Author: newsdesk

  • Meera requests Punjab Govt for financial assistance

    Meera requests Punjab Govt for financial assistance

    Meera has requested Rs 40 million from the Punjab Government under the Artist Support Fund, launched by the Punjab Information and Cultural Department, claiming that she is in financial trouble. However, the department denied her request, adding that they can only offer her Rs 5000-10,000 at this point.

    According to reports, a meeting was held at the Alhamra Arts Council after the actor appealed to senior officials for financial support. In the meeting, it was unanimously decided that the department cannot give the actor more than ten thousand rupees. Moreso, it was also decided that an artist should have a monthly income of less than Rs 15,000 and be above the age of 50 in order to receive aid from the fund.

    Meanwhile MPA Sadia Sohail Rana, who supervised the meeting said that she was surprised with Meera’s request.

    “I am surprised why Meera applied for the help as in this situation she herself should be supporting other poor artists,” said Rana. “Meera should understand that everything is not a joke. Artists of her stature should set aside funds for difficult times when they earn large amounts.”

    However, Meera said that she had no choice because her shows in USA and Canada had been cancelled due to the pandemic because of which she had to suffer financially.

    “I suffered a loss of around $100,000. I have to pay back a loan I took in Dubai. I am forced to apply for financial support,” said the actor.

    Meera added that she intends on taking up the matter with the Federal Government also.

    Earlier, Meera had also appealed to the government to assist her journey back home when she was stranded in New York due to the COVID-19 lockdowns across the world.

  • Madrassa students qualify for finals of Turkey’s biggest tech competition

    Madrassa students qualify for finals of Turkey’s biggest tech competition

    Students from Jamia Bait-ul-Salam, Talagang, have qualified for the final round of TEKNOFEST 2020 that will be held in Istanbul, Turkey from September 22 to 27.

    According to reports, Blatu, the Bait-ul-Salam team has topped the category of Technology for Humanity-Social Innovation with 87 points out 100.

    Earlier in 2019, Jamia Bait-ul-Salam has won robotics competition beating participants from 20 other universities that were held at HITEC University Taxila.

    Hamza Ali Abbasi also took to social media to applaud the students.

    https://www.facebook.com/hamzaaliabbasi/posts/3369483186448665

    Turkish Ministry of Industry and Technology and the Turkish Technology Team Foundation (T3) organize the TEKNOFEST Aerospace and Technology Festival every year in a bid to make Turkey a technology producing society.

    Many students from different institutions participate in TEKNOFEST to showcase their abilities in more than a dozen different categories.

  • Official, who banned books in Punjab over ‘blasphemous and anti-Pakistan’ content, is a ‘pervert and misogynist’

    Official, who banned books in Punjab over ‘blasphemous and anti-Pakistan’ content, is a ‘pervert and misogynist’

    Punjab Curriculum & Textbook Board (PCTB) Managing Director (MD) Rai Manzoor Hussain Nasir, who had on Thursday banned 100 books being taught in private schools for carrying “blasphemous and anti-Pakistan” content, has come under fire for being what Twitterati call is a “pervert and misogynist”.

    BOOKS BAN:

    Addressing a press conference, Nasir said that the PCTB had started critical review of 10,000 books being taught by private schools across the province and in the first phase had banned 100 books of 31 publishers including Oxford and Cambridge for blasphemous, immoral and anti-Pakistan content.

    The PCTB MD said that the board had formed 30 committees for this purpose. He said it was sad that nobody checked these books earlier and had no idea what was being taught to our kids in private schools against hefty fees. He said the banned books had distorted facts about Pakistan and its creation, Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah and Allama Muhammad Iqbal while these books also carried blasphemous content. He said Pakistan was portrayed as an inferior country to India while Azad Jammu & Kashmir (AJK) was also shown as part of India in maps in some of these books.

