Author: newsdesk

  • Fear of operation at Zaman Park: Bushra Bibi writes letter to PM Shehbaz and interim CM Naqvi

    Former First Lady Bushra Bibi has written a letter to Prime Minister (PM) Shehbaz Sharif and interim Chief Minister (CM) of Punjab Mohsin Naqvi.

    It is being reported that Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan’s wife has sent the letter through her lawyers to the premier and caretaker CM due to fear of a government operation in Zaman Park on Eid.

    The letter states that a court order has been issued in the matter of the government conducting an operation at Imran’s Lahore residence. It further adds that a plan has been hatched to misinterpret the court order, while reminding the recipients that an operation has been conducted in the past despite court orders. The document warns that if an operation takes place in Zaman Park on Eid, then higher courts will be approached.

  • Nawaz Sharif, Maryam meet Saudi Crown Prince

    Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) supremo Nawaz Sharif along with his daughter Maryam Nawaz met Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to discuss bilateral relations and the current problems faced by Pakistan.

    The meeting was confirmed by Federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting Marriyum Aurangzeb, she said: “The leaders discussed further improving Saudi-Pak brotherly relations and solutions to the issues Pakistan is facing. Nawaz Sharif expressed his good wishes for the Saudi leadership.”

    Nawaz and his family are currently in Saudi Arabia, where they performed Umrah.

    The Sharif family reached Saudi Arabia on April 11 on the invitation of the royal family. The former Prime Minister (PM) is visiting Saudi Arabia after six years.

    According to media reports, Saudi’s King Salman bin Abdulaziz invited Nawaz — who is considered close to the royal family — and Prime Minister (PM) Shehbaz Sharif to the kingdom as a gesture of goodwill.

    It is also speculated that Nawaz may come to Pakistan after winding up the tour of Saudi, however, there has been no official confirmation yet.

  • Oh, Punjab walon, Fawad Chaudhry suggests Buzdar can become chief minister again

    Oh, Punjab walon, Fawad Chaudhry suggests Buzdar can become chief minister again

    Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) senior leader Fawad Chaudhry has said that he will be surprised to see Usman Buzdar as Chief Minister (CM) of Punjab again, however, he stressed that the decision will be up to the party chairman, Imran Khan.

    Talking to Journalist Kashif Abbasi on ARY News programme ‘Off the Record’, Fawad said: “What can I say,” when asked if Buzdar is the leading candidate for the slot. Chaudhry repeated himself again, saying that the decision will be made by Imran Khan.

    The PTI leader didn’t seem happy when asked that why he didn’t get a Member of Provincial Assembly (MPA) party ticket from Imran Khan.

    It was revealed that senior leadership of the party, including Shah Mahmood Qureshi, Hammad Azhar, and Fawad, didn’t get party tickets for the upcoming Punjab election although it was widely speculated that they wanted one. Meanwhile, according to Fawad, both former CMs of Punjab, Pervaiz Elahi and Usman Buzdar, were given a ticket.

    “We should have gotten them”, Fawad said when asked about tickets. He also agreed that there are many party members who want to apply for the Punjab CM candidacy including Hammad Azhar and Shah Mahmood.

    Shahbaz Gill, who also didn’t get a MPA ticket, said that he and other leaders including Fawad and Hammad submitted papers for the provincial assembly, however, Khan decided not to give them tickets.

    However, he accepted Khan’s decision wholeheartedly, saying “I am not with Khan for the ticket and not for the position.”

    Khan’s social media focal person Azhar Mashwani also came forward to reveal that “many former federal ministers and MNAs of PTI wanted to contest elections on the Punjab Assembly seats as well.”

    However, according to Azhar, Khan decided that the “federal team will remain in the federation.”

  • No more blue ticks for Twitter users who don’t pay for verification

    No more blue ticks for Twitter users who don’t pay for verification

    On Thursday, Elon Musk’s social media platform followed through on its promise to eliminate blue verification checks from accounts that don’t pay a monthly fee. The blue checks have been removed from the accounts of many prominent public figures and celebrities on Twitter, including Oprah Winfrey, Lady Gaga, Beyonce, Pope Francis, and Donald Trump.

    The purge came after Musk introduced Twitter Blue, a paid service that aims to democratize journalism and empower the people’s voice. Before Musk ended the verification system, roughly 300,000 users had the blue check mark, which helped differentiate real public figures from impostors and protected against fake news.

    Following the change, some users, such as Stephen King, still have the blue check mark but claimed not to have paid for the new service. Musk responded to King’s tweet with “You’re welcome namaste” and revealed that he’s “personally paying for a few [accounts].” Musk has been attempting to increase Twitter’s revenue by offering subscription and premium services since buying the social media company for $44 billion last October. Musk previously described the system that assigned the check marks as “corrupt and nonsensical.”

