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Author: newsdesk
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Newsletter- 29th January 2021, Friday
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UN chief urges Pakistan, India to resolve Kashmir conflict through talks
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres Thursday called on nuclear-armed India and Pakistan to “come together and seriously discuss their problems” stemming from the unresolved Kashmir dispute, saying his good offices are always available for mediation.
Replying to a question from APP correspondent Iftikhar Ali at his first press conference in 2021, the UN chief warned that there was no “military solution” to the decades-old conflict.
“It is clear when seeing Pakistan and India, any military confrontation between the two would be a disaster of unmitigated proportions for both countries and for the whole world,” he warned.
“I do believe that is absolutely essential to have a de-escalation of the situation, namely in the Line of Control” in the disputed Kashmir region, Guterres said, adding, “I think it’s absolutely essential for the two countries to be able to come together and seriously discuss their problems.”
“And,” he added, “I think it’s essential that human rights are fully respected in all territories that you mentioned,” referring to the question in which the correspondent highlighted the continuing rights abuses in the Indian occupied Kashmir.
He said he stood by his statement of Aug. 8, 2019, which called for the resolution of the Kashmir dispute based on UN resolutions and the UN Charter.
“Now, things have not moved in the right direction, our good offices are always available, and we will insist within it on finding peaceful solutions for problems that have no military solution.”
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Trans model Rimal Ali joins PTI
Transgender model Rimal Ali has joined the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) to contribute to the welfare sector.
The model was allegedly kidnapped and tortured just a couple of days ago and the incident has motivated her to make a difference in society by joining politics.
Ali has also been appointed as coordinator for gender discrimination of the Insaf Welfare Wing.
The celebrity rose to international fame as Pakistan’s first transgendered model. After the horrific incident she had gone through, she hopes to strengthen her community by joining politics.
Visuals of the torture incident have been doing the rounds on the internet and netizens have supported Ali while raising their voices for the transgender community.
Photo Credit: The Express Tribune Ali will continue to work in the showbiz industry along with politics.
“I will continue my showbiz career and nowadays I am engaged in various projects. In the coming days, my fans will see me in the drama industry and more films,” Ali told The Express Tribune.
“I was appreciated by the public when I started my career and luckily have gotten opportunities to work with legendary actors like Mahira Khan. Showbiz is my passion and I will not leave it. In these uncertain days, the situation in the industry is a bit disturbed due to COVID-19. But like many others, I am also struggling through this difficult time.”
Earlier, Ali made her film debut in Saat Din Mohabbat In and Rahbra. Soon after, many from the community started their film careers.
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PM thinks election every five years is a ‘tragedy’
Prime Minister (PM) Imran Khan has said that no nation could move forward without long-term planning and it was tragic that governments in Pakistan could not do so due to the general election being held every five years.
According to The News, the premier, while addressing a function in connection with documentary-drama ‘Paani Ke Pankh‘ on Thursday, termed the 10 years of the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) governments from 2008 through 2018 the “decade of darkness, marred by massive corruption, political expediency and inefficiency”.
“When criminals become country heads, then no country can develop. So, one has to have faith in oneself. There are talented Pakistanis in every field outside Pakistan. The country’s system has to be fixed,” he said.
“It takes a little time; people should not worry that the change has not come yet. It takes time to change the mindset. It’s tragic that in our country elections are held every five years due to which we do not have a long-term plan,” he continued.
He said dams were built with a long-term plan and cited China as a country that is becoming the world’s fastest growing economic power and superpower because of long-term planning.
“When we visited China, they told us what they were going to do in the next 10 to 20 years. No nation can move forward unless it has a long-term plan and thinks ahead. Unfortunately, we have a period of five years. We try to accomplish everything in five years, spend billions of rupees on advertisements and then fight elections on it,” he pointed out.
Imran believed that this handicap had done a lot of damage to Pakistan.
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Fauji Foundation to buy majority stake in Silkbank
Silkbank has agreed to sell majority of its stake to Fauji Foundation, an army-owned conglomerate that owns Askari Bank.
“Silkbank hereby notifies the Pakistan Stock Exchange that the Board of Directors of Silkbank Limited in its meeting held on January 28, 2021, has subject to the approval of the State Bank of Pakistan, given its in-principle approval to allow Fauji Foundation to conduct the required due diligence,” a statement issued by the Silkbank read.
The financial terms of the deal were not made public, but the bank management has asked Fauji Foundation to conduct due diligence and the State Bank of Pakistan has been approached for permission in this regard.
Silkbank, formerly Saudi-Pak Commercial Bank, is mainly owned by Arif Habib Corp. with 28 percent shareholding, former finance adviser Shaukat Tarin (12 percent), International Finance Corporation (8 percent), Nomura (4 percent) and Bank of Muscat (3 percent), the report said.
