Author: newsdesk

  • Karachi declared world’s 57th safest city

    Karachi declared world’s 57th safest city

    The financial and industrial capital of the country, Karachi, has scored 39 points out of 100 to secure the 57th position among 60 cities ranked by the recently published Safe Cities Index.

    The report, issued by the Economist Intelligence Unit, has ranked 60 metropolises around the world based on over 50 indicators covering their digital, health and personal security, infrastructure, and lifestyle.

    Japan’s capital city Tokyo stands at the top of the list with a score of 92 points, Singapore at second with 91.5 and another Japanese metropolis, Osaka, stands third with 90.9 points.

    United States (US) capital Washington DC — ranked seventh — is the only American city to make it to the top ten, Chicago has grabbed the eleventh place whereas Australia’s Melbourne has secured the 10th spot.

    Other than these, only two European cities, Amsterdam and Copenhagen, could make it to the top ten, at the fourth and eighth positions, respectively.

    The five lowest-ranking cities include Caracas (Venezuela), Yangon (Myanmar), Karachi (Pakistan) and Dhaka (Bangladesh).

  • Ahad Raza Mir, Osman Khalid Butt’s ‘Ehd-e-Wafa’ has everyone buzzing

    Ahad Raza Mir, Osman Khalid Butt’s ‘Ehd-e-Wafa’ has everyone buzzing

    The teaser of Hum TV’s latest offering Ehd-e-Wafa dropped yesterday and considering the names attached to the project, it comes as no surprise that everyone is excited and looking forward to it.

    Starring Ahad Raza Mir, Osman Khalid Butt, Zara Noor Abbas, Ahmed Ali Akbar, Wahaj Ali, Alizeh Shah and Hajira Yamin, Ehd-e-Wafa is directed by Saifee Hassan. The Current has exclusively learnt that Ehd-eWafa will be a TV drama.

    According to Hum TV, the drama is about “Friends, friendship, the journey of hardships and hustle, and willingness to sacrifice everything for the country.”

    Ahad, Osman, Ahmed and Wahaj will be essaying the roles of four friends who are SSG (Special Service Group) officials. Alizeh will be Ahad’s love interest and it is being speculated that Zara will be Osman’s.

    From the first look, the drama has been shot in the Lawrence College. Murree and the areas surrounding it.

    Teaser 1

    As soon as the teasers dropped, everyone took to Twitter to express their excitement so much so that the hashtag for it started trending at number one, as did Ahad’s dialogue, “Kutte bano, insaan mat bano.“

    https://www.instagram.com/p/B1zHFoJnMVU/

    Everything aside, we’re still curious to know if this is the same project which DG ISPR Major General Asif Ghafoor had hinted at when he congratulated Ahad on his engagement.

    https://twitter.com/peaceforchange/status/1137664559299342337?s=20
  • Pakistani couple’s startup secures $8.1 million financing

    Pakistani couple’s startup secures $8.1 million financing

    A Pakistani e-commerce brand and one of the trailblazers in the world of footwear, Atoms, has raised $8.1 million from a list of illustrious backers to bring its concept to the masses, TechCrunch has reported.

    The company since its beginning has been selling directly to consumers in the United States via its website — which at one point had a waiting list of nearly 40,000 people — and the idea will be to fold in other experiences, including selling from physical spaces in the future.

    The company plans to use the funding to invest in further development of its shoes and to expand its retail and marketing presence.

    The list of investors is being led by Initialized Capital, the investment firm started by Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian and Garry Tan.

    They had first encountered Atoms and its co-founders, Sidra Qasim and CEO Waqas Ali, as mentors when the husband-wife duo was going through Y Combinator with their previous high-end shoe startup, Markhor.

    “The thing that I love about Atoms is that it isn’t just a different look, it’s a different feel,” said Ohanian adding that when he put on a pair for the first time, it was a “totally unique experience”.

    Even before the recent achievement of closing a Series A, the startup has come a long way on a relative shoestring with just around $560,000 in seed funding and some of the founders’ own savings.

    Atoms built a supply chain of companies that would make the materials and shoes that it wanted and developed a gradual but strong marketing pipeline with influential people in tech, fashion and design.

    Currently the shoes sell for $179 a pair, which is not cheap and puts them at the high end of the market, so it will be interesting to see how and if price points evolve as it matures as a business, and competitors big and small begin to catch onto the idea of selling their own footwear at a wider range of sizes.

  • Lahore cinema releases night-vision explicit videos of couples

    Lahore cinema releases night-vision explicit videos of couples

    In what is being termed as a blatant breach of citizens’ privacy, a cinema in Lahore has released explicit footage of couples putting on public display of affection at the movies.

    The videos showing couples holding hands, making out and being involved in sexual activities, started doing rounds on Friday evening, sparking outrage over social media.

