New Blue Area project in Islamabad has received an investment of more than Rs. 12 billion in just 2 days of the auction.
Capital Development Authority (CDA) has organised a three-day auction from July 15 to 17 for the commercial plots of the New Blue Area situated on Jinnah Avenue in front of the F-9 Park.
So far, eight commercial plots of different sizes were auctioned that were sold for more than Rs. 12.79 billion.
The spokesperson of CDA said “the New Blue Area project is evidence of Prime Minister (PM) Imran Khan efforts to promote the construction industry in Pakistan. The interest of the investors in the auction process shows their confidence in the business-friendly policies of the Federal Government.”
The authorities are expecting to receive a total investment of Rs. 15 billion by the end of the three-day auction process, which is ending today.
The investment that will be collected through the auction will be used in different projects for the betterment of Islamabad residents.
On 1 March, PM Imran Khan had visited the proposed site of the New Blue Area project before formally launching the project.
PM Imran Khan had formally approved the plan of the New Blue Area project in February after CDA allocated 170 Kanals for the project on Jinnah Avenue.
Sarah Khan and Falak Shabir’s marriage is the talk of the town and fans cannot help but gush over the newly weds whose loved-up videos are all over social media.
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While fans are well acquainted with Sarah and her work, particularly her role in Sabaat as Miraal, netizens have been asking who Falak is.
For the unacquainted, Falak is a renowned singer and songwriter, popularly referred to as the ‘King of Soul Style’ and ‘Mr Unplugged’. Falak has several superhit songs to his credit and has also been part of several international projects, including Bollywood.
Here are some of Falak’s most popular songs:
Tu Mera Dil
This song is the most popular on Falak’s YouTube channel with more than 36 million views. It was released in 2013.
Ijazat
Ijazat is one of Falak’s most popular songs, especially among those who were teenagers when the song released back in 2011.
Mera Mann
The song featured in the 2013 Bollywood film Nautanki Saala! starring Ayushmann Khurrana, Kunaal Roy Kapur,Pooja Salvi and Evelyn Sharma. The song has over 27 million views on YouTube.
Saajana
Composed and sung by Falak, Saajana featured in the 2013 Bollywood film I, Me aur Main starring John Abraham, Prachi Desai and Chitrangada Singh.
The first three weeks of June saw not only a rapid spread of the new coronavirus but deaths attributed to the COVID-19 also stood at around a daily average of 100.
While the country, since the last week of June, has witnessed a significant decrease in the number of coronavirus infections amid conflicting claims regarding what has led to the drop, Pakistan has an optimistic recovery rate as 67.5% of people who had contracted the virus have so far recovered.
While it is still unclear if the virus has already peaked in Pakistan or not, testing, active cases and the recovery rate are the major factors proving helpful in estimating not only the spread of the virus but also the pandemic situation.
So far, July hasn’t been as bad as last month as government statistics from the first two weeks show there has been an increase in COVID-19 recoveries while the number of new cases has also dropped significantly.
While the reason behind the sudden drop still remains unclear as government boasts of its successful strategy and experts attribute the decline to Pakistanis’ better immunity due to exposure to various vaccinations, it cannot be denied that the drop has been led to also because of lower testing as compared to the month of June.
People are realising that they would recover if they have mild symptoms and only need to isolate themselves without actually heading out to get tested, surveys suggest.
Special Assistant to Prime Minister (SAPM) on Heath Dr Zafar Mirza has also confirmed that not many people are voluntarily showing up to get tested anymore. “We are unable to conduct as many tests as we were earlier, despite having a daily capacity 60,000. Pakistan has set up more than 125 labs for COVID-19 testing but we need human resources to run those labs as the testing capacity needs to continuously be enhanced.”
Meanwhile, a majority of people are also making use of telehealth services by consulting their doctors over the phone or contacting the government’s coronavirus helpline (1166). According to a doctor working at a COVID-19 helpline centre, she alone receives around 40 calls a day for medical advice.
Federal Education Minister Shafqat Mahmood has announced the reopening of education institutes, including Madaris, public and private schools, colleges and universities, across the country from September 15.
