A station house officer (SHO) in Khanewal was suspended on Tuesday for sending indecent messages to a girl in the Makhdoompur area.
As per reports, the family of the girl, who works as a bus hostess, claimed that SHO Makhdoompur Zafar Iqbal sent indecent messages to her. They said the officer also raided their house with a police team and also tortured them.
The family said SHO Iqbal also took their cellphones
because he was afraid that he could be exposed.
Khanewal District Police Officer Faisal Shehzad has
suspended the police officer and ordered a departmental inquiry against him.
Pakistani actor Sadia Imam is not planning to quit the showbiz instead, she is all set for her comeback with a drama serial.
As per reports, the actress expressed her displeasure over people spreading rumors about her that she is retiring from showbiz upon the request of her husband. She said that people have been making assumptions about her family.
She said, “I haven’t announced that I am leaving showbiz, all such reports are nothing but rumors. My husband has never objected over my career choices and he is my major support.”
Reports further reveal that she is gearing up for a drama serial that will be aired soon.
“Due to the recordings of my upcoming drama, my husband would take breaks from work and come to Pakistan so that our daughter was not alone,” said Imam. “After my parents, my husband is my biggest support.”
She said that she did take a break from acting after her marriage as she wanted to give time to this new relationship, adding that she doesn’t plan on retiring soon.
Sadia Imam got married in 2012 with a German-Pakistani, Adnan Haider and had moved to Germany after marriage. In August 2014, the couple was blessed with a baby girl. After returning to Pakistan in 2015, she started hosting shows on TV.
Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Information Firdous Ashiq Awan has said that Sarmad Khoosat’s Zindagi Tamasha will be critically reviewed by the Council of Islamic Ideology on the request of the Central Board of Film Censors. The film’s producer was also directed to postpone the release of his film for the time being.
مرکزی فلم سنسر بورڈ نے فلم “زندگی تماشہ” کا تنقیدی جائزہ لینے کے لئے فوری طور پر اسلامی نظریاتی کونسل سے رجوع کرنے کا فیصلہ کیا ہے۔ پروڈیوسر کو فلم کی ریلیز مؤخر کرنے کی ہدایت بھی جاری کر دی گئی۔
Awan’s announcement came hours after censor boards in Punjab and Sindh stopped the film’s release.
Earlier on Tuesday, the Government of Punjab through its Information and Culture Department barred filmmaker Sarmad from releasing Zindagi Tamasha “in wake of persistent complaints received from different quarters”. Following this, the Sindh Government also placed a ban on the film as it may create unrest within the religious segment of the society and disrupt peace.
According to a notification issued by the provincial government, the film will be re-examined and the film’s makers have been directed to arrange a show in this regard “in any cinema house” on February 3 at 3pm, so it may be reviewed. The film’s team has also been told to ensure the presence of a representative “for personal hearing, if required by the committee”.
Meanwhile, the director has also been instructed not to release the film “till final decision of the committee”.
Notification by the Punjab Government
Notification by the Sindh Government
It is pertinent to mention here that the censor boards of Punjab and Sindh had earlier cleared the film.
It is also being reported that the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) will once again hold a board members meeting to review the film in which a representative of the Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP) and a representative of the ministry will also participate.
“Film will only be cleared if the members of the religious party and government officials approve of the content,” said the report.
Following the temporary ban on the film, the TLP has cancelled its protest against the film that was scheduled to be held Wednesday.
Many people are criticising the government decision especially considering that earlier this month, Chief Minister Punjab Usman Buzdar had announced the formation of a task force on Art and Culture, in accordance with the vision of Prime Minister Imran Khan.
According to the notification, the initiative was taken to promote and revive performing arts, culture, heritage and the film industry. Shaan, Resham, Ali Zafar, Yousaf Salahuddin and Vasay Chaudhry are among the members of the task force.
Written by Nirmal Bano and directed by Sarmad Khoosat, Zindagi Tamasha starres Arif Hassan, Samiya Mumtaz, Eman Suleman and Ali Qureshi in the lead. The film is centred around a naat khwan Rahat Khawaja (played by Hassan) and his family who are outcast from the society when a secret of Khawaja’s is leaked.
