Author: newsdesk

  • VIDEO: Army, ISI chiefs accused of toppling Nawaz govt

    VIDEO: Army, ISI chiefs accused of toppling Nawaz govt

    Former prime minister Nawaz Sharif has accused Chief of Army Staff (COAS) General Qamar Javed Bajwa of toppling his government, pressuring the judiciary, and installing the current government of Prime Minister Imran Khan in the 2018 general elections.

    Nawaz Sharif was speaking via video link from London to a gathering of tens of thousands of people organised by opposition parties to kick-off a countrywide protest campaign in Gujranwala aiming to oust the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf government.

    WATCH VIDEO:

    “Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa, you packed up our government, which was working well, and put the nation and the country at the alter of your wishes,” Nawaz told the gathering — the largest since the 2018 elections.

    The former prime minister also accused Lt Gen Faiz Hameed, the chief of the Inter-Services Intelligence, of being involved in conspiring against his government.

    PAKISTAN DEMOCRATIC MOVEMENT:

    Nine major opposition parties formed a joint platform called the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) last month to begin a nationwide agitation against the government.

    Nawaz, whose Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) is the main opposition party, was sacked by the Supreme Court in 2017 on corruption charges and left for London last November for medical treatment.

    He blames generals and judges for what he says were trumped up charges. The military, however, denies meddling in politics.

    Maryam Nawaz, the daughter and political heir of Sharif and Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari, the son of assassinated former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto who heads her Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), also addressed the gathering. Both criticised the Khan government for what they called bad governance and mismanagement of the economy.

    Speakers at the gathering called for Khan’s resignation and an end to military’s interference in politics.

    The next general election is scheduled for 2023.

    “Go Imran go. Your time is up!” shouted tens of thousands of the opposition supporters gathered at the Gujranwala stadium.

    Imran, who came to power on an anti-graft platform and denies the army helped him win, said on Friday he wasn’t afraid of the opposition’s campaign, which was aimed at blackmailing him to drop corruption cases against their leaders.

    The protest campaign comes at a time when Pakistan is experiencing an economic crisis, with inflation touching double digits and negative growth.

  • VIDEO: Kate Middleton, Prince William play games with students in Pakistan

    VIDEO: Kate Middleton, Prince William play games with students in Pakistan

    One year on from the Royal Visit to Pakistan, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge caught up with teachers at Islamabad Model College for Girls to hear how the school’s activities have been impacted by the COVID-19, before joining pupils in a game of Pictionary.

    The video which has been shared on the couple’s official social media account, Kensington Palace, shows Kate and William reunite with the girls and teachers of Islamabad Model College for Girls. During the conversation, Kate praised the teachers for “doing an amazing job” during the coronavirus pandemic.

    “You are a real lifeline for families out there,” she added.

    The couple also played a game of Pictionary with the students. After first thinking a diagram was a wedding, Kate — who wore a traditional Pakistani outfit for the occasion — eventually guessed the first question correctly when she said a birthday.

    As William squinted at the screen to see the drawings, he complimented the girls on their skills, with one of them asking if they enjoyed drawing.

    “Yes, definitely, we both like a little bit of drawing,” William said. “Catherine is very good, I’m really bad.”

    In response, Kate joked: “You don’t practice enough!”

    William then guessed the correct answer to a description of a game of cricket that served as a reminder of one of the couple’s memorable moment in the week-long visit when they played the game with some young people.

    Kate and William also spoke with a special group at SOS Children’s Village in Lahore. During the call, the royal couple was told how the village has helped to teach the children how to combat the spread of COVID-19 through sessions led by doctors and medical staff. They also spoke about the support given for the mental health of the staff and children throughout the pandemic.

    “Their Royal Highnesses heard how the village has helped to teach the children how to combat the spread of Covid-19 through special sessions led by doctors and medical staff, and the work that has been carried out to support the mental health of their staff and children throughout the pandemic,” an official statement by Kensington Palace said.

    Some of the village’s children also showed off some of the artwork, including drawings and friendship bracelets that they had created about their memories of the visit last year.

