The Indus Valley Capital has announced the launch of a dedicated programme for returning Pakistani, known as Wapistani, at 021Disrupt 2020, an online conference by Nest I/O.
This announcement was made by Aatif Awan, the Founder & Managing Partner at the Indus Valley Capital.
Indus Valley Capital is an early stage venture capital fund investing in Pakistani startups. This fund has a well-established network that is deployed to help early stage startups build products that can be scaled to hundreds of millions.
Awan explained that the Wapistani programme aims to make the move to Pakistan easier for Pakistanis who are returning to the country.
Indus Valley Capital plans to bring back 200 Wapistanis within the next 2 years through this programme.
Wapistani will help returning Pakistani in three main areas:
1- Career: This program will help returning Pakistanis in making the right career decisions through personalized intros and connections with top startups looking for senior or specialized talent.
2- Concierge: There will be dedicated resources to help returning Pakistanis with important life choices related to housing, children’s schooling and medical care.
3- Community: This programme will build a network of Wapistanis, who are moving back to the country at the same time.
Mahira Khan has wrapped up shooting for her upcoming film Neelofar in which she will be sharing the screen with Fawad Khan.
“I take with me a piece of you, leaving a bit of my soul with you,” said Mahira, while sharing pictures from behind the camera. “My darling Neelofar, I shall miss you, oh so much.”
In her post, Mahira also thanked those who worked on sets with her.
“Each and every one of them put their heart and soul in it. Can’t wait for all of you to see our hard work and love on your screens soon.”
Mahira had talked about sharing screen space with Fawad in Samina Peerzada’s web show earlier this year. The star had revealed that shooting for their film had halted due to the ongoing pandemic, that too in its last spell.
“We were left with ten days of shooting,” Mahira shared, “But due to COVID-19, the conditions became quite unfavourable for us to continue work.”
The film has been extensively shot in and around Lahore.
She also shed some light on her character and shared that it was quite different from her role in The Legend of Maula Jatt.
“I had so much fun working on this project with Fawad,” she had said. “It had been so long. Neelofar is just about these two people, it is very different from our characters in Maula Jatt. In Neelofar, it’s just the two of us, all our scenes are with each other. It was just so great to back with Fawad as older, more mature actors and people.”
She went on to say that not just the audience, the director of the film also shared similar thoughts on her and Fawad’s onscreen pairing – he loves it!
“My director always said you guys make a really good team. I asked him why thinks that is so? He just says that it is a nice balance. We really hope that we still have the same chemistry as Humsafar,” said Mahira.
Though details about the film are being kept tightly under wraps, audiences are looking forward to Neelofar because of Mahira and Fawad’s pairing. The project will be the actors’ next after Bilal Lashari’s The Legend of Maula Jatt, which is yet to hit screens.
Neelofar has been written by Ammar Rasool and produced by Qasim Mehmood.
Prime Minister Imran Khan on Wednesday posted some beautiful pictures of Skardu, Gilgit Baltistan on his Twitter account but this time the photographer has been credited for his work.
“I have been sent more pictures,” he wrote on Twitter. “This time from around Skardu after my last tweet with pictures from GB.”
I have been sent more pictures, this time from around Skardu, after my last tweet with pics from GB. pic.twitter.com/3coB1X6Ruv
The photographer Abrar Khawja also took to social media to express his joy over his work being shown to the world.
“My passion for photography has delivered results today,” wrote Abrar, sharing the premier’s tweet. “My beautiful Pakistan, captured through my lens, is being shown to the whole world by my own prime minister.”
My passion for photography has delivered results today as it’s being an honor that my beautiful Pakistan captured thru my lens is being shown to the whole world by my own Prime Minister @arslankhalid_m@PakPMOhttps://t.co/8tTZDA0fJ9
At least 18 Saudi and Qatari royals, including Saudi Crown Prince Muhammad Bin Salman, will visit Pakistan to hunt rare houbara bustard after the confirmation of their special hunting licences.
The members of royal families have obtained permission to hunt houbara bustard in Balochistan in spite of the international and local bans on the hunt of the endangered species.
