The mountains of Kaghan Valley are covered in snow after the picturesque valley received the first snowfall of the season. Pictures from the area are being widely circulated on social media.
As per reports, Naran town received more than 2.5 feet of snowfall.
Most hotels in Naran, Kaghan, and Shogran are still open for tourists this year because the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government is trying to promote winter tourism.
The demise of Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP) chief Khadim Hussain Rizvi has been condoled by Prime Minister Imran Khan, Chief of Army Staff Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa among others.
Rizvi, who rose to fame following a sit-in at Faizabad Interchange against the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) in 2018. His party also opposed the release of Aasia Bibi, a Christian woman who spent almost a decade on death row over false blasphemy accusations.
In a tweet, the prime minister said: On the passing of Maulana Khadim Hussain Rizvi my condolences go to his family. Inna lillahi wa inna ilayhi raji’un.”
In a tweet, the military media wing shared Gen Bajwa’s reaction to the death of the cleric. “General Qamar Javed Bajwa,#COAS, expresses heartfelt condolence on the sad demise of Allama Khadim Hussain Rizvi. “May Allah Almighty bless the departed soul in eternal peace.”
Minister for Religious Affairs Noorul Haq Qadri also expressed grief and sorrow on the TLP chief’s death. He said: “Pakistan has lost a respected religious scholar and true admirer of the Holy Prophet (PBUH)”, adding that his “services for Islam will be remembered for long”.
In a tweet, Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) chief Sirajul Haq expressed shock and grief over Rizvi’s sudden demise, saying his party shared the sorrow of his family members and TLP workers.
On Thursday night, Rizvi died in Lahore supposedly due to coronavirus. Reports suggest that the cleric was suffering from the viral infection because he had high-grade fever for the past couple of days in addition to other complications.
Rizvi is survived by his wife, two sons and three daughters.
It may be noted here that Rizvi led a recent TLP rally in Islamabad against the blasphemous cartoons in a French magazine. Things had taken an ugly turn when participants of the protest-turned-sit-in had clashed with law enforcement personnel, resulting in over a dozen injuries.
The law and order situation had been dealt with by the government after accepting the protesters’ demands.
Winter season in the country always means lots of food and music festivals. Unfortunately, COVID-19 has dampened all such plans this year, with health experts and the government urging people to avoid large gatherings.
Coke Fest is one of the biggest food festivals in the country and given that this year that is a distant dream, Coca-Cola has joined hands with Patari and Tapmad to launch Pakistan’s first-ever digital music festival – ‘CokeFest 2020’.
According to a press release, the three-day event is scheduled to run from November 20-22 and will be free for all to attend.
Those wishing to be part of it will need to download and register on the Patari mobile app followed by signing-up for the event to receive a unique code that can be used on TapMad’s mobile app or website to enjoy the live performances virtually from any location.
“Event attendees can expect to be mesmerized by leading names rocking the local music scene including a 9-year-old Pakistani rapper Kaky Thou$and, Natasha Baig, Sirine Jahangir, Shamoon Ismail, SomeWhatSuper, Young Stunners, ESharp, Abdullah Siddiqui, XPolymer Dar and veteran rock star Ali Noor,” stated the press release.
Speaking about this initiative, GM Pakistan and Afghanistan at The Coca-Cola Export Corporation Fahad Ashraf said: “With CokeFest 2020, we wanted to avoid large gatherings whilst still keeping the spirit of music alive. So we brought some of the best musical talent in Pakistan together with the country’s leading tech companies, to bring you a virtual experience that feels as close as possible to attending an actual musical concert.”
A bus driver was caught on camera playing a video game while driving a fast-paced passenger carriage. The driver has been arrested by police and his license has been suspended.
According to reports, a video did the rounds on social media a few days back wherein a bus driver was caught playing a video game as he drove the bus on the busy Karachi motorway.
The video shows the driver driving at a considerably high speed on the motorway but his attention is being distracted by the video game. The Inspector-General of Motorway Police took notice of the incident after the video went viral and traced the alleged offender via technology.
The police reportedly followed the driver, identified as Babar Khan, suspended his license and booked him on relevant charges.
It was alleged that the driver risked not only the lives of the passengers on board but also of those on the road and showed criminal negligence as a deadly accident could have happened because of it.
“If you have a complaint about not being loved or appreciated in this marriage, I suggest you take it up with the people who arranged it”.
The line that says it all. In the fourth season of Netflix‘s The Crown, there is zero doubt that you will be reminded of someone you know or have heard of, who is currently suffering in an arranged marriage. Which is why when Prince Charles (Josh O’ Connor), the future king of England complains about his arranged marriage to his incredibly sad wife Princess Diana (Emma Corrin), it really hits home.