    Kate and William were clearly taken by SOS Children’s Village. After they visited the children’s centre as part of their official itinerary, they returned to the centre the next day after they were forced to stay in Lahore due to a storm. During their second visit, the couple took part in cricket and arts and crafts and joined in a birthday party for one of the children supported by the village.

    WATCH VIDEO:

    https://www.instagram.com/p/CGaXpSipf15/

    Kate and William had thoroughly enjoyed their tour of the country last year, with Kate calling it “fantastic” and “really special.”

    Meanwhile, Prime Minister Imran Khan, in an official statement, said that it was “incredibly thoughtful of the Duke and Duchess to check in with the students in these challenging times.”

  • VIDEO: Virat Kohli breaks the internet with dance moves on field

    VIDEO: Virat Kohli breaks the internet with dance moves on field

    Indian cricket team captain Virat Kohli won the internet with his dance moves in a video that instantly went viral on social media. The video which was recorded during his pre-match warmup shows the skipper dance around the field without any inhibitions.

    WATCH VIDEO:

    While Kohli has offered no explanation, it is believed that he was celebrating his 200th match for Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB). Out of the 200 matches, Kohli has played 184 matches in the Indian Premier League (IPL) while the rest he has played for RCB in the Champions League.

    Meanwhile, Twitter thoroughly enjoyed Virat’s moves, as evident by their reactions. Check them out below:

    https://twitter.com/sagarcasm/status/1316734914541350913?s=20
  • Maryam, for the third time, crosses toll plaza without paying tax

    Maryam, for the third time, crosses toll plaza without paying tax

    Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leader Maryam Nawaz once again violated toll tax rules as she, along with her entire convoy, crossed toll plaza without paying the tax, ARY News reported.

    According to reports, the PML-N vice president (VP), who is en route to Gujranwala for a public gathering to kick off the opposition’s anti-government campaign, exited Lahore without paying the tax levied on anyone wanting to travel on a highway such as the Lahore-Sialkot Motorway (M11) or the Grand Trunk (GT) Road.

    She had in August 2019 also violated toll tax rules as her vehicle crossed the toll plaza without paying tax in Qadirabad near Sahiwal, months after not paying the same tax in Mandi Bahauddin. Maryam was on her way to public gatherings in different parts of Punjab both times.

    Earlier on Friday, the PML-N VP left for Gujranwala that is the venue for the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) rally, saying she was doing so “as a foot soldier” of ousted prime minister (PM) Nawaz Sharif.

    “I embark on this mission as your foot soldier, Nawaz Sharif. I have dedicated myself to your struggle, your mission for Pakistan and its people,” Maryam tweeted as she left her Jati Umra residence in Lahore for Gujranwala’s Jinnah Stadium.

    The recently-formed PDM has announced it will hold a series of protest rallies in major cities in the next couple of months to oust the “selected” government of PM Imran.

  • WHO fears spike in deaths after COVID-19 cases surge

    WHO fears spike in deaths after COVID-19 cases surge

    The World Health Organisation (WHO) warned against any complacency in the coronavirus death rate, saying with the increasing number of cases, the death rate would also increase.

    New cases are hitting 100,000 daily in Europe. Nearly 20,000 infections were reported in Britain, while Italy, Switzerland and Russia were among nations with record case numbers.

    While deaths globally have fallen to around 5,000 per day from April’s peak exceeding 7,500, WHO Chief Scientist Soumya Swaminathan said caseloads were rising in ICU (intensive care units).

    “Mortality increases always lag behind increasing cases by a couple of weeks,” Swaminathan said during a WHO social media event. “We shouldn’t be complacent that death rates are coming down.”

    More than 38 million people have been reported infected globally and 1.1 million have died.

    Despite the global push for a COVID-19 vaccine, with dozens in clinical trials and hopes for initial vaccinations this year, Swaminathan reiterated that speedy, mass shots were unlikely.

    “Most people agree, it’s starting with health care workers, and front-line workers, but even there, you need to define which of them are at highest risk, and then the elderly, and so on,” Swaminathan said.

    “A healthy young person might have to wait until 2022.”

    The WHO has said letting infection spread in hopes of achieving “herd immunity” is unethical and would cause unnecessary deaths. It urges hand-washing, social distancing, masks and — when unavoidable, limited and targeted restrictions on movements — to control disease spread.

