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  • Proton X70, the low-cost SUV that never arrives after booking

    Proton X70, the low-cost SUV that never arrives after booking

    The Malaysian SUV Proton X70 was introduced in Pakistan in December 2020. Still, there are very few vehicles observed running on Pakistani roads, implying that the low-cost SUV may have failed in the country’s auto market.

    The SUV reached Pakistan at a difficult period when there were several import restrictions due to COVID-19 lockdowns, which hampered deliveries of the new Malaysian entrant in Pakistan’s burgeoning auto sector.

    Proton imported the X70 units in Pakistan when deliveries resumed as Malaysian facilities reopened. In fact, the company revealed at the beginning of this year that it had begun assembling the SUV in its local plant. The automaker even stated that it is restarting production at full capacity, which relieved some of its customers; nonetheless, buyers disclosed that they were not receiving the SUV on time.

    Unfortunately, a number of consumers who valued the business and ordered the vehicle are still waiting, including those who booked the latter about a year ago, and some have even cancelled their orders and gone for alternative options in the market that offer a quicker delivery.

    Read more: Here’s a look at the 2023 BMW 7 Series

    Being a new brand, the business could have taken a more strategic approach, as the Pakistani automobile market is dominated by Toyota, Honda, and Suzuki, brands that Pakistanis have tried and tested for years.

  • ‘I have issues, bohat bura laga, wrong choice’: Nida Yasir makes explosive revelations about superhit ‘Chaudhry & Sons’

    ‘I have issues, bohat bura laga, wrong choice’: Nida Yasir makes explosive revelations about superhit ‘Chaudhry & Sons’

    Celebrity couple of Yasir Nawaz and Nida Yasir is currently promoting their forthcoming film, Chakkar. During a promotional interview with an online portal, the morning show host expressed her disappointment with the team and screenplay of Ramadan play, Chaudhry & Sons.

    Almost at the end of this interview, the host Hassan Chaudhry asked Nida if she is watching Yasir’s Chaudhry And Sons, she was quick to reply that no she isn’t, “Main to nahi dekh rahi.”

    “Maine Yasir se kaha ke apne galat selection ki (I told him you made the wrong choice).

    Chaudhry and Sons (TV Series) | Radio Times

    She continued adding that, “Yasir is doing main lead roles, he didn’t read the script and accepted the offer, I have many issues with it, I strongly disliked it and I am angry.”

    “I don’t know why he signed it, I can’t be fake, I will be honest, mujhe to gillay hain.”

    The Nadaaniyan diva also mentioned, “He is offered such great projects, I won’t name the production house but Yasir shows tantrums to others but he did this, I don’t know, maybe he did it for the producer.

    Yasir revealed that he was disturbed throughout the process of playing this character. He did it for the people associated it with as it is produced by Abdullah Kadwani and Asad Qureshi.

    Yasir Nawaz - Biography, Height & Life Story | Super Stars Bio

    The actor-director elaborated further about his career’s successful projects opposite the likes of Sajal Aly and Neelam Muneer, hence his part in the play is not what he expected it to be.

    Chaudhry & Sons is a successful Ramadan special play which airs on Geo TV and features an ensemble cast headlined by Imran Ashraf, Ayeza Khan, Yasir Nawaz, Asma Abbas, Sohail Ahmed, Noor ul Hassan, Isra Ghazala and Zoya Nasir.

    The Chup Raho star often stays in news for his candid opinions on industry and social matters, last year he made headlines for saying that he regrets working with Alizeh Shah in Humayun Saeed’s Mera Dil Mera Dushman.

  • HP to launch its first 17-inch foldable OLED notebook

    HP to launch its first 17-inch foldable OLED notebook

    Hewlett Packard Enterprises (HPE) is believed to be working on an all-screen foldable laptop with a 17-inch OLED panel that could be released in the coming months.

    HP’s bendable laptop may enter the next era of laptops, with LG Display releasing its vision of 17-inch folding OLED notebooks and Asus revealing its Zenbook 17 Fold OLED during CES 2022.

    SK IE Technology will provide LG Display with transparent polyimide film to cover bendable OLED panels. The OLED panels for HP’s new notebook will be made by the OLED provider. The company would produce 10,000 units of the film in the third quarter of this year, according to a publication.

    The laptop will reportedly have a 4K resolution (3840×2160) in-folding panel that measures 17 inches when unfolded and 11 inches when folded. That’s a major increase over the 13.3-inch Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Fold, which is the world’s first folding PC. According to the source, HP’s foldable laptop could debut in 2022.