Media reports suggest that Saudi CP Muhammad Bin Salman will hunt the bird in Layyah and Bhakkar region, whereas another Saudi royal Prince Fahad Bin Sultan has been allotted Awaran and Chaghi areas of Balochistan for the hunting of the rare bird.
Qatari royal Muhammad Bin Khalifus Sani and Sheikh Jassim bin Hamadus Sani will be hunt the migratory bird in Loralai and Musakhel, respectively. Sheikh Muhammad bin Ali Sani was allotted Barkhan while Sheikh Sani Abdul Aziz was given Kalat and Surab.
In total 18 sheikhs from Saudi Arabia and Qatar succeeded in getting permission for hunting in Balochistan and other provinces. In return, the Balochistan government will receive Rs150 million for granting this permission.
The Dubai ruler had needed younger falcons to hunt houbara bustards, and permission in this regard was issued by the foreign ministry.
The permit issued on Sept 15 this year had read: “The Ministry of Foreign Affairs…has the honour to inform that the esteemed embassy may export one hundred and fifty (150) falcons from Pakistan to the United Arab Emirate (UAE) for the personal use of His Highness Sheikh Mohammad bin Rashed Al Maktoum, vice president of UAE and ruler of Dubai, from Karachi/Bahawalpur/Rahim Yar Khan/Islamabad/Quetta.”
A high-tension video doing the rounds has shown Punjab Police personnel detaining popular disc jockey and political activist DJ Butt.
According to journalist Munizae Jahangir, Butt, who is responsible for the sound system arrangements at the Pakistan Democratic Movement’s (PDM) anti-government protest in Lahore on December 13, was “forcefully taken to Model Town police station”.
The video that shows Butt resisting arrest and seeking the reason behind his detention comes at a time when tensions run high among the country’s political quarters.
The joint opposition is determined to send the Prime Minister (PM) Imran Khan-led Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government packing with its protests.
The government, on the other hand, has refused to let the opposition “blackmail the state into giving them a clean chit in corruption cases”.
While the government has also not allowed the PDM member parties to gather in Lahore amid the second wave of COVID-19, leaders of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) among other joint opposition parties say the gathering will be held come what may.
Meanwhile, the premier has also announced to hold by-elections on vacant seats if PDM leaders go forth with plans of resigning from assemblies.
An Italian man walked for a week after a fight with his wife. The man walked 200 miles until he was stopped by police in Fano and fined over $400 (Rs 64119) for violating curfew rules.
According to local reports, the man went for a cool-down after an argument with his wife and ended up trekking over 280 miles, only to be fined for breaking quarantine curfew.
While speaking to authorities the man told them: “I came here on foot, I didn’t use any transport,” adding that along his lengthy journey, he “met people who offered me food and drink”.
“I am okay, just a bit tired,” shared the man, who became known as the ‘Forrest Gump’ of Italy on social media after walking a total of 60 km (37.2 miles) per day.
Authorities told a local news outlet Il Resto del Carlino that when they found the man “wandering aimlessly,” he appeared “lucid and focused”.
The police checked the man’s ID and learned that his wife had reported him missing. Authorities then contacted his wife, who travelled to Fano to get her wandering husband. The man waited in a hotel until she arrived.
Supreme Court (SC) Justice Umar Ata Bandial took exception to the remarks made by Sarina Isa, wife of SC judge Qazi Faez Isa, and warned her not to “overstep her limits”.
Sarina, who appeared in the top court in a case pertaining to the review plea against the June 19 verdict in the Justice Isa case, said that Chief Justice Gulzar Ahmad should be impartial. “Why didn’t the CJP order the formation of a full-bench to hear review pleas against a judgement of a seven-member bench,” she asked, questioning the “objectivity” of CJP Gulzar in the matter.
“You should be careful while talking about the CJP and the institution,” Justice Bandial responded, adding that as the head of the institution, the chief justice left the matter related to the inclusion of three judges to this larger bench.
At this, Muneer A Malik, counsel representing Justice Isa, quoted precedents to make his case for the inclusion of the three judges. Similarly, Rashid A Rizvi, counsel for Sindh High Court Bar Association, said that a lack of inclusion of the three judges could harm the public perception.
To this, Justice Qazi Amin Ahmed remarked that the court decides cases in accordance with the law and the constitution rather than on the basis of public perception.
