion refund cheques of sales and income tax among prominent exporters at the PM Office in Islamabad.
He also said that the country had not been able to make significant economic progress due to the absence of long-term economic policies. “China is progressing by adopting long-term strategies… now we are heading towards adopting the same approach.”
The premier said that the country’s South Asian competitors, including India and Bangladesh, had also moved ahead of Pakistan by sticking to this approach and urged the business community to consider the payment of taxes as their national obligation
“The government is firm to uplift the masses and check poverty through wealth creation, tax collection and industrialisation,” he said.
‘WITH MORE RAIN, COMES MORE WATER’:
On Monday, PM Imran had made fun of PPP’s Bilawal over the latter’s “rain theory”.
Addressing the inauguration ceremony of the Havelian-Thakot motorway under the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), he had mimicked Bilawal and said that his theory had startled scientists across the globe.
“Bilwal has startled scientists worldwide by saying ‘jab barish hoti hai to pani ata hai’ (water pours when it rains). But Einstein rolled over in his grave when he [Bilawal] went on to say ‘Jab ziada barish hota hai to ziada pani ata hai’ (more water comes when it rains more),” the premier quipped.
Coke Studio Season 12 seems to have found itself in the middle of a copyright controversy yet again after two songs of the season were deleted from Youtube.
Sanam Marvi’s first song for the season Hairaan Hua has been taken off YouTube days after it’s release. According to the message displayed by Youtube on the Twitter link, “the video is no longer available due to a copyright claim by Abida Parveen.”
Abida
Other than that, Abrarul Haq’s rendition of his iconic Billo has also been removed due to “copyright claim by Karman Entertainment Limited.” Billo was a roaring success and people loved this remake.
Previously, Shuja Haider and Rachel Viccaji’s Saiyyan was not released on Youtube due to copyright infringement. It was revealed that EMI Pakistan had the rights of the Noor Jehan classic and they stopped the song from being aired. However, the matter got resolved and the song was released.
Needless to say, fans and listeners are quite upset with the latest developments.
"Hairaan Hua" song by Sanam Marvi has been removed by coke studio because of copyright issues claim by Abida Perveen. Why didn't they realize it earlier while composing the song?#AbidaParveen#cokestudio#cokestudio12
What's wrong with #cokestudio12? Every other day it's tracks are removed due to God knows what reasons, may be copy infringement since #RohailHayat is well known for the amazing work and as well for such blunders #HairanHua by #SanamMarvi is no more on @YouTube everyone!
first Mahi diyan gallan was copyrighted then Saiyaan then Billo & Now best of whole season Hairaan hua got removed. So much disappointment from coke studio this time. Atleast buy the da*n rights ffs.🙏#CokeStudio12
Imran Khan’s former wife Jemima Khan is no stranger to answering questions about her ex-husband, even years after their divorce. She’s quite active on Twitter and was recently involved in another twitter controversy.
In her latest tweet, Jemima addressed Islamaphobia and religion by quoting a quote by British Comedian Ahir Shah.
Interesting observation made by @AhirShah that “Islam is the right wing religion beloved of the left and Christianity is the left wing religion beloved of the right” (which would explain the problem with Islamophobia in the Tory party and Antisemitsm in the Labour Party)
Jemima is no stranger to having to answer questions about Imran Khan, even when she is tweeting about other things but it seems like this time, it really took the wow cake.