    If HP wins in producing a notebook with a bendable 4K OLED display, the brand will join a multitude of other companies that are working on their own all-screen foldable laptop.

    Read more: Apple’s new iOS update to fix battery drain issues for iPhones, iPads

    The Asus Zenbook 17 Fold already has a 17.3-inch foldable OLED (FOLED) display with a 2560×1920 resolution, a 12th Gen Intel Core i7 CPU, and 16GB of LPDDR5 RAM, and a 1TB PCIe 4.0 SSD. A 12.5-inch variant is also available.

  • Sindh House attack case: bail cancelled of PTI MNAs, back in jail

    Sindh House attack case: bail cancelled of PTI MNAs, back in jail

    Islamabad High Court (IHC) cancelled the interim bail of two accused Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Members of National Assembly (MNAs) Attaullah Niazi and Faheem Khan of being involved in the Sindh House attack.

    On March 18, PTI workers barged into the PPP’s stronghold in Islamabad, Sindh House to allegedly attack disgruntled PTI MNAs who were staying there to seek refuge from the former government.

    The decision was made during the hearing by Justice Tariq Mehmood Jahangir. Complainant Jamal Mandokhail’s counsel Raja Nazeer and the defendants’ lawyer Advocate Faisal Siddique presented their arguments before the court.

    After hearing their arguments, the two were arrested outside the courtroom.

    Other than them,12 PTI members were arrested by the Islamabad Police for being the part of protest.

  • BTS member Suga collaborates as producer with ‘Gangnam style’ famed PSY for his next ‘That That’

    BTS member Suga collaborates as producer with ‘Gangnam style’ famed PSY for his next ‘That That’

    A member of the BTS K-pop group, Suga has collaborated as a producer with solo Korean singer, PSY who is known for his song, Gangnam Style. BTS member will be adding his skills to PSY’s new song That That which will be released on April 29.

    PSY always brings humor and delightful dance to his songs. His full regular album ‘9th PSY’ has 12 tracks in which it contains genres from colorful dance songs to warm emotions. PSY will release his 9th regular album ‘PSY 9th’ at 2:00 pm PST on April 29th.

    This is the 9th album, ‘PSY 9th’ of PSY in which he collaborated with other Korean artists as well. He already has released a medley highlight of his album. A famous Korean actress and singer, Suzy also featured in another titled track Celeb.  

  • Pakistan Railways announces two ‘Eid special trains’

    Pakistan Railways announces two ‘Eid special trains’

    Pakistan Railways announced on Monday that it will run two Eid special trains from Karachi to Peshawar and Lahore on April 29 and April 30, respectively, for commuter convenience during Eid-ul-Fitr.

    One special train would depart from Karachi to Lahore and the other from Karachi to Peshawar, according to railway authorities at the Karachi Division’s Divisional Superintendent office.

    First Train – Karachi to Peshawar

    According to them, the first train will depart Karachi for Peshawar at 2:30 pm. on April 29, 2022. The train will pass through Karachi Cantt, Landhi Hyderabad, Nawabshah, Rohri Khanpur Bahawalpur, Multan, Khanewal, Shorkot Cantt, Toba Tek Singh, Gojra, Faisalabad, Chiniot, Chenab Nagar, Shaheenabad, Sargodha, Mandi Bahauddin, Lala Musa, Jhelum, Rawalpindi, Taxila and finally reach Peshawar at 11:00 pm

    The train will include 14 economy class carriages. A total of 1,000 passengers will be able to board this train.

    Second Train – Karachi to Lahore

    The second special train would depart Karachi Cantt at 7:45 pm on April 30, 2022, for Lahore.

    It would travel through Landhi, Hyderabad, Nawab Shah, Rohri, Sadiqabad, Rahim Yar Khan Khanpur, Bahawalpur, Multan Cantt, Khanewal, Mian Channu Chichawatni, and other cities before arriving in Lahore at 03:30 the next day.

  • US think tank Brookings urges Biden to call PM Shehbaz

    US think tank Brookings urges Biden to call PM Shehbaz

    Brookings, a United States (US) think tank has urged President Joe Biden to call the newly-elected Prime Minister (PM) Shehbaz Sharif to amend ties between the two countries.

    According to Brooking’s report, Biden should initiate a high-level dialogue with Sharif. The writers of the report Bruce Riedel and  Madiha Afzal argued that “the end of American involvement in Afghanistan and the change in leadership in Pakistan presents the US with an opportunity to reset its long-troubled relationship with the world’s fifth-most populous country.”

    They argued, “Now Washington can engage with Islamabad without prioritising Afghanistan issues at the expense of our broader interests in regional stability with India and China, encouraging development in South Asia, and supporting the strengthening of the elected democratic forces in Pakistan.”

