Author: newsdesk

  • ‘Full of lies’: Lahore School says assault video has been misinterpreted

    ‘Full of lies’: Lahore School says assault video has been misinterpreted

    Scarsdale, the private Lahore school at the center of the viral video case in which students assaulted a girl, has issued a statement saying that the incident has been misinterpreted on social media.

    “At the end of the school day on January 16, 2023 a quarrel took place between five students. Though this is not being represented in the media, the incident was broken up immediately by two separate faculty members. In response to the incident, we have appointed a committee of three senior faculty and administration members and tasked them with conducting a complete inquiry. The inquiry committee has taken several steps and its findings will be used in a decision by the school’s administrators,” read the press release.

    “As an institution, we strongly and unequivocally condemn this incident and will take strict action, in line with the school’s disciplinary policies after our internal inquiry is complete. As the careers of students are at stake, we will ensure that all decisions are just, fair and transparent,” it added.
    “At Scarsdale, our school culture is our highest priority and we uphold our core values of honour, respect, compassion and responsibility in everything we do. Over the last few days, we have been in constant communication with concerned parents, students and faculty members and all have expressed their overwhelming support and trust in the school.”

    “We want to use this opportunity to state that this incident has been misrepresented in social media and the rhetoric around this incident is full of lies and contrary to the facts stated above,” read the press release.
    “We have been delivering the highest quality education to our students for over three decades and are an integral part of the local community,” it added.

  • Khan’s police security at Bani Gala withdrawn

    Khan’s police security at Bani Gala withdrawn

    The Islamabad Police Friday withdrew security from Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf Chairman Imran Khan’s residence in Bani Gala, reports Geo News.

    “Bani Gala is the former prime minister’s private residence. He has not been staying in Islamabad for the past several months,” a spokesperson for the capital’s police said, explaining why the security withdrawal with Geo News.

    According to media reports, one Deputy Superintendent of Police and 170 police personnel were deployed at Khan’s Islamabad home. 50 Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) policemen have also left Khan’s Bani Gala house. The security personnel perform their duties in different shifts at Khan’s residence.

    The Punjab Home Department has also written to the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government to withdraw KP Police from the former prime minister’s home in Lahore’s Zaman Park.

  • ‘He cannot make accusations every time his wife has a dream’: Bilawal roars at Khan for accusations on his father

    ‘He cannot make accusations every time his wife has a dream’: Bilawal roars at Khan for accusations on his father

    Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Chairperson Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari took Imran Khan, Chairman of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), to task for the allegations he made against Asif Ali Zardari.

    Tweeting from his official account, the foreign minister minced no words while responding to Imran Khan’s statement that former President Asif Ali Zardari was plotting to assassinate him.

    Bilawal wrote that after terrorist outfits called him and his party out by name in direct threats, Imran Khan has now made false accusations against his father.

    “These statements increase threats to my father, my family and my party. We take them seriously given our history,” tweeted Bilawal, whose mother, former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, was killed in a terrorist attack in 2007.

    “We are exploring legal responses to Imran latest defamatory and dangerous accusations. In the past he threatened my father that he was ‘in the crosshairs of his gun’. His and his associates history as both sympathisers and facilitators of terrorists are well documented”, said Bilawal.

    “Imran must realize every time his wife has a dream he cannot just come on tv and make accusations about people. Her dreams won’t stand up in court,” said Bilawal taking a jibe at the former First Lady, Bushra Bibi.

    “His latest accusation that my family has any association to a terrorist organization or that we would employ them to cause him harm not only defies logic but exposes us all to an increased threat.”

    Stating that PPP will challenge Imran, Bilawal said that populist fiction cannot be allowed to dominate our discourse, poison our politics and damage our democracy. “We will not tolerate being victims of terrorist and put up with propaganda from their political front men.”

    Prime Minister (PM) Shehbaz Sharif tweeted, “Imran Niazi’s baseless & dangerous allegations against former President Asif Ali Zardari are not only irresponsible but also conform to a pattern of conspiracy theories meant to spread venom against his political opponents.”

