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  • PTI agrees not to speak against state, institutions and judiciary in rally today

    PTI agrees not to speak against state, institutions and judiciary in rally today

    Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), has been allowed to stage an election rally in Lahore with certain caveats attached to the permission.

    According to media reports, a meeting was held at the direction of Punjab caretaker Chief Minister Mohsin Raza Naqvi where the permission was discussed. PTI leadership submitted an affidavit, assuring the city administration of its full cooperation with them, police and security officials.

    The party also assured the authorities that they would not give speeches against state institutions and the judiciary. The PTI would be responsible if public property is demanded during the rally, read the affidavit.

    According to PTI Lahore Chapter President Imtiaz Shaikh, a rally will be taken out from Zaman Park to Data Darbar at 2pm today.

    “Imran Khan will lead the rally,” he confirmed.

    This would be the first rally that Khan would lead in more than four months.

  • ‘Stop lying’: Imaan Zainab, Aurat March protesters criticize Sherry Rehman for tone-deaf tweet

    At the Aurat March protest held in Islamabad on March 8, police officers were caught on camera assaulting female protestors and pushing them back by installing barbed wires.

    Politicians like the Minister of Climate Change, Sherry Rehman, condemned the clashes in a tweet and called for an inquiry on the conduct of the police officers who had brutally beaten the female protesters.

    Lawyer and activist Imaan Zainab Mazari-Haazir called Rehman out, writing in a tweet that the Minister had done nothing to prevent the police from preventing the peaceful protest from going on.

    “You came to the march for a photo-op and left after creating complete chaos which we were then dealing with for the next hour. You were rude to us in our meeting with you on 6 March and were aware of all the risks we were taking. Please save this drama for someone who believes it. Too little, too late.”

    Rehman responded to Mazari-Hazir’s tweet saying that she had left early due to a distress call, and offered an opportunity to meet all year round rather than just for a “one year episodic march”.

    “Oh please. I did not need your “photo op”; left a fully scheduled press con at PID (anyone can check) at 2.40 becoz I got a distress call. In my office I offered u a safe space thru the year to meet and build traction, not just a one year episodic march. With my broken shoulder I stood there but many were caught up in angry sloganeering. Have been the butt of many laathi charges but never behaved like this. Rudeness is never going to get u allies or grow solidarity. All the best”

    Mazari-Hazir then criticized Sherry Rehman for reducing Aurat March to a “one year episodic march”.

    “Calling it ‘just a 1 year episodic march’ shows what you really think of it. That in itself is sad. This ‘one year episodic march’ is a global practice- doesn’t mean collectives (or even individuals within them) are not working year round. Could have criticized what I said without punching down on movement.”

    Other Aurat March protestors also criticized the minister, calling her “condescending” for interrupting the trans performers present at the march.

    This user wrote: “You were extremely condescending to all of us whn we met u. You interrupted the Trans persons’ perfrmance by standing over them knowing fully well tht the media will follow u. U brought out the inner transphobes in the media persons who thn started strampling the trans performers”

    Another activist, Fauzia Yazdani tweeted how Rehman had refused to condemn the police officers who had started harassing and pushing back the protestors

  • ‘Aik do ghariyaan theen, mere betay ne le li’: Shahid Khaqan about his Toshakhana gifts

    ‘Aik do ghariyaan theen, mere betay ne le li’: Shahid Khaqan about his Toshakhana gifts

    Former Prime Minister (PM) and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) senior leader Shahid Khaqan Abbasi has said that his son bought watches from Toshakhana which he had received from foreign dignitaries when he was the PM.

    In an interview with a web channel, Abbasi said that he doesn’t wear watches, adding that “aik do ghariyaan theen, mere betay ne le li” (There were some watches, which my son bought).

    He said that gifts are given to the military secretary, not to the prime minister, which are then deposited in the Toshakhana.

    Shahid Khaqan said that later the military secretary writes to the official that such a thing has been gifted, quoting the price if the PM wants to buy it for personal use. If you don’t buy them, they auction the gifts.

    The former premier said that his son took some watches from Toshakhana after paying the amount they asked for it. He added that he left the rest of the gifts in Toshakhana.

    The debate on Toshakhana started when former PM Imran Khan was accused of acquiring gifts without giving their full payment and selling them for profit.

  • CM Mohsin Naqvi says PTI worker died in car accident

    CM Mohsin Naqvi says PTI worker died in car accident

    Interim Punjab Chief Minister (CM) Mohsin Naqvi and Punjab Inspector General (IG) Dr Usman Anwar on Saturday jointly addressed the press conference, presenting their case that Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) worker Ali Bilal lost his life in a car accident and not due to custodial torture by the Punjab police.