    Rai Manzoor Nasir said that instead of including sayings of Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah and Allama Muhammad Iqbal, etc. one of the books carried sayings of Mahatma Gandhi and some unknown people. He said in a book of Mathematics counting concepts were made explained to the young students showing pictures of pigs. He said one of the books by Cambridge tried to promote crime and violence among the students on the basis of unemployment in the country.

    The PCTB MD said that these 100 books had been immediately banned and the publishers had been directed to immediately stop publishing and selling the books. He said District Education Authorities (DEAs) across Punjab will visit private schools (after reopening of schools) to check if these books were still being taught. He said FIRs would be registered against the publishers for violation under the provisions of the Punjab Curriculum and Textbook Board Act 2015.

    ‘PERVERT AND MISOGYNIST’:

    Already under fire for what was criticised as a move to “crackdown on the future of children by banning books”, things took an uglier turn for the PCTB MD as Twitterati called him out over “hypocrisy” and being a “pervert and misogynist”.

    Besides calling him out for liking porn videos on Twitter, netizens also highlighted that Nasir was involved in moral policing over the social networking site.

    He was also criticised for being a racist and tweeting against Afghan refugees.

    Have something to add to the story? Let The Current know in the comments below.

  • KP govt to launch world’s longest, highest cable car project

    KP govt to launch world’s longest, highest cable car project

    The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) government has decided to set up a 14-kilometre long cable car, which will connect the scenic tourist resort of Kumrat in Upper Dir with Madaklasht area of Chitral.

    According to a statement by the KP government, the decision was taken in a meeting of the tourism department, chaired by Chief Minister Mahmood Khan and attended by Tourism Secretary Mohammad Abid Majeed and other senior officials.

    The meeting gave go ahead to the department to make a detailed feasibility study and engineering design of the project.

    The statement said that the cable car project would be the longest and highest of its kind in the world. After completion, it was likely to appeal to eight million foreign and local tourists to the province and create employment opportunities.

    The project would have car parking facilities on both the stations. It will also have an intermediate station with a restaurant and many other facilities. The project will be completed in five to six months.

     “The proposed cable car will be built on international standards which, on completion, would attract foreign and local tourists in a large number. The project is environment-friendly and feasible on the grounds that no land acquisition process is involved therein,” said the statement.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nk0w4Hg1BTE
  • 103yo Pakistani becomes one of world’s oldest coronavirus survivors

    103yo Pakistani becomes one of world’s oldest coronavirus survivors

    A 103-year-old man has recovered from COVID-19 in Pakistan to become one of the oldest survivors of the disease in the world, beating the odds in a country with a weak healthcare system, his relatives and doctors said.

    Aziz Abdul Alim, a resident of a village in the mountainous northern district of Chitral, was released last week from an emergency response centre after testing positive in early July.

    “We were worried for him given his age, but he wasn’t worried at all,” Alim’s son Sohail Ahmed told Reuters on the phone from his village, close to the border with China and Afghanistan.

    Ahmed quoted his father as saying that he had been through a lot in life and the coronavirus did not scare him. He did however, not like being in isolation.

    READ: Pakistan’s secret to ‘flattening the curve’

    A carpenter until his 70s, Alim has outlived three wives and nine sons and daughters, said Ahmed, who is himself in his 50s, adding that his father had separated from his fourth wife and is currently married to his fifth.

    Alim also had to be provided with moral and psychological support during his isolation and treatment, Dr Sardar Nawaz, a senior medical officer at the Aga Khan Health Service emergency centre told Reuters on Friday.

    The makeshift centre was set up in a girls’ hostel just weeks before Alim was brought in and is the only one equipped to deal with COVID-19 patients for miles.

    Pakistan has registered more than 270,000 cases of the disease and 5,778 deaths. While the number of people testing positive has dropped over the last month, government officials fear there could be another rise during the Eidul Azha holidays and Muharram.

  • 200-year-old Gurdwara reopens in Quetta after 73 years

    200-year-old Gurdwara reopens in Quetta after 73 years

    A 200-year-old Gurdwara in Quetta has been restored and handed over to the Sikh community by the Balochistan Government so they can continue their religious practices there.