    “People talk about herd immunity. We should only talk about it in the context of a vaccine,” Swaminathan said. “You need to vaccinate at least 70% of people … to really break transmission.”

    Minister for Planning Development and Special Initiatives Asad Umar, who also chairs the National Command and Operations Centre (NCOC) to deal with COVID-19 in the country, has highlighted the rise in the number of infections in Pakistan. The Minister urged people to take COVID-19 SOPs seriously.

  • Ex-PM Abbasi speaks about meeting on economy with Gen Bajwa

    Ex-PM Abbasi speaks about meeting on economy with Gen Bajwa

    Former prime minister and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leader Shahid Khaqan Abbasi has revealed that Chief of Army Staff (COAS) General Qamar Javed Bajwa had held a meeting with him in November 2018 to discuss the economic issues prevalent at the time, especially the International Monetary Fund (IMF) bailout.

    Abbasi revealed the details of the meeting in a talk show on Samaa TV. According to the lawmaker, who has also served as a petroleum minister in the cabinet of Nawaz Sharif, PML-N leaders Khawaja Asif and Miftah Ismail were also present in the meeting. “The details of such meetings are usually kept confidential, but now that they are being publicised I don’t see any harm in telling the details,” the ex-PM added.

    The army chief wanted the opinion of the PML-N lawmakers on the economy in the light of growing inflation and a tanking economy, Abbasi said.

    “We relayed our reservations on the state of the economy to the army chief,” he told anchorperson Nadeem Malik. “We told the army chief that Pakistan would face tremendous economic pressure within next three years due to the policies of the incumbent regime,” he said, adding that the government took six months to wreck the economy.

    Last week, former Sindh governor Muhammad Zubair revealed the details of the meeting with Gen Bajwa. Muhammad Zubair, who has been appointed as party supreme leader Nawaz Sharif and his daughter Maryam Nawaz’s spokesperson, revealed further details of his “secret meeting” with Gen Bajwa.

    In an exclusive interview with The Current, Zubair said that he isn’t a big fan of gulab jamun but that’s what they had for dessert the night he met Gen Bajwa over dinner.“I’m not a gulab jamun person but I couldn’t say no to him [Gen Bajwa] since he is a dignitary… he is the COAS,” the former Sindh governor said when asked about the details of his meeting that was also reportedly attended by Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) Director General (DG) Lt Gen Faiz Hameed.

  • Hardliners smear portrait of Nobel laureate Dr Abdus Salam outside National Science College

    A group of youngsters, allegedly science students, has smeared a portrait of the only Nobel laureate physicist from Pakistan and champion of science in the developing world, Dr Abdus Salam.

    A video doing rounds over the internet showed the group, consisting of State Youth Parliament Pakistan members, painting the portrait black while raising slogans against the minority Ahmadiyya community, of which Dr Salam was a member, outside Gujranwala’s National Science College.

    “They are students of so-called science colleges, what a shame,” read a strongly-worded post by Facebook page ‘The Hoodbhoyist’ that describes itself as a “social club for liberal, secular, humanists and progressive”.

    When he won the Nobel prize in 1979, Dr Salam became the very first Pakistani to achieve this distinction, and only the fourth from the subcontinent.

    Born in 1926 in a remote village in Punjab, British India, Salam was a child prodigy. He came from humble beginnings, growing up in a small brick house with a large family of eleven. While Salam’s legacy looms large in the world of physics, he is largely forgotten in Pakistan because of his faith.

    “Salam — The First ****** Nobel Laureate” — a feature-length film on Dr Salam’s life — was released on Netflix in October last year.

    It has won accolades on the international film festival circuit, including DFW South Asian Film Festival, South Asia Human Rights Festival, South Asian International Film Festival and the South Asian Film Festival of Montreal, among others.

  • India says didn’t approach Pakistan for talks

    India says didn’t approach Pakistan for talks

    India’s Ministry for External Affairs Spokesperson Anurag Srivastava said that New Delhi did not approach Pakistan with a dialogue offer, as he rejected claims made by Moeed Yusuf — the prime minister’s aide on national security– in a recent interview with an Indian media outlet.