    Both of them claimed that PTI leadership had known the truth yet accused the Punjab government of Bilal’s death.

    CM Naqvi said that the Vice president of the PTI in Central Punjab Raja Shakeel informed PTI leader Yasmin Rashid that Bilal was hit by a car. Later, Rashid also informed the party about it at Zaman Park.

    He added that all the evidence will first be taken to Bilal’s family. He claimed that the PTI worker’s father was also offered money to stick to torture allegations.

    Naqvi asserted that the government will financially help the family.

    “I am accused of murder, is it that easy to level murder accusations on someone?” he asked, adding that the PTI is openly asking to file an FIR for the murder.

    Naqvi said he would have answered the accusations “in a different manner” had he not been in CM’s position.

    Addressing the presser, Punjab IG said that the people who brought Bilal to the hospital have been arrested and will be presented before a court.

    “Action will be taken if evidence of police torture is found,” the IG said.

    During the press briefing, confessional video statements of the two suspects, who are currently under police custody, were also played.

    On March 8, PTI workers were picked up by the police when a clash took place just before a scheduled election rally.

    Later, the party leadership claimed that Bilal was tortured and killed while in police custody. Bilal’s postmortem report, issued by the Mayo Hospital, says the victim suffered “massive blunt trauma”, while a fracture to his skull and subsequent bleeding has been cited as the cause of death. The report also noted damage to his liver, spleen and testes, which led to profuse bleeding.

  • Weekly inflation in Pakistan jumps to 42.3% as prices increase ahead of Ramadan

    Weekly inflation in Pakistan jumps to 42.3% as prices increase ahead of Ramadan

    According to data released by the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) on Friday, weekly inflation surged by 1.37 per cent week-on-week and 42.27 per cent year-on-year during the week ended March 9. This marks a 25-week high on an annualized basis, as prices of perishables have started to rise ahead of Ramadan. The surge in the sensitive price indicator (SPI) was attributed to the increase in prices of various commodities, including tomatoes, potatoes, onions, sugar, bananas, cooking oil, wheat flour, vegetable ghee, printed lawn, curd, milk, tea, shirting, broken basmati rice, and powdered salt. Meanwhile, a major decrease was observed in the prices of chicken, garlic, pulse moong, eggs, pulse masoor, LPG, firewood, and pulse gram.

    For the week under review, SPI was recorded at 243.87 points, compared to 240.57 points registered last week and 171.41 points recorded during the week ended March 10, 2022. Brokerage Arif Habib Limited noted that this was the highest weekly YoY number since September 8, 2022, when Pakistan recorded a rise of 42.70 per cent YoY on account of an all-time high in the prices of wheat flour following massive flooding across the fertile plains of Punjab and Sindh.

    The PBS data attributed the YoY rise in SPI to the jump in the prices of onions, cigarettes, gas charges for Q1, diesel, eggs, rice Irri-6/9, petrol, broken basmati rice, bananas, pulse moong, tea, pulse mash, pulse gram, and bread. Inflation has been rising sharply over the past couple of years, with Pakistanis, particularly those from lower and middle-income groups, struggling to make ends meet.

    The sticky inflation numbers, along with the stalled International Monetary Fund (IMF) programme, have pushed the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) to raise its benchmark interest rate by 300 basis points to a 26-year high. Pakistan is desperately trying to persuade the IMF to disburse critical $1.1 billion funding, but inflation worries have led the central bank to elevate its interest rates by 10 percentage points since January 2022.

    Analysts expect that the recent decisions taken by the government to please the IMF for a meagre $1.1 billion bailout tranche could result in massive poverty, while businesspersons have also not ruled out a default despite fiscal tightening. The YoY SPI increased by 39.09 per cent, 40.98 per cent, 41.79 per cent, 42.53 per cent, and 44.14 per cent respectively for the groups spending up to Rs17,732; Rs17,733-22,888; Rs22,889-29,517; Rs29,518-44,175; and above Rs44,175.

  • ‘I was shocked by the success of Jab We Met’: Kareena Kapoor

    ‘I was shocked by the success of Jab We Met’: Kareena Kapoor

    It has been 16 years since the iconic Bollywood rom-com ‘Jab We Met’ took over our screens and cemented itself as one of the best films to ever come out of India.

    Kareena Kapoor who starred as the naive and bubbly Geet in the film, admitted in an interview with Mirchi that she was completely taken aback by the iconic status the film has been given, since at that time the actor was more focused on her film ‘Tashaan’:

    “I was in this whole zone of getting to size zero, I am working in Tashan, with Akshay (Kumar), Anil (Kapoor) and Saif (Ali Khan).”