    “Such nonsensical rhetoric is an attempt to remain politically relevant. The whole nation knows how he has used politics of hatred to divide the society for the sake of power.”

    Adviser to the Prime Minister, Qamar Zaman Kaira, also responded to Imran Khan’s accusations, stating that PPP will not let Imran Khan off the hook for alleging that former Asif Ali Zardari plotted to kill him.

    Imran Khan had alleged on Friday in a televised speech that PPP Co-Chairman Zardari was plotting and financing an assassination attempt for which the ex-president had hired terrorists.

    Kaira, a PPP stalwart, rejected the allegations as “atrocious”. He said that the allegations had gone beyond lies, promising that PPP won’t spare Imran Khan.

    “A former prime minister talks about his alleged assassination plan. The court should order an investigation. If his allegations are genuine, then those responsible should be brought to the book. If the allegations are proven untrue, Imran should be punished,” said Kaira while speaking on Geo News programme Aaj Shahzeb Khanzada kay Sath.

    PPP leader Kasim Gillani also spoke up tweeting, “The absolutely vile, slanderous and defamatory allegations by Imran Khan against President Asif Zardari will be responded to robustly and legally.”

    Khan had claimed that four people orchestrated a plan “behind closed doors” to assassinate him.

    “I got to know about it and then I recorded a video explaining the attack. In a public rally, I announced that I would release the video if something happened to me. They stepped back after this,” said Khan.

    Without naming anyone again, Khan said that another plan was made to have me killed by a religious extremist — hinting towards the November 3, 2022, Wazirabad attack, where he was shot in the legs and is still recovering from the injuries.

    “Now, there’s a Plan C. Asif Zardari is behind it. He has amassed a lot of money through corruption, invested that money with terrorists and hired a militant organisation.”

  • South Asian women most vulnerable to human trafficking: UN

    South Asian women most vulnerable to human trafficking: UN

    According to a recent UN report, women continue to make up the majority of trafficking victims in South Asia.

    However, compared to other years, more men were identified as trafficking victims in the area in 2020, according to the UN Office of Drugs and Crime study (UNODC).
    Even while pandemics and catastrophes made populations more vulnerable to trafficking, the “Global Report on Trafficking in Persons 2022” also revealed a drop in the crime.
    In 2020, there were 11% fewer victims worldwide than there were in 2019.

    Over the same time period, the number of convictions for trafficking offences decreased by 27 percent as well, strengthening the downward trend that UNODC has been tracking since 2017.
    South Asia (by 56%), Central America and the Caribbean (by 54%), and South America all had declines (46pc).

    The report also stated that both men and women were trafficked in South Asia for the purposes of forced labour, sexual exploitation, and to a lesser extent, forced marriage.

  • Are Tere Bin’s scenes copied from Barun Sobti-Sanaya Irani’s blockbuster ‘IPKKND’?

    Are Tere Bin’s scenes copied from Barun Sobti-Sanaya Irani’s blockbuster ‘IPKKND’?

    Geo Entertainment’s drama serial Tere Bin starring Yumna Zaidi and Wahaj Ali is currently leading the rating charts.

    Some transnational viewers of this drama have now discovered that many moments in Tere Bin are an exact replica of those in the popular Indian drama Iss Pyar Ko Kya Naam Doon starring the hit pair of Barun Sobti and Sanaya Irani.

    What the netizens has to say about the two shows’ striking resemblance is as follows:

  • Transgender person allegedly forced to dance in exchange for ration

    Transgender person allegedly forced to dance in exchange for ration

    In Gujranwala, a video of government workers making a transgender person dance in exchange for ration has gone viral, Geo has reported.

    After the video surfaced on social media, the Deputy Commissioner ordered an investigation into the matter.

    The transgender has claimed that government workers had made him dance in exchange for rations.

    However, government officials have rejected the claim saying that the video was old. They further claimed that volunteer workers had made the transgender person dance.

  • SRK’s response to the haters? Never stop moving forward

    SRK’s response to the haters? Never stop moving forward

    Only two days after Shahrukh Khan’s Pathaan was released in cinemas across India, the film has broken all records to become one of the biggest box office hits by making INR 231 crore worldwide.
    Fans and movie critics are calling it the perfect comeback for the King of Bollywood. After facing months of scrutiny and backlash such as the arrest of his son Aryan Khan in October 2021, after which the charges were dropped due to no evidence. The film’s release became a target for BJP politicians and religious clerics, who used the song ‘Besharam Rang’ as their rallying cry to boycott the film. A seer from Ayodhya even went on to threaten to burn Shah Rukh Khan alive were the film to release in cinemas. BJP activists referred to the scene where actress Deepika Padukone is wearing a saffron-colored bikini, and claimed that the scene was anti-Hindu after which they called for a boycott over the film.
    However, these threats and bribes as an attempt to dismantle King Khan proved to be unsuccessful because three days later, theaters continue to be jam packed with thousands of devoted fans coming back for multiple screenings of ‘Pathaan’, and gushing about the brilliance of the film. Reports are arriving that unusual show timings like midnight or even 6 am in the morning have been added due to the popularity of the film.
    With all this praise, Shah Rukh Khan reached out to his fans on Twitter to give them an important lesson to remember that even surrounded with hurdles and endless criticism, we must never stop moving forward.

    With all this praise, Shah Rukh Khan reached out to his fans on Twitter to give them an important lesson to remember that even surrounded with hurdles and endless criticism, we must never stop moving forward.

    “Gattaca movie ‘I never saved anything for the swim back’ I think life is a bit like that….You aren’t meant to plan your return…U r meant to move forward. Don’t come back…try to finish what u started. Just a 57yr olds’ advice things.”

    Fans of Shah Rukh Khan were deeply moved by this advice.

    “Stars and celebs don’t need me rooting for them, but I totally love this gentleman, the kind of grace and courage he showed, as a father, when he and his family were bullied and judged and punished, I really want him to win! Go, Shah Rukh Khan!” one user wrote.

    “Timely advice for many of us who feel stuck, or are living our own versions groundhog day’esque monotony,” another user wrote.

  • India and Pakistan were close to nuclear war, claims former US Secretary of State

    India and Pakistan were close to nuclear war, claims former US Secretary of State

    Former United States (US) Secretary of State Mike Pompeo revealed on Tuesday in his new memoir that arch rivals— India and Pakistan— were on the verge of nuclear war in February 2019.

    Pompeo, who served in President Donald Trump’s tenure, has written in ‘Never Give an Inch: Fighting for America I Love’ that he does “not think the world properly knows just how close the India-Pakistan rivalry came to spilling over into a nuclear conflagration in February 2019.”

    He says at the time, he was informed by his Indian counter-partner that Pakistan had begun to prepare for a nuclear strike on India. However, he asked him to give it some time to sort out the matter. Later, he reached out to Pakistani former Chief of Army Staff (COAS) Qamar Javed Bajwa.

    The ex-army chief told Pompeo that Indian allegations were baseless. He believed the Indians were preparing their nuclear weapons for deployment.

    Moreover, the former US official said that it took them a few hours and remarkably good work by their teams on the ground in New Delhi and Islamabad to convince both countries to desist.

    In February 2019, Delhi launched strikes to attack Pakistan after a militant attack on Indian troops in Kashmir. However, Pakistan shot down two Indian military jets and captured a fighter pilot who later was released.

    In 1974, India became the first country in the region to become a nuclear power while Pakistan attained nuclear power in 1998.

    It is pertinent to mention that neither India nor Pakistan has commented so far on Pompeo’s claims.

  • ‘Distasteful and factually incorrect’: Adnan Siddiqui lashes out at Sidharth Malhotra’s ‘Mission Majnu’

    ‘Distasteful and factually incorrect’: Adnan Siddiqui lashes out at Sidharth Malhotra’s ‘Mission Majnu’

    Actor Adnan Siddiqui has commented about Bollywood’s misrepresentation of Pakistanis in their films. The recent Bollywood movie Mission Majnu became a trolling affair as the film stereotyped Pakistanis.

    While many rightly called out the makers of the propaganda film on Twitter, Siddiqui took to Instagram and shared his two cents on the matter. “How much misrepresentation is too much misrepresentation?” he asked his followers on Instagram.

    Adding on, the actor, who starred in Bollywood offering Mom, alongside late superstar Sridevi and Sajal Ali, commented, “I mean come on, with all the money you have, hire some good researchers to do homework on us. Or allow me to help. Make sure to take notes—no, we don’t wear skull caps, surma, tawiz; no, we don’t ask janab about their mijaz; no, we don’t go around throwing adaab.”

    Siddiqui went on to comment, “There’s so much in Mission Majnu that’s distasteful and factually incorrect. The hero’s saviour complex would’ve been accentuated more if the villain was shown at par. A weak antagonist embellishes an even weaker protagonist.”

    He concluded, “Poor story, poorer execution, poorest research. Next time, come and visit us. We are good hosts. Will show you how we look like, dress up and live.”

    Malhotra previously addressed stereotyping of Pakistanis and India’s knack for making films on this side of the border. When asked if his character in the film helps perpetuate stereotypes of Pakistanis in Hindi films, the actor told Film Companion, “We have consciously made an effort in the writing that it is never to take on a particular community. I recently did a film called Shershaah, which is based on India and Pakistan, and the battle that we had, which was documented.”

    He added, “Once you see the film, consciously we never really concentrated, barring maybe four scenes on the other side (Pakistan), it was purely about this side (India) and this man’s journey, (Army captain) captain Vikram Batra sacrificing his life… So there is the same conscious effort (with Mission Majnu), and there is no personal animosity with anyone, these are just documented historical points, which we will never get complete facts of, so for that, you need to establish possibly certain characters in an x amount of time.”

    The actor further responded about certain scenes in the trailer and added, “And the shots they are referring to (from the trailer) are meant to be tongue-in-cheek in the film. So, I think it will be a fair dialogue once everyone sees the film… it is never about a community or taking a dig, which digresses from the film… a religion or a community is never an issue in the film.”

    Sidharth Malhotra's Mission Majnu slammed by pakistani actor

    There has been a steady rise in Bollywood film productions which often overtly or covertly portray an anti-Pakistan sentiment. Malhotra’s Mission Majnu isn’t Bollywood’s first attempt at wrongly depicting Pakistan and history. His Student of the Year co-star, Alia Bhatt, too, essayed a spy in the 2018 film, Raazi. One such film released in 2021, Bhuj: The Pride of India, which stars Ajay Devgan in the lead role, ironically features a rendition of Madam Noor Jehan’s iconic song Zaalima CocaCola.

    Films portraying an anti-Pakistan narrative gained traction after the Uri attacks in 2016. Uri: The Surgical Strike, starring Vicky Kaushal was one of the first military-inspired films showing Pakistan in a negative light. While Akshay Kumar’s spy thriller Bell Bottom, inspired by the hijackings of Indian Airline flights in the 80s, was banned from screening in KSA, Kuwait and Qatar. The countries in question deemed the film to be unfit for exhibition.

  • Video: Sania Mirza bids emotional farewell to tennis

    Video: Sania Mirza bids emotional farewell to tennis

    India’s greatest-ever woman tennis player Sania Mirza on Friday bid farewell to grand-slams. The 36-year-old Mirza, India’s most prominent female player, returned to Melbourne Park for one last hurrah and made it all the way to the decider on Friday.

    Mirza was in tears during the post-match presentation ceremony.

    Sania begun her speech with tears in her eyes, “If I cry, these are happy tears. I don’t want to take away the moment from Matos-Stefani who deserved this. I’m still going to play a couple more tournaments but my career started in Melbourne in 2005 when I played Serena as an 18-year-old. I have had the privilege of coming back here again and again and winning tournaments here and playing some great finals here. Rod Laver Arena has been a really special life. I couldn’t think of a better arena to finish my last Grand Slam.” She also thanked Rohan Bopanna for playing by her side.