The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has served a notice to the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) for costing the country a whopping Rs690 million (Rs69 crores).
As per the details, NAB did not deduct 15% withholding tax while paying damages worth over Rs4 billion (Rs4 Arab) in the Broadsheet case.
The News quoted sources as saying that a notice on behalf of the International Tax Department of FBR under Section 152 of FBR Ordinance was sent to NAB to pay the said amount.
The notice said it had come to the knowledge of tax department that NAB had paid damages to Broadsheet LLC — the United Kingdom (UK) based company roped in during military ruler Pervez Musharraf’s regime to track down foreign assets purchased by Pakistani politicians “through looted money”.
“NAB had to deduct 15% withholding tax and deposit it to the national exchequer at the time of payment under the Income Tax Ordinance, but it was not followed,” it said.
The fine was paid to the UK-based firm after NAB ended with it the asset recovery agreement in 2003, pushing Broadsheet as a third party to move the London High Court for damages.
The UK-based companies claimed that Pakistan owed them money according to the terms agreed upon since the government was taking action to seize assets identified by the firm, including the Avenfiled Apartments of the Sharif family.
After much drama, an arbitration court of London had imposed a $20 million fine on NAB in the Broadsheet case. However, NAB had to pay an extra $9 million under the head of mark-up due to non-payment on time.
The court in London had withdrawn over $28 million partially in this regard by freezing accounts of the Pakistan High Commission.
The father of a minor boy in Multan whose video driving a Land Cruiser SUV went viral on social media on Monday has surrendered to the police. The police had reportedly formed two teams to trace the boy and his parents.
As per reports, the father came to a police station with his son on Thursday.
The boy drove the car out of his home without telling his parents, a police official told Samaa TV. The vehicle was seized and the father was booked under the Motor Vehicles Ordinance, he added.
The father was fined Rs 1,000 for negligence. He has also submitted an affidavit to the police stating that the incident occurred due to his negligence and will not happen again.
The man and his son were allowed to go home after submitting surety bonds.
Zeb Bangash is disappointed with Bollywood’s version of Bibi Sanam. Performed originally by Zeb and Haniya on Coke Studio, the international hit landed up in the Hindi film Cabaret, where it was sung by Usha Uthup.
In an opinion piece published on Scroll India, Bangash wrote: “From the moment my cousin Haniya and I released our version of Bibi Sanam on Coke Studio, it resonated with people from Kabul to Kolkata and beyond, becoming one of our most-loved and celebrated numbers. Its success spawned many other versions on YouTube and it was a delight to see and hear people from all over the world engaging with the song with so much love.”
She continued: “In time, many classic versions were uploaded. In 2013, inspired by Ustaad Shamsuddin Masrur’s performance of the song in the 1960s, I recorded an entirely fresh version of Bibi Sanam with my Brooklyn-based band SANDARAA. Not surprisingly, this version became a crowd-pleaser on SANDARAA tours even to predominantly Western audiences in North America.”
Zeb further wrote: “I came across a recently uploaded Bibi Sanam video from a Bollywood film. The film was completed a few years ago, but I hadn’t heard of or seen it. I was eager to see what space had been carved out for this beautiful folk classic by the multi-billion dollar industry we all follow and participate in so actively. The names attached to the project heightened my excitement. Usha Uthup, whose beautiful spirit and voice has inspired me since childhood, and Richa Chadha, an actor I respect as someone who stood up against objectification of women on the silver screen.”
However, the song left the singer disappointed.
“I finally heard the song, I was unsettled, disappointed by its re-imagining. I could not find Richa’s spirit or Usha’s voice in the song, neither could I find the soul of Qandahar, Tajqurghan, Kabul jaan, or Sisstaan — all the places the song has referenced,” wrote Zeb while expressing her thoughts on the rendition.
“Instead, the song was forcibly put in a place it was never meant for. I must admit it deeply disturbed me to see a cover of our loving tribute/rendition juxtaposed against the general ongoings of a forgettable Bollywood item song. What was infused into the innocence, the freshness, and sweetness of Sistaan is unwanted aggressive sexuality. Sadly, it felt perhaps for the first time a version has compromised the beauty of an ancient poetic, musical and spiritual tradition.”