    According to reports, the historical Gurdwara Sri Guru Singh Sabha on Masjid Road in central Quetta had been converted into a government school for girls after the Partition.

    Provincial Parliamentary Secretary for Minority Affairs Dhanesh Kumar said that the historic place of worship covers an area of 14,000 square feet and is worth billions of rupees because of its location. He lauded the government’s decision to “hand it over to Sikh brothers instead of using the building for any other purpose”.

    Chairman of the Sikh community in Balochistan Sardar Jasbeer Singh, expressed his happiness at the restoration and said that it was a “gift from the government to the Sikh community” living in the province.

    “Sikh community of the province is very pleased that our ancient Gurdwara has been handed over to the Sikh community by the Government of Pakistan and the Balochistan High Court after 73 years and now we are able to continue our religious practice,” said Singh. “The Sikh community from all over Pakistan and the rest of the world appreciated this initiative.”

    Jasbir added that there were 10-15 more historical gurdwaras in Balochistan which are still occupied.

    “We are hopeful that the government will focus on opening these closed shrines in shrines in Balochistan.”

    Other Sikhs present on the occasion of the reopening also expressed their happiness on this development. According to details, there are approximately 2,000 Sikh families living in Quetta, Dera Bugti, Osta Muhammad and Pashtun areas of the province.

    Meanwhile, the students of the school have been allowed to take admission in a nearby girls’ school so that their education is not affected by this.

    Earlier in February this year, the Balochistan government handed over a 200-year-old temple to the minority Hindu community in district Zhob.

  • Coronavirus: Pakistan’s secret to ‘flattening the curve’

    According to a report published by The Washington Post on July 19, “Pakistan has flattened its coronavirus curve” as the past several days have seen fewer than 1,500 cases and 40 deaths on an average.

    So far, 5,677 people have succumbed to COVID-19 in Pakistan, which is 2.1% of the total infected population while almost 79% (210,468) patients have recovered.

    The initial estimate of the World Health Organization (WHO) was that the infection fatality rate (IFR) for COVID-19 would be 3.4%, which means that for every hundred cases at three or four people would lose their lives. But as per the Centre for Disease Control and Prevention, the IFR has turned out to be much lower — at a mere 0.65%

    READ: Did COVID-19 peak in Pakistan in June?

    Pakistan’s total number of deaths from COVID-19 in June was 2,835. Since the second week of June, an average of 80 to 100 people had been dying on a daily basis and the same trend continued till June 30. The highest single-day death toll was 153 on June 19.

    So far in July, the highest number of deaths was recorded on the fourth day while the daily death toll within the first week stood at around 80. The trend came down to 60 to 70 deaths a day in the second week and the latest trend suggests up to 30 or 40 COVID-19 fatalities a day.

    Punjab Health Minister Dr Yasmin Rashid says that due to the strict quarantine policy of the provincial government, the virus has not spread as expected. She also says most fatalities are of those who are older than 60 years of age or are suffering from certain other diseases.

    READ: Is coronavirus ending in Pakistan?

    The rate of COVID-19 infections and deaths seems to have dropped significantly in Pakistan but it is an open secret that the number of cases and deaths is also being grossly misreported.

    “I am aware of a few cases in which patients with COVID-19 symptoms were never taken to hospitals and in case of death were laid to rest at large funeral gatherings,” said Love for Data Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Syed Tajamul Hussain. He added that the country hadn’t had a mortality census in a while and it was highly likely that cases were being under-reported amid limited testing capacity.

  • People want Waqar Zaka to be PM after court orders to lift PUBG ban

    People want Waqar Zaka to be PM after court orders to lift PUBG ban

    With the Islamabad High Court (IHC) ordering Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) to immediately lift the ban imposed on popular online multiplayer game PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds (PUBG), Pakistanis are taking to social media to praise VJ-turned-television host Waqar Zaka’s efforts in this regard and seek his election as the country’s prime minister (PM).

