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Tag: islamabad

  • Urdu mushaira to be held outside Cannoli in Islamabad

    Urdu mushaira to be held outside Cannoli in Islamabad

    Limo Soda Show creators have announced an Urdu mushaira (a poetry recital) outside Cannoli by Café Soul. The two content creators from Islamabad have asked people to participate in the event in response to a video of Cannoli owners ridiculing their manager for his English speaking skills.

    According to details, the event will be held outside the restaurant in Islamabad on Saturday (January 23). 18,900 people have responded to the invitation till the filing of this report, with 1,600 indicating they are going and 9,400 saying they are interested.

    The event’s guidelines have been stated as follows:

    IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENTZ

    1.) All Shayrs has 2 b in punjabi or urdu.

    2.) Most criative shayar wins Jalahowapenus BURGER

    3.) NO gup shup or banter against restoraan ownrse

    5.) Siraikiz NOT allowedz

    6.) Free entries 4 beeconhoes studantz?!

    7.) NO Ahmed Faraz sasti shayri

    8.) Studie whole Wren nd Martin English graamer bookz for suprise english quiz

    9.) Alcohol, Drugs and JF-17 Thunder Naswar is strcitly prohitbited. (only for sale incide restoraan)”

    Though the owners of the café later issued an apology, netizens did not buy it saying the apology sounded ‘arrogant’.

    Read more – Adnan Siddiqui, Sheheryar Munawar lambast Cannoli owners for mocking manager’s ‘English’

    Meanwhile, responding to the video, Shaniera Akram challenged the ladies to an English competition.

    “I’m bored too so I challenge you ladies to an English competition,” said Shaniera.

  • Twitterati slam Cannoli owners for ‘non-apology’

    After the owners of Cannoli Café Soul sparked outrage for mocking their manager for his English speaking skills, they issued an apology which reeks of privelege and arrogance.

    In an official statement, the café said: “We are saddened and appalled by the reaction of the people, how they have misconstrued our banter with a team member.”

    The owners explained that the video showed “casual gup shup” between the owners and their team, adding: “This video depicts the gup shup between us as a team, and is never meant or taken in a hurtful or negative way. If anyone was hurt or offended we apologise, however that was never our intention.”

    The statement further said: “We are not required to prove or defend ourselves as kind employers. Our team has been with us for a decade, that should speak for itself.”

    “We are proud Pakistanis who love our language and our culture,” the statement concluded.

    However, social media users are not buying Cannoli’s apology, with some wishing they had never issued one.

    One user had predicted the entire apology statement.

    https://twitter.com/MirTharkiMir/status/1352214340087279619?s=20
    https://twitter.com/Shehzad89/status/1352231146638225421?s=20
  • ‘Elitist’ Cannoli owners mock restaurant manager’s ‘English’

    ‘Elitist’ Cannoli owners mock restaurant manager’s ‘English’

    Uzma and Diya, who own Cannoli Café Soul in Islamabad, are at the receiving end of outrage for mocking and ridiculing their restaurant manager for his English speaking skills.

    In a now-deleted video from the café’s Instagram page, the two women explained how their manager has been working at their café for nine years and has taken three language courses until now. 

    They then asked him to introduce himself in English and when he struggled with speaking fluent English, they made fun of him by commenting on the manager’s salary. The manager, Owais, was visibly uncomfortable in the video.

    Soon after the video was posted on social media, people started calling out the women for their elitist behavior.

    Even Shaniera Akram stepped in to defend Owais and said that she “knows what it’s like being put on the spot to speak another language”.

    Later, #BoycottCannoli began to trend on Twitter as netizens called for people to boycott the restaurant.

    Meanwhile, Cannoli Lahore has said that they are not linked to the Islamabad Branch and that they condemn the incident.

  • Tensions run high as PDM remains undeterred on protest outside ECP amid terror threats

    Tensions run high as PDM remains undeterred on protest outside ECP amid terror threats

    Tensions are running high in the twin cities, especially the federal capital, as the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) remains undeterred on plans to hold a protest outside the office of the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) against the delay in the decision of ruling Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s (PTI) foreign funding case.

    With security around the ECP being tightened to avoid any untoward incident, Geo News reports that the federal government has deployed two platoons of Punjab Rangers along with police personnel and sealed the election watchdog’s main entrance with barbed wires.

