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  • Petrol price to remain unchanged at Rs214.80 per litre for next fortnight

    Petrol price to remain unchanged at Rs214.80 per litre for next fortnight

    Finance Minister Ishaq Dar announced on Saturday that the government will maintain the price of petroleum products for the next two weeks.

    In a video statement, he said that the Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (OGRA) requested an increase in domestic rates of petroleum products because of the upward trend in oil prices. However, he said that the price revision was rejected by the government.

    The price of petrol will remain unchanged at Rs214.8 per litre while diesel will be sold at Rs227.80 per litre till mid-January 2023.

    Kerosene oil will be sold at Rs171.83 per litre while light diesel oil will be sold at Rs169 per litre.

    “Kerosene is used by the low-income segment for heating needs,” the finance minister said.

    Previously, the market anticipated that the cost of petroleum products would remain unchanged.

  • Singer Sajjad Ali calls out Bollywood for plagiarizing his song ‘Ab Ke Hum Bichere’

    Singer Sajjad Ali calls out Bollywood for plagiarizing his song ‘Ab Ke Hum Bichere’

    It seems as though Bollywood’s tendency to plagiarize Pakistani music hasn’t ended. This time, it was singer Sajjad Ali who called out Bollywood for plagiarizing his song ‘Ab Ke Hum Bicharay’.
    Yesterday, the singer uploaded a video on Instagram, where he says he was listening to songs from an upcoming movie and realized that the melody resembled a song he had written years ago. He did not name drop the Bollywood song directly, but left it for his followers to interpret.

    After close observation, many fans were quick to point out that the melody of Sajad Ali’s song was similar to the Bollywood song ‘Besharam Rang’.

    This is not the first time Bollywood has been called out for stealing music from Pakistani artists. Politician and singer Abrar-ul-Haq had announced that he was suing T-series for copying his iconic song Nach Punjaban in the film Jugjug Jeeyo, that too without giving him any credit.

    Singer Hadiqa Kiyani had criticized Bollywood singer Kanika Kapoor for covering her song ‘Boohey Bariyan’ without giving any credit to the original singer. In her Instagram stories, Kiyani called it ‘the theft of Pakistani music’ and said that covers of original songs need to require permission from the original artists first, and also revealed that this was not the first time she had seen her music stolen by Bollywood.

  • ‘Imran Khan has decided to not to dissolve the Punjab Assembly’: Journalist Kamran Shahid

    ‘Imran Khan has decided to not to dissolve the Punjab Assembly’: Journalist Kamran Shahid

    Senior anchor Kamran Shahid has revealed that Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan has decided not to dissolve the Punjab Assembly (PA).

    Taking to Twitter, Shahid wrote, “BASED ON MY SOURCES- IMRAN KHAN HAS DECIDED TO NOT TO DISSOLVE THE PUNJAB ASSEMBLY— CH PERVAIZ ILLAHI IS ALSO BEING COMMUNICATED [sic].”

    It is pertinent to mention here that the Opposition staged a walkout of the PA last week as the house passed a resolution against the Punjab governor’s “unconstitutional and illegal” move to de-notify Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid (PML-Q) leader Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi as the provincial chief executive.

    Shahid’s tweet has come about as the political crisis in Punjab rages on, with neither side willing to relent.

    Imran Khan had announced in November at the end of his long march that he will dissolve both the Punjab and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa assemblies, where his party holds government. Since then, the dissolution has become a point of discontent within the ruling Punjab coalition, with Pervaiz Elahi reluctant to do away with the legislative before April of 2023.

  • Iesco issues two-hour load-shedding plan for Rawalpindi, Islamabad

    Iesco issues two-hour load-shedding plan for Rawalpindi, Islamabad

    All areas of Rawalpindi, Islamabad, Jhelum, Chakwal, Azad Kashmir, Murree, Attock, Pindigheb, Kotli Sattiyan, and other circles will face two hours of load-shedding, according to the Islamabad Electric Supply Company (Iesco).

    According to The News, the citizens of these cities have been experiencing regular load-shedding for more than a month that lasts between six and eight hours. Muhammad Tanvir Kiani, who is head of Iesco’s technical division, stated that Iesco has announced a two-hour load-shedding timetable in each of the aforementioned locations.

    He said that the load-shedding schedule would initially last indefinitely until further instruction. Furthermore, he stated that due to an electricity shortage, load-shedding has been implemented in all areas in light of the current situation.

