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Tag: Pakistan

  • Pakistani movie ‘The Losing Side’ gets ‘Best Human Rights Film’ award at the Cannes Film Festival

    Pakistani movie ‘The Losing Side’ gets ‘Best Human Rights Film’ award at the Cannes Film Festival

    Pakistani film The Losing Side has received the ‘Best Human Rights Film’ award at the Cannes Film Festival. Directed by Javed Sharif, the film explores the issue of forced conversions in Sindh by interviewing four victims of forced conversion marriages.


    In an interview with Dawn, Sharif said that he was inspired to make this film after wanting to see how minorities are preserving their heritage and culture. He elaborated that religious minorities like Hindu and Christians in Sindh face the issue of religious conversion, which can also be by choice but in most cases they are forced when young girls are kidnapped and married to Muslim men.


    The purpose of these awards, as Sharif told Dawn, was to provide more space for sensitive issues in mainstream media


    “I believe this award is more meaningful as it will give space to a sensitive issue in the mainstream media.’


    He also hoped that in filming these issues, their can be presented a ‘narrative of resistance.’


    In an Instagram post, Sharif announced to his followers that The Losing Side had been given the ‘Best Human Rights Film’ award and thanked all of his team members who had worked hard to ensure that the project would become a success.

    You can watch the full trailer here:

  • Sharifs mein garrbarr? Maryam Nawaz appointed as PML-N senior vice president ahead of Nawaz’s expected return

    Prime Minister (PM) and President of the Pakistan Muslim League- Nawaz (PML-N) Shehbaz Sharif has appointed Maryam Nawaz Sharif as the “Senior Vice President” of the party.

    On Tuesday, a notification regarding the appointment was shared by the Information Minister and PML-N leader Marriyum Aurangzeb. In a tweet, she also said that Maryam Nawaz has been authorised to re-organise the party at all functional tiers/levels as the “Chief Organiser”.

    Finance Minister Ishaq Dar also came forward to congratulate Maryam, saying that PM Shehbaz took the decision in consultation with party supremo Nawaz Sharif.

    Maryam Nawaz, the daughter of PML-N supremo Nawaz Sharif, has been serving as the vice president of the party since 2019.

    In another development, Nawaz Sharif directed his party to start a mass mobilisation campaign for upcoming general elections, reports The News.

    Sharif had issued important instructions to the political team of his party in Lahore and asked them to start preparing for general elections and confront the PTI and its allies.

    Last month, former Speaker of the National Assembly (NA) Ayaz Sadiq claimed that Nawaz would return to Pakistan in January 2023.

    In November 2022, the PML-N-led collation government issued a diplomatic passport to Nawaz Sharif, who has been living in London since 2019 following an illness in jail after then prime minister Imran Khan had permitted him to go abroad for medical treatment.

  • ‘Zero tolerance’; PM warns terrorists

    Amid rising terror attacks, Prime Minister (PM) Shehbaz Sharif has said that Pakistan will adopt the policy of zero-tolerance against terrorists.

    From his account on Twitter, the Premier said that the National Security Committee (NSC) has come up with two major decisions, which include adopting a zero-tolerance policy against terrorists and forming a roadmap to revive the economy of Pakistan.

    A day earlier, the second round of the National Security Committee (NSC) meeting reiterated a “zero tolerance” policy for terrorism in the country, according to the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO).

    A press release issued by the PMO after the meeting’s conclusion said the NSC reaffirmed its determination to take on “any and all entities that resort to violence”, adding that any violence would be dealt with the “full force of the state”.

    On December 30, 2022, the forum vowed to respond firmly to resurgent terrorism in the country and declared militants as “enemies of Pakistan”.

    On the other hand, Defence Minister Khawaja Asif on Monday said that Afghanistan’s soil is being used against Pakistan despite an agreement with the Taliban government.

    During Geo News’ programme ‘Aaj Shahzeb Khanzada Kay Sath’, the minister urged the Taliban to fulfill commitments made in the Doha deal.

    “The Pakistani government is in constant touch with Afghanistan in connection with border violations”, he said.

    Over the past few months, the law and order situation in the country has worsened, with terrorist groups like the outlawed Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) executing attacks across the country.