The official synopsis states: “The film is an intimate portrait of a family as well as a scorching political commentary on little gods on this earth who police our private passions.”
The film premiered at the Busan International Film Festival held in October 2019 where it also won the prestigious Kim Ji Seok Award.
Petition filed against TLP for hindering the release of Zindagi Tamasha
A few hours before the Punjab Government’s notification, a Lahore Civil Court heard the petition filed by Sarmad’s father Irfan Ali Khoosat against the Tehreek-i-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP) for “trying to interfere into the smooth running, public screening/releasing” of Zindagi Tamasha. Judge Ziaur Rehman heard the petition and issued notices to all respondents to appear before the court on Wednesday to present their arguments.
According to reports, Irfan who serves as the director of Khoosat Films Private Limited, appealed to the court to “[restrain] the defendant permanently from interfering into the peaceful releasing/public screening of above-named film on big screen/cinema in all over Pakistan illegally, unlawfully”.
Sindh Film Censor Board, Punjab Film Censor Board and Markazi Film Censor Board were also named as though it was clarified that the censor boards were “mere [proforma] defendants and the plaintiff has not claim (sic) any relief against them”.
Irfan had also filed for interim injunction from the court under Rules 1 (cases in which temporary injunction may be granted) and 2 (injunction to restrain repetition or continuance of breach) of Order 39 read with Section 151 of the Code of Civil Procedure.
Last week, the filmmaker had appealed to the Prime Minister, President, Chief Justice of Pakistan and Chief of Army Staff to facilitate his film’s release explaining that he was receiving threats. Sarmad shared that there were attempts to stop his film from releasing despite it being cleared by the central censor board
In his letter, Sarmad clarified that “As a law-abiding citizen and with full conviction that there is nothing offensive or malicious in the film, in response I submitted the film for another review to the censor board. It was cleared once again with a few cuts to appease the complainants.”
Following that he penned another letter, this time addressed to “my beloved Pakistan and Pakistanis” detailing that he is getting dozens of threatening phone calls forcing him to reconsider the release of his film.
TikTok, a video-sharing social networking app, has beaten Facebook to become the second most downloaded app in the world in 2019. The platform owned by China-based ByteDance came second to Whatsapp in terms of downloads.
As per market analyst Sensor Tower’s ranking, both TikTok and its Chinese counterpart Douyin amassed a total of 740 million downloads in 2019. The reports consist of worldwide downloads for Google Play Store, iPhone and iPad. They, however, did not include data from Apple apps, pre-installed Google apps and Android downloads from third-party stores based in China.
The company is making efforts to monetize the app, it had a successful year in terms of revenue grossing over $176.9 million in 2019.
Prince Harry doesn’t want Netflix’s ‘The Crown’ to cover his life and has said that he will stop the production of the series before they cover his life. According to the Daily Express, Royal biographer Angela Levin revealed that Harry had told her about his plans when she had met him at Buckingham Palace.
“Well Harry, when I went to interview him at the palace, the first thing he said to me when he shook my hand was ‘Are you watching The Crown?’… “And I had been at the time and I felt very embarrassed,” she added.
“I got up and he said, ‘I’m going to make sure I stop it before they get to me,” she said.
Prince Harry and his wife Meghan and son Archie are no longer working members of the Royal Family
There are rumours that Netflix would be interested in working with Harry and Meghan. According to The Daily Mail, when Netflix’s chief content officer, Ted Sarando was asked if they would be interested in working with the couple, he said, “Who wouldn’t be interested?”
On the other hand, there are also reports that Netflix will not be covering present day royals. According to The Sun, Suzanne Mackie the executive producer of ‘The Crown’ said it’s unlikely it will ever cover today’s royals. She said: “To be honest, whatever the life of The Crown is after where we are now, I doubt we’ll ever go as far into the present day.”
The Crown is currently chronicling Prince Charles life, who is Harry’s father
‘The Crown’ is a Netflix series that chronicles the life of Queen Elizabeth II and is in it’s third season.
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle have given up their royal titles to live an independent life in Canada. Latest pictures show Meghan hiking with baby Archie and Harry recently attended an event where he said that he was ‘sad‘ about the way things turned out.
Meghan Markle, all smiles as she hikes in Canada with her son and dogs
Harry returns to Canada after two weeks of being in England for the last of his royal engagements
Deepika Padukone is on a mission to make the world a better place.
After standing in solidarity with students of New Delhi’s Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) who were protesting after masked assailants wielding batons and iron rods attacked the university leaving more than two dozen injured, she delivered a powerful speech on mental health at the the World Economic Forum in Davos. The actor received the Crystal Award at the annual event for her work on spreading awareness about mental health.
The actor spoke about her mental illness journey at the event saying she had a love-hate relationship with it, and highlighted that depression and anxiety were common illnesses that could be treated.
“My love and hate relationship with this has taught me a lot and I want to tell everyone suffering from this that you are not alone.”
“Depression is a common, yet serious illness. It is important to understand that anxiety and depression is like any other illness and treatable. It was experience with this illness that encouraged me to set up Live Love Laugh,” she said, while speaking about her foundation. Deepika was diagnosed with depression in 2014.
Highlighting the impact mental illnesses have people and on the economy, she said, “One trillion dollars is the estimated impact of depression and mental illness on the world economy. In the time it has taken me to accept this award, the world has lost one more person to suicide”.
Padukone, who received the award on Martin Luther King Jr Day, also quoted the civil rights activist in her acceptance speech.
“For in the words of Martin Luther King, everything that is done in this world is done with hope,” she said.
Padukone started voicing her opinion on the importance of mental health through her foundation The Live Love Laugh Foundation in June 2015.
Through the program, the actor launches nationwide awareness as well as destigmatisation campaigns. The foundation raises awareness about adolescent mental health disorders and organises training sessions, research and lecture series that feature some of the best known thinkers and achievers.
Padukone was last seen in biographical drama Chhapaak, which she also produced. Directed by Meghna Gulzar, the movie is based on real-life acid attack survivor Laxmi Agarwal, who was attacked in 2005 at the age of 15.
In what appears to prove the rumoured rift between certain leaders of the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), Federal Minister for Science and Technology Fawad Chaudhry has called out Special Assistant to Prime Minister (SAPM) for Information and Broadcasting Firdous Ashiq Awan for her “illiterate” remarks regarding Punjab Chief Minister (CM) Usman Buzdar.
The SAPM had said that those criticising CM Buzdar were criticising Prime Minister (PM) Imran Khan and it would be “the premier’s failure if the provincial chief executive of Punjab failed”.
“Why?” Fawad said while quoting Awan on a private media outlet’s talkshow Monday night. “I’d say it is an illiterate comment,” he said, to which the anchor asked if the minister was sure about what he was saying regarding a colleague.
“Whoever says such a thing… it’d be a dumb thing to say,” Fawad maintained, adding that Buzdar was to held accountable for his performance and PM Imran for his own.
WATCH VIDEO:
To this, the anchor said that the premier was accountable for both his performance and that of CM Buzdar.
Continuing to train guns at the Punjab CM, Fawad urged Buzdar to step aside, and said the federal government could not deliver effectively without the support of the provinces.
Raising questions over the performance of the Punjab government, the minister said that they had made promises with the people of change and accountability and good governance ahead of general election, but unfortunately nothing had changed in Punjab.
He maintained that around 62 per cent of the total budget went to provinces but they were not delivering appropriately. Fawad added that the federal government was doing whatever it could for the masses.
Federal Ombudsperson for Protection against Harassment of Women at Workplaces Kashmala Tariq has said that insisting someone for tea or food is tantamount to harassment.
According to reports, Tariq, while speaking to students and faculty members of Baqai Medical University Karachi about workplace harassment on Monday, said that repeatedly sending greetings to someone if they hadn’t responded the first time, was also harassment.
— Federal Ombudsperson-Protection Against Harassment (@fospah) January 20, 2020
“When someone is harassed, especially women, their parents start fearing what the society would think. We must put an end to this mindset of fear,” she was quoted as saying.
Tariq explained that Federal Ombudsman Secretariat for Protection Against Harassment (FOSPAH) also protected men’s rights and shared how only five cases a month was the frequency back when she took charge. “Now around 60 cases get reported every month,” she added while sharing how her department had contributed to restoring people’s confidence.
To a question, she said while 80-90% of harassment cases were reported by women, men were also harassed, but mostly by other men.
Tariq had last year also said that harassment is not limited to sexual assault only and could be of any kind. “If anyone is insisting for tea, it also comes in the form of harassment.”
She had explained later:
I said unwelcoming n unwanted text messages n stalking on social media is also harassment. And then I gave examples. Media shall not take just one line out of context pls.
“I said unwelcoming n unwanted text messages n stalking on social media is also harassment. And then I gave examples. Media shall not take just one line out of context pls [sic].”
German professional footballer and Arsenal star Mesut Özil has congratulated the viral Pakistani couple that held an Arsenal banner at its wedding while also making the hand gesture that Özil makes each time he scores.
Sharing the viral video on his official Twitter handle, the German footballer wrote:
“Congratulations to this @Arsenal Pakistan couple Inam ul Haq and Arooj Talat Khan! Btw nice celebration in the end. All the best for you two! #wedding#YaGunnersYa#M1Ö [sic],” he tweeted.
ARSENAL VS CHELSEA:
Meanwhile, midweek Premier League actions sees Chelsea host Arsenal as part of Matchday 24 with both clubs coming off of disappointing results last Saturday.
Chelsea enters in fourth place with a 12-3-8 record but just lost 1-0 at Newcastle on a last-minute goal. Arsenal, meanwhile, was held to a draw at home against Sheffield United and enters this game in 10th place, struggling for any type of consistency.
These two teams just met on December 29, with Chelsea coming back with two late goals to win 2-1 at Arsenal in Mikel Arteta’s home debut as coach of the Gunners.
As the price of wheat (atta and flour) reaches Rs75 per kilogram (kg) — the highest price recorded in Pakistan’s history — amid shortage, we have to ask: what is this crisis and what led to it?
The crisis is huge because it hits a daily essential. Roti, bread, naans and puris, you name it, everything with any bit of flour or wheat in it is going to be affected, and prices are rising.
What happened? A country that is rich in wheat production, exports millions of tonnes of wheat itself is now in a massive wheat shortage?
It all started from projection vs. reality.
Projection this year did not meet reality and was less than the previous three years
It all started from the government projecting that the wheat production of 2018-2019 would be 25.2 million tonnes, which would be sufficient for the year. Pakistan also exports wheat and because the projected wheat crop was high, the country exported, 640,000 tonnes. Pakistan was supposed to export between 200,000 to 400,000 tonnes.
The crisis began when Pakistan did not meet its projected figure. It produced 24.7 million tonnes due to bad management, poor coordination and the weather.
So now all provinces are racing to save their stock. Punjab has imposed a ban on moving wheat to other provinces and reportedly, people who want to profit from the shortage, are hoarding the wheat to sell at a later stage when prices increase.
The federal government is blaming the provinces for the shortage, primarily the Sindh government (Sindh is also the only province which is not under PTI rule) saying that the Sindh government bought a lot of wheat at the wrong time. The Sindh government is saying that Imran Khan is responsible because he allowed the extra wheat to be exported.
Prices of 10KG of atta in four cities
The next few months are going to be crucial for wheat. The price of wheat used to be around Rs45-50 per kg and is now Rs75. The government is now having to import wheat from other countries to make up for the shortage, and Twitter is not happy about it.
If the figures coming out are correct, Pak officially exported 500,000 tonnes of wheat to Afghanistan. Another 140,000 tonnes were smuggled out even after a belated ban. Then according to some, 800,000 tonnes were diverted to chickenfeed. Now Pak importing 300,000 tonnes. ♂️
