Author: newsdesk

  • Muhammad Rizwan moves up, leaving KL Rahul behind in ICC men’s T20I rankings

    Muhammad Rizwan moves up, leaving KL Rahul behind in ICC men’s T20I rankings

    Pakistan’s wicket keeper-batter Mohammad Rizwan’s outstanding performance in the three-match series against Bangladesh has lifted him another place to 4th position in the ICC Men’s T20I Rankings.

    The opener has left Indian cricketer KL Rahul behind, who is now standing at number 5th position.

    Pakistan’s captain and star player Babar Azam retained the top position in the list and still stands the best batsman in the world in 20-overs cricket format with 809 points followed by Englands’s Dawid Malan and Proteas player Aiden Markram.

    Fakhar Zaman also moves up from 40th to 35th while, pacer Hassan Ali has advanced 16 spots to Number 44 and Shadab Khan has climbed two spots to Number 14.

    Earlier, Babar Azam and Rizwan surpassed India’s Rohit Sharma and Shikhar Dhawan to become the duo with the most century partnerships in T20I cricket.

  • US President Biden invites Pakistan for virtual summit on democracy, leaves China and Turkey out

    United States (US) President Joe Biden has invited 110 countries, including Pakistan, for a virtual summit on democracy. The summit is expected to take place on December 9 and 10.

    According to a list posted on the US State Department website, America’s top rival China and North Atlantic Treaty Organization’s (NATO) ally Turkey are missing from the list.

    Surprisingly, US traditional Arab allies Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) are also not invited. From the Middle East region, only Israel and Iraq are excepted to join other countries for the meeting.

    The conference was a campaign pledge by Biden, who has placed the struggle between democracies and “autocratic governments” at the heart of his foreign policy, reports Dawn. However, the second edition of this meeting will take place in person next year.

    While announcing the summit in August, the White House said the meeting would “galvanise commitments and initiatives across three principal themes: defending against authoritarianism, fighting corruption, and promoting respect for human rights”.

  • Shaukat Tarin denies what he said on national television

    Shaukat Tarin denies what he said on national television

    Advisor to the Prime Minister on Finance Shaukat Tarin admitted to the present gas crisis in the country on Samaa News. However, a day later, Tarin denied his own words and issued a clarification.

    After the show was aired and various news media outlets covered the story,  Energy Minister Hammad Azhar took to Twitter and blamed Geo for manipulating Tarin’s words.

    Hammad tweeted, “What Tarin actually said: -intl prices high due to global shortage. -Noone can predict intl price. – some time ago (July) they had refused a tender (July) but that was for a limited time & wouldn’t have changed things now.”

    “Geo: Gas crises due to not purchasing LNG on time, Fin Min,” added Hammad.

    Shaukat Tarin, after admitting to the gas crisis, took to Twitter and shared his clarification.

    https://twitter.com/shaukat_tarin/status/1463427014711468036

    “News item published in Daily The News titled ‘Govt couldn’t purchase gas Cargoes in time, admits Tarin’ is completely misleading & out of the context,” read the statement.

    “When anchor (Nadeem Malik) asked about the gas shortfall situation in the country, he stated the reasons including the ongoing global LNG shortages which have created fiasco, and it was not in control of anybody.”

    “Government has been buying the gas as required, despite higher international prices. However, he has mentioned there was one tender scrapped in July, but this has nothing to do with winter gas. The Adviser Finance has not mentioned at any point that winter gas shortfalls are due to non-procurement of LNG on time.”

    On November 23, Shaukat Tarin appeared on Samaa News’ programme, ‘Nadeem Malik Live’, and said the very words being denied now.

    “We [government] should have bought the gas cargoes on time as the purchasing time for it was over,” said Tarin.

    Tarin further said nobody knew about the international prices, which he stated were quite high, and that the government should have bought some cargoes earlier.

  • ‘Shameful, shut down’: Celebs slam Karachi zoo after viral video circulates

    ‘Shameful, shut down’: Celebs slam Karachi zoo after viral video circulates

    Celebrities including Ahsan Khan, Shaneira Akram, Areeba Habib, Ahmed Ali Butt and Anoushey Ashraf have spoken up against the trivialising treatment of animals in Karachi Zoo.

