The Services and General Administration Department Punjab has issued a letter to government officers restricting them from expressing their personal opinions on social media and commenting on conventional as well as social media.
In view of the increasing trend of using social media among newly recruited government officers, the Punjab government has imposed a ban on Grade 17 officers, including assistant commissioners, on expressing their opinions on social media and media. The letter says that according to the civil services rules, giving statements in the media and social media based on one’s personal opinion is a violation of the rules.
The letter says, “The young officers of PAS/PMS in BS-17, posted against various slots in the field as well as in the Secretariat, are considered as the face of the Provincial Government. However, it has been observed with grave-concern that these officers often engage themselves with social media i.e. Websites, Facebook, Twitter, WhatsApp, Instagram, Microblogging, TikTok, YouTube etc, without taking into consideration of its fall out amongst public at large, especially using the social media in official capacity.”
It further states, “Often, the views/ comments/ conduct/ personal opinion of the officers, may either harm the national security; or offend public order, decency or morality; or amount to contempt of court or defamation or incitement to an offence; or propagate sectarian creeds and capable of embarrassing the government, which is tantamount to misconduct and inefficiency under the rules.”
It also warned that strict action will be taken against those violating the instructions.
Social media users criticised the Tiktok star for targeting the beliefs of a religious minority in Pakistan where non-Muslim communities have been subjected to attacks, pointing out that even in Islam, it is an insult to mock other religions and their practices.
Religious minorities in Pakistan have been subjected to verbal and physical attacks, including the recent Jaranwala riots where a Christian neighborhood was set on fire by a mob over blasphemy allegations.
In January, human rights experts at the United Nations called to attention the rise of forced conversions, abductions and marriages of women from minority communities, urging the government to put an end to such practices.
“We are deeply troubled to hear that girls as young as 13 are being kidnapped from their families, trafficked to locations far from their homes, made to marry men sometimes twice their age, and coerced to convert to Islam,” the experts said in a statement as reported by Al-Jazeera.
“Why can’t people just respect each other’s religion and live in peace? Disgusting behaviour!” a user wrote.
Why can’t people just respect each other’s religion and live in peace?
“Why do we Muslims feel entitled to belittle other religions? Imagine if a Hindu or a Christian had made a similar video in a mosque? How would we have felt? How is it fair to mock other religions? This is so disgusting I can’t even!
Why do we Muslims feel entitled to belittle other religions? Imagine if a Hindu or a Christian had made a similar video in a mosque? How would we have felt? How is it fair to mock other religions? This is so disgusting I can’t even! https://t.co/capR3Rvnky
“Do not abuse those whom they worship besides Allah” (6:109) But what would she know abt this verse or any other, what a vile woman, on every account. https://t.co/UIyX7WCdHQ
A 35-year-old Pakistani man Naeem Shahzad has gone viral on the internet for his marriage to 70-year-old Mary from Canada, after meeting her on Facebook. Their union was met with scrutiny by social media users, who criticised Naeem for being a “gold-digger” and marrying the older woman for a Canadian passport. But in an interview with Urdu Point, the couple has clarified that they married for love. Naeem revealed the two met in 2012, and after 2015 the two began talking about getting married, and finally they tied the knot in 2017.
Addressing comments that he’s a gold-digger, Naeem said he married Mary because after struggling with depression and other mental health issues, adding that he could open up to the woman who supported him in every way, after which he fell in love with her.
“I’m not a gold digger. You are in my house you can see we have nothing luxurious here,” Naeem clarified. “We have necessary things like a sofa set for when guests arrive. We brought our beds from our own homes. Let people say what they want to say.”
Naeem further explained he and Mary are not living a lavish lifestyle in Canada, where they survive on the pension the woman receives.
“The most important persons for me right now are my wife, my mother and my brother,” Naeem said, further elaborating that he was prepared before marriage to listen to criticism that he’s a gold digger, but doesn’t care anymore.
Naeem revealed his wife had come back to Pakistan after six years, and the couple plan on making their living through a Youtube channel ‘Beast Brother’s PK’. The couple will stay for six months in Pakistan and six months in Canada.
Watch their complete interview below:
This case of online romance leading to marriage follows the recent string of marriages between foreign women and Pakistani men. Recently, a woman from Sweden came to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) to marry 23 year old Ahmed, whom she met on Facebook.
A 41-year-old woman from Sweden has flown to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa to marry 23-year-old Ahmed whom she met online.
Tianarat and Ahmed wed in a simple ceremony in Charbagh with only their family present.
Ahmed Shah resides in Charbagh and is studying English Literature at a university, while Tianarat has embraced Islam after marrying him.
