Current Final

Tag: Pakistan

  • Pakistani internet users may face more disruption

    Pakistani internet users may face more disruption

    Internet users in Pakistan are expected to face internet disruption in the coming days, reports Kalbe Ali for Dawn. The internet services in the country were disrupted due to flood relief work in Sindh.

    Minister of Information and Telecommunications Syed Aminul Haque said that initial reports of previous internet outages that happened this month indicated that the situation was severe and that more such incidents could be expected in the near future.

    “Due to extensive flooding, most of the pathways of underground cables have been submerged, as relief workers or locals were trying to divert flood water by digging trenches on roads and footpaths.”

    “The ministry has directed PTCL to declare an emergency so that repair work could be initiated when any such incident is reported in the system, while the PTA is constantly monitoring the quality of service,” the minister added.

    According to a technical report submitted on Wednesday by Pakistan Telecommunication Company Limited (PTCL) to the Ministry of Information Technology and Telecom, the repeated internet outages were caused primarily by flood relief efforts in the Sukkur division, where fibre-optic cables were damaged by the use of heavy machinery used to drain out flood water in Sindh.

    Read more- Here’s why the internet was down in Pakistan last night

    The internet services in Pakistan suffered two major disruptions this month on August 19 and August 22.

  • US refuses to comment on Imran Khan’s terrorism charges

    The United States (US) refused to comment on the terrorism case registered against Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan.

    “This is a matter for the Pakistani legal and judicial system”, said US State Department spokesperson Ned Price.

    “It is not directly a matter for the US and that’s because we don’t have a position on one political candidate or party versus any other political candidate or party.”

    Ned Price added that the US supports the “peaceful upholding of democratic, constitutional, and legal principles in Pakistan and around the world”.

    Read more: Rejected: White House says they have nothing to do with Khan’s allegation of a US-backed ‘foreign conspiracy’

    Imran Khan was booked under the Anti-Terrorism Act (ATA) after he threatened Additional District and Sessions Judge Zeba Chaudhry and senior officers of the Islamabad Police. However, the Islamabad High Court (IHC) granted transit bail to Khan till August 25.

    The IHC also issued a show-cause notice to the PTI chairman today (August 23) and summoned him on August 31 in a contempt of court case.

  • Twitterati praise Police, Rangers for saving blasphemy-accused from charged mob

    Twitterati praise Police, Rangers for saving blasphemy-accused from charged mob

    The Sindh Police and Rangers dispersed a mob that had gathered outside the home of a Hindu sanitary worker accused of alleged blasphemy on Sunday. The incident took place in Hyderabad, Sindh.

    People on social media are praising the role of the law enforcement agencies for saving the accused from the charged mob.

    Have a look at some reactions:
    https://twitter.com/alysalmaan/status/1561453107803979776
    https://twitter.com/Natsecjeff/status/1561386456739971073
    What happened?

    According to the police, a Hindu sanitary worker was targeted as a result of a personal dispute with a local resident. The accused man has been identified as Ashok Kumar, and he was charged with blasphemy under Section 295-B for allegedly desecrating the Quran.

    The case was registered on the complaint of Bilal, son of Bundo Khan Abbasi.

    After the news spread, a charged mob gathered around an apartment building and demanded that he should be handed over.

    Police then dispersed the violent mob.

  • Pak Army to assist Qatar with security for FIFA World Cup 2022

    The Pakistan Army will assist Qatar with security in the upcoming FIFA World Cup 2022. The federal cabinet approved a draft agreement that allows the government to provide troops for security at the FIFA World Cup in Qatar later this year.

    “The agreement aims to define the obligations of the two parties, the specific specialisations, and the number of security personnel to be sent by Pakistan to participate in the security and safety operations,” the summary presented to the cabinet read.

    Read more- Pakistan offers Qatar security for 2022 FIFA World Cup

    The government of Qatar had requested Pakistan’s assistance in the security of the FIFA World Cup. The event will be held from November 21 to December 18, 2022.

    Prime Minister (PM) Shehbaz Sharif is in Qatar on a two-day official visit at the request of Qatar’s Emir, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani.

  • Here’s why the internet was down in Pakistan last night

    Here’s why the internet was down in Pakistan last night

    The internet services in Pakistan suffered another disruption on Monday night. Services of almost all of the major Internet Service Providers (ISPs) were disrupted. Services were suspended in Rawalpindi, Islamabad and Lahore around 11:10pm and remained suspended until 1:20am.

    “A nation-scale internet disruption has been registered in Pakistan; the incident affects multiple providers including PTCL, Nayatel and StormFiber with real-time network data showing connectivity at 38% of an ordinary level,” NetBlocks said in a tweet.

    Why was the internet down?

    Sources in PTCL said the internet fibre cables suffered damage due to heavy rains in Sukkur areas. “They said rainwater had entered the PTCL exchange causing electricity to short-circuit. The company expects the repair work to be completed by Tuesday morning,” reports Dawn.

    This was the second major disruption of internet services in less than a week. Last week, internet services were affected on Friday (August 19).

  • Covid-19: Three deaths in Pakistan in last 24 hours

    Covid-19: Three deaths in Pakistan in last 24 hours

    According to the National Institute of Health (NIH), the Covid-19 positivity rate in Pakistan has reached 2.48 per cent and three people have lost their lives to the deadly virus in the last 24 hours.

    In addition, 416 cases of Covid-19 were reported in Pakistan on August 21. A total of 16,764 tests were conducted in the past 24 hours.

    According to the NIH data, 152 Covid-19 patients are in critical care.

    In March this year, the government announced the closure of the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC). The body was set up in March 2020 to deal with Covid-19.

