Author: newsdesk

  • Karachi to gets its own IT park in two years

    Karachi to gets its own IT park in two years

    A private company will be establishing a state-of-the-art technology park in Karachi to boost Information Technology (IT) sector in Pakistan.

    The park will have high-end technological facilities for local software houses and companies, and it will be the first technology park in the port city, the commercial hub of Sindh.

    According to the official notification to the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX), the company has acquired 10,002 square yards of land in the Korangi Industrial Area.

    The IT park is likely to be completed within two years, inclusive of the planning and designing phases.

    According to the reports, the purpose of establishing technology parks is to boost their productivity by creating a helpful environment and available facilities.

    A special technological zone was recently set up in Islamabad to promote Pakistan’s IT sector. The government is working to promote the IT industry and services while catering to both the local and international markets.

    The sector had a remarkable performance over the last six months in terms of exports and the development of e-commerce at the local level while pushing the limits of the innovation of products and services.

    One of the reasons why the IT sector boomed in India and the Philippines is that many IT parks have been established in these countries, which resulted in a robust increase in productivity and exports in this sector.

  • NA-75 by-polls: Maryam joins in on ‘Pawri ho rahi ha’ trend, uses it to call out ‘rigging’

    Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) Vice President Maryam Nawaz has also joined in on the ‘Pawri Ho Rahi Ha’ trend, as she used it to call out alleged rigging reportedly carried out by the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government during the NA-75 by-polls in Daska, Sialkot.

    ‘Pawri‘ trend went viral earlier this month, with celebrities from across the sub-continent adding to its popularity.

    During her address in Daska, Maryam said: “Yeh dhund hai, yeh Daska hai, aur Imran Khan awam ka vote chori kartay huay range haathon pakra gya hai [This is fog, this is Daska, and this is Imran Khan getting caught red-handed while stealing votes].”

    Speaking to reporters on Sunday, the PML-N vice president said that the events that transpired in the aftermath of voting in Daska have exposed the PTI government. She said the government’s alleged plan to steal votes was foiled by people who guarded their vote.

    The PML-N vice president accused the ruling party of taking the “20 presiding officers” hostage. She questioned why out of the 361 polling stations, the staff of only 20 polling stations had to go missing during the “fog” and why were the results of these polling stations suddenly changed when the officers returned after 12 hours.

    On Friday, at least two people were shot dead as both PML-N and the PTI alleged irregularities during the by-election on the National Assembly seat in Daska. Subsequently, the Election Commission of Pakistan withheld the results, saying it suspected irregularities in 20 polling stations.

    The commission said results of the NA-75 constituency were received with “unnecessary delay”, adding that it tried to contact the presiding officers several times but with no success.

  • Lahore’s King Edward establishes new dept only to accommodate Dr Yasmin Rashid’s daughter?

    Reports in the local press have claimed that one of the country’s oldest and most prestigious medical colleges, the King Edward Medical University (KEMU), has set up a new department only to accommodate the daughter of Punjab Health Minister Dr Yasmin Rashid.

    It was alleged that KEMU established a sub-specialty within the maternity department for the sole purpose of accommodating Dr Ayesha Ali as an assistant professor of maternal-fetal medicine in grade 19.

    Maternal-fetal medicine, also known as perinatology, is a branch of medicine that focuses on managing health concerns of the mother and fetus prior to, during, and shortly after pregnancy.

    “She was appointed as a permanent employee while new appointments are usually made on a contractual basis,” a KEMU official was quoted as saying. Immediately after her appointment on January 12, she sought time off from her duties and flew to London, the official added.

    Reports further claimed that initially, a new department of fetal medicine was created at the Fatima Jinnah Medical University (FJMU) to accommodate the health minister’s daughter.

    “Dr Ayesha was even selected for the post of assistant professor [at FJMU], but the appointment was never notified amid outcry over favouritism,” reports claimed and added that the new department was then created at KEMU instead.

    AUTHORITIES RESPOND TO ALLEGATIONS:

    This scribe reached out to the varsity for an official version of events surrounding the appointment allegedly made only to accommodate the minister’s daughter.

    Speaking to The Current, KEMU Registrar Dr Riasat Ali did not comment on Dr Ayesha’s appointment in particular but clarified the establishment of the sub-specialty at the medical institute.

    “As many as four sub-specialties were created at the KEMU maternity department but there is no controversy in it since all departments, over the passage of time, witness advancements,” he said, adding that a sub-specialty was also established at the department of medicine earlier.

    The appointments for all four sub-specialties were made while following due procedure, on merit, and in light of the approval of the relevant authorities, including the varsity’s senate and syndicate, the registrar said.

