Author: newsdesk

  • ‘Disgraceful & insulting’: PTV sends cheque worth Rs 1400 to Simi Raheal

    ‘Disgraceful & insulting’: PTV sends cheque worth Rs 1400 to Simi Raheal

    Simi Raheal is furious with the management of Pakistan Television Corporation(PTV) for sending her a cheque of worth Rs 1400 only.

    Sharing a picture of it on social media, the actor said: “This is how artists are honoured by the state! This is the acknowledgement of Pakistan Television. After four decades, this was truly appalling!”

    While fellow actors, fans and members of the media industry extended their support to Simi and criticised PTV for their act, others told the veteran actor to not make a big deal out of it.

    Later, in a social media post, Simi, thanked those who supported her and explained that her reason for voicing her concern was not about money but was “about social attitudes concerning art and artists”.

    “It’s quite visible what people think of artists,” she said. “This dialogue this debate was essential. It does not matter what the actual amount is or should have been it’s about the respect regard of an artist.”

    She also explained her stance while replying to multiple users who left comments on her post.

    It is pertinent to add here that Raheal is not the only actor who accused PTV of mistreating artists. Earlier this year, senior actor Rashid Mahmood bashed PTV for sending him a cheque of Rs 620 of which Rs 500 is the Pride of Performance fees, leaving him with only Rs 120.

    The baffled actor has voiced his confusion and distaste on social media, saying “What are the criteria of paying a Pride of Performance winner in this country and who spent 50 years of [his] life in PTV.”

    Later, in a video message, he shared how he was invited to recite a marsiya two years ago in Muharram.

    “I hadn’t really received any work opportunities from PTV in the past two years. During Muharram, Pakistan Television Lahore had commissioned me to recite Mir Anees’s marsiya. I recorded it and it aired on the 9th and 10th Muharram multiple times. After two years, I received a cheque of only Rs 620,” he said, referring to the compensation as an ‘insult’.

    “In this Naya Pakistan, will my mother institute insult me and give me this sort of attitude? People whose worth in the showbiz industry is questionable take Rs 1.5 to 2.5 million. Today I announce that I will never work for PTV,” he lamented.

    PTV management later apologised to Mahmood and clarified that the cheque was “mistakenly issued in his name”.

    However, PTV then issued a new cheque to the veteran actor which was worth Rs 9600 only. Posting a picture of the new cheque, Mahmood said that he will not work with PTV in the future and will not be cashing the cheques either.

  • AirSial to start flights by mid-December

    AirSial to start flights by mid-December

    After a months-long delay due to the coronavirus pandemic, AirSial is finally here. The private airline owned by the Sialkot Chamber of Commerce and Industry will start its operations from next month, and its first Airbus A320-200 plane has already arrived in Sialkot this Sunday.

    AirSial was among six new airlines that had applied to the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) for regular public transport (RPT) licences in 2018. However, following the issuance of the permit, it had faced an uncertain future after its launch scheduled for May 2020 was indefinitely postponed due to the coronavirus pandemic among other reasons.

    But, the arrival of its fleet from the US means the private airline is all-set to launch its flights operations. Meanwhile,

    reports also claim that PM Imran Khan will inaugurate the private airline on Dec 9, but the operations would be started much later. It will operate flights between Karachi, Lahore, Islamabad, Sialkot and Peshawar before expanding operations to the other cities.

    Initially, the airline’s operations will rely on three Airbus A320-200s, which have been leased from AerCap, the world’s largest independent aircraft leasing company, based in Dublin, Ireland.

    According to an AirSial official quoted by Dawn, two more aircraft would arrive soon in Sialkot, one of them on Dec 3, to join the new airline’s fleet.

    Reacting to the development, cricketer Shoaib Malik, who hails from Sialkot, said it was a “proud moment for everyone in Sialkot, who has been a part of the process”.

  • Robbers loot social media influencer who flaunted wealth in posts

    Robbers loot social media influencer who flaunted wealth in posts

    Muggers looted over Rs 84.8 million from a Hong Kong social media influencer after she flaunted her wealth online.

    According to details, 25-year-old So Mei-yan, who has 86,000 followers on Instagram, became famous for showing off her luxury lifestyle. Sharing details of the incident, Mei-yan said that three men burst into her home in Hong Kong with knives while she and her son were sleeping. They tied her, her six-month-old baby boy and his 45-year-old nanny up and then robbed her blind.

    Following the incident, she appealed to thousands of her followers for help and to bring the robbers to justice, offering £194,000 as an incentive.

    In a statement, police said: “As the doorbell rang, the maid opened the door and three men rushed into the unit.”

