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  • Modi cancels Turkey visit after President Erdogan supports Pakistan on Kashmir

    Modi cancels Turkey visit after President Erdogan supports Pakistan on Kashmir

    With Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan openly raising Indian atrocities in Kashmir at the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) and his country backing Pakistan at the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) meeting in Paris, India has decided to give the cold shoulder to its ties with Turkey.

    According to Khaleej Times, New Delhi has cancelled a two-day official visit to Ankara by Prime Minister (PM) Narendra Modi at the end of this month, which would have been his first stand-alone visit to the country.

    He was to have proceeded to Turkey from Saudi Arabia, where he is going on October 27-28 to attend a mega-investment summit.

    The decision to cancel the visit to Turkey marks a low in relations between New Delhi and Ankara, which have never been very warm. Trade and defence cooperation were among the issues that were to be on the table during Modi’s Ankara visit, which had been agreed to in principle.

    The Ministry of External Affairs was non-committal over the development. “The visit was never finalised so there is no question of cancellation,” reports an official as saying.

    Modi had last visited Turkey during the G20 in Antalya in 2015. He had held a bilateral with Erdogan in Osaka, on the sidelines of the G20 in June this year. The Turkish leader had paid a two-day visit to India in July 2018.

    However, Erdogan’s strong backing of Pakistan’s position on Kashmir and alleging widespread human rights violations by India during his speech at the UNGA last month has not gone down well with India.

    In his speech, Erdogan had raised the issue of UN resolutions on Kashmir and alleged that “eight million people are stuck” in Kashmir due to revocation of special status. He had criticised the international community for failing to pay attention to the Kashmir issue.

    At the end of September, at an event in Turkey to mark the building of a warship for Pakistan, Erdogan also said he would continue to flag the Kashmir issue on the world stage.

    India is known to have cancelled an order for two naval ships it had inked with Turkey, in retaliation of Erdogan’s Kashmir comments.

    At the FATF meeting too, Turkey and Malaysia, along with China, openly backed Pakistan last week, which was invaluable in getting Islamabad a lifeline of four months till February 2020 to “eliminate” money laundering and terrorist financing.

  • VIDEO: ‘Charas expo in KP’ leaves internet stunned

    VIDEO: ‘Charas expo in KP’ leaves internet stunned

    A charas [hashish form of cannabis] expo has allegedly been held in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP), a video of which has gone viral over the internet.

    The video is widely being shared on Facebook and Twitter with the claim that “Charas Expo 2019” was held in Terah Valley of the province that is rather infamous for high cannabis consumption as well as production.

    WATCH VIDEO:

    It shows locals showcasing different kinds of charas as a crowd wanders around buying the drug.

  • Saudi Arabia likely to allow women to perform Hajj without mehram: reports

    Saudi Arabia likely to allow women to perform Hajj without mehram: reports

    The Saudi government is considering different visa options that would allow women to perform Hajj without a male guardian, reports have claimed.

    As per Saudi law, women, are allowed to perform the annual pilgrimage only with a male guardian, while there is an exception for women older than 45, who can perform the ritual in groups.

    Reports emerging Tuesday claimed that the Kingdom’s Ministry of Hajj and Umrah is considering the option of granting visit visas for tourism and also for religious purposes, and women might be allowed to travel without male guardians.

    The official said there were about 750 Umrah and Hajj companies with licenses, but only about 500 of these were in the market and they were only running at 1% of their capacity. The Umrah sector is more profitable than the industrial sector.

  • Filmmaker Jami says he was raped by an influential media tycoon

    Filmmaker Jami says he was raped by an influential media tycoon

    Renowned Pakistani filmmaker Jami has come forward to reveal that he was also a victim of a sex crime. In a series of posts on twitter, Jami revealed that he was raped by a dominant media tycoon 13 years ago.

    Jami wrote that he also told some of his close friends but no one took the incident seriously.

    The filmmaker said he spent six months in a hospital in Karachi for therapy and he also went abroad to get over the incident.

    Talking about a recent case of a college professor committing suicide on alleged claims of harassment, Jami wrote that one wrongful death did not mean all victims were fake and liars.

    The director even said that he knew the consequences of his revelations but it was very important for him to reveal his story since the legitimacy of the movement was being questioned.

  • Plastic eggs confiscated in Karachi by food authority

    Plastic eggs confiscated in Karachi by food authority

    Sindh Food Authority (SFA) conducted raid at a shop with police in Karachi after a family complained about the selling of artificial plastic eggs for food consumption.