  • ‘Stop murdering Urdu language’: Arslan Naseer lashes out at Bollywood over Besharam Rang’s lyrics

    ‘Stop murdering Urdu language’: Arslan Naseer lashes out at Bollywood over Besharam Rang’s lyrics

    Actor Arslan Naseer took to his social media handles to express his disappointment over the Urdu lyrics used in the Bollywood film Pathaan‘s song Besharam Rang. genuinely upset when he heard the song Besharam Rang and pointed out that a word had been both misspelled and mispronounced. The Chupke Chupke actor tweeted against the Urdu language being wasted in Hindi songs.

    Naseer also highlighted, with his usual rib-tickling humour, how Hindu extremists have been lambasting actress Deepika Padukone for her saffron dress in the song while nobody raised their voice for the Urdu language being ”murdered.”       

    The famed YouTuber tweeted, “Heard some people were protesting against Deepika wearing orange bunyaan chaddi in that song but why isn’t anyone protesting against her calling ‘Sharaafat’ … Shareefi? Dear Indian filmmakers, please stop murdering the Urdu language.”

    However, social media users gave a mixed reaction to Naseer’s ”genuine concern” suggesting that both nations speak more or less the same language with a bunch of words different and also claimed that every day spoke Hindi/Urdu contains words that are either spelled or pronounced incorrectly.

    On the work front, Naseer was last seen in Hum TV’s Paristan.

  • TV channels will be required to air news with sign language interpreters

    TV channels will be required to air news with sign language interpreters

    President Dr Arif Alvi has signed the Access to the Media (Deaf) Persons Act, 2022 into law, under which all private and state-run broadcasters will be required to air news bulletins with sign language interpreters.

    The act will fully come into force six months after the commencement of the bill.

    Once enforced, the government shall not allow broadcasting any news bulletin on the national broadcaster, state or privately run electronic media, private television channels, cable TV, or any other broadcast media without sign language interpreters.

    The bill was moved by Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Senator Saleem Mandviwalla who gave a detailed briefing to the committee regarding the bill.

  • 6,000 police officials to perform security duty on new year’s night in Lahore

    6,000 police officials to perform security duty on new year’s night in Lahore

    To maintain law and order on new year’s night and to guarantee the safety of lives and property, the Lahore Police has devised a comprehensive security strategy.

    Lahore’s Additional IG, Capital City Police Officer (CCPO) Ghulam Mahmood Dogar, said that more than 6,000 police officers and officials, including 6 SPs, 35 DSPs, 83 SHOs, 400 upper-level subordinates, members of the Dolphin Squad, Police Response Unit, Elite Force, Anti-Rights Force, and lady police officers, would be stationed on streets, squares, and public areas.

    He declared that security would be strictly enforced. At all costs, hooliganism, aerial gunfire, fireworks, and one-wheeling would not be permitted.

    CCPO Lahore said that the respect of the citizens was above all and that anyone involved in aerial firing, mob violence, fireworks, or one-wheeling will face punishment.

    According to The News, teams from the Dolphins squad, PRU, Elite Force, and police stations, according to CCPO Lahore, will make sure that sensitive and major locations are continuously patrolled on New Year’s Eve. Additionally, security would be enhanced at the city’s entry and exit points. Police should be informed right away by those who see any suspicious people or activity.

  • Weekly inflation jumps by over 29% due to rising food prices

    Weekly inflation jumps by over 29% due to rising food prices

    The Sensitive Price Indicator (SPI) based inflation for the week ended December 29, recorded a decline of 0.09 per cent due to a reduction in the prices of food and non-food items, according to the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS).

    The year-on-year trend shows an increase of 29.30 per cent owing to an increase in the prices of onions (498.08 per cent), tea lipton (65.41 per cent), diesel (65.05 per cent), chicken (64.20 per cent), petrol (52.19 per cent), salt powdered (51.99 per cent), eggs (49.11 per cent), pulse moong (46.94 per cent), bananas (45.06 per cent), pulse gram (44.42 per cent) and mustard oil (41.64 per cent), while decrease is observed in the prices of chillies powdered (34.18 per cent), electricity for q1 (13.96 per cent) and gur (1.38 per cent).

    During the week, out of 51 items, prices of 23 (45.10 per cent) items increased, 07 (13.72 per cent) items decreased and 21 (41.18 per cent) items remained stable.