In recent months, a spate of foreign women have travelled to Pakistan to marry men whom they had formed connections with online. In July, several cases emerged of women from different countries who had met Pakistani men on social media, fallen in love and later arrived in the province to marry them while converting to Islam. Mexican national Rosa married 18-year-old Izaz Ali after becoming friends on Facebook, and converted to Islam after marrying him.
In Sindh, another online romance case emerged when a Filipino woman Mikona married a man from Larkana, Oshaq, whom she met on Facebook. Their ceremony took place on video call with friends and family members present.
A new trend known as ‘Barbie Botox’ has been unleashed on TikTok. Women are getting Trapezius Botox in order to elongate the neck and shrink the shoulders, so it makes the person resemble a Barbie doll. The hashtag #barbiebotox has over 9.4 million views on TikTok according to Forbes, while #traptox has over 22.5 million views, with clips of popular influencers and reality tv who have gotten the procedure.
TikTok influencer Malibutoast who has over 195 K followers, shared clips of herself after having the procedure done, with users worried in her comments about whether the trend would encourage more insecurities among women on social media.
‘Wake up guys new insecurity just dropped,” wrote one user.
“Damn now I have to add… trapezius to the list of things I need to fix about myself ” another wrote.
Isabelle Lux, another TikTok influencer who credits herself with coining the phrase ‘Botox Barbie’ detailed her own experience of getting the treatment with CNN:
“It came from the idea that you would look more like a Barbie when you get it done, which I don’t think is a bad thing. It elongates the neck, slims the shoulders and creates a very delicate physique when it’s done properly.”
Speaking to the news organisation about the growing backlash she was getting on the internet, including being called an ‘anti-feminist’, Lux defended her choice by pointing out that women shouldn’t be belittled for wanting to look a certain way.
“The desire to look a certain way has for centuries been seen as silly, a waste of time, waste of money and pointless, especially for women,” she told CNN. “But when a man wants to look a certain way, it’s scientific, it’s cool. I think that we need to stop belittling women for things that they’re interested in, including looking a certain way if they want to. It’s not silly. Like, it’s real.”
But many plastic surgeons are condemning the trend, explaining that the procedure was coined in order to help those with excessive neck pain, with a side effect of creating the illusion of a longer and slimmer neck. Speaking to PEOPLE magazine, New York City dermatologist Dr Amy Wechsler pointed out that Barbie’s features are unrealistic and these cosmetic procedures won’t make a noticeable effect on women.
“Someone years ago explained that if you take a Barbie doll and make it into an adult woman, the measurements are not really realistic. So I don’t love jumping on social media trends because they often don’t have any basis in science,” she explains. “I think that’s human nature to try to wanna copy a trend, but usually what happens — which is good — is that the trend will fizzle out if it’s not a good idea or if it’s not healthy.”
“The #BarbieBotox trend is more about slimming,” Wechsler adds. “If you relax those muscles it can make a big improvement in the feel and the look. But if someone doesn’t overuse that muscle, I don’t think it does that much.”
Speaking to CNN, Dr Parisha Acharya warned that incorrect administration of Botox could weaken the muscle completely, and then effect your ability to hold up your neck properly. She expressed concerns about the trend going viral on social media, especially when younger audiences are watching:
“I think a medical procedure should be treated as a medical procedure. And in the UK, (the aesthetics industry) is unregulated. So shockingly anyone can administer botulinum toxin injections. That could be a beautician or hairdresser with no clinical experience, no anatomy knowledge. It really does worry me.”
Dr Acharya also pointed out that the trend took the wrong message from the movie ‘Barbie’ which advocated for women to stop trying to mould themselves to appease the patriarchy, and start accepting their bodies as the way they are:
“It was very pro-feminism, and (women) were moving away from sexualizing our bodies and thinking of them as just objects,” she stressed. “I don’t like the fact that this trend is using Barbie to say we should have slim necks. We should embrace ourselves for who we are.”
After the highly anticipated cricket match between India and Pakistan on Saturday in Sri Lanka, a video went viral where a girl, allegedly a Pakistani, was seen saying that she was a huge fan of batting maestro Virat Kohli. When the video went viral, several Pakistani social media users slammed the as fake, saying that the girl’s accent was not typical of the country.
A Pakistan fan came for Virat Kohli said:
"I came only for Virat Kohli, I expected a century from him. My heart is broken". https://t.co/PTbfhuOT9d
The woman in question is indeed from Pakistan, and is fluent in Saraiki, the language of South Punjab. A user shared multiple videos where she could be speaking in both Saraiki and Urdu both.
