Caretaker Prime Minister Anwaar-ul-Haq Kakar has said that trade between Pakistan and India is not possible without solving the Kashmir issue, adding that Pakistan would act as a “willing partner” in case India initiates resolution of the Kashmir dispute.
Relations between India and Pakistan have become tense since the Dehli administration divided Kashmir into two federally administered territories in August 2019, ending the special status the occupied region enjoyed.
The Himalayan region, where Muslims are in the majority, has been a cause of conflict between Pakistan and India since the liberation of both countries from British rule. Both neighbouring countries rule parts of the Himalayan territory, fighting two wars to occupy the whole region.
Anwaar-ul-Haq Kakar said while talking to Geo’s Saleem Safi that under the current situation, trade is not possible between Delhi and Islamabad.
“Kashmir is at the core, but when we say Kashmir is at the core, it does not mean that we want to keep fighting with India all the time,” the Pakistan prime minister said.
Spanish actor Gabriel Guevara has been arrested at the Venice Film Festival on an international arrest warrant accusing him of sexual assault in France, as reported by Hollywood Reporter. The actor was set to receive the best young actor honor award given out by Filming Italy. After his arrest, the organisation released a statement saying they had cancelled the award as a precautionary measure, and were waiting for the outcome of the case.
The Venice Film Festival posted a statement on their official account to address the arrest:
“#BiennaleCinema2023#Venezia80#LaBiennaleDiVenezia would like to specify that the presence in #Venice of Spanish actor #GabrielGuevara, that some press websites have recently reported as being under arrest, was not linked to any activity or production of the 80th Venice International Film Festival.”
Guevara sky rocketed to international fame after the Amazon Prime movie ‘Culpa Mia’ where he played the rebellious step brother, Nick, who clashes with his step sister Noah (played by Nicole Wallace) after she moves to their mansion after their parents re-marry. The two originally start off as enemies, but soon come to realise their feelings for each other can’t be ignored.
Nominations for the 22nd Lux Style Awards were announced on 3rd September, with industry members being quick to notice one notable omission. ‘The Legend of Maula Jatt’, the biggest hit of the year, was not nominated among the films. Surprising considering that the movie received critical acclaim for its writing, acting, action sequences and made $13.8 million worldwide.
Journalist Hassan Kazmi has uncovered the reason now, by releasing a statement from film producer Ammara Hikmat, who stated:
“While we are honoured that Lux considered our film for their nominations, we find that their limited range of film categories doesn’t align with our values. The absence of categories for best director or writer, etc, disregarding their major and substantial creative contributions, while including one for best playback song doesn’t resonate with our vision for comprehensive film recognition. Therefore, we’ve decided not to make an exception in this case.”
Kazmi further tweeted that the team behind ‘TLOMJ’ had stepped back so to give other films a proper chance:
“The Legend of Maula Jatt is not even up for votes in #LSA2023 I have learnt that the makers have #TLOMJ have regretted as it was the biggest film, so the makers have decided to give others a chance. I have learnt from the sources that The Legend of Maula Jatt will be acknowledged at the main event in October this year.”
#LuxStyleAwards The Legend of Maula Jatt is not even up for votes in #LSA2023 I have learnt that the makers have #TLOMJ have regretted as it was the biggest film, so the makers have decided to give others a chance. I have learnt from the sources that The Legend of Maula Jatt will… pic.twitter.com/mnU9OiJF0L
While Maula Jatt is out of the running, once more male actors charged with abuse have been nominated for the Lux Style Awards. Feroze Khan, who was publicly accused by his ex-wife Syeda Aliza of domestic violence and torture, was nominated twice for best male actor in dramas, and also for his performance in ‘Tich Button’.
While Mohsin Abbas Haider, who was publicly accused by his wife of domestic abuse, and then found guilty by a Lahore court in 2019, was nominated for his performance in the drama ‘Siyani’.
Bollywood actress Urvashi Rautela knows that a crush on Pakistani cricketer Naseem Shah isn’t just a phase, but an everlong commitment. The actress shared a post on her Instagram stories about the exhilarating Asia Cup 2023 match between Pakistan and India yesterday, and guess who was in the picture? None other than Naseem Shah.