Hearing of the case is adjourned until Thursday.
On Friday, Justice Qazi Faez Isa had submitted a petition seeking an additional review of the ruling on the presidential reference filed against him, wherein he had requested that an order be passed for the hearing of the petition to be broadcast live on television.
He had demanded at the time that Justices Maqbool Baqar, Mansoor Ali Shah, and Yahya Afridi also be made part of the bench to hear the petition and that his petition be declared admissible in Justice Afridi’s ruling.
Air pollution contaminates the air in Punjab and it shoots up in winter as farmers burn rice stalks left behind after harvesting to clear their fields to plant wheat.
During these cooler months, Lahore, which is surrounded by rice-growing districts, is covered with thick smog, putting people, especially the elderly and sick, at an increased risk.
“It is a health emergency – the air quality monitors in Lahore routinely show hazardous levels in November,” said Farah Rashid, a climate and energy program coordinator for green group WWF-Pakistan.
Now the Punjab government hopes to tackle the problem by providing 500 rice farmers around Lahore with a set of machines named ‘Happy Seeder’ that together eliminate the need to burn crop stubble.
The machines include a shredder that breaks down rice stubble and mulches it into the ground and a seed drill that follows to sow wheat through the mulch.
Malik Amin Aslam, climate change adviser to Prime Minister Imran Khan, called air pollution a “silent killer” and said Lahore’s smog had increased in intensity and frequency over the last five years.
He explained that rice farmers traditionally use combine harvesters to cut their rice in October, leaving behind about four inches of stubble.
With less than two weeks before they have to ready their fields to sow wheat, burning is the fastest way to clear the land, he told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.
In Pakistan, rice is grown on an area of about 2 million hectares (5 million acres), mainly in the Punjab and Sindh provinces. Many of the fields are cleared by burning every year.
Commuters drive their vehicles amid heavy smog conditions in Lahore
In October and November, Lahore’s Air Quality Index level can jump to over 300, a number that the US Environmental Protection Agency says corresponds to a “health warning of emergency conditions.”
CUTTING EMISSIONS
Farmers say the new farm equipment can help combat smog but note that crop burning produces only a small share of the province’s pollution.
“The stubble is burned only for a few weeks in the winter. It is a fact that the problem becomes worse during this short period,” Bhandara said.
“But farmers are not the only reason for this pollution,” he added.
A 2018 report by the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) on the underlying causes of smog in Punjab noted that agriculture — mainly rice residue burning — accounts for 20 percent of total air pollutant emissions.
That puts it behind the industry, which produces a quarter of the air pollution in the province, and transport, which contributes more than 40 percent.
Tackling air pollution — and leaving stubble on the soil as mulch, rather than burning it — also has the benefit of reducing carbon emissions that contribute to climate change.
In India, where farmers have been using the rice stubble shredder and Happy Seeder for the past few years, a group of scientists published a report last year stating the technology could cut greenhouse gas emissions by as much as 78 percent.
CHOSEN BY LOTTERY
In Mandi Bahauddin district, where famed Basmati rice is grown, Muhammad Afzal, an agriculture officer at Punjab’s Government Agriculture Seed Farm, has been experimenting with the Happy Seeder for the past two years.
“Stubble management is a serious issue for farmers,” said Afzal, who helps farmers adopt new farming techniques.
Pakistan has penalties for rice stubble burning, including fines of up to Rs20,000 per acre — but most farmers have little other choice and simply continue the practice and pay the penalty when they are charged.
But a growing number are looking for alternative solutions, Afzal said.
The total cost for the stubble shredder and Happy Seeder is about Rs637,500 rupees, and the government this year is paying about 80 percent of the price for 500 farmers, he noted.
“For those who can’t afford it, bigger farmers are willing to rent out the machines. In the future, more service providers will come up to rent them out,” Afzal said.
One drawback to the machines, he noted, is the need to mount them on the back of a tractor — and not just any tractor will do.
“It requires a large, 85-horsepower tractor,” he noted, something most rice farmers in Pakistan do not have.
Bhandara, the farmer in Pakpattan, said the subsidised machines also are only available in certain districts around Lahore, in the so-called smog “red zone.”