Urban Pakistanis are so out of touch that they think only Khi, Lhr and Isb represent Pakistan and all accents belong to these cities. Here she is showing her green coloured ‘Indian’ passport and speaking fluent Saraiki. Also, she earns so much that she’ll buy you and your car. https://t.co/x9JzelmrkDpic.twitter.com/0v7C7SwwPK
Her official Tiktok account is Khaani, where she can be seen showing her Pakistani passport and has the same yellow nail polish as well as the flags of both India and Pakistan painted on her cheeks as in the viral video.
English film producer and screenwriter Jemima Khan has finally shut down rumors surrounding her fake social media accounts, clarifying that she is not on the social media platform TikTok.
The screenwriter of ‘What’s Love Got To Do With It’ has taken to her X account to share a picture of two fake Tiktok accounts, telling her followers that neither of them were hers.
The filmmaker released ‘What’s Love Got To Do With It’ in Febuary 2023, which starred Pakistani actress Sajal Aly along with Lilly James and veteran English actress Emma Thompson. The film received positive reviews from audiences and even won four awards at the National Film Awards including Best Screenplay, Best British Film, Best Director and Best Supporting Actor.
A TikTok video has been circulating across Twitter (now X) recorded by two male police officers of the Punjab police. The video shows female police officers in the middle of a meeting, being recorded without their knowledge. The video has been dubbed with a Bollywood song while the policemen give unprofessional expressions.
Perverts I’m no civilised country you are allowed to put your work videos or colleagues videos without their consent on social media. Here, they are even dubbed with songs implying dubious meanings. Punish them to uphold discipline please @OfficialDPRPP pic.twitter.com/p06wbtNpt7
When the video was criticized by Twitter users, the official page of Punjab Police responded, condemning the action and stating that an investigation against the two men is underway.
قابل اعتراض ویڈیو بنانے میں ملوث ان پولیس ملازمین کے خلاف محکمانہ کاروائی کا آغاز کردیا گیا ہے۔
British-Pakistani TikTok influencer Mahek Bukhari and her mother Ansreen have been declared guilty at a Leicister court for the murder of a man who died in a car crash.
The deceased, Saqib Hussain, had threatened to expose details of the long-running affair he had been having with Ansreen.
During the trial, the jurors were told that the social media influencer had set a trap for Hussain on the night he died, inviting him to their house, where they were going to give him the £3,000 he had spent during the relationship. When Hussain was driving to the house with his friend Hasim Ijazzuddin, they were ambushed and then chased by two cars.
The men driving those vehicles were Karwan, 29, and Jamal, 23. Both were cleared of murder charges but were convicted of manslaughter.
Ijazuddin’s car split into two pieces and caught on fire after colliding with a tree on Six Hills junction on the A46.
After the verdicts, Deputy Inspector Mark Parish of Leicestershire Police spoke to the press, calling this a “callous and cold blooded attack.”
“After setting Mr Hussain and Mr Ijazuddin up, chasing them at high speed and then ultimately ramming their car off the road, none of the defendants made any attempt to help the victims or to call for help.”
“Instead, they drove on and then even drove back past the collision site.”
In an unexpected twist, TikTok, the leading platform for short videos, is stepping up to compete with Meta’s Threads and X (previously known as Twitter) with its latest addition: text posts. This innovative new format breaks through conventional boundaries, offering TikTok’s dynamic community an exciting new medium to flaunt their stories, poems, recipes, and a treasure trove of written content.
TikTok has always been at the forefront of nurturing creativity in all its forms. With a diverse array of content formats, such as videos, photos, Duets, and Stitch, the introduction of text posts adds yet another dimension to the content options, enabling creators to effortlessly share their written brilliance and captivate audiences.
Creating and sharing text-based content on TikTok has never been simpler. Users now have the option of three choices on the Camera page: photo, video, and text. Opting for text opens the text creation page, providing creators with a user-friendly interface to pen their thoughts and ideas.
Once on the Post page, users will find a suite of familiar customization options, ensuring that their text posts are just as dynamic and engaging as any video or photo. TikTok continues to stand out from the crowd by enabling sound addition, tagging locations, enabling comments, and inviting duets, all contributing to an immersive experience for users.
The introduction of text posts comes with exciting features that aim to amplify creativity and captivate audiences like never before. One such feature is the collection of expressive stickers that complement the content and add an extra dash of personality to text posts, giving creators even more tools to make their posts stand out.
As the platform evolves and adapts to the needs of its community, TikTok’s commitment to empowering creators remains steadfast. The addition of text posts demonstrates TikTok’s dedication to providing innovative tools that inspire self-expression and ensure that the TikTok experience continues to be engaging and exciting for users worldwide.
Creators and TikTok enthusiasts alike are eagerly anticipating the release of text posts, ready to explore this new frontier of content creation and see how it sparks creativity within the community. With the power of written words combined with TikTok’s dynamic features, the possibilities for expression are limitless.
