Category: Uncategorized

  • PTI trolls Maryam Nawaz’s singing at her son’s festivities, Twitterati react

    Focal person to Chief Minister (CM) Punjab Usman Buzdar shared Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) Vice President Maryam Nawaz’s singing video and Twitter suggests that he mocked her for it.

    Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) social representative Azhar Mashwani took to Twitter and said, “The Sharif family can make a lot of success in video and sound production field. Not bad.”

    https://twitter.com/MashwaniAzhar/status/1468075682890665984?s=20

    Upon his criticism, Twitter users fired back at Mashwani. Human Rights Activist and Lawyer Jibran Nisar said, “Punjab has developed so much, milk canals are flowing, rations are being distributed free of cost, rule of law prevails, no fake encounters, no sit-ins, no violence, so the bored CM’s focal person is commenting on the marriage.”

  • ‘Thank you Malala for all that you do,’ US State Department

    ‘Thank you Malala for all that you do,’ US State Department

    Malala Yousafzai met with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Monday.

    “Afghanistan right now is the only country where girls do not have access to secondary education. They are prohibited from learning,” said Malala, who works with female Afghan activists, while standing alongside US Secretary of State Antony Blinken.

    Blinken in a tweet wrote, “We discussed the role of girls’ education and how investing in women and girls creates a brighter future. Thank you, Malala, for all that you do.”

    Malala also read a letter from an Afghan girl to US President Biden during a meeting with Secretary of State Antony Blinken. The letter was written by a 15-year-old Afghan girl named Sotodah. “This is the message of Afghan girls right now: we want to see a world where all girls can have access to safe and quality education,” she said while presenting the letter.

    “We hope that the United States, together with the UN, will take immediate actions to ensure that girls are allowed to go back to their schools as soon as possible,” Yousafzai noted before a private meeting with the secretary.

  • ‘Highly irresponsible and immoral’: Sheikh Rasheed calls out PDM for holding march on Pakistan Day

    ‘Highly irresponsible and immoral’: Sheikh Rasheed calls out PDM for holding march on Pakistan Day

    Interior Minister Sheikh Rasheed called out the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) for announcing a long march on March 23, Pakistan Day, as an “extremely irresponsible and immoral” move.

    PDM chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman announced that the Opposition alliance will hold an “anti-inflation march” in Islamabad on March 23.

    “The federal capital is put on high alert for preparations of the parade. Even some roads are barricaded two to three days in advance,” added Sheikh Rasheed.

  • Sri Lankan manager Priyantha Kumara’s remains transferred from Lahore to Colombo

    Sri Lankan manager Priyantha Kumara’s remains transferred from Lahore to Colombo

    The last remains of Priyantha Kumara, the Sri Lankan national working in Pakistan who was lynched to death by a mob in Sialkot, have been transferred from Lahore to Colmbo by Sri Lankan Airlines.

    Special Assitant to Prime Minister and Chairman Pakistan Ulema Council Tahir Mahmood Ashrafi, along with provisional minister of human rights and other government officials, were present at the airport.

    Priyantha Kumara was tortured to death on Friday by a mob after being accused of blasphemy. Prime Minister Imran Khan has condemned the incident and has said that justice will be served.

  • ‘Murders happen when young people get emotional’: Pervez Khattak says govt shouldn’t be blamed for Sialkot lynching

    ‘Murders happen when young people get emotional’: Pervez Khattak says govt shouldn’t be blamed for Sialkot lynching

    Defence Minister Pervez Khattak, while talking to the media in Peshawar, said that the horrific lynching of a Sri Lankan man at the hands of a mob in Sialkot should not be linked to the government, adding even “murders take place” when young people get emotional.

    A reporter questioned Khattak that the Sialkot killing had taken place after the government lifted the ban on the Tehreek-i-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP), and asked Khattak whether the government was considering an “effective crackdown” against such groups.

    “You know the reasons [behind this incident] too. When children … grow up, they become spirited and do things out of emotions. This does not mean ‘this was the result of that action’,” responded Khattak, adding that in Sialkot some young men had gathered and accused Priyantha Kumara [Sri Lankan factory manager] of disrespecting Islam.

    Khattak said he too could do something wrong in a state of heightened emotions and added that such incidents did not mean “Pakistan is going towards destruction”.

    A reporter asked the minister whether he was attributing the murders of nine policemen by TLP protesters as well as that of Kumara to “emotions”.

    Reiterating his argument, Khattak said boys entering adulthood are “ready to do anything” and learn with age how to control their emotions. “So this happens among kids, fights take place and even murders. [Does] this mean it is the government’s fault?”

    “Why don’t you change this mindset? Your anchors should come on TV and make the children understand their religion. You only take advertisements and earn money,” added Khattak.

    Twitterati reacted to Khattak’s comments.

    Journalist Nasim Zehra tweeted, “Either he should apologise & withdraw this statement or he should resign from his post … it’s minds like his that mislead, that poison the young and the innocent..watch his disservice to both Islam and to Pak.”

    Journalist Saadia Afzal tweeted, “We are where we are because of such sorry state of affairs. This is our defence minister shamelessly justifying the incident. He should be sacked immediately.”

    Another person tweeted, “Oversimplify, justify and dehumanise!”

    https://twitter.com/zehrakamal/status/1467639479108190209

  • Fawad lauds Opposition’s Ahsan Iqbal, Mustafa Khokhar for calling out Fazlur Rehman

    Federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting Fawad Chaudhry lauded Opposition members for calling out Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (JUI-F) chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman on his statement regarding the Sialkot lynching incident. 

