Author: newsdesk

  • VIDEO: Chris Gayle ties a shalwar in two minutes

    VIDEO: Chris Gayle ties a shalwar in two minutes

    West Indian Cricketer Chris Gayle, renowned for his jolly and fun-loving personality, recently took the ‘Shalwar Challenge’ in a video shared by the official accounts of the Pakistan Super League (PSL).

    https://twitter.com/thePSLt20/status/1364914438109876225?s=20

    Though the legendary cricketer accepted the challenge, he was surprised by the width of the shalwar’s waistband.

    “What? Whose waist is this?” questioned Gayle upon seeing the shalwar.

    As he puts the drawstring in the shalwar, he continues to express his shock at the width of its waistband.

    “This person eats too much,” remarks Gayle. “I don’t know what this person has been eating. [Is this] extra large? It’s gotta be a joke.”

    He goes on to say that the person for whom the shalwar was stitched should “stay away from meat,” and “should be a proper vegan”.

    The clip also shows some funny bloopers wherein the Universe Boss could be seen struggling to wear the shalwar and getting help from other people.

    At the end of the video, Gayle wears the shalwar, without pulling the drawstring, and bursts into laughter.

    Read more – Quetta Gladiators’ Ben Cutting and PSL presenter Erin Holland tie the knot

    Earlier, the 41-year-old cricketer who was excited to be in Pakistan for the first time in 15 years, said that he’s eager to score runs for his new PSL franchise, Quetta Gladiators, and show the fans what he is and what they missed in all these years. After scoring 68 runs off just 44 deliveries against Lahore Qalandars, he also treated audiences to his googly dance.

    Later Quetta Gladiators also shared Gayle’s famous googly dance on their social media platforms.

  • VIDEO: PTI, PPP lawmakers quarrel in Sindh Assembly

    VIDEO: PTI, PPP lawmakers quarrel in Sindh Assembly

    The session of the Sindh Assembly witnessed a heated spat between the lawmakers after a Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) MPA said that there was a “dog rule” in the province.

    Khurram Sher Zaman made these remarks in reference to the death of a two-year-old girl in Jamshoro, CM Murad Ali Shah’s constituency, who passed away due to the unavailability of the anti-rabies vaccine in the province. “It looks as if nowadays the dog rules in Sindh,” the PTI leader said, requesting the speaker to recite a prayer for a two-year-old girl.

    At this, PPP lawmaker Mukesh Kumar asked him to mind his language. This was the start of a spat between the lawmakers that later blew out of proportion.

    Speaker Durrani said that this was no manner to behave in the house. “Please go and fight outside the house if you are interested in violence”, he added and warning that the session would be adjourned if the MPAs failed to behave.

    “Please ask Chawla, who is at the helm of the excise and taxation ministry, to close the illegal wine shops in the province,” said Zaman. This once again created another uproar in the assembly. Chawla retorted: “You should stop the supply of tainted food in your restaurant.”

    On Thursday, the session was marred by uproar and chaos as members of both the ruling Pakistan People’s Party and opposition Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf exchanged heated arguments and chanted slogans against each other.

  • Sri Lanka reverses ‘anti-Muslim’ cremation order after PM Imran’s visit

    Sri Lanka reverses ‘anti-Muslim’ cremation order after PM Imran’s visit

    Prime Minister Imran Khan on Friday welcomed the Sri Lankan government’s decision to allow the burial of COVID-19 victims.

    The Sri Lankan government rolled back the ban days after Imran’s visit to Colombo.

    On February 10, Prime Minister Imran had lauded his Sri Lankan counterpart Mahinda Rajapaksa’s announcement that burials would be allowed. A day later, however, Rajapaksa backtracked and said there would be no change in the cremation-only policy.

    The ban had sparked protests by Muslims who bury their dead in accordance with Islamic customs. The Muslim community in Sri Lanka had held a protest prior to Prime Minister Imran’s visit, where they carried a mock janazah or coffin.