    Walkthrough gates have also been installed in the Red Zone area for pedestrians.

    Leaders of the anti-government opposition alliance are scheduled to gather at Kashmir Chowk around 1 pm from where they will lead workers to the ECP aboard a container.

    Earlier, the PDM leadership met in Islamabad at the residence of Maulana Fazlur Rehman to review the protest strategy.

    Addressing the media after the meeting alongside Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) vice-president Maryam Nawaz, the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) chief said the PTI foreign case could not be delayed any further and urged the commission to announce the verdict soon.

    “Decisions against elected prime ministers are given in a few months’ time but verdict against a selected premier has been pending for over six years,” he said.

    “Foreign funding case is the biggest scandal in Pakistan. Imran Khan has amassed millions in the name of party funds. He took the mother of all NROs to create political instability in the country,” he said and claimed that PM Imran used charity funds for personal business and to spread chaos.

    The protest will not be attended by PPP chairperson Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari who is currently in Sukkur and plans to celebrate PPP’s win in the Umerkot by-polls.

    Meanwhile, Interior Minister Sheikh Rasheed has warned the opposition of creating a law and order situation. He has also said he “doesn’t want to scare anyone” but Rawalpindi and Islamabad have been on high alert since December 15.

  • Don’t have electricity? Don’t worry, it’s the entire country

    Don’t have electricity? Don’t worry, it’s the entire country

    Power outages have been reported in all major cities of Pakistan, including Islamabad, Lahore, Multan, Rawalpindi and Karachi.

    While no confirmed reports have yet poured in on the situation in other cities, the blackout is being deemed a national one with a fault allegedly occuring in the National Transmission & Despatch Company (NTDC) transmission lines.

    The cause of the fault has not yet been ascertained, however, sources say it could be due to the foggy weather conditions prevailing in the country.

    Earlier, the outage began with voltage fluctuations. The same being a countrywide problem emerged as soon as people took to social media.

    Here’s what’s going on on Twitter:

    Meanwhile, here’s an official update:

    Since the restoration could take a while, how about you tell us your plans for this Saturday night?

    Let The Current know in the comments…

  • Govt sets up first COVID-19 vaccine centre in Islamabad

    Govt sets up first COVID-19 vaccine centre in Islamabad

    The government has established the first COVID-19 vaccination centre in Taralai area of the federal capital.

    According to details, citizens can register themselves for the vaccine using the helpline 1166. The government has installed a special chiller at the centre so that the vaccine remains safe and lasts long.

    The federal health ministry has also set up a training centre for the vaccinators at the site.

    The centre was set up a day after Secretary for Ministry of National Health Services Dr Nausheen Hamid said that Pakistan is expected to get the first COVID-19 vaccine batch by the end of January.

    According to Radio Pakistan, Dr Hamid said that the government was “urgently” drafting a database of all public and private medical workers to get them vaccinated in the first phase.

    However, it has not yet revealed which vaccine it is and from which country Pakistan would procure it.

    A week earlier, Science Minister Fawad Chaudhry said Pakistan would purchase 1.2 million doses of virus vaccine from China’s Sinopharm.

    Last month, China had approved the COVID-19 vaccine developed by an associate of the state-backed pharmaceutical giant.

  • PIA plane flies with only one passenger on board

    Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) flew its plane from Islamabad to Manchester with only one passenger on board. According to reports, the plane which had a capacity of 371 passengers carried only one passenger to the destination.

    While Geo News has reported that the flight took off from Islamabad, journalist Murtaza Ali Shah said that the plane flew from Manchester to Islamabad.

    In the video posted by Shah, a PIA’s staffer, while pointing towards other empty 370 passenger seat, remarks that the passenger on board is the “lucky” one. The only passenger on the flight was a native of Gujrat.

    Read more – Imran govt likely to rid PIA of Rs500 billion debt

    Meanwhile prominent aviation journalist Tahir Imran Mian said PIA’s flight was not the only one that flew empty.

  • Police brutality, again

    Pakistan is no stranger to incidents of police brutality but there are events that leave the entire nation shell-shocked.

    Five officials of Islamabad Police’s Counter-Terrorism Department (CTD) were arrested after they gunned down a 21-year-old boy, Usama Satti, in cold blood near Srinagar Highway, G-10 sector in the federal capital.