    Twitter began tagging users with a blue check mark roughly 14 years ago. After Twitter Blue’s introduction, numerous fake accounts emerged, including some impersonating Musk’s Tesla and SpaceX. Twitter temporarily suspended the service days later. The cost to display the verified check mark under the new service ranges from $8 per month for individuals to $1,000 per month for organisations.

    Politicians and official bodies have also been affected by the Thursday purge, with concerns raised that the public will be unable to identify which Twitter accounts provide information about natural disasters. US Senator Brian Schatz tweeted, “There really ought to be a way for emergency managers to verify that they are real on this website or imposters will cause suffering and death.” According to digital intelligence platform Similarweb, only 116,000 accounts signed up for Twitter Blue last month.

  • Rising petrol prices and rupee devaluation push inflation to 47.23% in Pakistan ahead of Eid

    Rising petrol prices and rupee devaluation push inflation to 47.23% in Pakistan ahead of Eid

    According to data released by the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS), a steep increase in the prices of essential food items such as chicken and petrol has pushed weekly inflation to 47.23 per cent year-on-year for the week ending on April 19. Inflation has risen 0.51 per cent week-on-week, compared to a 0.60 per cent decrease in the previous week.

    The rising inflation has been attributed to the increase in sensitive price indicators such as LPG, potatoes, petrol, tea, gur, matchbox, bread, chicken, bananas, broken basmati rice, and rice irri-6/9. However, a major decrease was observed in the prices of tomatoes, onions, garlic, sugar, wheat flour, mustard oil, cigarettes, and pulse gram.

    For the week under review, the SPI (Sensitive Price Index) was recorded at 251.83 points, against 250.56 points registered last week and 171.05 points recorded during the week ended April 21, 2022. Fahad Rauf, head of research at Ismail Iqbal Securities, said that SPI experienced an increase mainly driven by a 4 per cent and 2 per cent increase in the prices of petrol and chicken, respectively.

    During the week, the government raised petrol prices by Rs10 per litre, bringing the new price to Rs282 per litre, due to the impact of rising international oil prices and rupee devaluation. Chicken prices have also risen mainly due to increased seasonal demand in Ramadan and the arrival of Eid.

    Prices of commodities have risen significantly over the last year on account of devaluation as well as the massive floods that devastated food crops across most of the fertile plains of the country. Different weights are assigned to various commodities in the SPI basket, and prices of commodities have risen on a year-on-year basis. The PBS compiles the SPI by collecting prices of 51 essential items from 50 markets in 17 cities of the country.

    During the week under review, out of 51 items, prices of 29 (56.86 per cent) items increased, eight (15.69 per cent) items decreased, and prices of 14 (27.45 per cent) items remained unchanged. The PBS data attributed the year-on-year rise in SPI to the jump in the prices of goods such as cigarettes, wheat flour, gas charges for Q1, tea, diesel, potatoes, bananas, eggs, petrol, broken basmati rice, rice irri-6/9, pulse moong, and plain bread. However, a decrease was observed in the prices of tomatoes and chilli powder.

  • Indian court acquits 69 people of murder of 11 Muslims in Gujarat massacre trial

    Indian court acquits 69 people of murder of 11 Muslims in Gujarat massacre trial

    A court in India has declared 69 people, which includes a former minister from the ruling Bharatiya Janata party (BJP), not guilty of the killing of 11 Muslims during communal riots in the western state of Gujarat in 2002.

    The case pertains to the killing of 11 Muslims who died in February 2002 during communal riots in Ahmedabad, when Hindu mobs set their homes on fire and rampaged through the city. An investigation into the attack found that the Muslims received no assistance from the police and were left at the mercy of the attackers.

    The Gujarat riots erupted after a train carriage carrying Hindu pilgrims being set on fire. Suspecting that Muslims had carried out the attack, Hindu groups started retaliatory attacks, and the incident soon turned into one of the most severe outbreaks of religious violence in India’s history after independence. While the official death toll of the violence was approximately 1,000 people, with most of the victims being Muslims, non-governmental organizations argue that the actual number of casualties was much greate

  • ‘ELITE ordered from Daraz’: Trailer for ‘College Gate’ has the internet divided

    On Wednesday, Green Entertainment has released the trailer for ‘College Gate’, an upcoming series about a group of students. Starring Instagram influencers like Mamia Shajaffar and Khaqan Shahnawaz, the series explores the lives of a group of students and how they tackle parental pressure, love, dating and learn to rely on their friends during the tough moments of their lives.

    However, the trailer has divided the internet, with many users thinking that the series is just plagarised from hit Netflix shows like ‘Elite’ and ‘Class’.

    TBH we have the same question on our mind.

    Others pointed out that despite the fact that the trailer seemed a direct copy of a show about the lives of privileged kids, it did seem like a progressive step that Pakistani dramas were starting to focus on the lives of teenagers!