    “Respect Prime Minister’s statement and allow burials,” one banner at the protest read.

    On February 25, a day after Prime Minister Imran concluded his two-day official visit to Colombo, the Sri Lankan government issued a notification saying that the order has been amended to allow both burial and cremation of people who died due to coronavirus.

    “I thank the Sri Lankan leadership & welcome the Sri Lankan govt’s official notification allowing the burial option for those dying of Covid 19,” PM Imran said in a tweet posted today.

    BAN ON BURIALS:

    The Sri Lankan government had imposed a ban on burials in April amid concerns — which experts say are baseless — by influential Buddhist monks that burying bodies could contaminate groundwater and spread the virus.

    The World Health Organisation has said there is no such risk, recommending both burial and cremation of virus victims.

    Traditionally, Muslims bury their dead facing Makkah. Sri Lanka’s majority Buddhists, who are strong backers of the current government, are typically cremated, as are Hindus.

    In December, the Sri Lankan authorities ordered the forced cremation of at least 19 Muslim Covid-19 victims, including a baby, after their families refused to claim their bodies from a hospital morgue.

    This stoked dismay and anger among the Muslim community, moderates and abroad, with the 57-member Organisation of Islamic Cooperation repeatedly expressing concern.

  • VIDEO: KP locals make ‘drug dealers’ parade on donkeys

    VIDEO: KP locals make ‘drug dealers’ parade on donkeys

    The citizens of Bar Qambar Khel, an area of the Khyber tribal district, Tirah shaved the heads of the drug dealers and then made them parade on donkeys in a bid to punish them.

    Local residents asked the two accused, identified as Qudrat and Wadan Khan, to appear before the Aman Committee and explain why were they selling ice to local youngsters.

    “The two didn’t appear before the committee, neither confessed to their crime of selling drugs. So they were arrested after repeated warnings,” a local elder told The Express Tribune. He said the heads of drug sellers were shaved and their faces painted black after which they were mounted on donkeys and paraded in the attendance of many people.

    According to residents, the entire incident happened in the presence of police but they did not intervene and remained silent spectators.

    They said that the Bar Qambar Khel Aman Committee many times contacted the local police and asked them to deal with the drug dealers in the area but they did not pay any attention. When the police failed to do their job, the locals were forced to take law into their own hands.

    SHO Javed confirmed the incident and said that the police has started a crackdown against those involved.

    Locals of the area think that one police station is not enough to control a large area bordering Afghanistan.

    “The area is large and the terrain is a difficult one. There is no infrastructure like schools, government offices, or hospitals or enough police stations that could actively patrol and check everything. The writ of government is weak due to lack of administered mechanism,” said a local elder.

  • Naimal Khawar shares a glimpse of her ‘whole world’

    Naimal Khawar shares a glimpse of her ‘whole world’

    We have to admit, the Abbasis’ family photos featuring baby Mustafa always brighten up our social media feeds.

    Read more – Humayun Saeed, baby Mustafa Abbasi all smiles as they meet each other for the first time

    Recently, Naimal Khawar shared a super cute picture of Hamza and Mustafa with the caption: “My whole world.”

    Later, Hamza also posted a family selfie with the caption: “All gratitude is for Allah.”

    Hamza’s colleagues and fellow actors including Sajal Aly and Mahira Khan left love for the Abbasis under Naimal’s post.

    Earlier, Naimal had posted a picture of herself with her horse with the caption: “Back with my main man.”

  • Despite ‘serious progress’, Pakistan fails to exit FATF grey list

    Despite ‘serious progress’, Pakistan fails to exit FATF grey list

    Pakistan was retained in the “grey list” of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), which examined its efforts to counter terror financing and money laundering. The decision was taken at the meeting of the multilateral watchdog on Thursday.

    “Pakistan should continue to work on implementing the three remaining items in its action plan to address its strategically important deficiencies, namely by: demonstrating that TF investigations and prosecutions target persons and entities acting on behalf or at the direction of designated persons or entities; demonstrating that TF prosecutions result in effective, proportionate and dissuasive sanctions and demonstrating effective implementation of targeted financial sanctions against all 1267 and 1373 designated terrorists, specifically those acting for or on their behalf,” the FATF said in a statement.

    The anti-terror financing organisation noted that Islamabad has largely addressed 24 of the 27 action items and gave Islamabad time till June 2021 to complete the full action plan.

    FATF president Marcus Pleyer said that Pakistan has made “significant progress” but “some serious deficiencies remain” and all these deficiencies are “in the realm of terror financing”. Pleyer added that Pakistan “remains under increased monitoring”.

    Reacting to the FATF decision, Federal Minister Hammad Azhar said Pakistan had completed “almost 90 per cent” of its current FATF action plan with 24 out of 27 items rated as ‘largely addressed’ and the remaining three items ‘partially addressed’.

    “FATF has acknowledged Pakistan’s high-level political commitment since 2018 that led to significant progress. It was also noted by FATF member countries that Pakistan is subject to perhaps the most challenging & comprehensive action plan ever given to any country,” he tweeted, saying the country was also subject to dual evaluation processes of FATF with differing timelines.

    MOROCCO, SENEGAL ON GREY LIST:

    The FATF during its plenary kept North Korea and Iran as the only two countries on its blacklist but added four new places to its watch list for increased monitoring, according to Pleyer.

    The countries added to the grey list are Morocco, Burkina Faso, Senegal and the Cayman Islands.

    With the four additions, the list now has 19 countries and territories that FATF said were only partially fulfilling international rules for fighting terrorism financing and money laundering.

  • AI shocks experts by writing passing college paper in 20 minutes

    Artificial Intelligence (AI) has delivered results in many areas like medicine, defence, law enforcement, and education. But AI has shocked the researchers by producing an award-winning research paper.

    According to the reports, an online educational research provider performed a trail to analyse the capacity of the deep learning language prediction model known as GPT-3.

    A panel of professors was asked to create writing prompts. The prompts were then assigned to a group comprising of graduate and undergraduate level writers, apart from the GPT-3 model.

    The experts concluded that the AI writing capability closely mimics human writing in terms of syntax, grammar and word frequency.

    “Even without being augmented by human interference, GPT-3’s assignments received more or less the same feedback as the human writers,” said the report.

    Moreover, the deep learning tool completed the assignment in less time, i.e., between three and 20 minutes. Whereas it took human to complete the assignment in three days.

    The report expresses doubt about AI’s capacity to take over in this particular area. Despite its revolutionary output, GPT-3 will not earn college degrees on its own anytime soon.

    When put up against human writers, GPT-3 secured some passing grades but failed to nail creative writing.

  • US report on Khashoggi killing expected to single out Saudi crown prince

    US report on Khashoggi killing expected to single out Saudi crown prince

    A declassified version of a US intelligence report expected to be released on Thursday finds that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman approved the 2018 killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, four US officials familiar with the matter said.

    The officials said the report, for which the CIA was the main contributor, assessed that the crown prince approved and likely ordered the murder of Khashoggi, whose Washington Post column had criticised the crown prince’s policies.

    President Joe Biden, a Democrat who succeeded the Republican Donald Trump five weeks ago, told reporters on Wednesday he had read the report and expected to speak soon by phone with Saudi Arabian King Salman, 85, father of the crown prince, the country’s 35-year-old de facto ruler.

    The report’s release is part of Biden’s policy to realign ties with Riyadh after years of giving the Arab ally and major oil producer a pass on its human rights record and its intervention in Yemen’s civil war.

    Biden is working to restore the relationship with Riyadh to traditional lines after four years of cozier ties under Trump.

    White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki told reporters on Wednesday Biden would only communicate with the Saudi king and said the declassified Khashoggi report was being readied for release soon.

    While Biden restricts his contacts to the king, others in the Biden administration are talking to Saudi officials at various levels.

    “We have been in touch with Saudi officials at numerous levels in the early weeks of this administration,” said State Department spokesman Ned Price.

    The 59-year old Khashoggi, a Saudi journalist and Washington Post columnist, was lured to the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on Oct. 2, 2018, and killed by a team of operatives linked to the crown prince. They then dismembered his body. His remains have never been found.

    Riyadh eventually admitted that Khashoggi was killed in a “rogue” extradition operation gone wrong, but it denied any involvement by the crown prince. Five men given the death penalty for the murder had their sentences commuted to 20 years in jail after being forgiven by Khashoggi’s family.

    In 2019, a UN human rights investigator, Agnes Callamard, accused Saudi Arabia of a “deliberate, premeditated execution” of Khashoggi and called for further investigation.

    “There is sufficient credible evidence regarding the responsibility of the crown prince demanding further investigation,” Callamard said after the six-month probe.

    A classified version of the report was shared with members of Congress in late 2018.

    But the Trump administration rejected demands by lawmakers and human rights groups to release a declassified version, seeking to preserve cooperation amid rising tensions with Riyadh’s regional rival, Iran, and promote US arms sales to the kingdom.

    Biden’s new director of national intelligence, Avril Haines, committed at her confirmation hearing to complying with a provision in a 2019 defense bill that required the Office of the Director of National Intelligence to release within 30 days a declassified report on Khashoggi’s murder.

    Biden pledged during the 2020 presidential campaign to reassess US-Saudi ties in part over Khashoggi’s murder. Since taking office, he has ended sales of offensive arms that Riyadh could use in Yemen and appointed a special envoy to boost diplomatic efforts to end that country’s grueling civil war.

  • What did PM Imran’s Sri Lanka trip cost taxpayers?

    What did PM Imran’s Sri Lanka trip cost taxpayers?

    Prime Minister (PM) Imran Khan’s ongoing tour of Sri Lanka cost taxpayers a mere $34,800 (Rs5,507,771 or Rs5.5 million), his special assistant on political communication, Dr Shahbaz Gill, has revealed in a tweet.

    The 2016 visit of former premier Nawaz Sharif to Sri Lanka, on the other hand, had cost the treasury $276,266, he stated further.

    During his two-day-long visit to the country, PM Imran met President Gotabaya Rajapaksa and his Sri Lankan counterpart besides notable business personalities.

    While Gill went on to say that PM Imran’s trip had proven to be more fruitful as compared to that of Nawaz, Minister for Communications and Postal Services Murad Saeed also claimed that the incumbent premier’s Sri Lanka visit cost the treasury “just $34,000”.

    The minister further said the premier had cut his office’s expenses by 49%. He maintained the incumbent government was carefully spending public funds that were a sacred trust.

    Saeed’s statements come a week after it was reported that the expenditures of PM House and Office have reportedly reduced by 49% and 29%, respectively.

    According to reports, the total expenditure of the PM House narrowed down to Rs280 million (Rs28 crores) in 2020 from Rs339 million (Rs33 crores) in 2019 and Rs590 million (Rs59 crores) in 2018 — the year when the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) was handed reins of the country.

    The PM Office witnessed a considerable decrease in its expenditure from 2018 to 2020, but last year was slightly more than in 2019. It stood at Rs334 million (Rs33 crores) in 2020, Rs305 million (Rs30 crores) in 2019 and Rs514 million (Rs51 crores) in 2018.

    The premier, since assuming office in 2018, has been pushing for austerity measures to save taxpayers’ money and reduce the burden on the national exchequer.

    Despite the steps taken by PM Imran in this regard, the austerity drive has faced multiple setbacks owing to the apparent reluctance of the lawmakers in cutting down expenses.

  • Rizwan, Fawad promoted to Category A and C

    Rizwan, Fawad promoted to Category A and C

    Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) Test Cricketer of the year 2020, Mohammad Rizwan, has been promoted to Category A of PCB’s Central Contract List 2020-21 following stellar performances across all formats in the ongoing season. In the elite category, the 28-year-old has now joined Pakistan captain Babar Azam, former captain Azhar Ali and star fast bowler Shaheen Shah Afridi.

    Since the current central contracts were announced on May 13, 2020, Rizwan is Pakistan’s leading run-scorer in Tests with 529 runs in seven matches at an average of 52.90, while he is overall the third leading run-scorer in T20Is with 325 runs at an average of 65 and strike-rate of just under 139. In the three ODIs against Zimbabwe, he scored 25 runs.

    Behind the wickets, Rizwan has accounted for 16 batsmen in Tests, three in ODIs and eight in T20Is in the season during which Pakistan played international cricket against England, Zimbabwe, New Zealand and South Africa. Their upcoming assignments are in South Africa and Zimbabwe.

    As part of its policy to acknowledge, incentivise and reward high-performing cricketers, the PCB has also elevated Fawad Alam from A+ domestic contract category to Category C of the PCB Central Contract List 2020-21, while it also offered Category C contract to T20I specialist Mohammad Hafeez, which he politely turned down.

    Fawad Alam scored centuries against New Zealand and South Africa and has now aggregated 320 runs in 11 innings of six Tests. His 102 against New Zealand in the Boxing Day Test earned him the PCB Individual Performance of 2020 award.

    PCB Chief Executive Wasim Khan while talking about the promotions said: “I want to congratulate Rizwan and Fawad for earning well-deserved and well-earned promotions. This is a reward for their hard work and high-quality performances during the difficult and challenging bio-secure environments that tested their determination, resolve, commitment, mental toughness and physical fitness to the limits.

    “The decision to promote the players was made during a meeting with the Chair of the Selection Committee, Muhammad Wasim, while we were reviewing player performances in the 2020-21 season and discussing the upcoming commitments.

    “It was agreed during the meeting that three players were the most deserving and outstanding performers in the season to date and, as such, they needed to be rewarded now instead of waiting for the time when PCB Central Contract List for 2021-22 will be reviewed and announced.

    “However, Mohammad Hafeez declined the reward and while I am disappointed, I fully respect his decision. He wants to wait for the PCB Central Contract 2021-22 list, which he is fully entitled to. Hafeez has been one of our star performers of the season and we hope he will carry the form and momentum to Africa.

    “I am sure this merit and performance-based decision will once again send out a loud and clear message to all professional cricketers that the PCB will not only recognise, appreciate and acknowledge their performances and achievements, but will also reward them so that they can strive to do better next time.”

    Taking to Twitter, Alam expressed his happiness over the promotion, writing: “Alhamdulillah! Can’t thank Allah enough for always being in my favour and granting me successes. Hard work pays off indeed. Thank you PCB for elevating me to category C of the PCB’s Central Contract list 2020-21.”

    Read more – Fahad Mustafa says ignoring Fawad Alam for a decade was ‘a failure of our system’

    Similarly, Rizwan also expressed his “relief” over the promotion on social media.

    Updated PCB Men’s Central Contract List for 2020-21:

    Category A: Azhar Ali (Central Punjab), Babar Azam (Central Punjab), Mohammad Rizwan (Khyber Pakhtunkhwa) and Shaheen Shah Afridi (Khyber Pakhtunkhwa)

    Category B: Abid Ali (Central Punjab), Asad Shafiq (Sindh), Haris Sohail (Balochistan), Mohammad Abbas (Southern Punjab), Sarfaraz Ahmed (Sindh), Shadab Khan (Northern), Shan Masood (Southern Punjab) and Yasir Shah (Balochistan)

    Category C: Fakhar Zaman (Khyber Pakhtunkhwa), Fawad Alam (Sindh), Iftikhar Ahmed (Khyber Pakhtunkhwa), Imad Wasim (Northern), Imam-ul-Haq (Balochistan), Naseem Shah (Central Punjab) and Usman Shinwari (Khyber Pakhtunkhwa)

    Emerging Players’ Category: Haider Ali (Northern), Haris Rauf (Northern) and Mohammad Hasnain (Sindh)