There have been rumors about Naseem and the ex beauty pageant winner having a thing for each other. The actress once shared a clip on her Instagram stories of two merged clips showing herself and the 19-year-old cricket player.
Then speculation was rife once more when Urvashi wished Naseem happy birthday underneath an Instagram post where he was sending good wishes to Shadab Khan for his wedding.
However in April Naseem let people know that no such relationship existed, when the rising cricket star was asked about the viral edited video showing him proposing to the Indian model, Naseem had refuted rumors saying he didn’t know the actress.
The district administration of Peshawar has issued orders to detain 11 activists of the Pashtun Tahaffuz Movement (PTM) under Section 3 of the Maintenance of Public Order (MPO), on allegations of provoking the public against the government’s policies and the armed forces of the country.
According to the detention order, SSP operations wrote a letter to the deputy commissioner stating that the Gulberg police station SHO provided a list of the PTM activists who provoked the public against the Pakistan Army and other institutions of Pakistan.
The latter, issued by the SSP operations, informed the district administration that the individuals on the list pose a risk to the stability and peace of the country. They violated the writ of the government and the law and order situation in the area.
“The activities of the said individuals are against the law, and there is apprehension that they may continue their activities in the future,” the detention orders issued by the deputy commissioner said, adding that the administration considered the activities prejudicial to public safety and might create a law and order situation in the district.
Kuch behtar nahi hai apni zindagi mein karne kay liye than to think that a happy pregnant woman is doing something wrong with her life?
Pakistanis are used to watching unhappy women both on screens and in their lives. When they watch a woman celebrating a pregnancy or being happy in her marriage, they see it as a sign that she needs to be reminded of how miserable life actually is.
When actress Mariam Ansari shared pictures of her pregnancy shoot announcing the birth of her daughter, several commentators were overjoyed and congratulated the couple. Then there were those who thought qayamat has started early because a woman shared her baby bump on the internet.
There were A LOT of absurd comments shaming the actress for sharing pictures of her baby bump, a normal thing every woman goes through. Like this one cynic wrote:
“Allah ko kia muh Deko ge behn Kuch cheze prde mei ache lgte he tm log ku apna Deen khrb kr rhe ho behaye phla rhe ho kuch shrm kro Allah se dro.”
Pregnancy is a natural, beautiful thing that happens to every woman, baji. Wo kya gunah kar rahi hai kay wo isko chupa kar rakhay?
Mariam eventually responded with a video where she slammed the haters in a video, expressing her frustration at the unnecessary hate piled on to her for simply sharing pictures of her baby bump:
“Oh my god, the amount of hate I have received on my pregnancy pictures just shows…what do I even say? What do I say?”
“It’s my profile; my choice. I’ve even had my child. It’s my choice whatever I post. If you don’t like it, you shouldn’t follow me. I don’t understand, since when is being pregnant some sort of badtameezi or behayai. You too were born just like this, so what?”
The actress also pointed out how hypocrtical Pakistani society was:
“You’ll watch Katrina Kaif dance, you’ll ‘like’ Nora’s pictures. But if a Pakistani actress who is fully dressed reveals her pregnancy, then, ‘oh my god, Astaghfirullah.’ I mean, if you were really all that great and you saw someone was pregnant, you’d congratulate them; you’d send prayers their way.”
Sending our prayers and congratulations to Mariam and her husband for their bundle of joy, and honestly we hope Pakistani society could learn some manners and stop poking their hypocritical noses into anyone’s business.
Human rights activist and lawyer Imaan Mazari has been granted bail on Saturday by an Islamabad anti-terrorism court in a new terrorism case.
The bail has been granted three days after she was handed over to the Islamabad Police on physical remand in connection with a criminal complaint brought against her at the Barakahu police station in the federal capital.
The decision was made by ATC Judge Abual Hasnat Zulqarnain, who granted bail to the arrested attorney with a Rs 10,000 surety bond.
Imaan and Pashtun Tahafuz Movement (PTM) leader Ali Wazir’s bails in a sedition case relating to contentious statement against state institutions were quickly allowed by an ATC judge. Imaan was then detained in a new terror case from outside the Adiala jail in Rawalpindi.