    Kapoor also went on to reveal that she had been completely focused on training for her role in ‘Tashaan’, even while she was on the sets of ‘Jab We Met’:

    “I got the main part and it was a Yash Raj film and I was doing action for the first time and whenever I came on the Jab We Met set it would be like ‘Please I need to train because I am going for action training.’ I never thought, the reverse situation actually happened. I had all my bets on Tashan.”

    Shahid Kapoor, who played the introverted Aditya in ‘Jab We Met’ recently shared a clip of himself visiting fans at the cinema when the film had re-released once more.

    Speaking to Pinkvilla, Kapoor admitted that ‘Jab We Met’ was the type of rare film that is made once ever two decades, and was looking forward to doing another romantic film with the director, Imtiaz Ali, again:

    “We re-released Jab We Met recently and a lot of people are now asking me why ain’t I doing a film like this again. I feel, Jab We Met happens once in two decades and it’s not like an everyday film. Most of the films one does in this genre are bad, so one needs to pick up a decent script. In fact, Imtiaz (Ali, director) and I were also chatting to find something in this space again. I want to do something fun and exciting.”

  • Ranbir Kapoor under fire once more after comment on Alia Bhatt goes viral

    Ranbir Kapoor under fire once more after comment on Alia Bhatt goes viral

    Ranbir Kapoor is once more being criticized by fans for his insensitive comments about his wife, Alia Bhatt.

    The ‘Tu Jhooti Mein Makkar’ actor was previously called a misogynist by the internet when he was seen body shaming Bhatt during a livestream, while Bhatt had been pregnant with their baby, Raha.

    Kapoor is being criticized this time for a remark he made during an interview with ‘GOODTiMES. The ‘Brahmastra’ actor said he doesn’t want their baby Raha to have Alia’s personality, since the ‘Gangubai’ actor is very loud and ‘talks a lot’:

    “I just hope she has my personality rather than hers because I can’t have two women like Alia in the house,” he said. “Alia has a very boisterous personality; she talks quite loud and is vivacious. Two girls at home like that would be quite a daunting task for me. I hope Raha is a bit more quiet and demure like me so then we both can handle Alia.”

    Since this interview went online, Twitter users have slammed Kapoor as insensitive and misogynist for refusing to recognize how such comments about Bhatt are extremely hurtful.

    One user wrote: “I hate guys who do this to their wives. This low key mocking of their demeanor which they then pass on to the kids. Very common in Indian families.”

    Another user wrote “oh god oh god oh god if you don’t like your wives just say that stop making jokes at the expense of their literal personality and get a life”

    Many users were pointing out that Kapoor’s action was one of most common traits through which men put down confident and loud women by mocking and publicly humiliating them.

  • Who would be Shahid Khaqan Abbasi’s pick for Finance Minister? Not Ishaq Dar

    Former Prime Minister (PM) Shahid Khaqan Abbasi has said that if he had been the premier of the country, his finance minister would have been Miftah Ismail and not Ishaq Dar.

    In an interview with a web channel, Abbasi said that Miftah Ismail had fulfilled the responsibility given to him by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif after the coalition government took charge.

    Abbasi was asked if the current Finance Minister, Ishaq Dar, was running the country’s economy satisfactorily. Abbasi responded by saying that history will decide the success of Ishaq Dar.

    “Whatever responsibility the Prime Minister gave to Miftah Ismail, he did it. Ministers work on the authority of the Prime Minister. He decided that Ishaq Dar should be the one to lead the finance ministry, so he brought him in. Now it is the responsibility of the Premier and the Finance Minister to play their part in fixing the country’s economy. Only history will tell how far they will succeed,” said Abbasi.

    It is pertinent to mention that Miftah resigned from the position of finance minister in September last year after Ishaq Dar returned from London and took over.

  • SSAT – Become One of 3000 Top Scorers & Get Free Entry Test Preparation From STEP

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    Are you going to attempt the medical and engineering colleges’ Entry Test in 2023? If yes, now is the right time to gauge the level of your preparation, and become one of the 3,000 top scorers who will be able to get free entry test preparation from STEP.

    The STEP Scholarship-based Self-Assessment Test (SSAT) 2023 is now available, offering students a chance to assess their current standing and gain valuable insights into their Entry Test preparation.

    A Bit About STEP

    As the largest Entry Test preparatory network in Pakistan, STEP has a well-established reputation for providing high-quality education and equipping students with the necessary skills to excel in their academic pursuits. The SSAT is an excellent opportunity for students to experience the Entry Test environment and understand the test’s mechanics before taking the actual test.

