Author: newsdesk

  • I would have rejected ‘Raees’ if I was Mahira’: Sonya Hussyn

    I would have rejected ‘Raees’ if I was Mahira’: Sonya Hussyn

    Sonya Hussyn appeared on Yasir Hussain’s The After Moon Show in 2018. During the rapid fire segment of the show, Yasir asked Sonya that if she was Mahira Khan which film of hers she would have not done? The Karachi Se Lahore actor gave her three options: Verna, Raees and Ho Mann Jahan.

    May be an image of 3 people and people smiling

    Sonya replied that it would be Raees, she elaborated her answer by stating that “No never it’s not my dream to work with Shah Rukh Khan”, said Sonya adding, “You should [play] the character in which you are prominent and [is] not the side [kick] of the hero.”

    Mahira won acclaim for her performance in her Bollywood debut, Raees which entered the 100 Crore club and catapulted Mahira to superstardom.

  • Pregnant woman arrested for kidnapping newborn from Karachi hospital

    Pregnant woman arrested for kidnapping newborn from Karachi hospital

    Police arrested a pregnant woman for kidnapping a newborn boy from a charity hospital in Karachi’s Baldia Town on Thursday. The baby was recovered during a police raid at her house.

    According to the police, the accused Sabiha told during the initial inquiry that a nurse had sold the baby to her for Rs 30,000.

    As per reports, the woman, who was 37 weeks pregnant and a mother of two daughters, confessed that she committed the crime under pressure from her in-laws to bear a boy. After the medical report, the woman found out that she was expecting a girl after which she decided to kidnap a baby boy around her delivery date to “avert social pressure”.

     Read More: Culprit in viral video of purse snatching arrested in Rawalpindi

    Police said that they did not find the husband of the accused involved in the crime.  The woman has been handed over to the Anti-Violence Cell and an investigation is underway.

    Atallah, the uncle of the abducted child, said that the rescue of the child was carried out with the help of a lady doctor and her brother.

    The cloth wrapped around the newborn was shown on social media and TV channels with the news that a woman had kidnapped the child and escaped from the municipal hospital.

     The lady doctor’s brother chased the suspect and visited the house. He informed the police after which the child was recovered.

     

  • ‘No mutton, no marriage’: Groom calls off wedding

    ‘No mutton, no marriage’: Groom calls off wedding

    A groom called off his wedding after the bride’s family did not serve mutton to the wedding guests in India on Wednesday. The groom later married another woman from the area.

    As per reports, Ramakant Patra, the 27-year-old groom from Rebanapalaspal, reached Bandhagaon village with the wedding guests for his wedding on Wednesday afternoon.

    The bride’s family gave a warm welcome to the groom’s family and friends. Once the rituals were done, the wedding guests were invited for lunch.

    The guests demanded to eat mutton before the lunch was served. When the lunch was served, they found out that there is no mutton, after which they got into an argument with the bride’s family.

    When Patra discovered that mutton had not been served, he called off the marriage.

    Read More: Bride slaps groom after getting out of car at in-laws’ house on wedding day

    The bride’s family tried to convince the groom to go ahead with the wedding but he did not agree. The groom and his family left the venue.

    Patra later married another woman of the area the same night before returning to his home.

    No complaint about the incident was reported to the police.

  • ‘Some powers desire to keep the sword of FATF hanging over Pakistan’: Shah Mahmood Qureshi

    Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi questioned the decision of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) of keeping Pakistan on its “increased monitoring list”, also known as the grey list, after the country completed 26 out of the 27 points under the action plan given by the financial watchdog.

    Qureshi said there was “no room” to keep Pakistan on the grey list after it had implemented nearly the entire action plan, according to a report by Radio Pakistan.

    The foreign minister said it needed to be looked into whether FATF was “being used for political purposes”, adding that “some powers desire to keep the sword of FATF hanging over Pakistan.”

    Qureshi made it clear that whatever steps Pakistan took were in its own interests. He said it is in our interest to stop money laundering and terror financing.

    A day earlier, FATF President Dr Marcus Pleyer said Pakistan would remain on the grey list till it addresses the single remaining item on the original action plan agreed to in June 2018 as well as all items on a parallel action plan handed out by the watchdog’s regional partner — the Asia Pacific Group (APG) — in 2019.