Famed Indian director Zoya Akhtar is set to release her Netflix film ‘The Archies’ on December 7 on the streaming giant. The film stars babies from all the royal acting families of Bollywood: Suhana Khan, Khushi Kapoor, Vedang Raina, Agastya Nanda, Mihir Ahuja, Aditi Saigal and Yuvraj Menda. In an interview with Vogue, the ‘Made In Heaven’ creator opened up about how she prepped all the newcomers for the film and how they became close friends with one another.
Speaking to Vogue, Akhtar said she set up an intense boot camp, and made the actors go through acting workshops, dance training and everything else.
“I wanted them to be comfortable from the get-go. There are 200 people on set, there’s a camera in your face and you have to go up and perform when the word ‘action’ is said. It’s daunting.”
She added, “I wanted them to be over all of that by the time they came to set, so it was very important for them to get along with one another. There was this big boot camp where they had dance classes, acting workshops and cinematography training.”
Zoya also revealed she was happy the actors became close friends with each other, and hoped they championed each other through the course of their careers:
“I hope they champion each other throughout the course of their respective careers because they’ve been so good – they’ve been good for each other and they’ve been good with each other.”
When the trailer was released on social media platforms, many criticised how all the actors came from acting families, and the fact that all the characters were fair skinned and didn’t look Indian. Speaking to Mid-Day at TUDUM, Zoya addressed the backlash saying:
“Why do you think that? They’re all Indian. This is kind of reverse (racism). Are you saying fair Indians are not Indians? How do we define what an Indian looks like? It could be Hrithik Roshan, it could be Mr. Rajinikanth, it could be Diljit Dosanjh, it could be Mary Kom. That’s the beauty of India. There are a lot of Indians that are light-skinned.”
Imran Khan, the chairman of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), has retained the services of British attorney Geoffrey Robertson KC to represent him in international courts. The announcement has been made at a time when the former prime minister, who was removed from power in April of last year after a vote of no confidence, is still detained in the Attock District jail after being found guilty on August 5 in the Toshakhana case.
The PTI leader was found guilty for failing to disclose state gifts he received while in government; as a result, he received a three-year prison sentence and a Rs. 100,000 fine, excluding him from running in future elections.
The news regarding the UK attorney was made public by PTI on Friday via a post on its official X (formerly Twitter) account, announcing its decision to hire the renowned lawyer, who has previously worked with high-profile people including Salman Rushdie and WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange. “PTI Chairman, Former Prime Minister @ImranKhanPTI has appointed the eminent Human Rights Barrister Geoffrey Robertson KC of @DoughtyStreet Chambers to advise and represent him in international courts in relation to unlawful detention and human rights abuses,” the post on X read.
Just like a desi susral, the Royal Family had to step in to look over some aspects of Meghan’s professional life.
According to the show creator Aaron Kosh, the royal family weighed in on some of the dialogues in the show and even omitted one.
“Not many things, by the way, but a few things that we wanted to do and couldn’t do, and it was a little irritating”, recalled Kosh.
The particular word that was scrubbed from the show was ‘poppy cock’ and the reason is astounding:
“My wife’s family, when they have a topic to discuss that might be sensitive, they use the word, ‘poppycock,’” Aaron explained. “Let’s say you wanted to do something that you knew your husband didn’t want to do, but you wanted to at least discuss it, and in just discussing it, you wouldn’t hold him to anything he said, you’d be like, ‘It’s poppycock.’ So, in the episode, Mike and Rachel were going to have a thing, and as a nod to my in-laws, we were going to have her say, ‘My family would say poppycock.’”
But Aaron explained the Royal Family didn’t want the future Duchess Of Sussex to say this, in fear of someone editing the clip and using the term ‘cock’ so they completely removed it.
“They didn’t want to put the word ‘poppycock’ in her mouth. I presume because they didn’t want people cutting things together of her saying ‘cock.’ So, we had to change it to ‘b*‘ instead of ‘poppycock,’ and I did not like it because I’d told my in-laws that [poppycock] was going to be in the show. There was maybe one or two more things, but I can’t remember.”
But here’s the shocking part: Aaron was not the one who gave his scripts to the Royals, and he doesn’t know who did either.
“I was aware that they were reading them because I got the feedback, but I don’t remember the process by which they got them.”