“The subsidised machines should be made available to rice farmers in South Punjab and Sindh as well, otherwise they are too expensive for most farmers,” he said.
Despite the limitations, the Happy Seeder has proven so popular that the government has had 10 applicants for each of its 500 machines, according to Aslam, the climate change adviser.
He said authorities are using a lottery system to decide who gets the subsidised equipment.
The government has plans to expand the Happy Seeder program next year and cover the whole of the Punjab rice belt by 2023, Aslam noted.
In the meantime, he added, it is already working on a technology upgrade.
“The agriculture extension department has developed a prototype to combine the two shredder [and] seeder machines into one ‘Pak Seeder’, which will be even more effective and efficient” — plus 30 percent cheaper, he said.
Morning subscriber! Today is Tuesday, 8th December 2020, and Peshawar, Quetta, and Islamabad will have the first rain of December. Speaking of Islamabad, do you know that the city’s Margalla hills, derived its name from a 2000-year-old Chinese tradition related to a dragon/serpent king. Originally the hills were called Mar-i-Qilla, meaning Fort of the serpent kings.
Morning Meme
Maryam Nawaz was hit by a stick during Lahore rally
PML-N leader Maryam Nawaz was hit by a stick at a rally in Lahore last night, after which she left the stage. Before her speech, she was warmly welcomed by the crowd, about which she tweeted “Lahori sirf phool nahin paisay bhi phenktay hain.” Later, during her speech aik Lahori nay unpe phooloun k sath sath stick bhi phenk di.
Actor Zainab Jamil quits acting for religion
Zainab Jamil nay yeh announce kiya hai that she will quit acting and modeling to learn more about Islam. “I proudly announce that I won’t be continuing my career as actor and model”, wrote the model-turned-actor on social media. “Allah has chosen me to become a student of the Holy Quran and Hadees and learn more about our deen, Islam,” she added.
Kher, iskay saath hee yeh sunay mien aaraha hai k Aamir Liaquat’s second wife, Tuba Amir is doing a special Cameo appearance in drama serial Bharaas.
Yeh tou hum jantay hee hain kay PM Imran Khan used to call mobile phones a necessary part of ‘digital Pakistan’, par aab lagta hai kay he has changed his opinion.
In a recent interview with actor Hamza Ali Abbasi, the PM has held mobile phones responsible for the decadence in society. He said the government cannot curb sex crimes on its own, as society’s help is necessary to create awareness.
A cup of tea served to ex-PM Nawaz Sharif disturbed him during his address via video-link at a PML-N event. “Jab tumhain pata tha kay main taqreer kr raha houn, tou kyun rakhi?,” the clearly perturbed three-time prime minister said in the footage.
Adviser to PM on Political Communication Shahbaz Gill believes it’s “nothing but parchee during the speech.” Read on the full story to find out how PML-N leader Hina Parvez Butt hit back at Gill.
Your friends are angry at you because apnay phir hangout plan cancel krdia, under the fear of corona-monster. But don’t feel bad, aik mashoor kahawat hai k kids make Hunza plans, adults make Malaysia plans but legends cancel all the plans.
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Prime Minister Imran Khan has announced holding by-elections on vacant seats if joint opposition’s lawmakers step down as part of anti-government protests.
“The government will hold by-elections if they leave the assemblies. If the opposition is confident, then so am I,” he said while speaking to senior journalists on Tuesday.
The premier was referring to threats by opposition parties to resign from the parliament as part of the Pakistan Democratic Movement’s protests against the government.
While a decision in this regard is yet to be taken by the opposition parties, it is being said that mass resignations could lead to a full fledged general election.
Speaking to journalists, PM Imran also said he was aware of the fact that the opposition has support from abroad.
“Some countries do not want to see Pakistan progress. Muslim countries around the globe have been destabilised under a well-conceived conspiracy, which is being replicated in Pakistan,” he alleged.
The premier said that whenever the government sat down with the opposition, their leaders brought up their cases. “The opposition wants to disband NAB so that their cases can be disposed of.”
PM Imran also admitted that his biggest mistake was not going to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) earlier. He said that the IMF wants to raise electricity prices but the government is not in favor of it.