The Crown, a series on the popular streaming site Netflix, is based on the lives of the ruling royal family in England. It follows the life of Elizabeth II, who is the current ruling Queen of England, her journey as Queen and also gives insight into the private lives of the royals. Although it is based on true events, the producers have said that artistic license has been taken while filming the series.
The most-awaited royal story was the one of Prince Charles and the iconic Princess Diana and the depiction of the two in season four does not disappoint. You will literally watch this season with your phone in hand, googling to see if the events that made you cringe are actually true – and be shocked and saddened that they indeed are.
Read more: Jemima is in love with Princess Diana ‘all over again’ after watching ‘The Crown’
Diana and Charles’ wedding was a fairy tale – one that even if you weren’t old enough to see it when it happened, there is zero doubt that you have seen images of how perfect it actually was. Their divorce shook the world and Diana’s death had everyone mourning. There was and most likely will never be a more iconic and charming royal than Diana. Pakistanis, in particular, are drawn to her even more after seeing pictures of how much she enjoyed visiting Pakistan with a handsome Imran Khan and his then-wife Jemima Goldsmith.
This was the first time I learned about how Diana had an eating disorder and was bulimic. After Googling, I discovered that she had spoken about it in an interview, about how after marrying Prince Charles, eating a lot of food and then throwing up somehow became therapeutic for the emptiness she felt in her life. The series shows how a very young Diana gets married at the age of 19 years in a whirlwind marriage to a prince who is in love with someone else. Prince Charles had been seeing a married woman – Camilla Parker-Bowles who he is currently married to – and continued to see her after he was married. Charles wanted to marry Diana and thought she was sweet, but not before she was ‘approved’ by his ‘ex-girlfriend’ Camilla. According to Google, Camilla had approved Charles’ marriage to Diana, thinking she could control her in the future but hadn’t realise how popular Diana would become.
We are also introduced to a Diana who tries very hard to make Charles happy – and a Charles who tries somewhat but is unable to let go of his affair. What makes one hate Charles even more in the series is that it’s not that the dull and arrogant Charles doesn’t have the capacity to love – he loves Camilla so much he tells Diana after years of their marriage that if she hurts Camilla, she hurts him – but that he loves the wrong person. He can’t stand how popular and loved Diana is, how she shines, how people love her and how wherever she goes – excitement follows. He is not strong enough to let her shine – and in turn, his lack of compassion for her – ruins her life.
Discussions about the royal family being the first and ultimate joint family began soon after people finished the season – discussions about how arranged marriages can ruin lives and how people need to spend time together to find out if they really get one another. If Diana had not been so young and had grown into her personality and understood what she wanted out of life, maybe she would not have picked Charles or been besotted with the thought of marrying a prince. Maybe Charles, who gave into his family’s pressure of marrying a girl who had a similar background as him, would’ve held strong and said he wouldn’t marry if he couldn’t marry whom he wanted. But it seems painfully obvious that Charles was pressured into marrying Diana and Diana fell for the fairy tale love story that Charles represented.
What’s more painful is to see how Diana tries to make Charles happy. She knows from day one that Charles has not left Camilla – even goes out for lunch with Camilla (yes, that’s true!) – and tries her best to make her marriage work. In two very painful parts of the season, Diana plans a dance with the famous rockstar Billy Joel, for Charles’ birthday and after seeing the performance, Charles tells her how horrified he was to see her performance and how she made his birthday about her (she did do a performance for him on his birthday at the theater, that is also true) and then for their wedding anniversary she tries again and films her singing a song for him with a live orchestra (wasn’t very good and also true). He makes fun of her both times, showing that no matter what she tried, nothing was going to work.
We all have that one friend or family member stuck in a marriage that is not of their choosing. Having issues with in-laws is so common that it’s scary at times. Diana also has a difficult time with her in-laws and tries to reach out to her mother-in-law, the Queen who is very distant from her. Charles’ sister, Princess Anne, also resents Diana for being more popular than her and they too, don’t seem to get along. The only person who does seem to like her is her father-in-law Prince Philip but near the end, that also changes. So we see Diana fairly alone throughout the series, clinging onto her children to feel whole. Until it seems she can’t do it anymore.
The ending scene of the series finale is one of a family photo being taken for Christmas and Diana is standing at the edge of the photo, away from the others. The camera zooms into her, showing how alone she is and I didn’t have the heart to Google if the picture was real – because it so obviously must be. What is more devastating is that it feels like such a big loss. We know that Diana finally breaks free and most likely, finally finds happiness and then dies in a fatal car crash. She never really gets her fairy tale and as we see people around us going through the same, we feel the same pain. Maybe if they break free – if she had broken free earlier – they might be happier.