    As per reports, Mei-yan was sleeping in the master bedroom of her flat while her baby was in the sitting room with the helper at the time of the incident.

    The police spokesman then said that two of the robbers were either carrying a ‘fruit knife or a wooden rod.’

    The robbers then tied her and the child’s helper up with the tape and pushed them into the babies room, where one stood guard and the other two searched the flat.

    But the robbers became increasingly frustrated when they couldn’t find any cash and returned to Mei-yan, punching her in the face and repeating their demands.

    Mei-yan went on to explain, “One of them returned and pulled my hair asking where I put my money.”

    It is thought that the robbers could have gained all the information about her wealth via her social media account where she is famous for flaunting her goods.

    Eventually the displeased thieves settled for her luxury items which she says were worth hundreds of thousands.

    After the thieves had left, she managed to wriggle out of her restraints and call the police.

  • IN PICTURES: Fawad Khan’s intimate birthday bash

    IN PICTURES: Fawad Khan’s intimate birthday bash

    Fawad Khan, who rarely makes an appearance on social media and in the public, recently celebrated his 39th birthday with close friends and wife Sadaf Fawad in an intimate birthday bash.

    Pictures of the celebrations were shared by those in attendance on social media. Among those present included Fawad’s long-time co-star Mahira Khan, The Legend of Maula Jatt’s director Bilal Lashari and producer Ammara Hikmat. Fashion designer Rana Noman, hair stylist Shammal Qureshi and Redah Misbah were also present at the party.

    The birthday boy cut a beautiful yellow, fondant cake decorated with flowers.

    Meanwhile, Fawad also gave his guests a sneak peak into his new studio.

  • Mehwish Hayat is done with people setting her up

    Mehwish Hayat is done with people setting her up

    “Who I choose to marry is my personal decision and people will know when it happens,” said an exasperated Mehwish Hayat in a recent tweet.

    “Take a chill pill guys and stop matchmaking,” she added.

    The actor also requested people to stop taking “a throwaway line in a 2-year-old interview out of context” and making “unnecessarily juicy headlines”.

    Mehwish’s tweet comes after multiple media outlets reported that the actor ‘desires’ to marry Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari. The reports were in reference to an interview of her’s in which host Begum Nawazish Ali had asked her what physical attributes her ideal man should have.

    In response, Mehwish had said that her ideal man should be tall and should have “swag”.

    “I think a man should look like a man,” she had said.

    Read more – Mehwish Hayat’s crush has been updated after watching ‘Diriliş: Ertuğrul’

    Begum Nawazish then told Mehwish that she had the perfect man in mind – one who was tall, important, influential and had a political legacy.

    Mehwish, in response, laughed and said: “Bilawal?” to which Begum Nawazish said: “I didn’t say it. But now that you’ve said Bilawal, what is wrong with him?”

    “There is nothing wrong with him. I think he is very good-looking,” Mehwish had replied.

    When Begum Nawazish asked her if she should discuss this with Bilawal, Mehwish said: “Mujhe kya aitraaz ho sakta hai? As long as we click.”

  • Bilawal says money mother Benazir left him is enough

    Bilawal says money mother Benazir left him is enough

    Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari has said that he is financially dependent on his father Asif Ali Zardari because income from the lands he inherited from his mother is not enough to meet his political expenditure.

    In an interview with Sohail Warriach, the PPP chief said the income from the land bequeathed to him by his mother, Benazir Bhutto, was enough to meet his personal needs, but he has to ask his father for money when it comes to expenses related to politics. “We live in a joint family system,” the PPP said.

    Bilawal said he was not interested in starting a business for the sake of money. The PPP chief said he doesn’t get time to handle the financial affairs of his lands. “I try, but I cannot do it any good because of the lack of time,” he responded to a question.

    The agriculture technology used in Pakistan is also outdated, so it is not a lot of money, Bilawal said, adding that he was thankful to Allah and his mother because she worked hard to take care of him and his siblings.

    Bilawal, who was 19 at the time of the death of his mother in a blast in Rawalpindi in 2007, was named as the chairperson of the PPP by Benazir in her will.

  • Govt to bring new law restricting children from evicting aging parents from their homes

    The Prime Minister (PM) Imran Khan-led government is considering a proposal to promulgate an ordinance that would restrict children from evicting their aging parents from their homes.

    According to Dawn, Federal Law Minister Dr Farogh Naseem has discussed the proposal with the premier to promulgate the ordinance to prescribe the right of parents to evict their children and their spouses and protect the rights of parents living with their children, a Law Ministry statement said.