    Further, they pointed out that the US gave a ‘cold shoulder’ to Pakistan. Biden didn’t call the former PM Imran Khan while Khan was in the office although Brookings argued Bided should have.

    It is pertinent to mention that the Taliban’s victory in Afghanistan strained the already fraught relations between Pakistan and America.

  • Elon Musk buys Twitter, Donald Trump has no plans to join the platform again

    Former United States (US) President, Donald Trump has announced that he has no intention to rejoin Twitter following the agreement with Elon Musk to buy the social media platform.

    While talking to Fox News on Monday, Trump revealed that he is satisfied with his own platform, Truth Social which was launched earlier this year.

    He said, “I am not going on Twitter. I am going to stay on Truth,” Trump was quoted telling the network. “I hope Elon buys Twitter because he’ll make improvements to it and he is a good man, but I am going to be staying on Truth.”

    Trump’s account was suspended after he incited violence on January 6, 2021, US Capitol attack through the social media platform. He had about 89 million followers on Twitter at that time.

    Trump has sued Twitter, Facebook, and Google’s YouTube against censoring his posts while posts by conservative commentators are widely shared on social media.

    In an interview, he said that he welcomed Elon Musk’s decision to buy Twitter, but he want to focus on his own platform. He did not see Twitter as his competitor.

    He said, “Truth Social will be a voice for me,” he said. “And that’s something nobody else can get.”

    Elon Musk is the world’s richest person and advocates free speech on all platforms. He had said before that he wanted to purchase Twitter and privatize it to allow free speech on the platform. He proposed some changes to the platform, including relaxing restrictions on content. Yesterday, he closed the purchase agreement for $44billion with the company.

  • Pakistan’s energy crisis worsens, resulting in ten hours of load shedding

    Pakistan’s energy crisis worsens, resulting in ten hours of load shedding

    Due to higher demand and reduced generation caused by fuel shortages, and reduced gas supplies to power plants, Pakistan is experiencing 6-10 hours of electricity load-shedding in various areas.

    As of April 25, generation was 17,976 MW, compared to demand of almost 21,000 MW, indicating a significant discrepancy between demand and generation. IPPs contributed 14,536 MW, Gencos contributed 837 MW, and Wapda hydel contributed 2,603 MW.

    LNG-powered facilities are only receiving 500 MMCFD RLNG against a demand of 690 MMCFD, forcing the system operator, the National Power Control Centre (NPCC), to run furnace oil-fired facilities, which are much more expensive to run than natural gas and RLNG. Due to a lack of gas, Nandipur is working, however, Bhikki is not operating at full capacity.

    Prime Minister (PM) Shahbaz Sharif and former Minister of Energy Hammad Azhar exchanged accusing remarks on Twitter.

    “Mian Nawaz Sharif’s government halted the worst load-shedding in five years,” the Prime Minister declared in a tweet. The PTI administration failed to procure fuel on schedule or fix power plants. As a result, present load shedding is in effect. Power generation costs the population Rs100 billion per month due to inefficient plants. “We’re working on it”.

    Former Energy Minister Hammad Azhar responded to Prime Minister, claiming that “there are only 5 power plants under repair, the most of them are in the private sector”.

    Read more: US launches $23 million project to enhance Pakistan’s power sector

    Two PML-N LNG contracts defaulted in the recent two weeks, resulting in a fuel deficit and prompt system gas diversions. This is a textbook case of poor management that could have been averted.

  • ‘Using threatening letter as evidence of coup meaningless’: Noam Chomsky

    ‘Using threatening letter as evidence of coup meaningless’: Noam Chomsky

    Renowned Scholar and Professor Noam Chomsky said that there is no meaningful evidence of a coup against former Prime Minister (PM) Imran Khan.

    Responding to those who believe that such “threatening messages” are usually the way regime changes take place, Chomsky said, “By that logic, there are regime changes being planned constantly all over the world.” He added that the connecting of the dots was “meaningless.”

    Chomsky pointed out that he does not consider the cable of Pakistan’s former ambassador to the US, Asad Majeed, as “substantial evidence” of American intervention for a regime change in Pakistan.

    According to Chomsky, “The US is powerful, but not all-powerful. There is a tendency to attribute everything that happens in the world to the CIA or some diabolical Western plan. There is plenty to condemn, sharply. And the US is indeed powerful. But it’s nothing like what is often believed.”

    Khan has multiple times said that US is behind his government dismissal and has used a piece of paper to support his claim.

    On the contrary, Washington has thoroughly denied the allegations.