Zeb said that the Bollywood version depicting gyrating women dancing around poles raises a stream of uncomfortable questions for her.
The singer further wrote: “The past 12 months, we saw social movements promoting inclusion and equality, we participated in them virtually and created a real global social impact. Social media provides an opportunity for authentic and discerning collaborations. In the context of this hyper-connected environment, I need to ask whether we as artists and content creators are making lazy and uninformed artistic choices?”
“When you sing a song in a new language, you acquire an intimacy not only with the music, but also its people, as you gain access to its stories and histories. You then suffuse it with your own histories and culture – if done right, it is always a process of inclusion. This is especially true for rich spiritual soundscapes. Is it too much to hope that this can culminate in evolution beyond the item number?” she questioned.
“When a dominant cultural machine imposes its careless vulgarity upon lesser-known spiritual traditions, it can undermine the culture and ultimately re-form and warp an identity from sacred to profane.”
“Bibi Sanam has always possessed a mesmerising quality, magic kept alive for centuries, by artists and audiences, meshed with their personal memory, experience, and history. For me the Bollywood version is a disservice to the song’s meaning and the culture it comes from,” she concluded.
Zebunisa Bangash is a Pakistani singer-songwriter from Lahore. Her family originally hails from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Given her prolific career and her ability to sing in various languages and appeal to audiences of all ages across cultures and continents, it is no wonder that Zeb has a huge international fan following around the world.
The White House has expressed “outrage” that Pakistan’s Supreme Court ordered the release of an Islamist convicted of beheading American journalist Daniel Pearl.
Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh, who was the main suspect in the 2002 kidnapping and murder of the Wall Street Journal reporter, was acquitted by a panel of three judges.
White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki called the decision “an affront to terror victims everywhere” and said Washington is “committed to securing justice for Daniel Pearl’s family.”
At her daily briefing, Psaki called on the Pakistani government to quickly review legal options, including letting the United States prosecute those acquitted.
The Pakistani court decision comes at a sensitive time in US-Pakistani relations as new President Joe Biden’s administration reviews Afghanistan’s peace process in which Pakistan is a key player.
SC ORDERS RELEASE OF SHEIKH:
The Supreme Court dismissed a series of appeals against the acquittal of the British-born militant convicted of masterminding the kidnap and murder of US journalist Daniel Pearl, paving the way for his release.
“The court has come out to say that there is no offence that he has committed in this case,” Mahmood Sheikh, who represented Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh, told AFP.
The three-judge bench directed authorities to release Sheikh who was sentenced to death for his role in the plot.
During the hearing, the Sindh advocate general told the court that the prime suspect has links to banned outfits. He added that the Sindh government submitted sensitive information to the top court in a sealed envelope. At this, the court responded that the evidence submitted by the authorities in the case was not enough to convict Sheikh.
In a dramatic turn of events on Wednesday, Sheik admitted a “minor” role in the death of Pearl. That testimony was at odds with 18 years of denial about his involvement in the killing.
A letter handwritten by the accused in 2019, in which he admits limited involvement in the death, was submitted to Pakistan’s Supreme Court nearly two weeks earlier.
Last month, the United States government had also issued a statement expressing concerns over the acquittal of Sheikh by the Sindh High Court.
“We are deeply concerned by the reports of the December 24 ruling of Sindh High Court to release multiple terrorists responsible for the murder of Daniel Pearl. We have been assured that the accused have not been released at this time,” said the State Department in a series of tweets in response to the ruling of the high court.
The ruling Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) hasn’t announced its nominees for the upcoming Senate elections in March, but many of the party leaders, among them prime minister’s special aides, are vying for the Senate tickets.
With the elections round the corner, the PTI believes it’s in a comfortable spot to undo the opposition majority in the upper house of parliament, and PM Imran Khan is confident that the post-polls Senate would be dominated by the government and its allied parties.
Media reports say that PM’s Special Assistant on Accountability Shahzad Akbar, SAPM Zulfi Bukhari, party’s chief organiser Saifullah Niazi, Ejaz Chaudhry, Dr Zarqa Soharwardi and Tanzeela Imran among others are among the aspirants for Senate.
Sources also claimed that Firdous Ashiq Awan, special assistant to CM Usman Buzdar, will be a nominee for the Senate seat.