    This incident has led the nation to question why ours is a trigger-happy police force.

    Earlier today, Senate’s Human Rights Committee Chairperson Senator Mustafa Nawaz Khokhar tweeted, “Heart goes out to the family of young Usama. Can’t imagine what his parents and loved ones must be going through. Although judicial inquiry has been ordered, will take it up in HR committee too. Use of deadly assault weapons should b the last resort. Fatal error of judgement.”

    Social media trends asking for justice for Satti as well as arresting Interior Minister Sheikh Rasheed started trending following the young man’s brutal killing.

    In a report published by Human Rights Watch (HRW) in 2016 on police in Pakistan, the rights group noted that successive Pakistani governments have for decades failed to reform an under-resourced and under-equipped police force or hold abusive police to account. 

    Two years ago in January 2019, police officials killed several members of the same family in Sahiwal town on suspicion of terrorism. At that time, Prime Minister (PM) Imran Khan not just condemned the killings but he also promised police reforms so as to avoid torture and extrajudicial killings.

    An anti-terrorism court acquitted all six personnel of the CTD who were allegedly involved in the Sahiwal incident. The Punjab government did challenge the acquittal but such is the state of justice in this country that an encounter in broad daylight in front of young children could not garner any justice for the victims’ family.

    Two years ago in January 2019, police officials killed several members of the same family in Sahiwal town on suspicion of terrorism. At that time, Prime Minister Imran Khan not just condemned the killings but he also promised police reforms so as to avoid torture and extrajudicial killings. An anti-terrorism court acquitted all six personnel of the CTD police who were allegedly involved in the Sahiwal incident. The Punjab government did challenge the acquittal but such is the state of justice in this country that an encounter in broad daylight in front of young children could not garner any justice for the victims’ family.

    Police reforms were one of the key promises made by PM Imran and his party, the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), when they came to power in 2018. Unfortunately, we have not seen any substantive move towards the same. It is important now more than ever that the government starts walking the talk because such incidents occur due to lack of accountability. We cannot continue to live in fear of a trigger-happy police force that can kill at will without any consequences.

    After police reforms in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) by the PTI government during its last tenure, we had high hopes that the PTI’s federal government would emulate the KP Police Act, 2017 in other provinces where it is in power, especially Punjab. We hope that the government would now do so at an urgent basis. 

  • Authorities to restore historic mosque near Lotus Lake

    Authorities to restore historic mosque near Lotus Lake

    City managers have decided to restore a historic mosque near Lotus Lake in Shakarparian.

    According to details, the mosque is believed to be over 100 years old. It was a  worship place for villagers of Pairan, who migrated from the area in the 1960s during Islamabad’s development.

    Like Pairan, many villagers from Islamabad moved to Rawalpindi and other parts of the capital after getting compensation from Capital Development Authority (CDA) for their homes and land.

    “During construction of Lotus Lake, when we carried out cleanliness operation and removed bushes etc., we found an abandoned mosque,” said Environment Director Irfan Niazi, adding construction material of the mosque suggested that it was built over 100 years ago. The banyan tree located in the mosque’s courtyard is believed to be 500 years old.

    CDA Chairman Amer Ali Ahmed said that the authority will restore this historical mosque. “I have already directed my team to take steps for restoration of this mosque, which is also our heritage,” he said.

    He further said that the construction of the lake is in its last stage and will soon be a new facility for tourists.

    There was a natural lotus lake in the area which diminished during the construction of a cultural complex between 2004-5. CDA is now constructing the lake at a new place near the Natural History Museum. The new Lotus Lake is 100ft long and 68ft wide.

  • PIA offers 30% discount on domestic flights

    PIA offers 30% discount on domestic flights

    Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) has reduced its fares for domestic flights by 30% to facilitate passengers during the winter holidays. The airline has introduced special fares on domestic flights operating between Karachi, Lahore, Islamabad, Quetta, Faisalabad, Sialkot and Peshawar from December 3 (Thursday) onwards.

    Passengers would now be able to travel between these cities on a one-way minimum fare of Rs8,500 and a round trip minimum fare of Rs17,000. Previously, charges were Rs12,275 and Rs24,600 for the same.

    PIA Spokesperson Abdullah Khan said that the purpose of discounted fares is to facilitate the people travelling to their homes during holidays. He said people can benefit from these fares on a first come first serve basis.