Author: newsdesk

  • England tour of Pakistan 2021 schedule announced, Rawalpindi to host both series

    England tour of Pakistan 2021 schedule announced, Rawalpindi to host both series

    England men’s and women’s teams will travel to Pakistan for a bilateral series. Rawalpindi Cricket Stadium will be hosting both the series.

    Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB), on Friday, announced that the England men’s team will take on the home side in two T20Is at the Pindi Cricket Stadium in Rawalpindi in October. The England women’s team will also play two T20Is and three ODIs against the Pakistan women’s team during the same month at the same venue.

    The England men and women’s teams will arrive in Islamabad on October 9. Subsequently, the touring sides will play the T20Is on October 13 and 14, with the matches being held as double-headers. After the completion of the T20I series, the England men’s squad will leave for Dubai on October 15.

    However, the England women’s side will stay back and partake in three ODIs on October 17,19 and 21 respectively. This will be England senior team’s (men or women) first tour to Pakistan since 2005-06. Incidentally, the matches were initially scheduled to be played at the National Stadium in Karachi on October 14 and 15, but had to be rescheduled as a result of “operational and logistical reasons”.

    “We are delighted to welcome both the England men’s team for what will be their first tour to Pakistan since 2005, and the England women’s team, who will be touring Pakistan for the first time. Both are additional tours with England men’s side scheduled to return to Pakistan in the last quarter of 2022 for white-ball and ICC World Test Championship fixtures,” PCB Chief Executive Wasim Khan said.

  • ‘I threat her that I will star as a hero opposite her daughter’: Fahad Sheikh on Yashma Gill

    ‘I threat her that I will star as a hero opposite her daughter’: Fahad Sheikh on Yashma Gill

    Actor Fahad Sheikh recently appeared on Ahsan Khan’s show Time out with Ahsan Khan along with his Azmaish co-star Yashma Gill.

    While the host and the guests were discussing Fahad’s diet and fitness routine, the Jalan star said that he often threatens Yashma that he will star as a hero opposite her daughter hence he focuses on his fitness. He said on a lighter note, “Mein Yashma ko dhamki deta hun kay mein ne tumhari beti kay sath hero ana hai, for that I have to be fit.”

    The Udaari star replied to Fahad’s statement by saying, ‘Soch dekh iski’.

    The Pyar Ke Sadqay diva is currently single, she opened up on her idea of companionship, “Companionship is something everyone desires. But I think you should get married to someone you can actually live a happy and satisfying life with, so you should be careful and not rush into it.”

    Kinza Hashmi & Yashma Gill Talk About Their Characters In Azmaish | Reviewit.pk

    The duo can be currently seen in ARY Digital’s drama serial Azmaish also featuring Kinza Hashmi.

  • ‘I hope the Govt will apologise to me tomorrow’, Rehman Malik demands action after The Current’s report

    ‘I hope the Govt will apologise to me tomorrow’, Rehman Malik demands action after The Current’s report

    The government’s Digital Media Wing (DMW) recently released a report titled, ‘Anti-State Trends: Deep Analytics Report’. The Current analysed the report, which was discussed on Geo News programme ‘Aaj Shahzeb Khanzada Kay Sath’ on Thursday night. The Current found glaring errors in the report.

    Mentioning The Current’s research, Shahzeb Khanzada stated the facts mentioned in our report. “From The Current’s analysis, the 134-page report has 85 pages that have screenshots of tweets, which means that 63.4 per cent of the report is based on screenshots of people who are using a certain hashtag that the government has identified as being anti-state. The number of tweets that are in these 85 pages amounts to 666 tweets out of which 142 tweets are from three accounts, which means that 21.3 per cent of the tweets used in this study came from three people.”

    “After further analysis of the three accounts, The Current discovered that all three accounts had a combined following of less than 11,000,” mentioned Shahzeb.

    The report was released Wednesday evening around 5:30PM and a few hours later a disclaimer was added to the report. According to journalist Fereeha Idrees, the disclaimer was added after she raised the issue with the DMW for being highlighted in the report as a ‘replies with the most followers’ account.

    Shahzeb Khanzada also mentioned that The Current reached out to TweepsMap, which was the primary analysis app used by the government for this report. The maps and information all have the Tweepsmap link on the maps and all charts in the report. We asked the CEO of TweepsMap Samir Al-Battran if they considered the analysis of the report to be authentic since it used their app service. Samir told us, “The government of Pakistan is not authorised to use our service.  ​We will investigate how they got access to our analysis and get back to you on this.”

    Federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting Fawad Chaudhry refuted these claims on Shahzeb Khanzada’s programme.