The bank is profitable with net profit recorded at Rs151 million for the nine-month period of the calendar year 2020.
Fauji Foundation, also known as Fauji Group, runs more than 18 industries, including Askari Bank.
According to the website of Fauji Foundation, it is a trust that provides welfare services to its beneficiaries [ex-servicemen] that include healthcare, subsidized education, stipends and vocational and technical training. “It operates on a complete self-sustaining basis and receives no grants or assistance from any government or non-governmental Organisations,” it read.
It is also one of the largest business conglomerates operating in fertilizer, cement, power generation, renewable energy, oil & gas exploration, marine terminal, food and banking sectors of the country, as per the website.
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Kapil Sharma wishes to visit Kartarpur Sahib
Kapil Sharma has expressed his desire to visit Kartarpur Sahib in Pakistan.
In an #AskKapil session on Twitter, the Indian comedian, while responding to a Pakistani user, who asked him if there is any chance of him visiting Pakistan, Kapil said: “I want to visit Kartarpur Sahib”.
“Let’s see when,” he added.
Speculations of Kapil’s show going off-air have been circulating for some time now. When one Twitter user asked Sharma about this, he said that he is taking some time off to be “at home with my wife to welcome our second baby.” However, details about
Meanwhile, Kapil is also gearing up for the release of his upcoming film on Netflix. Earlier this month, Kapil took to Twitter to make an announcement about his upcoming project. However, it is still unclear whether the project is a comedy special, series, or film.
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FBR goes after NAB for not paying Rs69 crores in taxes
The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has served a notice to the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) for costing the country a whopping Rs690 million (Rs69 crores).
As per the details, NAB did not deduct 15% withholding tax while paying damages worth over Rs4 billion (Rs4 Arab) in the Broadsheet case.
The News quoted sources as saying that a notice on behalf of the International Tax Department of FBR under Section 152 of FBR Ordinance was sent to NAB to pay the said amount.
The notice said it had come to the knowledge of tax department that NAB had paid damages to Broadsheet LLC — the United Kingdom (UK) based company roped in during military ruler Pervez Musharraf’s regime to track down foreign assets purchased by Pakistani politicians “through looted money”.
“NAB had to deduct 15% withholding tax and deposit it to the national exchequer at the time of payment under the Income Tax Ordinance, but it was not followed,” it said.
The fine was paid to the UK-based firm after NAB ended with it the asset recovery agreement in 2003, pushing Broadsheet as a third party to move the London High Court for damages.
The UK-based companies claimed that Pakistan owed them money according to the terms agreed upon since the government was taking action to seize assets identified by the firm, including the Avenfiled Apartments of the Sharif family.
After much drama, an arbitration court of London had imposed a $20 million fine on NAB in the Broadsheet case. However, NAB had to pay an extra $9 million under the head of mark-up due to non-payment on time.
The court in London had withdrawn over $28 million partially in this regard by freezing accounts of the Pakistan High Commission.
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Father of minor driver in Multan fined Rs 1000
The father of a minor boy in Multan whose video driving a Land Cruiser SUV went viral on social media on Monday has surrendered to the police. The police had reportedly formed two teams to trace the boy and his parents.
As per reports, the father came to a police station with his son on Thursday.
The boy drove the car out of his home without telling his parents, a police official told Samaa TV. The vehicle was seized and the father was booked under the Motor Vehicles Ordinance, he added.
The father was fined Rs 1,000 for negligence. He has also submitted an affidavit to the police stating that the incident occurred due to his negligence and will not happen again.
The man and his son were allowed to go home after submitting surety bonds.
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Zeb Bangash is not happy with Bollywood’s rendition of ‘Bibi Sanam’
Zeb Bangash is disappointed with Bollywood’s version of Bibi Sanam. Performed originally by Zeb and Haniya on Coke Studio, the international hit landed up in the Hindi film Cabaret, where it was sung by Usha Uthup.
In an opinion piece published on Scroll India, Bangash wrote: “From the moment my cousin Haniya and I released our version of Bibi Sanam on Coke Studio, it resonated with people from Kabul to Kolkata and beyond, becoming one of our most-loved and celebrated numbers. Its success spawned many other versions on YouTube and it was a delight to see and hear people from all over the world engaging with the song with so much love.”
She continued: “In time, many classic versions were uploaded. In 2013, inspired by Ustaad Shamsuddin Masrur’s performance of the song in the 1960s, I recorded an entirely fresh version of Bibi Sanam with my Brooklyn-based band SANDARAA. Not surprisingly, this version became a crowd-pleaser on SANDARAA tours even to predominantly Western audiences in North America.”