    He informed PM Imran that the ordinance should focus on three things:

    1. Firstly, It should restrain children from evicting their parents from their homes if the houses are owned by the children.
    2. Secondly, if the houses are owned by parents, they should have the right to evict children and their spouses through simple procedures i.e. within 10 days through intervention of the police or district management.
    3. Thirdly, if houses are constructed with funds provided by parents or grandparents, but they are registered in the names of children, some remedy is to be provided to parents till the time they are alive.

    The minister told the PM that if such an ordinance were promulgated, it would earn the premier, law minister, the entire cabinet and also the president prayers of all parents of Pakistan.

    “Within a matter of seconds, the PM approved the proposal and asked me to urgently draft the ordinance,” reports quoted Naseem as saying.

  • Coin mistakenly stuck in nose surgically removed after five decades

    Coin mistakenly stuck in nose surgically removed after five decades

    A Russian man had mistakenly put a coin in his nose when he was only six years old. It was surgically removed from his nose when he complained of a breathing problem at the age of 59.

    Doctors in Russia said they recently faced a unique case when the patient told them he was unable to breathe through his right nostril for the past several months.

    CT scan of the patient showed his nose was blocked by some object. Following an endoscopy, doctors were surprised to discover that a coin was stuck in the man’s nose.

    When they discussed it with the patient, he remembered how he had mistakenly put the coin in his nose when he was six and did not tell anyone about it because he was afraid of his strict mother.

  • KYA BOLA? (Nov 30): ‘NAB Ki Shikayat’, ‘Phly Corruption Aur Ab Corona’, ‘Police Danda Uthaye Tou Ap Ko Bhi Ijazat Ha’

    KYA BOLA? (Nov 30): ‘NAB Ki Shikayat’, ‘Phly Corruption Aur Ab Corona’, ‘Police Danda Uthaye Tou Ap Ko Bhi Ijazat Ha’

    Following are some snippets that stood out from Urdu newspapers on November 30, 2020, which The Current takes no responsibility for.

    ‘NAB Ki Shikayat’

    Senate Deputy Chairman Saleem Mandviwalla has approached the prime minister and the army chief against NAB, reported Daily Jang. “Parliamentarians mushkilaat ka shikaar hain, band Kamron mai logon ko zaleel kiya jata ha, NAB officers ky assasy awam ky samny laon ga,” said Mandviwalla.

    ‘Phly Corruption Aur Ab Corona’

    Punjab CM Usman Buzdar has blamed the opposition for second wave of coronavirus, reported Dunya News. Buzdar was reported as saying: “Corona taqreeban khatam hony ky qareeb tha, opposition ki bad-tadbeeri ny dobara zindagi di. Mustarrad-shuda annasir ny phly corruption ka virus phelaya aur ab ye coronavirus phela rahy hain.”

    ‘Police Danda Uthaye Tou Kaarkunan Ko Bhi Ijazat’

    JUI-F chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman has said PDM rally in Multan will be held at all cost and use of violence will be met with violence, reported Daily Jang. Fazl was quoted as saying: “Kaarkun tammam rukawatin torr kr Multan jalsy mai shirkat karin. Agar police danda istemaal kary tou aap ko bhi danda istemaal karny ki ijazat ha.”

  • PCB reacts to sexual abuse allegations against skipper Babar Azam

    PCB reacts to sexual abuse allegations against skipper Babar Azam

    Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) Director of Media and Communications Samiul Hassan has said that the sexual violence allegations against skipper Babar Azam were a personal matter and the board could not comment on it.

    According to Jang, the board’s spokesperson was responding to a question posed by the Urdu daily after a damning press conference by one Hamiza of Lahore, who claims to be Babar’s schoolfellow and neighbour.

    Addressing the presser on Saturday, the woman had claimed that the young cricketer tricked her into love and marriage.

    “When I asked him to marry me, he tortured me,” she said.

    Hamiza said that she had financially supported Babar when he was struggling with his career, adding that she spent millions of rupees on him.

    “When I called the PCB to lodge a complaint, they said that it was a personal matter,” she continued.

    While PCB’s response to media queries adds weight to the woman’s claims, her lawyer says that an FIR [First Information Report] had been lodged with the Lahore Capital City Police Officer (CCPO) regarding the matter but no action was taken. 

    Hamiza’s petition is now pending at a sessions court, which is scheduled for a hearing on December 4. The sexual harassment case will be heard on December 5.

    Babar, who is in New Zealand for a three-match T20I series and a two-match Test series, on the other hand, is yet to make a statement on the matter.