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  • Punjab info minister says ‘Buzdar should be praised like Sher Shah Suri’

    Punjab Information Minister Fayyazul Hassan Chohan has said that Chief Minister (CM) Usman works silently without setting up any camp offices and consequently reducing the provincial government’s expenses by 60 per cent, therefore, “he should be praised like Sher Shah Suri”.

    Suri was the founder of the Suri Empire in the northern Indian subcontinent, with its capital in Sasaram in modern-day Bihar.

    Addressing a press conference on Tuesday, Information Minister Chohan asserted that the former government caused a loss of $21 billion to the national exchequer and more than 2,000 officials were appointed for the security of then CM Shehbaz Sharif’s relatives.

    “He [Shehbaz] had established eight camp offices but neither of them were in Lahore,” the minister said and added that Buzdar could not be compared to opposition leaders as the former had not laundered money.

    The provincial minister said that people like Tallal Chaudhry, Daniyal Aziz and Javed Latif had earlier “taken over the system”, while Buzdar’s government has recovered loans worth over Rs10 billion in one year, allocated 35 per cent budget for southern parts of Punjab and built shelter homes for the poor.

    “The CM has allocated a huge portion of funds for the development of South Punjab in the provincial budget for the first time in the history of the province.”

    Chohan said that policies pertaining to district industry and special education were approved during Buzdar’s tenure and construction of nine universities and nine hospitals had now been started.

    “Previously, every person raised slogans against neglecting South Punjab. Now, six out of nine hospitals in the province are being constructed there. CM Buzdar can be titled as Waseem Akram-Plus, if we thoroughly review his performance within over a year.”

    He said Punjab had collected 104 per cent tax revenue that increased the province’s income up to Rs75 billion and in the first year, policies for tourism, agriculture, labour, industries, water and forests had been approved in Punjab.

    The provincial minister continued that 36 bills were approved by the Punjab government for the first time in the history of the province.

    “So-called political leaders of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) had only grabbed government lands during their tenures,” the provincial government’s mouthpiece maintained.

  • Zayn Malik supports Malala’s cause of educating young girls

    Popular singer and former One Direction band member Zayn Malik, posted a video on his Instagram and Twitter profile, supporting Malala Yousafzai in her cause to educate young girls.

    The video showed messages promoting the education of girls and gender equality. The singer tagged Malala Yousafzai and the ‘Malala fund’ and urged his fans to help the cause by funding it.

    https://www.instagram.com/p/B5n7DQrJeer/?utm_source=ig_web_button_share_sheet

    Malala retweeted Zayn’s video message with the caption and wrote, “You’re headed in the right direction”, giving us all the hint that two have collaborated for the cause.

  • Pakistan declared ‘more attractive destination for global investors than India’

    An international credit rating agency, Moody’s Investors Service, has upgraded the outlook for Pakistan’s economy from negative to positive, declaring the country a more attractive destination for global investors than India as the latter’s credit outlook downgraded to negative earlier this year, Sputnik News reported.

    According to the agency, upgrade in Pakistan’s status is driven by “Moody’s expectations that the balance of payments dynamics will continue to improve”. On the other hand, it said that India’s outlook downgraded, “on concerns that its economic growth would remain materially lower than in the past”.

    “Moody’s decision to change the outlook to negative reflects increasing risks that economic growth will remain materially lower than in the past, partly reflecting lower government and policy effectiveness at addressing long-standing economic and institutional weaknesses than Moody’s had previously estimated, leading to a gradual rise in the debt burden from already high levels.”

    Meanwhile, Prime Minister (PM) Imran Khan’s Adviser on Finance and Revenue Dr Abdul Hafeez Sheikh said the upgradation of outlook to stable was affirmation of the government’s success in stabilising the country’s economy and laying a firm foundation for robust long term growth.

    The announcement also pushed Pakistan’s stock market above 40,000 points — highest after a gap of 10 months.

    The premier himself has also claimed that over the first four months of the current fiscal year beginning April 2019, Pakistan’s current account deficit fell by 73.5%, as compared to the same period last fiscal year. “The country’s exports of goods and services in October 2019 rose 20 per cent over the previous month and 9.6 per cent over October 2018.”

  • Amjad Sabri features in Coldplay’s latest album

    Amjad Sabri features in Coldplay’s latest album

    British band Coldplay has released a new album titled Everyday Life and it features the late qawwal Amjad Sabri.

    In an interview with Entercom, the band’s lead singer Chris Martin while talking about the second song in the album Church — released as a single — shared the inspiration behind it sharing that the band have incorporated samples from Sabri’s hit track Jaga Ji Laganay into it.

    “There’s two cool other singers on that one. There’s this guy who was a Pakistani singer, called Amjad Sabri. He was sadly murdered by people who didn’t like what he stood for. Then there’s a friend of ours called Norah who is a guy from Jerusalem.”

    Martin described Church as a love song that “fell through the sky,” referring to how the band received inspiration to make a song they think is great.

    Whether Coldplay obtained permission from Sabri’s family to use the track is not known as of yet.