    “Were the Twitter trends data compiled without research? Was the press conference held without reading the final draft? Was the patriotism of our own citizens deliberately questioned? How did you determine which tweet is anti and pro-state?,” asked Shahzeb.

    “The data could have been complied on a single page as well. We analysed the data for the past two years, around 150 trends were made, and we checked how India and Afghanistan glorified those trends. Around 37 lac tweets were done on the very trends. We spent around 1,000 hours going through those tweets,” said Fawad Chaudhry.

    Shahzeb reiterated the fact that the report should have included how India and Afghanistan were involved in generating, promoting, and glorifying the very trends and sentiment analysis of the tweets should have been checked.

    ” I think you did not read the mechanism and neither did you try to understand the work done in the report,” replied the minister.

    “The positive and negative sentiment does not matter, what matters is that people participated in the trend. India did all this because it wanted to portray to the international spheres that there is chaos within Pakistan,” added Fawad.

    Former Interior Minister Rehman Malik also thanked Shahzeb for highlighting how his anti-India tweet was also part of the DMW report. “I hope someone from the Govt will apologise to me tomorrow.”

    https://twitter.com/SenRehmanMalik/status/1425908540024229902
  • Huawei faces lawsuit after allegedly spying on Pakistani citizens through stolen tech

    Huawei faces lawsuit after allegedly spying on Pakistani citizens through stolen tech

    Huawei has been sued in California federal court for creating a “backdoor” that allowed it to collect sensitive data “important to Pakistan’s national security”, reports Reuters.

    Business Efficiency Solutions (BES), a California-based IT consultant company, filed a complaint against the China-based tech giant on Wednesday, August 11.

    According to the complaint, Huawei subcontracted with BES in 2016 for its $150 million bid to develop software for a Pakistani government programme providing new technology for police and law enforcement in Lahore. BES said it created software for the project that collects data from government agencies, controls access to buildings, monitors social media and manages drones, among other things.

    Huawei officials allegedly demanded that BES send this information to the company in China for testing, and BES said it agreed to the demand but terminated its authorisation to use the technology after Huawei revoked its access to the testing laboratory.

    The complaint said Huawei has yet to return any of the confidential software design tools or uninstall the software, as BES said it had agreed to.

    BES said Huawei later demanded it install its data-aggregation software – used by Pakistani law enforcement to collect and analyse “sensitive data from different sources and government agencies” – in its Chinese lab, “this time not merely for testing purposes but with full access to data at the Lahore Safe City project.” BES said it agreed, under threat of termination and withheld payments, after Huawei said it had approval from the Pakistani government.

    Huawei has yet to respond to the lawsuit filed by BES through its legal team. BES also did not share any more information beyond the case that it filed in the federal court.

    The IT consulting firm also accused Huawei of stealing the “trade secrets, and other intellectual properties in its possessions after officials of the China tech company demanded it for testing.”

    Up until now, the lawsuit alleged that Huawei has not returned the software design tools to BES.

    Moreover, BES said that it only allowed Huawei to use the software with full access as the latter threatened that they will not be paid, which the Chinese giant has yet to do for some of the software in the project.

    Huawei is a Chinese firm that has been banned in the United States (US) after it was accused of being a security risk. Thus, Google forcibly removed its services from the devices of the Chinese phone maker.

    However, Huawei recently decided to live without Google by debuting its own operating system across all of its devices.

  • Muslims do ‘love-jihad’, not allowed to apply henna on Hindu women in India

    Muslims do ‘love-jihad’, not allowed to apply henna on Hindu women in India

    The Uttar Pradesh (UP) Police have filed a First Information Report (FIR) against a group ‘ Kranti Sena’ in Muzaffarnagar who conducted checks at a market to ensure that no Muslim man applies Mehndi on the hands of Hindu women ahead of Hariyali Teej, an event celebrated during the holy month of Shravana on August 10, reports The Indian Express.

    In a viral video, members of the party are seen asking shopkeepers whether they have arrangements for applying henna. The video then cuts to the Kranti Sena General Secretary Manoj Saini, who says, “We have checked several shops and appealed to the owners to not employ Muslims as they indulge in ‘love jihad’ and trap our women while applying mehndi.”

    After the video went viral, the police filed an FIR against the group. While talking to The Indian Express Aprit Vijayvargia, SP City Muzaffarnagar said, “It was brought to our notice after a video was uploaded on social media. Security has been heavily deployed in public places since there are many festivals. There is no law and order situation.”

    Shopkeepers in the area said that they did not quite understand what the group wanted from them. “How can we not employ people on the basis of religion?” one of them asked.

    According to The Quint, the FIR is against 51 members of the Kranti Sena, 11 named and 40 unnamed.