All education institutes will open their administrative and academic offices from July 15 onwards to begin preparations for safe reopening and ensure the implementation of SOPs.
Education facilities will reopen based on clear and detailed standard operating procedures (SOPs) for safe education facility reopening. Three important criteria are essential for the conduct of exams: masks, physical distancing of 6 feet, and open and airy spaces for the conduct of exams.
Universities will allow students that are in far-fetch areas to attend on-campus classes before September 15, 2020. But the universities must ensure 30% hotel occupancy. These students will be called after Eidul Azha under strict SOPs.
The education minister further said that “universities had been permitted to allow their PhD level students or those who wanted to do their research work in laboratories, to physically attend before the 15th of September”.
This attempt is being made to fix the academic loss of students from remote areas during the COVID-19 pandemic. “A health check will be mandatory for such students and faculty members who will attend universities before September 15”, he remarked.
The vocational and technical training institutions will allow students who were getting on the job training to continue their training in industries, while the students who were getting training in classrooms can only attend their training from the 15th of September.
Vocational institutions have also been permitted to call their teaching staff before the 15th of September for training regarding SOPs, the minister said.
The decisions have been made in consultation with the Health Department and National Command & Control Centre (NCOC).
The final episode of this summer’s sleeper hit Dushman-e-Jaan ended Thursday night with a happy ending leaving fans sighing and wishing for more.
As the last episode of the drama aired, the lead cast of the drama including Madiha Imam and Tooba Siddiqui and director Amin Iqbal took to social media to bid the drama goodbye and thank the audiences for watching the show.
“It’s you guys who made it so worthwhile,” wrote Tooba.
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“It was a rollercoaster ride and I could not be more grateful to be a part of a magnificent team,” said Madiha.
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Meanwhile, director Amin Iqbal said that the last episode made him sad and “gave him a feeling that I’m seeing someone close to me leaving”.
Islamabad-based American Blogger Cynthia Ritchie’s stay in Pakistan has been cleared by the government as the Interior Ministry has said that she won’t be deported.
“Cynthia Ritchie can stay in the country till August 31,” the Interior Ministry said in an order, a written copy of which was submitted to the Islamabad High Court (IHC) during the hearing of the blogger’s case on Friday.
“I’m surprised that the petitioner is not present in the court today,” Ritchie said while speaking to the media outside the court. “In America, it’s compulsory for both the petitioner and defendant to be present in court for every hearing.”
The blogger said that she was happy that the ministry had passed a decision in her favour, which comes a month after an additional district and sessions judge on June 15 directed the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) to file a case against her for passing defamatory remarks about the late former prime minister (PM) Benazir Bhutto on social media.
Ritchie had approached the IHC, challenging the ruling, while naming the justice of peace — lower court judge –, the FIA and the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) as respondents in the case.
Former Punjab governor and Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) leader Latif Khosa has, however, said that he was not satisfied with the decision and will be challenging it. “This is an attempt to mislead the court by the secretary of the Interior Ministry,” he remarked.
The interior ministry’s report has tried to dismiss PPP’s plea as it says that Ritchie has a visa and she’s not involved in any criminal activities, Khosa said. “We will prove the reality behind Ritchie and make sure that she’s deported.”
He added that his party had lost faith in the federal government which was why they had approached the court.
Despite having close to 183 million subscribers, Netflix never revealed how many people are watching their original series and movies. However, the streaming giant recently decided to release a list of its 10 most-watched original movies.
Chris Hemsworth and Randeep Hooda’s action thriller Extraction topped the list with 99 million views. It received the biggest audience of any Netflix original movie in its first four weeks. The film shows Hemsworth play a mercenary who must rescue an Indian drug lord’s kidnapped son.
It is followed by the horror, sci-fi thriller Bird Box (89 million) about a mother and her two children who make a desperate attempt to reach safety after a threatening unseen presence makes most of society commit suicide.
Spenser Confidential, an action-comedy is number three on the list with 85 million views. The film which has a rating of 6.2 on IMDb, is about a former cop Spenser who teams up with his roommate to take down the murderers of two Boston police officers.