    While some called out the cinema for “blatant violation” of the couples’ privacy, others stepped in to train guns at the couples for publically being involved in the activities.

    https://twitter.com/SuagaDesi/status/1167727643246125056
    https://twitter.com/ARfrom1947/status/1167698419240058880

    No official statement over the episode has yet been released, however, former Punjab’s Strategic Reforms Unit director general (DG) Salman Sufi has announced filing a lawsuit against the cinema.

    “Just found that video recordings of citizens from cinema halls in #Pakistan have been shared around. This is NOT acceptable and is a violation of law. We demand that all theaters/Public places delete ALL video recordings that have no recorded safety threat ASAP [sic],” Sufi tweeted.

  • PCB to hire first-ever woman director

    PCB to hire first-ever woman director

    In a first, the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) is going to hire a woman director, who will either serve as an election commissioner, deputy election commissioner or one of the adjudicators.

    As per the details, PCB on Friday held its 55th Board of Governors (BoG) meeting during which a three-member nominations committee — in accordance with Clause 41 of the PCB Constitution 2019 — was constituted.

    According to the said clause, BoG is to form a three-member committee responsible for presenting recommendations on the appointment of four independent directors, one of which will now be a woman.

    “The BoG meeting chaired by PCB Chairman Ehsan Mani also approved various recommendations of the Audit Committee, including the board’s central budget for the 2019-20 financial year,” stated a press release issued here.

    PCB Chief Executive Wasim Khan also briefed the BoG on the outcomes of the cricket committee meeting held on August 2 to review the national cricket team’s performance within the last three years.

    The BoG acknowledged and appreciated the PCB’s efforts in convincing Sri Lanka Cricket to send their team for an ODI and T20I series, which will be played from September 27 till October 9 in Pakistan.

    Following constitutional changes, the BoG also reviewed and approved the revised powers and functions of the PCB chairman, chief executive, chief operating and the chief financial officers.

  • Twitter CEO’s hacked account sends racist tweets

    Twitter CEO’s hacked account sends racist tweets

    The account of Twitter Chief Executive Jack Dorsey was hacked,
    sending public tweets and retweets including racial slurs and curse words to 4
    million followers before Twitter secured the account.

     The offensive tweets and
    retweets were deleted less than an hour after the incident. The social media
    company said the phone number associated with his account was compromised due
    to a security oversight by the mobile provider.

    “This allowed an unauthorized person to compose and send tweets via text message from the phone number. That issue is now resolved.” the company said. There was no indication that Twitter’s systems had been compromised, it added.

    One of the tweets from the hacked account said Nazi leader Adolf
    Hitler was innocent, while others contained derogatory comments about black
    people and Jews. There was also a tweet suggesting there was a bomb at
    Twitter’s headquarters.

    This was not the first time that Dorsey’s Twitter account has been hacked. His account was compromised in 2016 by a group that also hacked the Twitter accounts of Google CEO Sundar Pichai and Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg.

    Twitter shares were down less than 1% in after-hours trade
    following the hack.

  • Naimal Khawar reveals who did her Nikkah makeup

    Naimal Khawar reveals who did her Nikkah makeup

    One week later, Naimal Khawar and Hamza Ali Abbasi’s wedding is still trending. Though the hype has died down a bit, fans still get excited when they get an update from the couple.

    The new bride has also resumed her social media activities and hit back at trolls just earlier this week. Now she’s shared how she felt while wearing her mother’s jora on her nikkah and that she did her own hair and makeup.

    “The moment I realised I’m getting married, I knew I wanted to wear my Amma’s nikkah jora,” she wrote. “I have always been drawn to old-world charm and the nazakat of bridal joras back in the day. There is also a certain emotional attachment that comes with wearing your mother’s jora.”

    “Having worn it, I can say it was easily the best decision I made,” she continued before revealing that she even did her own hair and makeup.

    “I also did my own hair and makeup because I wanted to keep it simple and minimal.”

    https://www.instagram.com/p/B1y2bVQjlMo/

    Naimal kept her nikkah look simple and minimalistic with clean, glowing skin, light eyes, well-defined brows and a peachy pout – perfect for an afternoon summer wedding.

    Naimal’s decision of stepping away from the norm and being confident enough to do her own hair and makeup considering that she knew how much coverage her wedding would be getting is admirable and we love it.

    Do you think more brides will follow Naimal’s footsteps or will we stick to the regular parlours?

  • PM Imran, Gandhi’s great grandson on same page against extremist RSS?

    PM Imran, Gandhi’s great grandson on same page against extremist RSS?

    A day after Prime Minister (PM) Imran Khan said that the ideology of the Hindu extremist Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) had taken over India, a much similar statement of the great grandson of independent India’s founding father Mahatma Gandhi, has emerged.

    “The RSS ideology has taken over India, the way the Nazi party had taken over Germany,” the premier had said while addressing a Kashmir Hour gathering on Friday. “They think that Muslims should be taught a lesson, that they are not equal citizens. Today, the whole world is seeing what is happening in Kashmir.”