    The SPI for the consumption group up to Rs17,732, Rs17,732-22,888, Rs22,889-29,517 and above Rs44,175 decreased by 0.07 per cent, 0.12 per cent, 0.03 per cent and 0.12 per cent respectively while it increased by 0.02 per cent for the consumption group Rs29,518-44,175.

    The items, which recorded an increase in their average prices during the week over previous include eggs (2.86 per cent), rice basmati broken (2.81 per cent), wheat flour bag 20 kg (2.81 per cent), bread plain (2.76 per cent), firewood whole 40 kg (2.49 per cent), LPG (1.61 per cent), energy saver (1.27 per cent), bananas (1.18 per cent), gur (0.99 per cent), garlic (0.90 per cent), pulse masoor (0.80 per cent), mustard oil (0.72 per cent), rice irri-6/9 (0.60 per cent), pulse mash (0.54 per cent), tea prepared (0.45 per cent), sufi washing soap (0.28 per cent), pulse gram (0.26 per cent), onions (0.25 per cent), curd (0.23 per cent), chicken (0.20 per cent), milk fresh (0.15 per cent), pulse moong (0.12 per cent) and beef with bone (0.02 per cent).

    The items, which saw a reduction in their average prices included potatoes (8.85 per cent), tomatoes (6.02 per cent), electricity charges (2.44 per cent), vegetable ghee dalda/habib (1.47 per cent), sugar (1.22 per cent), vegetable ghee dalda/habib or other superior quality 1 kg pouch each (0.45 per cent) and cooking oil dalda or other similar brand (sn), 5 litre tin each (0.04 per cent).

  • Woman with heroine capsules in stomach arrested from Islamabad airport

    Woman with heroine capsules in stomach arrested from Islamabad airport

    The Anti-Narcotics Force (ANF) on Friday arrested a woman with heroin-filled capsules in her stomach at Islamabad International Airport.

    As per details, the woman was attempting to smuggle the drug to Sharjah.

    As per details, the passenger had 100 heroin-filled capsules in her stomach. She was about to board Pakistan International Airlines flight PK-209 when she was detained by ANF officials.

    ANF’s swift action thwarted the smuggling attempt.

  • 2022 Rewind: Everything Pakistani social media went crazy about

    2022 Rewind: Everything Pakistani social media went crazy about

    2022 might feel like it was the longest year ever but it has also given us a lot of things to look back at fondly. From Mera Dill Yeh Pukare girl’s viral video to former PM Imran Khan’s iconic “Ham koi Ghulam Hain”, here are all the things that the Pakistani internet went crazy about in 2022:

    PSL viral dance

    Asif Ghafoor, a young boy, became an overnight star after a video of him dancing on the Pakistan Super League (PSL) anthem, ‘Agay Dekh’ went viral.

    Fiza or Shiza

    A clip of Pakistani television serial Judwa in which a bride gets swapped on her wedding night by her twin sister, confusing netizens about what was happening.

    Kya Hum Ghulam Hain?

    Former Prime Minister (PM) Imran Khan’s “Kya Hum Ghulam Qaum Hain Kay Jou European Union Kahay Hum Woh Karein” reply to European Union (EU) envoys in Pakistan for their letter asking Islamabad to condemn Russia’s invasion of Ukraine went viral across the country.

    The Ketchup Scene

    In a humorous video, a girl can be seen leaving the dining room with two slices of pizza but no ketchup, which worries her husband, as if eating pizza without ketchup was a big deal.

    Mera Dil Yeh Pukare Aaja

    Mera Dil Ye Pukare Aaja went viral over the internet after a Tik Tok video of a girl named Aisha was widely shared on Tik Tok. It went so viral that people from across the border including Madhuri Dixit made a video on it.

    Kaanpen taang rahi hain

    Bilawal was speaking at a rally in Islamabad to mark the end of a 10-day long Awami March. “I am shaking Islamabad. Islamabad may kaampein taang rahi hai [Shivers are legging in Islamabad],” he said. Although he meant to say taangein kaamp rahein hain, his slip of tongue led to a meme fest.
    However, PPP later said the video was morphed, with the real one showing Bilawal correcting himself a second later.

    Lahore Da Pawa Akhtar Lawa 

    In the last month of the year videos of the Lahore based politician Chaudhary Akhtar Lawa trended on social media and his catchphrase, ‘Lahore da Pawa, Akhtar Lava’ (Akhtar Lava, the pillar of Lahore), spread like wildfire across social media platforms. Twitter and TikTok particularly went into a frenzy about him.