6 Underground is number four followed by Jennifer Anniston and Adam Sandler’s Murder Mystery at number five. Murder Mystery is about a New York cop and his wife who go on a vacation to revive the spark in their marriage, but end up getting framed for the death of an elderly billionaire.
It is interesting to note that the top four most-watched films are action or thrillers with top movie stars including Hemsworth, Bullock, Mark Wahlberg, and Ryan Reynolds. The list also includes three comedies.
Martin Scorsese’s lavish crime epicThe Irishman starring Robert De Niro and Al Pacino, was the sixth most-watched film, attracting 64 million views.
All 10 of the movies were released in the last three years, most of them in the past 12 months.
Meanwhile, as coronavirus continues to paralyse the world, Netflix, in a letter to shareholders, said that while its slate of original shows for this year is on track, it is focused on safely getting production back up and running.
“As the world slowly re-opens, our main business priority is to restart our productions safely and in a manner consistent with local health and safety standards to ensure that our members can enjoy a diverse range of high-quality new content,” executives said in the letter.
“There is no one-size-fits-all approach, and we’re adapting to local circumstances. Today, we’re slowly resuming productions in many parts of the world.”
Netflix is facing increased competition from tech giants such as Apple and Amazon, along with entertainment titans including Disney, NBCUniversal, and WarnerMedia.
Mobile phone imports have increased by 81.32 per cent as compared to the last fiscal year (July-June) 2019-20.
The imports reached $1.369 billion compared to $755.548 million during the same period last year, according to the latest report released by the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS).
Telecom experts are linking the phenomenal increase in import to the implementation of Device Identification Registration and Blocking System (DIRBS).
Mobile phone imports increased 300 per cent in June 2020 as compared to $57.736 million imports of June 2019.
Overall telecom imports saw an increase of 34 per cent during July-June (2019-20) if compared to the same period of last year.
Total imports were recorded at $1.86 billion when compared to $1.37 billion in July-June (2018-19), while registering 71.62 per cent growth in June 2020.
The figures stood at $272.576 million in June 2020 as compared to $158.93 million during May 2020.
Other telecom apparatus imports witnessed a decline of over 21.36 per cent in July-June (2019-20) as they stood at $490.754 million against $624.017 million during the same period last year.
When compared to May 2020, other telecom apparatus imports registered a 13.41 per cent decline in June as they were $41.453 million as compared to $47.871 million in May 2020.
The Punjab government has launched an application ‘Bakra Mandi Online’ for the online purchase of the sacrificial animals for Eid-ul-Azha amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
The application can be used to buy sacrificial animals without visiting the cattle markets that are set by the government in the province under strict COVID-19 SOPs.
The application has all the details (age, weight, and race) and images of the animals.
The Punjab government on July 04 issued the standard operating procedures for the establishment of cattle markets for Eid ul Azha.
According to the notification issued by Punjab health ministry, cattle markets should be established 2-5 kilometers outside the city area. The markets should have large parking lots with separate entry and exit points, the notification read.
The elderly and children will not be allowed to visit the markets.
“People experiencing symptoms like fever, the cough should avoid visiting cattle markets,” the notification added.
Mohammad Amir and his wife Narjis Amir have been blessed with a baby girl. This is the couple’s second child together – they have another daughter named Minsa.
The fast bowler took to social media to make the announcement and share that their newborn has been named Zoya Amir. Amir is the fifth cricketer to have welcomed a newborn after Shahid Afridi, Wahab Riaz, Sarfaraz Ahmed and Yasir Shah this year.
Amir had earlier shared that his wife was expecting which is why he backed out of the England tour. In a Twitter update, Amir had said that due to the timing of the tour and the restrictions in place in the United Kingdom for those coming from abroad, left him with no choice but to back out of the tour.
He had said that he cannot leave his wife, “who is at a high-risk pregnancy alone here [in Pakistan]”.
Following the announcement, many of Amir’s colleagues sent in their best wishes for the new born.