    While Punjab Health Minister Dr Yasmin Rashid did not respond to The Current’s queries despite repeated attempts to contact her, Punjab Chief Minister (CM) Usman Buzdar’s focal person on digital media, Azhar Mashwani, has tweeted to clarify the establishment of the new sub-specialties in both KEMU and FJMU.

    “Dr Yasmin Rashid’s daughter is a fetal medicine specialist practicing in England. She was appointed as an associated professor on one of the eight positions at KEMU on merit and contractual basis,” he said in a subsequent tweet.

    Mashwani added that Dr Ayesha was quitting her job in the United Kingdom (UK) to come to Pakistan where she will officially join KEMU a month later.

  • Woman employed by in-laws of Pakistani media mogul alleges labour trafficking

    Rehana Bibi, who was reportedly hired by Geo/Jang CEO Mir Shakilur Rahman as a servant for his sister-in-law’s family in Virginia, has accused the Yahya family, whose home and children she cared for, and their Pakistan relatives, Mir Shakil and others, of engaging in human trafficking, according to a report in The Washington Post.

    Bibi has filed a case in a federal court in Alexandria, seeking damages. The case is in its early stages as of now, the US-based media outlet reported.

    Bibi was promised a “well-paying job as a maid” in Virginia, but after arriving in the US in 2013, she “spent the next five years effectively trapped in a Loudoun County home”.

    In a response submitted in the court by the Yahya family, they said the allegations are “as reprehensible as they are false”.

    “The conditions Bibi described would not amount to human trafficking,” the newspaper quoted the lawyer as saying. “Taking the allegations in the light most favorable to her, Ms Bibi was oppressed, not trapped,” he told the court.

    Mayfield notes that Bibi “was able to leave the first time she tried” and argues that “enduring unpleasant working conditions does not make someone a victim of trafficking or false imprisonment.”

    BIBI’s ORDEAL:

    Bibi, who has applied for asylum in the US because of potential threats she may face in Pakistan, told The Washington Post that she was considering suicide due to the treatment meted out by the Yayhas.

    “I have not seen anybody in my life, not even in Pakistan . . . treat anyone like that,” she said, adding her employer barred her from visiting Pakistan to attend the marriage of her daughters. “I couldn’t even watch the weddings on the family’s iPad.”

    The report said: “She slept on a mattress on the basement floor and kept her belongings in her suitcase, according to the complaint; for the first two years, she says, she was in a storage room infested with insects.”

    “Bibi maintains that she was confined because she spoke almost no English and was told she was in the country illegally. The visa she came to the country on was good for only one year. She says the family almost never let her out alone and warned her that if she went to the police, she would be arrested.”

    “I still have a lot of back pain from carrying heavy loads for the family. She also has gaps in her smile from the teeth she lost during her service,” she told the Post. “I was scared all the time,” she said. “I cannot forget these memories.”

  • Pakistani-American lobbyist, who donated for Trump and Kamala Harris, jailed for 12 years

    The American Federal Court in California has convicted a Pakistani-American political donor for violation of the Foreign Act, awarding him twelve years in prison along with a hefty penalty of $15.705 million in restitution and $1.75 million in criminal fine.

    According to The News, 50-year-old Imaad Shah Zuberi of Arcadia was sentenced by US District Judge Virginia A Phillips for forging records to conceal his work as a foreign agent while lobbying high-level US officials, evading the payment of millions of dollars in taxes, making illegal campaign contributions, and obstructing a federal investigation into the source of donations to a presidential inauguration committee.

    Zuberi was born in Pakistan and migrated to the US with his parents when he was just three-years-old. Eventually, he secured US citizenship.

    In 1996, Zuberi served in the US Army for about six months and was honourably discharged after sustaining a knee injury. He received a BSc in 1997 from the University of Southern California and an MBA in 2006 from Stanford University.

    The Pakistani-origin man was facing charges of donating $900,000 to the Trump inaugural committee. He was also a top fundraiser for former president Barack Obama’s re-election campaign in 2012, Dawn reported.

    He donated at least $100,000 for Hilary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign and also raised funds for Republican Senator Lindsey Graham in 2014, and then-California attorney general Kamala Harris, now vice president, in 2015.

    In November 2019, Zuberi pleaded guilty to a three-count information charging him with violating the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) by making false statements on a FARA filing, tax evasion, and making illegal campaign contributions.

    In June 2020, Zuberi pleaded guilty in a separate case to one count of obstruction of justice. His sentence today pertains to both cases.

    “The violations were part of a larger surreptitious effort to route foreign money into US elections and to use it to corrupt the US policy-making processes,” prosecutors said in a court filing.

    They also pleaded the court to reject Zuberi’s claim that funnelling money to influence US policy-making and elections was the “way America works”.

    “Zuberi turned acting as an unregistered foreign agent into a business enterprise,” said Assistant Attorney General for National Security John C Demers, adding, “He used foreign money to fund illegal campaign contributions that bought him political influence, and used that influence to lobby US officials for policy changes on behalf of numerous foreign principals.”

    “Zuberi flouted federal laws that restrict foreign influences upon our government and prohibit injecting foreign money into our political campaigns. He enriched himself by defrauding his clients and evading the payment of taxes,” said Acting US Attorney Tracy L Wilkison for the Central District of California.

    “Today’s sentence, which also accounts for Zuberi’s attempt to obstruct an investigation into his felonious conduct, underscores the importance of our ongoing efforts to maintain transparency in U.S. elections and policy-making processes.”

  • China shares dramatic footage of deadly clash with India troops

    China shares dramatic footage of deadly clash with India troops

    Dramatic footage released by Chinese state media purportedly shows deadly clashes between troops at the Indian border last year — a rare insight into violence at the tense, remote frontier.

    China’s defence ministry on Friday named four soldiers killed in the brawl, in the first confirmation of deaths by Beijing from an incident that had also claimed the lives of at least 20 Indian soldiers.

    Footage later released by state broadcaster CCTV appeared to show Indian troops wading through a river towards Chinese soldiers in the barren and ice-covered Karakoram Mountains, carrying sticks and shields reading “police”.

    A bilateral accord prevents the use of guns by either side, and brutal clashes between the two sides on the ill-defined border often involve sticks, rocks and fist-fights.

    “They have now moved another new tent here,” one soldier says in the video, which claims the Indian side broke the consensus and crossed the line to “provoke” the Chinese soldiers.

    Later footage shows a large melee of troops from both sides and clashes in the dark, before Chinese soldiers are seen treating a man on the floor whose head is covered in blood.

    The high-altitude border battle in the Galwan valley in June was one of the deadliest clashes between the two sides in recent decades.

    Beijing acknowledged that the clash had resulted in casualties but did not confirm if any Chinese soldiers died until this week.

    The CCTV voiceover said the Chinese soldiers were “heroically sacrificed”.

    Battalion commander Chen Hongjun and three other soldiers have been given posthumous awards, the defence ministry said. State media reported that the youngest soldier to die was 19.

    India and China fought a border war in 1962 and have long accused each other of seeking to cross their frontier — which has never been properly agreed — in India’s Ladakh region, just opposite Tibet.

    Beijing and New Delhi later sent tens of thousands of extra troops to the border, but said last week they had agreed to “disengage” along the border area.

  • IN PICTURES: Celal Al welcomes Humayun, Adnan and Reema to Turkey

    IN PICTURES: Celal Al welcomes Humayun, Adnan and Reema to Turkey

    Turkish actor Celal Al on Sunday welcomed Pakistani actors Humayun Saeed, Reema Khan, Sadia Khan and Adnan Siddiqui in Turkey.

    Sharing a picture of Pakistani celebrities enjoying their meals together in his Instagram stories, Celal wrote: “Adnan, Humayun, Reema and Sadia welcome to Istanbul. Turkey-Pakistan brotherhood zindabad.”

    Earlier, Humayun Saeed and Adnan Siddiqui left their fans excited when they informed them of their visit to Turkey.

    Reema also shared a picture with the production team of Diriliş: Ertuğrul on her Instagram account.

    Later Reema shared some fascinating pictures and video of their tour to Hagia Sophia Mosque. Posting a video on Instagram, she also shared the history of this Mosque and wrote: “The world-famous Hagia Sophia mosque ( Which has converted into museum also in Istanbul. A world Heritage site, was originally built as a cathedral around 1,500 years ago by the Bazantine Empire.”

    She also shared some pictures of the meetup with Kamal Tekdin, the famous series’ executive producer and other participants.

    Adnan Siddiqui also took to Instagram and shared a video of their tour. Sharing how he felt, the actor wrote: “It was spellbinding to offer prayer at the iconic Hagia Sophia Holy Grand Mosque. It is grand in ever sense of the word—history, beauty, political significance.”

    “A little lesson in history for those who may not be aware. The world-famous Hagia Sophia museum in Istanbul, also a UNESCO World Heritage site, was originally built as a cathedral around 1500 years ago by the Byzantine empire. The architectural marvel was converted into a mosque after the Ottoman conquest in 1453. In 1934, it became a museum,” he added.

    “Only in July last year, it became a mosque again and opened for prayer and worship,” he wrote.

    Earlier this year, a Turkish delegation comprising Diriliş: Ertuğrul executive producer Tekdin and actor Celal visited Pakistan where they met Prime Minister Imran Khan, Minister for Information and Broadcasting Shibli Faraz, Shehryar Afridi, Humayun and Adnan. It was reported that the two countries are working together on a joint production to strengthen ties and people-to-people contact. This tour of Pakistani celebrities to Turkey depicts that something very interesting is coming our way.

  • Muhammad Hafeez’s daughter recreates ‘Pawri Horai Hai’

    Muhammad Hafeez’s daughter recreates ‘Pawri Horai Hai’

    Pakistani all-rounder Muhammad Hafeez’s daughter has recreated the ‘Pawri Horai hai’ meme and this is the cutest remake of the video you will see on the internet today.

    Hafeez took to Instagram to share the video with a caption: “Love u, Amal”. 

     The video shows Amal Hafeez sitting on a car as she dances on the rap song ‘Pawri Hori Hai’.

    The trend started after an influencer, Dananeer Mobeen, shared a video clip partying with her friends in front of a car. In the video, she was heard saying: “Yeh hamari car hai, yeh hum hain, aur yeh hamari pawri ho rai hai” (This is our car, this is us, and this is our party).

    Also Read: Mahira Khan, Deepika Padukone, Shahid Kapoor join ‘Pawri Ho Rai Hai’ bandwagon

    Soon after the video went viral, ‘Pawri Ho Rai Hai’ became a major meme trend in Pakistan and also across the border. Many celebrities from Pakistan and India recreated the ‘Pawri Horai Hai’ meme.

  • PSL 6 opening floods social media with memes

    PSL 6 opening floods social media with memes

    The sixth edition of the Pakistan Super League (PSL) started with a virtual opening ceremony on Saturday evening followed by the first match between Karachi Kings and Quetta Gladiators at the National Stadium in Karachi.

    The opening ceremony featured Atif Aslam, Rapper Imran Khan, Aima Baig, Naseebo Laal, Humaima Malik and Young Stunners.

    Soon after the ceremony ended, social media started to flood with memes.

    https://twitter.com/N_seharBaig/status/1363168189375344641?s=20

    Also Read: Memes comparing white vs brown things are lit

    https://twitter.com/moinshah235/status/1363140871546355713?s=20

    https://twitter.com/MemesByZayn/status/1363170905917063169?s=20

    What did you think of the ceremony? Let The Current know in the comments…

  • US, France may oppose Pakistan’s bid to exit FATF grey list: report

    US, France may oppose Pakistan’s bid to exit FATF grey list: report

    France and some other European countries have recommended the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) to continue to keep Pakistan on the grey list, saying Islamabad has allegedly failed to comply with the conditions set by the global watchdog, according to a report in Dawn newspaper.

    The virtual FATF plenary will be held in Paris from February 22 to 25 to consider cases of various countries on the grey list, including Pakistan. The final decision will be made at the conclusion of the meetings. If Pakistan fails to satisfy the FATF in the meeting, it will remain on the grey list till June, said reports.

    FATF had placed Pakistan on the list in June 2018.

    France and some other European countries believe that Islamabad has failed to fulfil the FATF criteria.

    Paris has reservations over Pakistan’s response to the blasphemous cartoons issue, said a journalist quoted by the newspaper. The report said that Pakistan and France do not enjoy good diplomatic ties, which is evident from the fact that Islamabad doesn’t even have an envoy in the European country.

    Meanwhile, the US is reportedly irked by the verdict in the Daniel Pearl case. Omer Saeed Sheikh, a prime accused in the murder of US journalist Pearl, was acquitted by the Pakistani Supreme Court much to the chagrin of Washington. It is feared that the US may oppose Pakistan’s bid to exit the grey list.

    On the other hand, Pakistan has said that it has complied with all the FATF recommendations to curb the terror financing and money laundering.

    In its last meeting held in Oct 2020, FATF had decided to keep Pakistan on the grey list till Feb 2021 because it failed to fulfill six out of 27 recommendations to combat terror financing.

    “Pakistan has already complied with the six recommendations and also submitted details to the FATF secretariat. The members would now evaluate Pakistan’s responses during the meeting…Pakistan had made significant progress in legislation as well as its implementation,” Dawn reported.

    In 2020, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf government had got three laws — the Anti-Money Laundering (second amendment) Bill-2020, Anti-Terrorism Act (ATA) (third amendment) Bill-2020 and Islamabad Capital Territory Waqf Properties Bill-2020 — passed in a joint sitting of parliament to fulfil the legal requirements of FATF.

    PROTEST OUTSIDE FATF OFFICE:

    Meanwhile, a protest was held outside the FATF office in Paris by dissident Pakistani activists and journalists, who are in self-imposed exile. In a press release, the protesters said that the FATF should not “be blackmailed by China” over the issue of terror financing.

    The protesters said China has defended Pakistan at various multilateral forums on the issue of terrorism, urging FATF to take action against Pakistan over alleged support to the banned terror outfits.