Despite being such a difficult season to watch, season four is the best season so far. Other than the stellar performances given by both Connor and Corrin, the role of Britain’s first female Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher is played so brilliantly by Gillian Anderson that it is a true pleasure to watch. She literally captures the essence of one of England’s most controversial rulers and it is a delight to watch the minute she comes on screen. The minute you see Thatcher on screen, you can’t wait to see what she will do next. And you also cannot help but compare.
Margaret Thatcher, raised to be brilliant by her father, supported by her husband who is totally at ease with his wife’s success, pushes her to be the absolute best that she can be – the leader of a superpower for eleven years. The support she gets and her own brilliance make her shine in ways that have changed the course of history. And then we see a parallel with Diana – a woman absolutely phenomenal in her own right – but pushed down by the people around her, never realising her full potential.
Makes one think how different life can be if you can manage to convince yourself that you need some iron from the British PM famously called the Iron Lady and also realise that it is finally time to break free before it is too late, like the tragedy that was Diana.
Disposal of used contraceptives, such as condoms, in gutters has been causing sewerage problems in Karachi, the Karachi Water and Sewerage Board (KWSB) has said.
According to reports, KWSB recovered a massive amount of used condoms while clearing a sewerage line on Thursday, which were affecting the flow of sewage and causing serious blockage problems.
A KWSB official said the huge quantity of used contraceptives was found while a team was cleaning a sewerage line in Clifton Block 2. But this isn’t an isolated incident: the KWSB often finds items like these in sewer lines across the city.
Water inflates the condoms up to 400 times their size, which blocks manholes and sewerage lines, the KWSB spokesperson explained. Such items must be disposed of in trash cans, he urged.
The KWSB stressed the need for generating awareness about the issue and urged government departments and social organisations to play their role.
Renowned cleric and Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP) chief Khadim Hussain Rizvi passed away on Thursday.
Earlier it was reported that he was suffering from high-grade fever for the past couple of days, which had led to speculations if he was suffering from COVID-19.
The same was claimed by journalist Mubashir Zaidi, who quoted a hospital spokesperson.
While TLP leaders have confirmed reports of Rizvi’s passing, conflicting reports claim that the cleric was not suffering from any illness.
Meanwhile, condolences are pouring in over social media as people say they “forgive” the late religious leader who was known for his aggressive speeches besides promotion of extremist element in the religio-political landscape of the country.
He had just earlier this week led a protest rally in the federal capital against the publication of blasphemous cartoons by a French satirical magazine.
Things had taken an ugly turn when participants of the protest-turned-sit-in had clashed with law enforcement.
The law and order situation had been dealt with by the government after accepting the protesters’ demands.
Bushra Bashir [formerly Ansari] is having a serious case of nostalgia and her Instagram feed is proof of that. The actor took her fans on a trip down memory lane and shared pictures of herself with other celebrities and at exotic locations across the world.
Starting with pictures of Bushra with legends including Noor Jehan, Benazir Bhutto and Zia Mohyeddin.
She then reminisced about the time when she first visited the USA in 1982, when her daughter Nariman was just 3 years old.
Then one from her London trip in 1990.
The actor also shared some fond memories from her trips to India with her sister Asma Abbas.
Bushra also recalled the time when she was a child actor.
“When you become a child star at the age of 10, what a memory”, wrote Bushra along with a black and white photo.
She further shared that she was in Class 5 at the time and became the ‘Phoolon ki Shehzadi‘ when she received a cheque of Rs 90 from PTV.
Bushra also recalled the time when she wrote her first long play ‘Neele Dhoop‘.
Twelve Pakistani teachers have been included in world’s top two percent scientists list compiled by Stanford University.
Nine of them are from Punjab University and three from Government College University, Lahore.
US-based Stanford University recently released a list that represents the top 2% of the most-cited scientists in different disciplines. The list consists of around 160,000 persons.
Punjab University college’s spokesperson said Dr Khalid Mahmood, Dr Mohammad Sharif and Dr Mohammad Akram were selected by Stanford for their lifetime research.
Six more researchers from Punjab University were selected in the category for international examination of one-year research papers, the spokesperson added. They are Dr Hafiz Azhar, Dr Zeeshan Yousuf, Dr Mohammad Younis, Dr Saima Arshad, Dr Abdur Rehman and Dr Noman Raza.
Dr Mahmood is the only professor in South Asia to have received an award in Information and Library Science.
Over 81 professors were recognised in the lifetime research work list.
Professor Dr Mjuahid Abbas, Professor Dr Zakaullah and Dr Abdul Sattar Nizami were the educationists selected from Government College University, Lahore.
Government College University, Lahore Vice Chancellor Dr Asghar Zaidi congratulated the teachers and said the professors were honoured to be among the world’s best researchers.