    “The statements made by him [Yusuf] are contrary to facts on the ground, misleading and fictitious. As regards the purported message that was referred to, let me make it clear that no such message was sent from our side,” Srivastava said at a weekly press briefing.

    The spokesperson termed the statement “fictitious and misleading”, saying the claim was made by the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government to “divert attention from domestic failures” and “mislead its domestic constituents by pulling India into headlines on a daily basis”. The Indian official advised Yusuf “to restrict his advice to the establishment and not comment on India’s domestic policies”.

    PM’s Special Assistant on National Security Moeed Yusuf gave an interview to The Wire earlier this week, wherein he claimed that India approached Pakistan with a talk offer. This was the first time a Pakistani government official was interviewed by an Indian outlet since New Delhi annexed Kashmir in August last year.

    During his interview with Karan Thapar, Yusuf set five pre-conditions for the resumption of “meaningful dialogue” with India to resolve all outstanding issues, including the longstanding dispute of Indian occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IoK).

    While he said that Pakistan desired peaceful ties with India and wanted to resolve all issues through dialogue, Yusuf asserted that for any meaningful dialogue to take place between the two neighbours, India has to release all political prisoners in Kashmir, end inhuman blockade and restrictions, rescind domicile law that allows non-Kashmiris to settle in the disputed territory, stop human rights abuses and end state terrorism in Pakistan.

    “My message is peace, my message is talk. But there is an intent and there has to be an enabling environment to talk, Karan. Create that and you will find us willing the next day. Just that one step, you will see my prime minister take two – that’s his promise, he stands by it,” Yusuf told journalist Karan Thapar.

  • NASA astronauts respond to fourth-graders from Karachi

    The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has responded to a Twitter post by a teacher from Karachi, wherein she had posted some space-related questions by her fourth-grade students.

    A group of fourth-graders from The Cornerstone School in Karachi came up with space-related queries for scientists and astronauts at NASA. In order to spread the message across NASA and get a response, the teacher took a shot and tweeted the same, tagging the space agency as well as prominent astronauts’ official Twitter handles.

    Over 2,000 people retweeted the letter that eventually reached scientists and astronauts who answered all the queries and invited the kids to be their guest after the pandemic.

    Here is the reply from Emily Calandrelli, an American science communicator and the host of Xploration Outer Space.

    Here’s what Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield had to say:

    People, including the teacher, were overwhelmed by the responses and appreciated the effort as DLR — German Aerospace Center — also responded.

    Some even suggested that Federal Science Minister Fawad Chaudhry should get involved to help other children have their questions answered.

  • All about the new, upcoming OnePlus 8T

    All about the new, upcoming OnePlus 8T

    The OnePlus has finally launched 8T variant with features like improved 65W fast charging, 120 Hz refresh rate of the display and improved design. 

    Design and Display

    The 8T has a flat display panel unlike the base OnePlus 8 and has thinner surrounding bezels as well. It has a 6.55-inch AMOLED panel with FHD+ resolution, but increased refresh rate to 120Hz akin to the 8 Pro. The cornered punch-hole and the in-display fingerprint sensor is still there.

    The back now has a large L shaped camera set up in a rectangular housing similar to Huawei’s P40 series.

    Storage and processing power

    OnePlus 8T has installed its flagship Snapdragon 865 with the same storage configurations going up to 12GB RAM and 256GB. 

    There is no memory card slot for storage expansion. The device will boot Andriod 11 with Oxygen OS 11 which will let you upgrade to newer Android versions for the next 3-4 years. It is commendable because many smartphones get slower after three to four android updates. 

    Camera

    The installed camera setup is virtually the same, but they have added 2 megapixels (MP) depth sensor. Rest of the cameras are the same: 48MP primary lens, a 16 MP ultrawide lens, and a 5MP macro lens. An ultra-zoom lens is still missing in this variant. 

    The finest improvement is 4,500 mAh power cell that can be charged from 0 to 100% in just 40 minutes. This is one of the biggest improvements that the 8T brings is fast charging. It has a 4,500 mAh power cell that can be charged from 0 to 100% in just 40 minutes thanks to 65W fast charging.

    The OnePlus 8T will be available in Aquamarine Green and Lunar Silver colour options once it goes for sale on October 23 for $750.