    With the premier’s words being widely shared over the internet, it wasn’t later that someone pointed out their similarity with an earlier statement by Gandhi’s great grandson, Tushar Gandhi.

    Addressing a gathering earlier this year, he had called for fighting the ideology of RSS, which he said was trying to divide India.

    Tushar, who is the son of Mahatma’s grandson Arun, had said that Gandhiwadis (believers of the Gandhian philosophy) can remain neutral, but those who call themselves Gandhi’s workers, cannot do the same in the present era as the RSS was threatening the very ideals espoused by Gandhi.

    “I do not hate the RSS functionaries. But I oppose RSS… that idea, which is dividing the country… I do not say that others have not done this. We oppose them as well. We will have to protest, otherwise, we don’t deserve to be called Gandhi’s workers.”

    PM Imran’s Friday address wasn’t the first time when he called out his Indian counterpart Narendra Modi’s regime for being inspired by the RSS.

    In two loaded tweets on the eve of Eidul Azha, he had tweeted, “The curfew, crackdown and impending genocide of Kashmiris in IoK [Indian occupied Kashmir] is unfolding exactly according to [the] RSS ideology inspired by Nazi ideology. Attempt is to change demography of Kashmir through ethnic cleansing. Question is: Will the world watch & appease as they did Hitler at Munich?”

    “I am afraid this RSS ideology of Hindu Supremacy, like the Nazi Aryan Supremacy, will not stop in IoK; instead it will lead to suppression of Muslims in India and eventually lead to targeting of Pakistan. The Hindu Supremacists version of Hitler’s Lebensraum,” he had said further.

  • PTI govt waives off Rs228 billion dues of rich industrialists

    PTI govt waives off Rs228 billion dues of rich industrialists

    The Pakistan Tehreeke Insaf (PTI) government has waived off Rs228 billion of influential industrialists and owners of fertilizer, CNG and power sector companies through a presidential ordinance enforced with immediate effect from August 28 The News International has reported.

    As per the details, President Arif Alvi waived half of the outstanding liabilities of the said players of the amount collected from May 22, 2015 to December 21 2018.

    Furthermore, the government also reduced Gas Infrastructure Development Cess (GIDC) rates by up to 75%, which would push down prices of gas and fertiliser for the end-consumers.

    According to the Petroleum Division statistics, as of the end of December 2018, the total principal liabilities of these sectors stood at Rs416.3 billion and half of those were written off by the government.

    Cumulative GIDC collection since 2012 was recorded at Rs701.5 billion till the end of December 2018, out of which only Rs285 billion had been deposited.

    The government further waived the late payment surcharge, which was supposed to be paid at the rate of 4% plus three-month Karachi Interbank Offered Rate (Kibor), which currently stands at 13.7%, meaning the government has written off 17.4% mark-up, which brings the total to over Rs300 billion.

    The ordinance also did not address the issue of how to refund 50% GIDC to those companies that timely discharged their legal obligations and paid the entire amount of GIDC.

  • IN PICTURES: Celebs observe Kashmir hour

    IN PICTURES: Celebs observe Kashmir hour

    Upon Prime Minister Imran Khan’s call to the nation to show solidarity with Kashmiris by observing the weekly Kashmir Hour, Pakistani across the country responded and gathered across the country in silent protest.

    After the Kashmir Hour, PM Khan also took to Twitter to thank those who spoke up.

    Prominent media personalities and celebrities were also part of the monumental gatherings and even addressed those present to continue to raise their voice against Indian atrocities in Indian occupied Kashmir.

    Here’s everyone who showed up.

    Hamza Ali Abbasi

    Hamza Ali Abbasi was present at the Prime Minister Secretariat with PM Khan himself.

    Shahid Afridi

    The former captain of the Pakistan Cricket Team was present at Mazar-e-Quaid along with Governor Sindh Imran Ismail and PTI Minister Faisal Vawda. He also addressed those gathered and criticised Modi for his actions.

    Adnan Siddiqui & Bilal Ashraf

    The two along with Superstar director Ehteshamuddin waved Kashmir’s flag at Jehangir Kothari Parade in Karachi.

    Shehzad Roy

    The singer made a human chain with 2500 girls of Zindagi Trust’s adopted SMB Fatima Jinnah Government School.

    Zara Noor Abbas & Asad Siddiqui

    https://www.instagram.com/p/B1x6_c8nGMG/

    Faysal Qureshi & Aijaz Aslam

    Faysal Qureshi, Aijaz Aslam, and former cricketer Moin Khan gathered at Moin Khan Academy to express their support.

    Sheikh Rasheed

    Rasheed addressed the protestors outside Lal Haveli. He also got an electric shock while delivering his speech.

    Fawad Chaudhry

    Fawad lead a rally in Jehlum.

    https://twitter.com/FawadPTIUpdates/status/1167345096653717511