    In addition to providing a comprehensive self-assessment, SSAT also presents students with an opportunity to win free Entry Test preparation from STEP. Being part of the largest educational group in Pakistan, STEP is dedicated to offering students the resources necessary to ace MDCAT & ECAT exams and achieve their academic goals.

    Identify Your Weaknesses & Strengths

    Students often struggle with determining their current level of preparedness for the Entry Test. Here at STEP, we understand that the competition can be fierce, and every mark counts. This is why we developed the SSAT, a comprehensive self-assessment test that can help you identify your areas of strength and weakness.

    Through this free self-assessment test, you will receive an experience that is similar to the actual Entry Test environment. This will help you to familiarize yourself with the test format, the level of difficulty, and the time constraints. Additionally, the SSAT will provide you with a detailed report on your performance, including a breakdown of your score by topic and question type. This information will allow you to pinpoint your weaknesses accurately and focus your efforts on areas where you need to improve.

    Eligibility Criteria For SSAT

    Anyone from Intermediate Part-II or repeater students who are aspiring to get admission in Medical & Engineering Institutions can show up for STEP Self-Assessment Test 2023.

    All students, from the Punjab Group of Colleges and Hadaf Group of Colleges or students from any other institution, can appear in this scholarship-based test.

    Note: ICS Students having combinations of statistics and economics are not eligible for SSAT 2023

    Register for SSAT For Free

    At STEP, we understand that time is of the essence for students, and we strive to make the process of registering for the Self-Assessment Test (SSAT-23) as easy as possible.

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    Why STEP for MDCAT & ECAT Preparation?

    Proven track record of top positions: Our track record speaks for itself. Over the years, STEP has helped countless students achieve top positions in the MDCAT and ECAT exams. In 2022 alone, 1497 students secured admissions to medical colleges and 2216 to engineering colleges. Our students have consistently outperformed their peers, and we are proud to have played a part in their success.

    Likewise, 925 students of STEP made it to the University of Engineering and Technology, 987 to the National University of Sciences and Technology, 935 to FAST, 143 to PIEAS, and 42 to GIKI in 2022. The fact that so many of our students have secured admissions to Pakistan’s top medical and engineering colleges in a single year is a testament to the quality of education at STEP and the dedication of our students. We are proud to have played a part in their success, and we are committed to continuing to provide students with the resources they need to achieve their academic goals.

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    Register for STEP self-assessment test 2023 today and become part of Pakistan’s most successful and largest entry test preparatory network to boost your prospects of getting admission to top medical and engineering universities.

  • LHC suspends PEMRA order banning Imran Khan’s speeches

    LHC suspends PEMRA order banning Imran Khan’s speeches

    The Lahore High Court (LHC) has suspended an order of the Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (PEMRA) which banned the broadcast of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf Chairman Imran Khan’s speeches on TV.

    Justice Shams Mehmood Mirza announced the suspension of the order in a verdict he had reserved earlier today.

    Khan’s lawyer informed the court that an earlier ban imposed by PEMRA was also suspended by the Islamabad High Court (IHC).

    The ban was imposed after Khan lashed out at former army chief General (retired) Qamar Javed Bajwa for what he called “protecting incumbent rulers in their corruption cases”.

    PEMRA again bans IK’s speeches on TV after he lashed out at Bajwa

    On March 6, PEMRA imposed a ban on the broadcast of speeches, talks or public addresses of Khan and barred news television channels from airing them.

    It is pertinent to mention that this is the third ban on Khan’s speeches and press talks on all satellite TV channels.

    Meanwhile, the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) condemned PEMRA’s ban and demanded it to be lifted immediately.

    Earlier in the day, the PTI chief dodged arrest as Islamabad Police showed up at his Zaman Park residence in Lahore with a court summons to take him into custody for his persistent absences from Toshakhana court hearings.

    However, when the police reached Khan’s residence, they were met by a large number of PTI workers, who gathered outside his residence on Fawad Chaudhry’s call. 

    The police were informed that the PTI chief was “unavailable”. With PTI workers outnumbering the police contingent, and despite the Islamabad Police chief earlier saying that they won’t go back empty-handed, the arrest could not be made. Eventually, the Islamabad Police left Imran’s residence.

    Later, in the evening Khan addressed its supporters from his Zaman Park residence where he said that there is no security risk, adding that “they” wanted to “remove” him.

    He also said that he was being dragged into courts in fake cases while demanding that he should be allowed to attend the hearing of the Toshakhana case via video link.

    Khan, reportedly also moved Islamabad sessions court seeking cancellation of his non-bailable arrest warrant in the Toshakhana case.