However, these names have yet to be finalised after a committee to choose the Senate nominees is established and the PM Imran Khan finalises the list and makes it public.
If Senate elections are to be held in March’s first week, then the party must choose its candidates and finalise the strategy by mid-February, reports quoted the party leaders as saying.
BRING TAREEN BACK:
Recently, PTI lawmaker Raja Riaz had asked the prime minister to make estranged PTI leader Jahangir Khan Tareen the chairman of the committee formed to choose the candidates for the Senate elections.
During a parliamentary party meeting on Wednesday with PM Imran Khan in the chair, the PTI lawmaker, who hails from Faisalabad, had said that Tareen’s services for the PTI cannot be ignored and demanded that the senior leader be made the head of the committee.
He had also asked the PM to include Punjab Governor Chaudhry Sarwar, Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi, Amir Kiyani, and Ijaz Chaudhry in the body formed to choose Senate candidates.
A woman pronounced dead at Multan’s Nishtar Hospital has come back to life and walked away a day later.
According to reports, the woman, who was brought to hospital for a gunshot wound after getting caught in crossfire, was declared dead on Tuesday and is currently being treated for her injuries after spending one night “dead”.
Doctors are providing her proper treatment and investigating whether declaring her dead was a mistake or if she has really returned to life as in a rare situation called Near Death Experience (NDE).
In NDE people, for all intents and purposes, die but return to life.
Nishtar Hospital Emergency Director Dr Amjad Chandio claims the woman was not pronounced dead in the emergency room, but a death certificate was issued by the hospital.
“It is being investigated whether a blunder was committed and by whom,” he said.
Good morning *|MERGE1|*. Hey, it’s Laila from The Current. It’s Thursday, the 28th of January. It may sound cliché but never give up on your dreams. Luck is great, but most of life is hard work so keep trying hard to achieve your dreams. Today is the third day of the first PAKvSA Test and Pakistan is leading with 88 runs. There will be plenty of sunshine in Lahore, Karachi and Quetta and it will be cloudy in Islamabad and Peshawar.
Morning Meme
PTI leader asks PM to bring Tareen back ahead of Senate polls
Ruling party ke lawmaker Raja Riaz has asked the prime minister to make estranged PTI leader Jahangir Khan Tareen the chairman of the committee formed to choose candidates for the upcoming Senate elections.
VIDEO: Visibly annoyed info minister stops Shahbaz Gill from speaking to media after PTI meeting
Information Miniter Shibli Faraz Sahib ko Shahbaz Gill ka media se informal baat krna pasand nae aya and he looks clearly annoyed in the video which you can see in the story below.
VIDEO: PIA pilots spot and record UFO above their plane in Karachi
Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) pilots have spotted an unidentified flying object (UFO) flying at 35,000 feet above Karachi. To learn more, checkout the story below.
Here’s how you can register for COVID-19 vaccine in Pakistan
The government has approved three COVID-19 vaccines including Russia’s Sputnik-V, China’s Sinopharm and UK’s Oxford-AstraZeneca so far. Checkout the story for the step by step guide to get your self registered for the vaccine. Also, vaccine se mutaliq conspiracy theories per believe krne se pehle thori se research kar lijye ga!
Rajkummar Rao thanks Zara Noor Abbas for appreciating ‘The White Tiger’
In an Instagram story, Zara had called the film a “masterpiece” and had urged her followers to “Watch this Now.” Responding to Zara’s story, Rao expressed his gratitude, writing: “Thank you so much.”
Zaid Ali T and his wife Yumnah Ali T have announced that they are expecting their first child, and they both look the happiest in the picture shared by Zaid
Today, If you don’t express yourself, people might get the impression that something is wrong so make sure you contribute something to the conversation.
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After Emma Corrin’s brilliant performance in the fourth season of Netflix’s The Crown, Hollywood star Kristen Stewart is all set to step into the role of the ‘People’s Princess’, Diana, in an upcoming film titled Spencer.
As per details, Stewart was roped in for the role in June 2020. The film is helmed by Pablo Larraín.
In a first look unveiled on Wednesday, January 27, the Twilight actress embodies Princess Diana in a red blazer and a black hat with a veil. Stewart is also sporting Di’s signature short blonde hair.