    Pakistan’s ban on PUBG had been challenged in the Sindh High Court (SHC) by Zaka who had taken to social media to express his outrage as well as “expose” some shady conspiracy theories behind the ban.

    According to the YouTuber, the ban on PUBG, which the authorities said had come after PTA received “numerous complaints against PUBG wherein it was stated that the game is addictive, wastage of time and poses a serious negative impact on the physical and psychological health of children”, was “actually to prevent Pakistani youth from excelling in e-sports”.

    “These are the same people who don’t want our children to become famous around the world, who don’t want our country to generate revenue online, who want to send out a message to the e-sports providers around the world to prevent them from setting up their business here – reason why YouTube never did. These people will not allow us to evolve, a digital revolution needs to be brought,” Zaka had said in a video message.

    With the popular television personality continuing to raise his voice against the ban and separately the IHC on Friday finally ordering PTA to lift it, here’s what people have to say as ‘#ThankYouWaqarZaka’ trends on Twitter in Pakistan.

    https://twitter.com/Qasim6tweets/status/1286562678362779648

    On June 23, Lahore Capital City Police Officer (CCPO) Zulfiqar Hameed had recommended a ban on the online game.

    The CCPO had taken up the matter with the higher authorities through a letter referring to the death by suicide of a teenage boy, who was an ardent player of the game. It had led to a temporary ban on the game, which was followed by a PTA statement on Thursday, according to which the ban was to stay in place.

  • ‘Bulbulay’s’ Nabeel Zafar apologises for show’s offensive remarks

    ‘Bulbulay’s’ Nabeel Zafar apologises for show’s offensive remarks

    Nabeel Zafar, who plays one of the leads on ARY Digital’s hit sitcom Bulbulay, has apologised for ‘offensive’ comments against Pashtuns on the show.

    In a video message, Nabeel apologises for hurting Pashtun sentiments and says that their intention was never to hurt anyone.

    “I came across some comments on Twitter today that we might have hurt the sentiments of our viewers through a scene of the show,” says Nabeel in the video. “We would never target a particular ethnicity. That was never our intention. Our audience ranges from a four-year-old to an eight-year-old. We receive massive viewership from the KP region.”

    He then goes on to explain the characters and says that the team of the shows aim to entertain the masses and make them laugh.

    “There are several characters on the show. We never meant to disrespect anyone. Our only intention was to make our audience happy,” he says further.

    Nabeel’s video was retweeted by the official handle of ARY Digital as well as ARY CEO Salman Iqbal.

    In a clip being circulated on social media, Mehmood Sahab (Mehmood Aslam) is seen talking to a Pathan man Sher Khan over the phone. When Khan says that he would like to come to their house and give them a gift, Nabeel jokes that the only gift he will give is either naswar or a bomb. Nabeel’s comments sparked outrage for stereotyping Pashtuns and the hashtag #BoycottARYDigital began to trend on social media.

    https://twitter.com/Iam_Mian1/status/1286301914846638080?s=20

  • ‘Soneya’: Asim Azhar drops new single

    ‘Soneya’: Asim Azhar drops new single

    Days after releasing the biggest collaboration of the year Tum Tum, Asim Azhar is back in the groove with a new single titled Soneya. But unlike his previous song, Soneya is darker and more sombre.

    Before the song begins, the singer reveals that the music video was shot under very challenging circumstances.

    “To the one’s who made it happen, and to all my fans who have stood by me, this one’s for you,” says the singer.

    According to details, the “heartbreak anthem” has been written by Kunaal Vermaa and composed by Asim. It features models Roshanay Afridi and Reham Rafiq.

    Soon after the song released, it began to trend on social media platforms following which Asim thanked everyone for their love and support.

    Asim also joked that he is finally trending for the right reasons this time. For the unacquainted, the singer was referring to how he has recently been trending due to his relationship with Hania Aamir.