    As per reports, SFA staff recovered two crates of the eggs allegedly made of plastic. Initial inspection suggests that the eggs recovered from the shop were made from a plastic material. The confiscated eggs have been sent to a laboratory for further tests.

    The authority’s staff has also recovered more than 100 crates of eggs from the supply van. Police have arrested four persons including two wholesalers and one retailer.

    According to police eggs were also kept in a truck along with genuine chicken eggs. The eggs were being supplied to Karachi from Gharo, arrested suspects told police in their statement.

  • Misbah announces T20 squad for Australia tour

    Misbah announces T20 squad for Australia tour

    Chief Selector and Head Coach Misbah-ul-Haq has announced the T20 squad for the cricket team’s upcoming tour to Australia.

    As per details, Musa Khan has been included in the T20I side along with uncapped middle-order batsman Khushdil Shah and wrist spinner Usman Qadir, and lanky fast bowler Mohammad Irfan made a comeback as well.

    Hasan Ali was ruled out of the tour due to back injury while Shaheen Shah Afridi named only for Tests after injury comeback.

    Here is a quick look at the T20 squad:

    T20 squad:

    Babar Azam (captain), Asif Ali, Fakhar Zaman, Haris Sohail, Iftikhar Ahmed, Imad Wasim, Imam-ul-Haq, Khushdil Shah, Muhhamad Amir, Muhammad Hasnain, Muhammad Irfan, Muhammad Rizwan, Musa Khan, Shadab Khan, Usman Qadir, and Wahab Riaz.

  • Gautam Gambhir helps Pakistani kid get Indian visa for treatment

    Gautam Gambhir helps Pakistani kid get Indian visa for treatment

    Cricketer-turned-politician, Gautam Gambhir of India’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), has helped an ailing Pakistani minor get a visa for treatment in India, Times of India reported.

    According to reports, Gambhir wrote to the Ministry of External Affairs, requesting help for seven-year-old Omaima Ali with congenital heart disease.

    In a letter to the former cricketer, Indian External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said that he had directed the Indian high commissioner in Islamabad to grant the necessary visa to the minor girl and her parents.

    Gambhir was quoted as saying that he had learnt about the girl’s condition through a phone call to his office by former Pakistani cricketer Mohammad Yousuf. Following this, the now lawmaker wrote to the ministry on October 1, seeking help for the child.

    “I have asked our high commissioner in Islamabad to issue appropriate visas to Omaima Ali and her parents,” the minister wrote back to Gambhir in his letter dated October 9.

    Sharing the letter on Twitter, Gambhir wrote a poetic tweet in Hindi, “A little heart knocked from the other side and the heart this side removed all the boundaries. A sweet breeze has wafted through with those little feet, it seems sometimes like a daughter has come home.”

    Meanwhile, Omaima’s maternal uncle from Karachi thanked Gautam and said that they would be travelling to India soon.

  • Best moments of the Royal Couple

    Best moments of the Royal Couple

  • Sunday Superstar ft. Awesamosas

    Sunday Superstar ft. Awesamosas

  • Azadi March: Govt’s move to seal twin cities to cost taxpayers over Rs3.3 million a day

    Azadi March: Govt’s move to seal twin cities to cost taxpayers over Rs3.3 million a day

    With the government planning to put in place hundreds of shipping containers to seal the twin cities and block the forthcoming long march of the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F), reports have revealed that the move will be costing taxpayers millions of rupees a day.

    JUI-F chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman has announced leading an anti-government long march to Islamabad via Rawalpindi with plans of a lockdown. While the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) has invited opposition parties for a dialogue to call off the protest, it is also preparing for the worst.

    The capital will likely be sealed from October 31 onwards by either the police or the JUI-F as preparations on both sides for the Azadi March gain momentum. According to Dawn, the Islamabad police have demanded more than 550 shipping containers to intercept the march before it enters the city.

    The containers include 250 for City Zone and 100 each for Saddar, Industrial Area and Rural zones, while the logistics department of the police has ordered a vendor to arrange 450 containers.

    The Rawalpindi police, on the other hand, have prepared a contingency plan under which 120 freight containers will be used to seal the garrison city by blocking all roads leading to Islamabad.

    According to officials, each container being procured for both the cities, costs more than Rs5,000 a day to rent, which puts the total cost of 670 containers at Rs3.3 million (Rs3,350,000) a day.