Here’s a first look at Kristen Stewart as Princess Diana in #Spencer, Pablo Larraín’s imagining of the weekend Princess Diana decides to leave her marriage to Prince Charles. pic.twitter.com/LSn4C7cF0h
According to Deadline, the film will be “a drama that shapes up to be a hot package for the virtual Cannes Market. The Steven Knight-scripted film covers a critical weekend in the early ‘90s when Diana decided her marriage to Prince Charles wasn’t working, and that she needed to veer from a path that put her in line to one day be queen.”
“The drama takes place over three days, in one of her final Christmas holidays in the House of Windsor in their Sandringham estate in Norfolk, England.”
Timothy Spall, Sally Hawkins and Sean Harris are also part of the cast.
Spencer has begun principal photography. It will be shot in both Germany and the UK. Spencer is scheduled to release in Fall 2021, ahead of Diana’s 25th death anniversary in 2022.
Regency-era British drama Bridgerton is Netflix’s biggest series ever with more than 82 million households tuning in to watch the show, the streaming platform has announced. That is a 19M households higher than the four-week projection Netflix issued 10 days into the Shondaland series’ run (63 million), at the time the streamer’s fifth-biggest launch in history.
The series which continues to be a sensation is now Netflix’s biggest series ever, pushing down the previous record-holder The Witcher (76M in its first 28 days) to number two.
Created by Shondaland veteran, Chris Van Dusen, Bridgerton ranked number one overall in 83 countries including the US, UK, Pakistan, India, and South Africa, and made the top 10 in every country except Japan, Netflix stated in a blogpost. The series is based on Julia Quinn’s novels of the same name. The first season followed Daphne Bridgerton (Phoebe Dynevor) as she made her debut in Regency London, seeking a husband.
Analysts say that the series’ timing likely played a role in its breakout success. It arrived amid the latest deadly COVID-19 surge with people in many countries exhausted after months in quarantine.
“I think the show really provides an incredible escape for audiences at a time where that’s exactly what’s needed,” Van Dusen said last week when the series Season 2 renewal was announced. ”Bridgerton is this lavish, vibrant, steamy Regency love story; it is about romance, love, and joy; I think all of those things are really universal themes people are responding to.”
Meanwhile, the cast and creators of the drama have also expressed their shock and delight over the show’s success.
Gauhar Khan has responded to the Indian Supreme Court’s refusal to grant the makers and actors of the controversial Amazon Prime Video series Tandav protection from arrest. According to reports, the top court has denied relief to director Ali Abbas Zafar and others seeking quashing of FIRs against them for allegedly hurting religious sentiments of Hindus. The top court has also issued notices to Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, and other states on their pleas.
As per details, the bench hearing the case said that the “right to freedom of speech is not absolute”.
“Your right to freedom of speech is not absolute. You cannot play the role of character that hurts the sentiments of a community,” said the bench.
When Mohammad Zeeshan Ayyub’s lawyer argued that he was just an actor under contract and that the views expressed by his character could not be attributed to him, Justice MR Shah said, “You accepted the contract after reading the script. You cannot hurt religious sentiments.”
Responding to the bench’s comment, a Twitter user said: “Excellent. Next people playing murderers on screen might be tried for the same. After all, they read the script.”
Gauahar retweeted the tweet along with three ‘face with monocle’ emojis.
Tandav has been accused of disrespecting Hindu deities, with several political leaders including Uttar Pradesh deputy chief minister Keshav Prasad Maurya demanding legal action against the team.
Following the backlash and outrage, Tandav creator Ali Abbas Zafar issued an “unconditional apology” on behalf of the team. Calling any resemblance to real-life persons and incidents coincidental, he wrote in a statement, “The cast and crew did not have any intention to offend the sentiments of any individual, caste, community, race, religion or religious beliefs or insult or outrage any institution, political party or person, living or dead. The cast and crew of Tandav take cognizance of the concerns expressed by the people and unconditionally apologize if it has unintentionally hurt anybody’s sentiments.”
Later, Ali issued another statement, in which he said that the makers decided to ‘implement changes’ to the web series after concerns were raised. At least two scenes were removed from the show.
Tandav is a nine-episode series that takes viewers inside the corridors of power and politics. It was released on Amazon Prime Video on January 15.