    Due to a lack of payment from the Karachi Municipal Corporation (KMC), a contractor in charge of providing food to animals at the Karachi Zoo has halted all deliveries to Karachi Zoo.

    Shaneira Akram in an Instagram post wrote, “We do not deserve a zoo if ALL animals are not cared for correctly! These animals are our responsibility, they can’t talk, they can’t say I’m hungry and they can’t tell you they are in pain. We have all the space in the world in karachi, and inner city cement jungle is not good enough. If we can not provide food, water and proper enclosures that mimic natural eco habitats then we are failing not only the animals but our people.”

    Netizens also asked the city administration to take strict action against the zoo administration, Some even asked to “shut the Karachi zoo immediately.”

    In a video posted by a journalist Quatrina Hosain, a lion can be seen in a very poor condition. She tagged the City Administrator Barrister Murtaza Wahab in her post, asking him to take the action against those responsible.

  • Falak Shabir reacts to morphed picture of his and Sarah with a Katrina-Vicky twist

    Falak Shabir reacts to morphed picture of his and Sarah with a Katrina-Vicky twist

    Singer Falak Shabbir expressed his amusement at a photo of Katrina Kaif and Vicky Kaushal circulating the internet that is actually a doctored version of Sarah Khan and Falak’s wedding picture.

    The Roag singer wrote, “Wait, What”, in the caption and added a laughing emoji.

    The Zindagi duo recently celebrated daughter Alyana’s aqeeqa ceremony.

    According to Indian media, Vicky Kaushal and Katrina Kaif will tie the knot in the first week of December at Six Senses Fort Barwara, a resort in Sawai Madhopur, which is located just 30 minutes away from Ranthambore National Park in Rajasthan.

    It is owned by none other than Rajasthan’s Royal Family.

  • ‘I am not making any profit’, food-price inflation is crushing Pakistan’s poorest

    The New York Times (NYT), in an article has documented the lives of the public in the wake of high inflation in Pakistan.

    Pakistan, which is already under heavy debt has recently reached an agreement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for the first one billion dollars of what is expected to be a 6 billion dollars rescue package announced by the government earlier this week. Last month, Saudi crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, pledged 4.2 billion in cash assistance to Pakistan.

    “The economy is the biggest threat that the government is in fact facing right now. This is basically eroding the very basis of their public support, said Khurram Husain, a business journalist in Karachi.

    Journalists Emily Schmall and Salman Masood reported on the life of 66-year-old Muhammad Nazir, a shopkeeper who canceled his daughter’s wedding and despite having a motorcycle at home, walks to his shop. Many of his shelves are empty because he can’t afford to stock the same supply of candy, soft drinks, and cookies that he once did.

    “I am not making any profit these days. Still, I come here every day, open the shop and wait for customers,” Nazir said.

    Saleem Shahzad, a plumber who recently moved his six-year-old son to a less expensive school said, “[The Prime Minister] Imran Khan is a good person and is still liked by many, but his team is not performing. It is incompetent.”

    According to government data, inflation in Pakistan surged 9.2 per cent in October from the year 2020. The cost of basic food items this month increased by 17 per cent. Pakistan’s biggest food import is palm oil, which has also jumped in price. Moreover, in recent months Pakistanis have seen standard gas prices jump to 34 per cent.

  • ‘Our lives are in danger,’ says firm that did the forensic of CJP Nisar’s leaked audio

    ‘Our lives are in danger,’ says firm that did the forensic of CJP Nisar’s leaked audio

    Garret Discovery, an American-based firm that conducted a forensic analysis of the alleged audio clip of former Chief Justice Saqib Nisar, took to Twitter and claimed that the company is being threatened for the work it had performed for FactFocus.

    “Today we received a call saying our lives are in danger and the same person said he is going to file in court against us for our work authenticating a file for FactFocus,” read the tweet from Garret Discovery’s Twitter handle.