    “Pakistan has made significant progress and it has largely addressed 26 out of 27 items on the action plan it first committed to in June 2018,” he said at a virtual press conference after the financial watchdog’s five-day plenary meeting.

  • Younis Khan, Hassan Ali reportedly involved in heated exchange on South Africa tour

    Younis Khan, Hassan Ali reportedly involved in heated exchange on South Africa tour

    Younis Khan, who recently resigned from the post of batting coach in Pakistan’s men’s cricket team, was reportedly involved in a heated exchange with star pacer Hassan Ali during the South Africa tour, sports journalist Saleem Khaliq reported.

    As per details, Younis had approached Hasan over a matter outside his domain in the dressing room after the match, but the latter hit back with a strong response which left the former batting coach unhappy. Younis also remained quiet and reserved during the rest of the tour, after the incident.

    No comment has been made by the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) on the matter yet, while Younis has not shared anything about the incident either.

    PCB and Younis, on June 22, mutually agreed to part ways. A dental treatment and strained relationship between Younis Khan and the top PCB officials was the reason behind the former’s resignation as the batting coach of the Men in Green.

    Younis was also allegedly accused of leaking team lineups to his friends in the media before matches.

    Khan, along with former wicketkeeper Rashid Latif, made a special appearance on ARY News’ popular program ‘Har Lamha Purjosh’, where he recounted the events that took place in the dressing room during his tenure as captain in 2009 and how they used to say that the cricketer is very rude.

    Rashid, while endorsing Khan’s position, revealed that the former players had a big hand in grouping the team against him.

  • Karachi based pret designer Amna Chaudhry nominated for Hum Style Awards

    Karachi based pret designer Amna Chaudhry nominated for Hum Style Awards

    A Karachi based pret designer Amna Chaudhry has been nominated for the best designer category at the prestigious Hum Style Awards 2019-2020.

    Taking to her Instagram stories, the trendsetter designer expressed her gratitude for being nominated, saying: “Alhamdulillah, so grateful”. Amna’s latest two collections received rave reviews from fashion lovers featuring leading models like Eman Suleman and Mushk Kaleem.

    Here are some of the designs by Amna:

    The nominations for 5th Hum Style Awards were announced earlier this week.

  • Man in Muzaffargarh punished for evicting, beating parents

    A man has been punished under Parents Protection Ordinance, 2021, Geo News has reported. The man was sentenced to one month in jail with a fine of Rs50,000 for maltreating his parents.

    He is the first person to be punished under the new law. According to details, Deputy Commissioner (DC) Muzaffargarh Amjad Shoaib Khan took action after a complaint was filed by the parents of the accused for beating and evicting them from their home last year.

    “A year ago, Mukhtar forced us to leave home and since then we have been managing by doing domestic work at people’s homes,” said Ghulam Fatima in the complaint.

    DC summoned both the parties at his office to resolve the matter but the parents refused to forgive the son after which the DC took action against him under the law.

    “The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government has provided a credible protection shield to elderly parents by virtue of this law,” said PTI MPA Sardar Abdul Hayee Khan Dasti.

  • Derek Chauvin sentenced to 22.5 years in prison for George Floyd murder

    Derek Chauvin sentenced to 22.5 years in prison for George Floyd murder

    A judge sentenced former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin to 22 years and six months in prison on Friday for the murder of George Floyd during an arrest in May 2020. Floyd’s murder galvanised a national protest movement against racism, reports Reuters.

    A jury found Chauvin guilty on April 20 of unintentional second-degree murder, third-degree murder, and second-degree manslaughter in the death of Floyd. The verdict was widely seen as a landmark rebuke of the disproportionate use of police force against Black Americans.

    Chauvin’s sentence was one of the longest ones to be given to a former police officer for using unlawful deadly force in the United States, said Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison, whose office prosecuted the case. Successful prosecutions of police officers in such cases have been rare.

    “Today’s sentencing is not justice but it is another moment of real accountability on the road to justice,” Ellison said outside the courtroom, calling on law enforcement leaders around the US to see it as a moment for reform.

    Hennepin County District Judge Peter Cahill said it was important to recognise the pain of the Floyd family.

    “I’m not basing my sentence on public opinion,” Cahill said. “I’m not basing it on the attempt to send any messages. The job of a trial court judge is to apply the law to specific facts and to deal with individual cases.”