    While referring to Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz’s (PML-N) Ahsan Iqbal and Pakistan People’s Party’s (PPP) Senator Mustafa Nawaz Khokhar’s tweets criticising Fazl’s comments, Fawad said, “The way everyone condemned the incident is commendable,” adding that he hoped the 220 million people of Pakistan, who hold moderate views, would come forward and condemn the incident.

    https://twitter.com/FawadPTIUpdates/status/1467434900743757831?s=20

    After the horrific lynching of a Sri Lankan national Priyantha Kumara Diyawadana, Maulana tweeted, “The incident in Sialkot is reprehensible and shameful. There should be a comprehensive investigation. However, if the state does not take action against those accused of blasphemy, then such incidents will continue to happen.”

    He went on to say that in the past, there had been a similar backlash against “government-sponsored fugitives accused of blasphemy”.

    Ahsan Iqbal said, “Respectfully Maulana Sahab, such incidents should be unconditionally condemned – Islam does not allow such fanaticism and illegal killings by mobs in any case.”

    Similarly, Senator Mustafa Nawaz Khokhar took to Twitter and wrote: “Maulana Fazlur Rehman Sahib is a respectable figure but, on this occasion, he should have condemned the Sialkot tragedy by taking a stand in blunt and clear words instead of using ifs and buts.”

    Priyantha was working as a manager at a private factory. He was lynched on Friday by a mob after being accused of alleged blasphemy.

  • Humaima Malick comes under fire for controversial picture with her doctor

    Humaima Malick comes under fire for controversial picture with her doctor

    Actress Humaima Malick received polarizing response for her latest pictorial post with her doctor. Netizens slammed her for hugging him in the picture.

    The Maula Jatt star was quick to turn off her comment section to avoid negative comments.

    In November the Bol diva took to social media to warn some netizens for circulating her ‘vulgarly edited’ pictures. She has also threatened her fan pages that she will be seeking legal help against them.

    On the work front, Humiama will be seen next opposite Sheheryar Munawar in Sakina Samo’s directorial.

    Sheheryar Munawar, Asad Siddiqui & Humaima Malick to star in Sakina Samo's next film

    READ: ‘My vulgarly edited pictures’: Humaima Malick threatens to take legal action over viral pictures

  • Video: Faysal, Humayun, Fahad and others win the internet with this viral dance video

    Leading heroes of Pakistani film and television industry, Humayun Saeed, Faysal Qureshi, Adnan Siddiqui, Wahaj Ali, Fahad Sheikh and Faizan Sheikh amongst others danced their hearts out at a mutual friend’s wedding in Karachi.

    The videos from the wedding have circulated across social media platforms.

    Earlier the Qaid-e-Tanhai star joked about roping Humayun and Fahad Mustafa for an item song in his film.

  • Imagine the horror

    Imagine the horror

    Imagine a mob so ruthless, so violent, so remorseless that first, they kill an innocent man for tearing down a poster with religious text on it, then they burn the body in front of hundreds of people and several cameras because somehow their thirst for blood was not enough so now they had to humiliate a dead body. And then some of them had the audacity to take selfies with the burning body. All because he did something without even realising that he could be lynched to death for it. 

    Imagine that this man was a foreign national — a Sri Lankan — working as a factory manager in Sialkot, and whose wife heard about this most tragic incident from news and the internet. Imagine his wife’s shock and horror. Imagine the bereaved widow looking at those videos, those gruesome images, those murderers taking pride in killing her husband. Imagine her helplessness. Imagine that this man has two young children, nine and 14 respectively, who will have to live with this fact for the rest of their lives that their father was killed, nay lynched, by a frenzied mob in Pakistan. 

    Imagine that we live in a country where every other day is a ‘black day’, where every other incident is bone-chilling, where no one is safe, where so many horrors unfold that we move on from one terrifying incident to another and forget about the previous one. What have we become? How have we come to this point? Will our state introspect that our society has become so intolerant that it cannot even protect anyone? Will our state realise how extremism has permeated our society because it has been officially sanctioned through our policies? It is the responsibility of the state to protect the lives of every human being. The misuse of religion for political benefit, the misuse of religion for some vested interest, or allowing the misuse of religion for some external policy will eventually have consequences. And those are the consequences that we are facing every day. There are no words to express what this country is going through — those at the helm of the affairs have to now challenge this extremist ideology or the path ahead is very dark. And every second will then be dark and there will be no turning back. Let people live without fear. A society that has to look over its shoulders all the time cannot progress.

  • ‘He was a really innocent man’: Wife of Sri Lankan manager asks Pakistan for justice

    The wife of Priyantha Kumara, the Sri Lankan national working in Pakistan who was lynched to death by a mob in Sialkot, has made a request to leaders of Pakistan and Sri Lanka to serve justice.

    “I got to know about the brutal murder of my husband from the news, later I saw this on the internet as well. He was a really innocent man” said the wife of Priyantha Kumara while talking to BBC.

    She continued by saying, “I request leaders of Sri Lanka and Pakistan to ensure justice for my husband and two children, by bringing the perpetrators to justice.”

    Priyantha Kumara was tortured to death on Friday by a mob after being accused of blasphemy. Prime Minister Imran Khan has condemned the incident and has said that justice will be served.

    Sri Lankan Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa has expressed confidence in PM Imran Khan’s commitment to punishing all those involved.
    The police have arrested more than 100 people involved. Some of those involved gave interviews to local news channels, taking pride in the murder.