Zeb further wrote: “I came across a recently uploaded Bibi Sanam video from a Bollywood film. The film was completed a few years ago, but I hadn’t heard of or seen it. I was eager to see what space had been carved out for this beautiful folk classic by the multi-billion dollar industry we all follow and participate in so actively. The names attached to the project heightened my excitement. Usha Uthup, whose beautiful spirit and voice has inspired me since childhood, and Richa Chadha, an actor I respect as someone who stood up against objectification of women on the silver screen.”
However, the song left the singer disappointed.
“I finally heard the song, I was unsettled, disappointed by its re-imagining. I could not find Richa’s spirit or Usha’s voice in the song, neither could I find the soul of Qandahar, Tajqurghan, Kabul jaan, or Sisstaan — all the places the song has referenced,” wrote Zeb while expressing her thoughts on the rendition.
“Instead, the song was forcibly put in a place it was never meant for. I must admit it deeply disturbed me to see a cover of our loving tribute/rendition juxtaposed against the general ongoings of a forgettable Bollywood item song. What was infused into the innocence, the freshness, and sweetness of Sistaan is unwanted aggressive sexuality. Sadly, it felt perhaps for the first time a version has compromised the beauty of an ancient poetic, musical and spiritual tradition.”
Zeb said that the Bollywood version depicting gyrating women dancing around poles raises a stream of uncomfortable questions for her.
The singer further wrote: “The past 12 months, we saw social movements promoting inclusion and equality, we participated in them virtually and created a real global social impact. Social media provides an opportunity for authentic and discerning collaborations. In the context of this hyper-connected environment, I need to ask whether we as artists and content creators are making lazy and uninformed artistic choices?”
“When you sing a song in a new language, you acquire an intimacy not only with the music, but also its people, as you gain access to its stories and histories. You then suffuse it with your own histories and culture – if done right, it is always a process of inclusion. This is especially true for rich spiritual soundscapes. Is it too much to hope that this can culminate in evolution beyond the item number?” she questioned.
“When a dominant cultural machine imposes its careless vulgarity upon lesser-known spiritual traditions, it can undermine the culture and ultimately re-form and warp an identity from sacred to profane.”
“Bibi Sanam has always possessed a mesmerising quality, magic kept alive for centuries, by artists and audiences, meshed with their personal memory, experience, and history. For me the Bollywood version is a disservice to the song’s meaning and the culture it comes from,” she concluded.
Zebunisa Bangash is a Pakistani singer-songwriter from Lahore. Her family originally hails from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Given her prolific career and her ability to sing in various languages and appeal to audiences of all ages across cultures and continents, it is no wonder that Zeb has a huge international fan following around the world.
Meanwhile, earlier Osman Khalid Butt had also criticised the Bollywood version of the iconic song.
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‘Enraged’ US wants to prosecute acquitted suspects in Daniel Pearl murder case
The White House has expressed “outrage” that Pakistan’s Supreme Court ordered the release of an Islamist convicted of beheading American journalist Daniel Pearl.
Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh, who was the main suspect in the 2002 kidnapping and murder of the Wall Street Journal reporter, was acquitted by a panel of three judges.
White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki called the decision “an affront to terror victims everywhere” and said Washington is “committed to securing justice for Daniel Pearl’s family.”
At her daily briefing, Psaki called on the Pakistani government to quickly review legal options, including letting the United States prosecute those acquitted.
The Pakistani court decision comes at a sensitive time in US-Pakistani relations as new President Joe Biden’s administration reviews Afghanistan’s peace process in which Pakistan is a key player.
SC ORDERS RELEASE OF SHEIKH:
The Supreme Court dismissed a series of appeals against the acquittal of the British-born militant convicted of masterminding the kidnap and murder of US journalist Daniel Pearl, paving the way for his release.
“The court has come out to say that there is no offence that he has committed in this case,” Mahmood Sheikh, who represented Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh, told AFP.
The three-judge bench directed authorities to release Sheikh who was sentenced to death for his role in the plot.
During the hearing, the Sindh advocate general told the court that the prime suspect has links to banned outfits. He added that the Sindh government submitted sensitive information to the top court in a sealed envelope. At this, the court responded that the evidence submitted by the authorities in the case was not enough to convict Sheikh.
In a dramatic turn of events on Wednesday, Sheik admitted a “minor” role in the death of Pearl. That testimony was at odds with 18 years of denial about his involvement in the killing.
A letter handwritten by the accused in 2019, in which he admits limited involvement in the death, was submitted to Pakistan’s Supreme Court nearly two weeks earlier.
Last month, the United States government had also issued a statement expressing concerns over the acquittal of Sheikh by the Sindh High Court.
“We are deeply concerned by the reports of the December 24 ruling of Sindh High Court to release multiple terrorists responsible for the murder of Daniel Pearl. We have been assured that the accused have not been released at this time,” said the State Department in a series of tweets in response to the ruling of the high court.