    In a 22-page sentencing memorandum, Cahill gave weight to prosecution arguments that Chauvin acted with cruelty and abused his position of authority, aggravating factors that allowed him to give a harsher sentence than would be indicated by state sentencing guidelines for first-time offenders.

    Prosecutors had asked for a 30-year prison sentence, double the upper limit indicated in sentencing guidelines.

    Video of Chauvin kneeling on the neck of the handcuffed Floyd for more than nine minutes on May 25, 2020, caused outrage around the world and led to one of the largest protest movements seen in the US in decades.

  • Culprit in viral video of purse snatching arrested in Rawalpindi

    Culprit in viral video of purse snatching arrested in Rawalpindi

    Police arrested the culprit who snatched the purse of a schoolteacher early Friday morning in Rawalpindi.

    As per reports, the victim’s brother, Mohammad Junaid Ahmed, a citizen of Dhoke Chaudhrian, told Race Course police that his sister, a schoolteacher, was going to her school when a motorcycle rider snatched her purse.

    CCTV footage shows the suspect snatching the purse from the victim who then fell on the ground. She started collecting some of the valuables that fell from her purse. Two motorcycle riders helped her in picking up her stuff.

    The Rawalpindi police took to Twitter to announce the arrest of the culprit.

     “CPO Mohammad Ahsan Younus had taken notice of the incident and ordered the immediate arrest of the suspect. During the arrest, the suspect tried to open fire on the police due to which he got injured by his own pistol,” the tweet read.

    Read More: Prankster arrested for harassing women for not wearing dupatta

    According to a  press release, the suspect was arrested from Race Course area and had been involved in other thefts.

    Mobile phone and purse snatching cases are on a rise in the garrison city. Five snatching incidents were reported on Thursday in Rawalpindi.

  • T20 World Cup reportedly moved to UAE from India, set to begin on October 17

    T20 World Cup reportedly moved to UAE from India, set to begin on October 17

    The 2021 men’s T20 World Cup will not take place in India anymore. It is set to begin from October 17 in the United Arab Emirates, with the final for the 16-team tournament scheduled for November 14.

    Reportedly, the tournament will start days after the Indian Premier League (IPL) final, which is likely to be held on October 15. The remainder of IPL 2021 will be played in the UAE, starting September 19.

    While the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) is yet to write to the International Cricket Council (ICC) officially about shifting the T20 World Cup to the UAE, it has already set the ball rolling in terms of planning for the tournament to be held in the middle east.

    As per the current plan, the first round of the T20 World Cup will be split across two groups and played in the UAE and Oman.

    Round 1, which will include 12 matches, will comprise eight teams from which four (top two from each group) would qualify for the Super 12s. Four team from this lot of eight i.e, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Ireland, Netherlands, Scotland, Namibia, Oman, Papua New Guinea will then progress to the Super 12s, joining the top eight ranked T20I teams. The Super 12s phase, comprising 30 matches, is scheduled to start from October 24. The Super 12s, where teams will be split across two groups of six each, will be played at three venues in the UAE, i.e. Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Sharjah. This will be followed by three playoff games – the two semi-finals and the final.

    With Round 1 being co-hosted by one of the venues in the UAE and Oman, the BCCI is confident that will offer enough time to refresh the pitches across the main grounds in the UAE for the Super 12s.

    On June 1, the ICC granted BCCI until the end of June to give its final word on whether India will be able to host the T20 World Cup. With the Covid-19 pandemic disrupting the global cricket calendar last year, the ICC postponed the 2020 World Cup, originally scheduled to be held in Australia, and decided India would host the tournament in 2021 with Australia hosting the 2022 edition.

    However, the grim pandemic situation in India, which was flattened by a second wave this summer, forced the BCCI to abruptly suspend the IPL at the halfway stage in May.

    That development instantly cast doubts on whether India could be fit to host the multi-team World T20 after travel between cities was identified as a prime area of concern for teams getting exposed to coronavirus outside the bubble during the IPL.

    The BCCI had shortlisted nine venues for the T20 World Cup, but an ICC team, meant to carry out inspection, had to cancel its visit in April. Despite the pandemic numbers climbing down since the alarming peak of April-May period, public health experts have predicted India will face a third wave later in 2021. With the ICC deadline expiring in a few days, the BCCI is expected to make its decision public on moving the event outside to the UAE.