    “Threatening our team to obtain a different result is unethical,” read the tweet.

    Earlier Garret Discovery had confirmed that they did work for FactFocus.

    “We did perform work for FactFocus. As part of our standard agreement, we have a confidentiality clause that prohibits us from speaking about the scope of work or work we performed,” a representative from Garret Discovery had revealed.

    “We have no problem releasing details as long as our client signs an agreement allowing us to do so. Please contact FactFocus with any inquiries as to the work we performed and discuss with them any release of information. We will not comment anymore on this issue until that time.”

  • Video: Two women beaten in police station by another woman claiming the police forced her to do it

    Video: Two women beaten in police station by another woman claiming the police forced her to do it

    Trigger warning: Violence

    A video went viral on social media yesterday in which a lady can be seen beating two women in Kasur’s Sadar Police Station. One of the woman in the video was being investigated for a robbery case. The video caused an uproar on social media.

    After the video went viral on social media, the police took the woman named Sajda who beat the other two, into custody and have registered cases against the investigating officer and a woman constable.

    However, in a video message shared by the woman later she said that someone called her from police station and asked her to visit the police station in relevance to her own case. She said that when she reached the police station the officers said they will look into her case only after she beats up the two women they have taken into custody. She said she refused, but she did it after they forced her.

  • GOT’s Sophie Turner roasts husband Joe Jonas over ‘lame’ purity ring in Netflix special

    GOT’s Sophie Turner roasts husband Joe Jonas over ‘lame’ purity ring in Netflix special

    The Game of thrones star Sophie Turner has roasted her husband Joe Jonas over his and his brothers’ previous use of purity rings.

    Read More – Are Priyanka Chopra and Nick Jonas splitting up?

    The Jonas Brothers as well as their family and friends appeared in a new Netflix comedy special entitled Jonas Brothers Family Roast.

    When it came time for Sophie to take to the stage, she wasted no time in mocking the brothers and their purity rings, which they previously wore as a symbol to abstain from sex before marriage: “No, the rings weren’t a good idea.”

    She then made a dirty joke, saying: “Look, Joe wasn’t just sticking his fingers in some dumb metal rings. He was sticking his fingers in co-stars, actresses, and even a supermodel or two.”

    The actor, who married Jonas in 2019, also said: “Yes, as a gesture they’re laughably, toe-curlingly lame. But remember, this was about more than a gesture. This was about faith. This was about principle. This was about taking a stand and setting an example.”

    Nick Jonas, who married actor Priyanka Chopra in 2018, has previously criticised the way the brothers’ sex lives was talked about: “It became a defining factor of who we were as a band, which was disappointing. I was just trying to navigate love, and romance, and what sex even meant to me, at a sensitive age.”

    He added: “The question should have been: Is it appropriate for people to talk about a 16-year-old’s sex life? It’s absolutely not and it wouldn’t necessarily fly today.”

    Jonas Brothers Family Special started streaming on Netflix on Tuesday, November 23.

  • Why did Bangladesh not give the T20I series trophy to Pakistan?

    Why did Bangladesh not give the T20I series trophy to Pakistan?

    Pakistan beat Bangladesh with a clean sweep in the three-match T20I series on Monday, November 22 but the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) did not give the winning trophy to the team.

    Read More – ‘We are on the right track’: Babar Azam after Pakistan whitewashed Bangladesh in T20I series

    According to Geo Super, the Pakistan squad was left “surprised” after they did not get a trophy despite winning the series.

    However, a spokesperson of the BCB told the management of the Pakistan team that they would hand over the trophy after the conclusion of the Test series.

    The BCB further added that the head of the board was supposed to hand over the trophy to the Pakistani squad but it could not be done due to his unavailability.

    The spokesperson said that officials of the board and sponsoring companies were not part of the bio-secure bubble, therefore, the trophy awarding ceremony could not take place in line with the Covid-19 protocols.

    Meanwhile, Pakistan is set to play a two-match Test Series starting from November 26. The Second Test match will be played during December 4-8.