  • Urdu, Punjabi among most spoken non-official languages in Canada

    Urdu, Punjabi among most spoken non-official languages in Canada

    Punjabi is the fourth and Urdu is the seventh most widely spoken language — predominantly spoken at home — in Canada according to new data released by Statistics Canada (StatCan), the country’s data agency. This is based on the 2021 census.

    Apart from English and French, Mandarin and Punjabi were Canada’s most widely spoken languages. About 4.6 million Canadians (12.7%) speak a language other than English or French predominantly at home. Mandarin and Punjabi are spoken predominantly at home by more than half a million Canadians each.

    More than a hundred thousand people each speak Yue (Cantonese), Spanish, Arabic, Tagalog, Persian languages, Urdu, Russian and Korean at home as per the 2021 census.

    According to the 2021 census, which was announced on August 18th, Urdu was at the seventh spot out of the top 12 non-official spoken languages in Canada.

    In 2021, 520,000 Canadians spoke Punjabi at home, and 530,000 spoke Mandarin at home. According to the census, 290,000 people speak Arabic while 160,000 speak Urdu at home.

    Meanwhile, conventional estimates indicate that the number of Pakistani-origin Canadians is a lot more than the official numbers. According to an official of the Pakistan High Commission in Ottawa, around 500,000 to 600,000 Pakistanis reside in Canada.

  • When Bollywood unofficially remade ‘Maula Jatt’ with Dharmendra and Shatrugan Sinha

    When Bollywood unofficially remade ‘Maula Jatt’ with Dharmendra and Shatrugan Sinha

    Blockbuster Lollywood film Muala Jatt starring Sultan Rahi and Mustafa Qureshi is a cult Punjabi language action-musical film directed by Younis Malik and produced by Sarwar Bhatti.

    This movie belongs to a genre which represents the rural culture of Pakistani central Punjab. Its success set the trend of action films being popular in Pakistan and cemented Sultan Rahi as Lollywood’s leading hero.

    Maula Jatt met with a ban not long after its release from the establishment of the time due to its violent content. However, the producer was able to acquire a stay order. The stay order not only gave the film a 2-and-a-half-year run time in cinemas but also helped the film make history as the first Punjabi film to have done so.

    Now its official remake is releasing across the country on October 13th starring the biggest superstars of the country such as Fawad Khan, Mahira Khan, Hamza Ali Abbasi and Humaima Malick among others.

    propakistani.pk/lens/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/Th...

    The film, which was initially announced in 2011, has seen many hurdles along the way. Be it the prolonged legal battle or a pandemic, The Legend of Maula Jatt kept getting delayed for one reason or the other. Now, fans and critics are hopeful that the film will finally see the light of the day and will release on the recently announced date, October 13 of this year.

    However not many know that Indian film industry a.k.a Bollywood also remade this cult classic in the 1980s. The Hindi film is Jeene Nahi Doonga, a 1984 Bollywood action film directed by Rajkumar Kohli and starring Raj Babbar, Dharmendra, Anita Raj. The movie is an unofficial remake of Maula Jatt. Dharmendra and Shatrughan Sinha’s characters are based on Sultan Rahi and Mustafa Qureshi’s most famous characters Maula Jatt and Noori Natt.

    Although its not a scene by scene replica but bears striking similarity in terms of plot, depiction and treatment.

    Indian filmmaker and actor Anurag Kashyap recently took to his Twitter handle to laud Fawad Khan, Mahira Khan and Hamza Ali Abbasi starrer, The Legend of Maula Jatt‘s trailer. “Finally the film I’ve loved so much and the film you really want to see, the trailer is out!” the Gangs of Wasseypur director tweeted along with the link to the trailer on YouTube.

  • Pak vs India on August 28: Shaheen Shah will not be part of Pakistan’s squad

    Pak vs India on August 28: Shaheen Shah will not be part of Pakistan’s squad

    Shaheen Shah Afridi has been ruled out of the Asia Cup, as well as the seven-match T20I series at home against England in September because of a knee injury.

    Pakistan will play against arch-rivals India in the Asia Cup in Dubai on August 28.

    “Shaheen Shah Afridi has been advised 4-6 weeks rest by the PCB Medical Advisory Committee and independent specialists following latest scans and reports. This means Shaheen has been ruled out of the ACC T20 Asia Cup and home series against England, but is expected to return to competitive cricket in October with the New Zealand T20I tri-series, which will be followed by the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup Australia 2022,” said Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) in a press release.

    “Shaheen had suffered a right knee ligament injury while fielding during the first Test against Sri Lanka in Galle.”
    “I have spoken with Shaheen and he is understandably upset with the news, but he is brave young man who has vowed to come back strongly to serve his country and team. Although he has made progress during his rehabilitation in Rotterdam, it is now clear he will require more time and is likely to return to competitive cricket in October,” said PCB Chief Medical Officer Dr Najeebullah Soomro.

    Shaheen’s replacement for the ICC T20 Asia Cup is yet to be announced.

  • New conditions for Pakistanis in Dubai after 80 deported for fake tickets, other reasons

    New conditions for Pakistanis in Dubai after 80 deported for fake tickets, other reasons

    The Pakistani consulate in Dubai has advised Islamabad that Pakistanis visiting Dubai should have a valid work visa, AED 5,000 and a return ticket with them when travelling to the United Arab Emirates (UAE).


    The development came after 80 Pakistanis were deported from the UAE for having fake return tickets and other reasons.


    The consular staff of Pakistan was informed that over 80 Pakistanis had been turned away by the UAE immigration authorities for various reasons. Forty Pakistanis were flown back to Pakistan on the same flight that brought them to Dubai, and the remaining half were sent back on alternate planes that were available.


    The consulate urged the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to inform Pakistani passengers seeking work in the UAE to obtain a valid work visa.