    We can also agree that it’s good for Pakistani dramas to tackle societal pressure and the anxieties of students growing up in this stage, rather than churn out another series focusing on saas bahu conflicts and the satti vs slutty savitri trope.

    So while we can agree with some folks on Twitter here that the storyline is completely unoriginal but lets not drop the ball so quickly? Pakistani dramas are in desperate need of some revival right now, and its good that some people with logical minds had actually thought about discussing what issues students are facing today.

  • PTI govt in Azad Kashmir gone, as region gets PDM-backed PM

    PTI govt in Azad Kashmir gone, as region gets PDM-backed PM

    Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM)-backed Chaudhry Anwarul Haq has been elected unopposed as the 15th Prime Minister (PM) of Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK).

    Haq won with a comfortable majority of 31 votes in the 52-strong Legislative Assembly in the wee hours of Thursday.

    Initially, the session was convened at 2pm on Wednesday, however, it got delayed amid hectic political manoeuvring. Consequently, a new election schedule was issued by the speaker late in the night with proceedings starting at 12:40am on Thursday.

    The election of the prime minister was triggered by the disqualification of Tanveer Ilyas of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) by the AJK High Court on April 11. Later, the decision was upheld by the region’s Supreme Court.

    After Imran, another PTI prime minister removed from power

    Earlier, PM of AJK Sardar Tanveer Ilyas was disqualified by a full bench of the region’s High Court on contempt of court charges.

    Ilyas is associated with Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI). He assumed the office of PM in April 2022 and has been removed a year later, making him the first premier of the region to be removed in such a manner.

    Almost exactly a year ago, on April 10, his party chief and then-PM Imran Khan was ousted through a no-confidence motion.

    Ilyas had indirectly blamed the judiciary for affecting the functioning of his government and interfering in the domain of the executive through the grant of stay orders at an event in Islamabad.

    On April 14, 2022, AJK PM Sardar Abdul Qayyum Niazi tendered his resignation even before voting on the no-confidence motion against him could be held. Later, Ilyas was elected unopposed by the Assembly.

  • Filipino TikToker embraces Islam with the help of Pakistani friend

    Filipino TikToker embraces Islam with the help of Pakistani friend

    Famous TikToker Fiona James, who is based in Dubai and originally from the Philippines, has converted to Islam during the holy month of Ramadan. With almost 800,000 followers on TikTok, Fiona changed her name to Zainab after accepting Islam at the Islamic Information Centre in Satwa, Dubai. She had been living in the UAE for over eight years and had always been fascinated by the call to prayer from the mosques. Hearing the azan made her feel calm and curious about the religion, and she even memorized parts of it. Zainab shared her story in an interview with Khaleej Times.

    According to reports, Zainab, the TikTok influencer who recently converted to Islam, is currently taking online classes from the Islamic Information Centre to deepen her understanding of the religion. She aims to complete the course within a month while also studying and memorizing smaller chapters of the Holy Quran. Zainab’s family is said to be happy and supportive of her decision to embrace Islam.

    “I feel very nice and very calm inside me. I embraced Islam on my own. No one forced me to accept this religion,” she added.

    Zainab’s Pakistani friend Salman, who is also a TikToker with two million followers, helped her learn about Islam. The two friends have created several videos together for the social media platform.

    “We are friends for five years. In Islam, one cannot be forced to embrace religion. Instead, it’s all about getting the right information and meeting the right people. Sometimes we used to discuss it also as she used to ask me questions time and again. I believe this encouraged her to come into the fold of Islam,” said Salman.

  • ‘Judiciary cannot re-write Constitution’; PM Shehbaz remains defiant

    ‘Judiciary cannot re-write Constitution’; PM Shehbaz remains defiant

    A defiant Prime Minister (PM) Shehbaz Sharif on Thursday said that the judiciary can only interpret the law, but cannot re-write it.

    “There is no example in the world where the parliament’s law — which has not even come into existence right now and has not taken its applicable shape — was subjected to a stay order,” said PM Shehbaz while addressing the launch ceremony of the constitution’s mobile app in Islamabad.

    “The Constitution has taken birth from the cradle of the parliament. The judiciary can interpret the Constitution — that is their right — but the judiciary cannot rewrite the Constitution,” said the Premier as his government faces off with the Supreme Court.

    “This (rewriting Constitution) is only the parliament’s authority,” he added, warning that the “parliament will use its constitutional and legal rights on this” matter.

    Shehbaz said the country was “standing at crossroads today” and that politicians, including him, had committed numerous mistakes.

    “The ones who stand above others are those who move forward after learning from their mistakes and subordinate themselves to the national interest for the nation’s supreme aim,” he said.

    The prime minister said the government was “working day and night to improve Pakistan’s difficult conditions and will keep doing so”.