  • NIH confirms presence of XBB variant of Covid-19 in Pakistan

    NIH confirms presence of XBB variant of Covid-19 in Pakistan

    The National Institute of Health (NIH) in Islamabad and the Aga Khan University Hospital (AKUH) on Tuesday confirmed the presence of the XBB variant of Covid-19 in Pakistan, confirmed through genome sequencing of samples.


    A review meeting was held on the Corona situation in the country under the chairmanship of Prime Minister (PM) Shehbaz Sharif.
    The Premier commended the efforts put in by all the relevant officials and NCOC to prevent the spread of Covid-19.


    The meeting was informed in detail about the current situation of Covid in the world including the region and in Pakistan, new variants of the pandemic, measures taken to prevent them and status of vaccinations.


    Attendants at the meeting were informed that there is no apparent threat to Pakistan from the new variant of Covid-19.

    The same variant, BF.7, has recently been identified as the dominant one spreading in China’s capital Beijing, contributing to a wider surge of COVID infections in the country.

  • Model Saheefa Jabbar Khattak discusses how she met her husband, dropping out of college, and other things in new interview

    Model Saheefa Jabbar Khattak discusses how she met her husband, dropping out of college, and other things in new interview

    Model Saheefa Jabbar Khattak was on the Geo show Hasna Mana Hai where she opened up about her life.

    On how she met her husband:

    Talking about how she met her husband, Khwaja Khizar Hussain, Khattak said that she had been helping her then-friend, Khizar, look for a bride by introducing him to her female friends.
    “He was my senior at BNU and he was single. He asked me to look for someone, since he wanted to get married. I was always a tomboy, not a girly girl, so he was never interested in me. Whatever rowdy discussions would be going on between boys, they would come and tell me,” she disclosed.
    Khattak further shared that she had found some gorgeous women who she felt were perfect for Khizar, but soon found out that they were taken. Then Saheefa and Khizer realized that they liked each other a lot.
    “We found something else instead,” she said of finding her soulmate.

    Acting career

    When asked about her acting career, Saheefa said she hadn’t been involved in television projects since last year, because she’s disappointed by regressive content in the scripts.
    “It has been a year and a half since I acted, and I think I won’t go for it because the kind of scripts they offer I don’t like them. It’s all about the consistently wailing woman. In every drama she is turned into a mom, is consistently getting slapped and given divorce.”


    Khattak talked about her first drama Teri Meri Kahani and said she was disappointed by how regressive the show was regarding the empowerment of women.


    “My first drama was Teri Meri Kahani, in which I also had this type of character. I was this well-educated girl who was born and raised from the UK, and comes back here to get slapped, kicked out of the house. Basically for me its very weird because if a girl is very well-educated and independent, as well as a UK national…The problem was a strong independent girl, who literally has properties in the UK, why is she getting slapped around by a man and also accepting false accusations? It was that kind of drama, and the sad bit was that the girl suffers a lot in the story but in the end she forgives the man and goes back to him. And when you ask the production house that why is this happening, they defend their decision by saying the audience needs a happy ending,” she revealed.

    Dropping out of college

    When an audience member asked Saheefa about her decision to drop out of university years ago, the model revealed that she regrets that decision even today.

    “It’s been good eight years since I dropped out and left my education. Every time things don’t work out, they did for me but it usually doesn’t for everyone. Today, I do regret that I left my education because at a lot of places that piece of paper is very important. I didn’t think like this before, had you asked me two years ago I would have said ‘Yes, drop out‘. Now, I have seen this very clearly that a degree is important so I wouldn’t suggest anyone to drop out until and unless you have a very good, solid plan.”

    You can listen to the full interview below:

  • Hot and toasty chor: Designers Dolce and Gabbana criticised for stealing Pakistani art

    Hot and toasty chor: Designers Dolce and Gabbana criticised for stealing Pakistani art

    We may have progressed to a new year, but international brands continue with their decades-old, regressive mindset of stealing artwork from third world artists for cheap products. Writer Rafia Zakaria brought this to attention today when she shared a screenshot of a Dolce and Gabbana toaster which had designs copied from Pakistani truck art on it. The toaster is retailing for $850.
    Is it still ethical to steal art that holds a lot of significance within a particular culture, especially while knowing that this country was recently devastated by floods.

    ‘Dolce and Gabbana Pakistani Truck Art limited edition toaster a mere $850 People in Pakistan still starving. Perhaps send a few extra dollars their way.’

    Social media users sided with Zakaria’s criticism by sharing how unethical it is for international brands to steal art and profiting from it without giving credit to artists.

    https://twitter.com/amna_mir/status/1609779503844171776?s=20&t=bmGIgxNjOYxmmR6RjxDDog
    https://twitter.com/Rafeyah/status/1609763113972146179?s=20&t=bmGIgxNjOYxmmR6RjxDDog
  • Can’t find your medicine? Pharmaceutical firms threaten to protest from January 5

    Can’t find your medicine? Pharmaceutical firms threaten to protest from January 5

    Pharmaceutical firms in Pakistan have threatened to start boycotts from January 5 after growing shortage of medicines and other life-saving drugs and to put pressure on the government to resolve the sector’s problems.


    After the federal government introduced policies to increase prices of raw material, several medicines including insulin, are now unavilable in markets.
    According to the Pakistan Drug Lawyer Forum President Noor Meher, 91% of raw materials used to create these medicines are imported to Pakistan. He said that stocks of new medicines are sitting at Karachi port and Lahore Dry Port, however government authorities are not providing clearance to deliver these to stores. Meher revealed that the dire situation has now pushed pharmaceutical workers to protest on streets to demand the government’s attention for the sector’s problems.

    In October 2022, healthcare organization GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) announced that it was shutting down the production of Panadol tablets, Panadol Extra Tablets and Cildren’s Panadol Liquid Range in Pakistan after suffering financial losses.


    In a letter to PM’s Principal Secretary Syed Tauqir Shah, the CEO of GSK Consumer Healthcare Pakistan, Farhan Haroon had written:


    “We are incurring heavy financial losses on the production of the entire Panadol range due to an increase in the price of their raw ingredients and in the absence of due approval by the federal government on the recommendation of Drug Pricing Committee of Drug Regulatory Committee of Pakistan. Due to these challenges, manufacturing of Panadol range on negative margins is unsustainable and despite exhaustive efforts of the company to mitigate the issue through dialogue, the situation is now beyond our control, compelling us to declare force majeure.”

  • ‘Together we will bounce back as a nation’: PM Shehbaz remembers flood victims on Jan 1

    ‘Together we will bounce back as a nation’: PM Shehbaz remembers flood victims on Jan 1

    Prime Minister (PM) Shehbaz Sharif began the first day of the new year by remembering the victims of 2022’s devastating floods.

    On his twitter account, Shehbaz Sharif said, “In 2022, one-third of Pakistan paid the heavy price due to climate change and for no fault of theirs”. He also hoped that Pakistanis as a nation will bounce back.

    President Alvi, in his message, said that the past year saw the loss of life and money due to floods in 2022 but the nation faced the challenges with steadfastness, unity, and determination.

    However, as the new year has arrived, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan pledged that his party will form a strong government through elections in 2023.

    In a series of tweets, mentioning the best and worst times of 2022, Imran Khan shared, “A government with one of the best econ performances was removed through a conspiracy triggered by supreme self-interest, and Pakistan was handed over to a bunch of criminals.”

  • 2023 will be the year of the Pakistani woman

    2023 will be the year of the Pakistani woman

    Look, Pakistani men: you no longer have a choice. This year, Pakistani women are taking over. And don’t we deserve it. Looking back at 2022, we had to bear the burden of abuse, rape and gruesome murders.

    Pakistan faces a gender gap in ways and incidents unimaginable. The World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap Report 2022 ranked Pakistan at 145 out of the 146 countries ranked on the index. Pakistan was just ahead of Afghanistan, where women can’t go to school and universities. The report gauges how immense the gender gap is in areas, including education, economic participation, health, and political empowerment. Pakistan’s second-last position came as no surprise, at least not for the women in the country.

    Women in Pakistan are yearning for the day when our society will learn to provide the strength where it is required and stand with the survivors of sexual assaults, when no one will be afraid to talk about their horrific experiences and when no woman will be blamed for being a victim and celebrated for being a survivor. But until that day arrives, we can all try to bridge the gap and make it better for the women in our country. Our leaders and decision-makers can really try and make an effort to make Pakistan safe for women. It is time to stand up for the ones suffering and give women safe spaces.

    We as a country were still dealing with the horrors of the murder of Noor Mukadam and we hadn’t healed, when we witnessed the bone-chilling gruesome murder of Sara Shahnawaz in September at the hands of a man who, too, was raised as a result of the patriarchy.

    From glorifying abusers and then giving them awards, the Lux Style Awards (LSAs) became a sorry affair in 2022. The coveted LSAs rolled out nominations for its 21st edition and as soon as the names were dropped, viewers condemned what they felt was an injustice to other artists and women.

    So listen up: we hope that 2023 is a year when better sense prevails, we learn from our mistakes as individuals and start to become a country where our women and men are given their due rights and respect.

  • Politics edition: Five things Pakistanis don’t want to see in 2023

    Politics edition: Five things Pakistanis don’t want to see in 2023

    In 2022, we collectively experienced episodes that turned Pakistan upside down. Many incidents shook the entire nation, some of them worth condemnation. Significant happenings shook the world of politics, from Prime Minister Imran Khan getting removed through a no-confidence motion to the ugly fight between Pervaiz Elahi and Hamza Shehbaz for Punjab’s Chief Minister (CM) seat.

    After a year full of constitutional crises in Pakistan, we hope that we don’t witness another year full of drama.

    Another Prime Minister not completing his constitutional term

    For the first time in the history of Pakistan, a sitting prime minister was removed through a no-confidence motion. In April, PM Imran Khan was removed after being the head of government for more than three years. In the 75-year-long history of Pakistan, not a single Premier stayed for their full term. We hope that next time when the public chooses their leader, he or she gets to keep their promise and serve their full term.

    Politicians not getting harassed

    Right after the formation of a new government, in April, a group of Pakistani pilgrims accosted, heckled and chanted slogans against incumbent PM Shehbaz and his entourage at the Masjid-e-Nabwi in Madina during their three-day visit to Saudi Arabia. Such incidents continued happening throughout the year. Information Minister Marriyum Aurangzeb was heckled at a coffee shop in London. Minister for Planning and Development Ahsan Iqbal was harassed by PTI supporters at a restaurant while Finance Minister Ishaq Dar was heckled by unidentified people in Washington DC. It was observed that a particular party was being targeted. Whether these incidents happened because of a false narrative or not, no one has the right to harass someone.

    Not making public figures a target of gun

    This year, we also saw how some of our public figures remain targeted. In the second half of the year, two unfortunate incidents took place. On October 23, senior anchorperson Arshad Sharif was shot dead near Nairobi, Kenya, by the local police. The local law enforcing authorities termed the killing, calling it a case of ‘mistaken identity’. However, some termed it an assassination. Till now, authorities are unable to find the real culprits. Almost a week later, on November 3, Imran Khan survived an assassination attempt on day seven of PTI’s ‘Haqeeqi Long March’ as his container moved through Punjab’s Wazirabad. Salman Taseer, Benazir Bhutto Shaheed, Shahbaz Bhatti; how many assassinations do we have to witness?

    No more constitutional crisis

    We saw legislators getting into a brawl in Punjab Assembly over the CM seat. The beginning of summer wasn’t good for Pakistan as in April a scuffle between treasury and opposition benches in Punjab Assembly took place, resulting in PML-Q leader and Punjab Assembly Speaker Pervaiz Elahi getting injured. The same day, PML-N’s nominee Hamza Shehbaz was elected as CM, however, later the Supreme Court struck down Deputy Speaker Dost Muhammad Mazari’s ruling on the election. Later, Pervaiz Elahi took over the CM seat, however, he doesn’t enjoy a great majority in the Assembly.

    Terrorism wave in Pakistan

    Just when we thought that terrorism has finally ended, attacks started escalating. Currently, the capital is on high alert because of extreme threats. In late November, Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) said that they had called off a ceasefire with the federal government and ordered its militants to stage terrorist attacks across the country. On December 23, a suicide bomb shocked the residents of Islamabad— which is considered one of the safest cities in Pakistan. After dealing with terrorism for decades, Pakistanis dont want to start living again in fear.