    Earlier anti-Muslim slogans, calling for murder, were raised in New Delhi at an event organised by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

  • H&M collaborates with Indian designer Sabyasachi

    H&M has launched its collection in collaboration with Kolkata-based Indian designer Sabyasachi Mukherjee on Thursday.

    Talking to Vouge about his collaboration with H&M, designer Sabyasachi Mukherjee said that there is a wonderful quote by Rumi that sums it up: “What you seek is seeking you.” He received an email from H&M saying they were interested in partnering. “I thought it was too good to be true, and probably spam, but it wasn’t. H&M’s designer tie-ups are what legends are made of.”

    He continued: “This is part of the big fashion dream because it is a validation of your work—it means they believe that my product is desirable enough to translate itself to the mass market. We have created hysteria in Indian couture (we’re the most copied brand here) but that makes us inaccessible, and yes, I do get a lot of requests to do something more affordable. This was the perfect opportunity to do that. Plus, I got to work with denim for the first time, which was exciting.”

    Sabyasachi further said that it took him six months to create the artwork for this collection. 

    This is H&M’s first global Indian designer collaboration. The collection will be available in stores in 18 countries, including India, the US and Britain.

  • Olympic gold medalist to be given new medal after mayor bit the first one

    Olympic gold medalist to be given new medal after mayor bit the first one

    Japanese softball player Miu Goto will have her Olympic gold medal replaced after a mayor controversially decided to bite the original medal.

    Tokyo Olympics officials say they’re replacing Goto’s gold medal after Takashi Kawamura, the mayor of her hometown of Nagoya, bit the first one during a ceremony despite Covid-19 concerns, BBC News reports. The International Olympic Committee is reportedly set to cover the costs.

     “With support from the International Olympic Committee and in line with her own intention, Goto’s medal is now set to be exchanged for a new one,” Tokyo organisers said, per Reuters. 

    Kawamura previously came under fire for taking off his mask to bite the medal, including from Toyota, which owns the softball team Goto plays for, NBC News reports.

    The company said it was “unfortunate that he was unable to feel admiration and respect for the athlete” and “extremely regrettable that he was unable to give consideration to infection prevention”. Kawamura apologised for acting in “an extremely inappropriate way,” adding, “I am fully aware that I should reflect on that.” 

  • Video: Ayeza Khan recreates Aishwarya Rai’s popular ‘Mohabbatein’ look, Aisha Khan adores

    Video: Ayeza Khan recreates Aishwarya Rai’s popular ‘Mohabbatein’ look, Aisha Khan adores

    Pyaray Afzal star Ayeza Khan is playing a TikToker in her big-budget drama Laapata costarring Ali Rehman Khan, Sarah Khan and Gohar Rasheed.

    Her character Geeti makes musical and dance oriented videos including songs from some Bollywood chartbusters of late Sridevi. She will also be donning Kajol”s avatar from Kuch Kuch Hota Hai.

    The Meray Paas Tum Ho star took to her Instagram handle to share her recreation of Aishwarya’s look from her Blockbuster film opposite Shah Rukh Khan, Mohabbatein.

    The Meherposh duo recently shot for a campaign:

    Ayeza is currently starring in Laapata opposite Ali Rehman Khan and Sarah Khan.

  • Nazia Hassan was poisoned by husband: Zohaib Hassan breaks his silence

    Nazia Hassan was poisoned by husband: Zohaib Hassan breaks his silence

    Star singer Nazia Hassan’s brother and co-composer Zohaib Hassan has said that his late sister was poisoned by her husband Ishtiaq Baig.

    In an interview with Samaa TV, the Silsilay singer said that Baig was poisoning Nazia and this caused her cancer.

    Nazia had one of her ovaries removed after she developed ovarian cancer, she was in remission when she went back to her husband and then soon she developed throat cancer that puzzled her doctor, he added.

    The acclaimed guitarist also mentioned that his sister was so tired of all the mistreatment at Baig’s hands that she went for divorce before her death. He regrets letting his sister marry Baig.

    On August 13, it will be 21 years since Nazia Hassan, often dubbed Queen of Pop, passed away after a prolonged battle with cancer.

    As per reports, Ishtiaq Baig has announced that he will take Zohaib to court and sue him for Rs1 billion for defamation, he also claimed that the Disco Deewane star was the love of his life and they married despite her being diagnosed with cancer.

  • Celebrities mourn the demise of legendary actor Durdana Butt

    Veteran actor Durdana Butt passed away on August 12 after being on a ventilator for eight days at a hospital in Karachi. The Dudgugi star recently appeared on Asim Raza’s blockbuster Parey Hut Love.

    Members of the fraternity expressed their grieve and prayed for the departed soul on social media: