Author: newsdesk

  • Osman Khalid Butt throws shade at Qamar for his misogynistic statements

    Osman Khalid Butt throws shade at Qamar for his misogynistic statements

    Khalil ur Rehman Qamar and his directorial feature Kaaf Kangana may not have been a box-office success but the film and its maker has been dominating headlines for one reason or another.

    First the film and its ‘interesting’ trailer, then Neelum Muneer’s bizarre item song, then DG ISPR Major General Asif Ghafoor defending the item song and lastly Qamar himself saying that women should rape men if they want equality.

    Yup, our head is spinning as much yours is.

    Nonetheless, Qamar’s statements stirred up a social media storm and everyone began to call him out for his misogynistic and outdated comments.

    Read more: Kaaf Kangana writer says ‘women should rape men if they want equality’

    Osman Khalid Butt, who is touted to be one of the most ‘woke’ celebrities to exist in the Pakistan film industry also called out Khalil ur Rehman for his comments.

    Usman Mukhtar called for a boycott on Qamar.

    Armeena Khan also called out Qamar for his statements.

    https://twitter.com/ArmeenaRK/status/1189937410169290752?s=20

    In an interview, the renowned screenwriter had said, “A few weeks ago, a feminist group had a conversation with me regarding equality. I asked them if they’ve ever heard about a gang of men kidnapping a woman? They assured me they have. I asked them then why don’t women do the same?”

    “If you wish to strive for equality then kidnap men as well. Rob a bus, gang rape a man, so that I can understand what you [women] mean by equality.”

    Qamar has several successful dramas to his credit including the current superhit Meray Paas Tum Ho.

    Defending his ideas and “philosophy” around how he sees society, Qamar said that Meray Paas Tum Ho was “the story of several men, not just one”.

    “I have come across multiple married couples who go through the same ordeal. I’ve observed when a married woman cheats, she doesn’t feel ashamed at all. The reason behind her not feeling guilty is because she has been backed by another man. When an unmarried woman cheats, she feels guilty.”

    Read more: The episode that’s breaking Pakistan’s internet – Meray Pass Tum Ho’s climax

    Social media was not buying his explanations and statements and called out the director for his misogynistic comments.

    https://twitter.com/ayeshakhalid7/status/1190006151594872832?s=20

    https://twitter.com/BillieJien/status/1189979238067326976?s=20
  • VIDEO: Saudi Arabia hosts its first WWE women’s wrestling match

    VIDEO: Saudi Arabia hosts its first WWE women’s wrestling match

    Saudi Arabia has hosted its first women’s wrestling match, as it takes steps towards relaxing strict rules on entertainment, BBC News reported.

    According to the details, the contest took place in Riyadh, featuring WWE stars Natalya and Lacey Evans. The duo fought in body suits and a t-shirt on top, in line with requirements for visitors to “dress modestly.”

    Thursday’s wrestling match was part of the WWE Crown Jewel event which took place at Riyadh’s King Fahd International Stadium, which can seat 68,000 spectators. Former boxing champion Tyson Fury also competed, defeating Braun Strowman.

    Ahead of the match, wrestler Natalya wrote on Twitter: “The world will be watching. I am so incredibly proud to represent our women’s division tomorrow night at #WWECrownJewel. It’s time to bring your best, Lacey.”

    Saudi wrestler Mansoor, who will be squaring off against Cesaro, during an interview before the event said that many female members of his family could not wait to watch the match live.

    https://twitter.com/KSAMANNY/status/1189656804386594821?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1189656804386594821&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.bbc.com%2Fnews%2Fworld-middle-east-50248949

    Mansoor said, “I cannot even begin to describe how much that means to me, how much that means to my little sisters, who love WWE, how much it means to my nieces, who love WWE and who fantasise and dream about being wrestlers”.

    Watch Video:

  • Award-winning Pakistani director gets life sentence in murder case

    Award-winning Pakistani director gets life sentence in murder case

    Award-winning director Mansoor Mujahid and his friend Anab Zehra Hameed were handed life imprisonment for murdering their friend Faisal Nabi. The court also ordered them to pay Rs200,000 each as compensation to the legal heirs of the victim.

    According to reports, a sessions court in Karachi found Mujahid and his friend Anab guilty of killing banker Faisal Nabi Malik, in an apartment in Defence Housing Authority in June 2013.

    The prosecution, in their arguments, said that Mansoor and his friends were consuming drugs at Anab’s apartment when he allegedly shot dead the victim after they got into a heated argument on June 20, 2013.

    They further added that the male accused along with his female partners shared a common intent to kill the victim. They shot the deceased with an unlicensed weapon and dumped the body in the parking lot of an apartment complex after stabbing and burning it with acid in order to hide his identity.

    Sharing further details, the prosecution said that when an inquiry officer along with some relatives of the deceased questioned the accused, Mansoor confessed to having shot his friend twice while Anab disclosed to have stabbed the victim and poured acid over his body to confuse his identity. They led the police to a place where the body, pistol, daggers, bloodstained pillow and bedspread were found.

    It added that Anab further disclosed during interrogation that the deceased had assaulted her a few days before the incident and she wrote it in her diary which was read by Mansoor.

    Meanwhile, the victim’s driver had also seen the accused coming out of the place where he had dropped the victim.

    Mansoor is the director of the award-winning film Seedlings, whose Urdu title was Lamha. The film stars Mohib Mirza and Aamina Sheikh in the lead while Gohar Rasheed was also part of the film. It won the ‘Best Feature Film’ (People’s choice) and ‘Best Lead Actress’ awards for Aamina Sheikh at its World Premiere in The New York City International Film Festival 2012.

    It also bagged the ‘Best Feature Film’ award at the DC South Asian Festival in Washington in May 2013.

    Mansoor was also involved in the making of numerous documentaries, music videos and narrative work for television.

    In an earlier interview, Mujahid had said that he did not intend to kill his friend but it was in fact an accident.

  • Gandapur threatens to fire missiles at countries backing India

    Gandapur threatens to fire missiles at countries backing India

    Minister for Kashmir Affairs and Gilgit Baltistan, Ali Amin Gandapur, is no stranger to controversy. From claiming that the previous government had let go of Kulbhushan Jadhav. He was also unaware of the Jadhav case at the International Court of Justice.

    Gandapur has made another faux pas — this time he has threatened countries supporting India over the Kashmir issue.

    Addressing a public gathering, Gandapur said, “If tensions with India rise on Kashmir, Pakistan will be compelled to go to war. Those countries backing India and not Pakistan [over Kashmir] will be considered our enemy and a missile will be fired at India and those nations supporting it.”

    What’s even more interesting is that when challenged on Waseem Badami’s show, Gandapur did not back down from his threats.

  • Maj Gen Asif Ghafoor reacts to Cyril Almeida’s ‘RIP ISPR’ tweet

    Maj Gen Asif Ghafoor reacts to Cyril Almeida’s ‘RIP ISPR’ tweet

    Reacting to journalist and former Dawn assistant editor Cyril Almeida’s tweet, Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) chief Major General Asif Ghafoor has called him out over his “unwarranted assertion”.

    “RIP ISPR, PTI [Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf], etc…” Almeida tweeted Thursday while quoting a statement by Twitter Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Jack Dorsey, who had announced the microblogging website’s decision to block political advertisements all across the globe.

    https://twitter.com/cyalm/status/1189640211493478403

    Retweeting the journalist with a comment, the ISPR director general (DG) challenged him to prove his claims pertaining to alleged adverts by the military’s media wing.

    https://twitter.com/peaceforchange/status/1189771746251071488

    “Dear @cyalm [Almeida], quote one such instance by ISPR [so as] to validate your unwarranted assertion. In case you fail, I wishfully expect a moral obligation from you. Should you succeed, I will take your advice,” Maj Gen Asif Ghafoor tweeted.

    It wasn’t later that the journalist responded to the ISPR chief.

    https://twitter.com/cyalm/status/1189784213194715136

    Was a joke, Gen sb… a bit of (apparently failed) humour in this space where we are all prisoners of Twitter and its policies… maybe @jack [Dorsey] will turn his attention to the trend wars next… [sic],” Almeida said.

    TWITTER BANS POLITICAL ADS:

    Earlier, CEO Jack Dorsey tweeted that the social networking site will be banning all political advertisements — albeit with “a few exceptions” like voter registration.

    “We believe political message reach should be earned, not bought,” Dorsey said.

    While it’s not totally clear how broad those exceptions will be, it sounds like the ban will apply to both ads endorsing candidates and ads advocating a position on political issues.

    Dorsey said the company will share the final policy by November 15, and that it will start enforcing the same on November 22.

    “Internet political ads present entirely new challenges to civic discourse: machine learning-based optimization of messaging and micro-targeting, unchecked misleading information, and deep fakes,” he wrote. “All at increasing velocity, sophistication, and overwhelming scale.”

    This came after Facebook faced heavy criticism around its refusal to fact-check political advertising (even as it took steps to fight election-related misinformation elsewhere), with employees of the social media giant writing an open letter objecting to the company’s stance.

    Dorsey didn’t mention Facebook by name in his tweets, but he seemed to allude to the company’s position when he wrote, “For instance, it‘s not credible for us to say: ‘We’re working hard to stop people from gaming our systems to spread misleading info, buuut if someone pays us to target and force people to see their political ad…well…they can say whatever they want! ????‘ [sic].”

  • Pakistan is one of the best performing nations  for social entrepreneurship: Reuters

    Pakistan is one of the best performing nations for social entrepreneurship: Reuters

    Innovative Pakistanis are pushing boundaries by starting and leading start-ups that focus on social entrepreneurship. Along with Australia and the Netherlands, Pakistan is one of the top three countries whose overall ranking has improved the most since the first experts’ poll on the best countries for social entrepreneurs was conducted by the Thomas Reuters Foundation in 2016.

    Maheen Bashir, co-founder of Dot and Line a start-up which trains women to become tutors , was recently at the World Bank Annual Meetings in Washington DC to speak about their work

    In just three years, Pakistan has jumped 18 spots to place 14th among the world’s 45 biggest economies and the foundation credits a lot of this to start-ups which are focusing on pressing social issues – such as turning organic waste in fertilizers, plans for solar powered mobile carts for street vendors and helping farmers share farming equipment.

    Aerosync, founded by Neelum Hassan, in 2016 was created to design and manufacture products with a social or environmental impact.
    Photo Courtesy: Faceebook

    Young Pakistanis, are interested in creating growth and since two-thirds of Pakistans 210 million people are younger than 30, a lot more is expected from this ‘youth boom’.

  • Pakistani social media is seriously debating why we celebrate Halloween

    Pakistani social media is seriously debating why we celebrate Halloween

    On Halloween Day, while the world is breaking the internet by posting their pictures of themselves in their Halloween costumes, Pakistan is debating why a ‘foreign holiday’ being celebrated in our country?

    Wasim & Shaniera Akram with Sharmila Faruqi and Hisham Riaz at a Halloween party last year

    The debate ranges from people discussing how it’s against Islam to celebrate a ‘pagan’ holiday and others saying that ‘The West’ does not celebrate Eid, so why is Pakistan celebrating their holidays? The counter-argument to this is that if that’s the case, then we should also not celebrate birthdays.

    Sheheryar Munawar at a previous Halloween party

    Others are pressing the fact that Pakistanis need to live and let live and if people want to celebrate Halloween they should be allowed to do so; the counter to which is that celebration of the event is ruining our culture and should not be promoted.

    Ahmed Ali Butt at a Halloween celebration

    Despite people passing judgement against the celebration of Halloween, there are many events happening in major cities for children to dress up and enjoy the holidays. Some people are planning small trick or treating events in their areas, hoping it also promotes their children to get to know their neighbours.

  • VIDEO: Nadia Jamil reveals a powerful politician’s daughter used to bully her

    VIDEO: Nadia Jamil reveals a powerful politician’s daughter used to bully her

    Nadia Jamil has made some staggering revelations in her recent interview.

    Speaking on Samina Peerzada’s show, Nadia revealed how an influential politician’s daughter used to bully her. She said she won’t reveal her name as she is passing through a hard time these days.

    “At the time, girl’s father was the Chief Minister and the family was very influential,” Nadia said.

    She continued, “She was my junior in school and once said to me: ‘Tumhaara baap meray baap ka naukar hai.’”

    Nadia further said that when she told her grandmother about this incident, her grandmother scolded her that she should be very cautious as the family could destroy her father’s business. To which Nadia had responded that how could she say this about my father.

    Meanwhile, sources tell us that the girl Nadia was referring to in her interview was former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s daughter, Maryam Nawaz. The two studied in the Convent of Jesus and Mary, Lahore, where Nadia was Maryam’s senior.

     

    Apart from that, Nadia also had a candid discussion about her illness, childhood and career with the host. Watch Nadia’s full Interview here:

  • Kaaf Kangana writer says ‘women should rape men if they want equality’

    Kaaf Kangana writer says ‘women should rape men if they want equality’

    Renowned screenwriter and director Khalilur Rehman Qamar has come under fire for saying that “women should rape men if they want equality”, while netizens call him out over misogyny, which they say, has always been key to his characters and stories.

    “A few weeks ago, a feminist group had a conversation with me regarding equality. I asked them if they’ve ever heard about a gang of men kidnapping a woman? They assured me they have. I asked them then why don’t women do the same?” Qamar, whose recent offering “Mere Pass Tum Ho” revolves around a woman who’s willing to overlook her affectionate husband for a man who’s richer, said in a recent interview.

    “If you wish to strive for equality then kidnap men as well. Rob a bus, gang rape a man, so that I can understand what you [women] mean by equality.”

    Defending his ideas and “philosophy” around how he sees society, Qamar said that “Mere Pass Tum Ho” was “the story of several men, not just one”.

    “I have come across multiple married couples who go through the same ordeal. I’ve observed when a married woman cheats, she doesn’t feel ashamed at all. The reason behind her not feeling guilty is because she has been backed by another man. When an unmarried woman cheats, she feels guilty.”

    “But when a married man betrays his wife, he feels guilty. He feels embarrassed.” Qamar then also asserted that women should not criticise “Mere Pass Tum Ho” because women themselves have ridiculed men.

    “I’m only narrating this story in your [women’s] favour. Like it or not, I don’t call every woman a woman. To me, the only beautiful trait a woman can possess is her loyalty and her modesty. If a woman isn’t loyal then she is not a woman. Register an FIR against me for if you don’t subscribe to my point of view but I won’t budge.”

    “Get someone to try me under #MeToo, I won’t care about that either. But I won’t be able to call every woman a woman. That simply isn’t true for me,” he said.

    “A man leaves all his honour, his self-esteem with his wife when he goes out to earn a living. And I curse those women who violate that trust. That was the concept behind Mere Pass Tum Ho and so I’m fighting for the ‘good women’. It would be unfair to these [good] women to be classified along with those who aren’t loyal.”

    He then mockingly said that men have hijacked women’s rights so cleverly that women don’t really understand what their actual rights are. “Rather than figuring out your own rights, you’re only asking your part from men’s rights. That’s never going to happen!” he said. “The most one of these feminist groups can do is chant slogans against me, tweet a few thousand tweets but that’s it! Women can’t do anything else.”

    Qamar believed that if women were to challenge men, the whole society will collapse.

    “I was once in conversation with Sultana Siddiqui, and she asked me, ‘Khalil, why don’t you write anything against men?’ I asked her what should I write about men? Should I abuse him? I would, but then what? She said, ‘What do you mean? Even men remarry and indulge in extramarital affairs. Why do you choose to be so selective?’ I just had one question in response, ‘But with whom? A woman, right?’”

    According to Qamar, if a woman learns to say no to men, then men won’t be tempted to have an extramarital affair.

    When the host finally intervened and made a point about how loyalty should be exercise by both the man and the woman, Qamar replied, “You have to understand this philosophy. A wife is worried about what? Another woman. That other woman isn’t a man. So riddle me this: you are destroying a man and you’re the one who’s complaining about it as well.”

    He concluded by saying, “A man cannot say no. He just can’t. A good woman can.”