    Meanwhile, Everyday Life has already made it to the top of the Official Album Charts.

    Listen to the song here:

  • Unemployed? Here are the reasons why

    Unemployed? Here are the reasons why

    Being unemployed is never easy – on the person, his family or on the society as a whole. Here is what you need to do to get viable employment. 

    To get a job and then to sustain it, a candidate must possess two types of skills: hard skills and soft skills. Hard skills are basically the primary talents one can have like engineering, programming, designing, and so on so forth. On the other hand, soft skills are those that let you manage yourself and people around effectively; some examples are social skills, communication skills, emotional intelligence, time management and so on.

    A person who has both will have better employment opportunities. So what one should do to learn both, especially, if you cannot afford to go expensive university, or you do not have enough time due to personal reasons? 

    Edx.org is a platform created by the world best universities from where you can take many online courses for free. These courses are ranging from computer sciences to creative skills like graphics designing or content creation. There are hundreds of other courses that you can take to polish your hard and soft skills. 

    Be
    mindful of one thing that to grow professionally – you have to develop the
    habit of learning. As a famous American author Alvin Toffler rightly said:

    “Illiterate
    of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who
    cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn.”

    So 2020 is not far away – be comfortable with your anxieties, fears and above all uncertainties. Perhaps, millennials do not have many options to escape this reality. 

  • Rs 1 lakh worth shoes stolen from outside mosque

    Rs 1 lakh worth shoes stolen from outside mosque

    We have all heard of shoes being stolen outside of mosques while people offer their prayers but a new shoe theft has set a new record of sorts.

    According to ARY News, a pair of shoes worth Rs 100,000 were stolen from outside a mosque in Lahore during prayers.

    Police say that Sheeraz Bashir went to offer prayers in the mosque situated near Ganga Ram Hospital. When he came back from prayers, he found his expensive shoes had gone missing.

    Bashir, a resident of the Defence area of Lahore, came to Ganga Ram Hospital to visit an ailing relative.

    Sheeraz Bashir has asked the police to catch the thief with the help of CCTV footage and recover his shoes.

    Police say they are doing everything possible to recover the expensive shoes.

  • And the word of the year is…

    And the word of the year is…

    Climate change, gun violence, the very nature of democracy and an angsty little movie star called Forky helped propel existential to Dictionary.com’s word of the year.

    The choice reflects months of high-stakes threats and crises, real and pondered, across the news, the world and throughout 2019.

    “In our data, it speaks to this sense of grappling with our survival, both literally and figuratively, that defined so much of the discourse,” said John Kelly, senior research editor for the site, ahead of the announcement.

    The word earned “top of mind awareness” in sustained searches at Dictionary.com in the aftermath of wildfires and Hurricane Dorian, and mass shootings in Christchurch, New Zealand, and El Paso, Texas. It also reared itself in presidential politics and pop culture.

    Oxford Dictionaries picked climate emergency as its word of the year, noting usage evidence that reflects the ethos, mood, or preoccupations of the passing year, the company said in a statement.

    Dictionary.com crunches lookup and other data to decide which word to anoint each year. The site has been picking a word of the year since 2010.

    The word ‘existential’ dates to 1685, deriving from Late Latin’s existentialis. Dictionary.com defines existential as of or relating to existence and of, relating to, or characteristic of philosophical existentialism; concerned with the nature of human existence as determined by the individuals freely made choices.

    Meanwhile, last year, Merriam-Webster had chosen “justice” as its 2018 word of the year while Oxford Dictionaries chose “toxic.” “Misinformation” was Dictonary.com’s word of the year in 2018.

  • 5 health benefits of shopping

    As it is the beginning of the month and a few brands are also offering a discount so it is the best time to shop. You might not know that shopping is also good for your health in many ways. Here are 5 health benefits of shopping.

    Exercise

    You might not walk for
    30 to 40 minutes in your normal routine but while shopping you will happily
    walk for an hour or so. Walking through the streets of any bazaar or checking
    out all the stores at a shopping mall is interesting and also healthy at the
    same time as walk reduces the risk of heart diseases, increases muscle strength
    and benefits health in many more ways.

    Distraction

    If something is
    bothering you or you are stressed out due to some reason, shopping is a great
    distraction. It will temporarily distract you from your problems.

    Boosts Your Mood

    The fact cannot be
    held for denial that shopping has a lot to do with a sense of achievement. When
    you buy that shirt you have always wanted, the increase emotions of joy release
    endorphins. These are the chemicals in your brain that make you feel good deep
    inside.

    Makes you more creative

    When you go out
    shopping, you make experiments with patterns, styles and colors. Your mind
    becomes open to things, patterns and there’s a major creative wave that takes
    place in your head. 

    Social bonding

    Normally people go out
    shopping either with your family or your friends so one can spend some quality
    time with friends and family. So grab your friends and go out for
    shopping. 

  • Indian woman tried to escape Kartarpur with Pakistani boyfriend

    Indian woman tried to escape Kartarpur with Pakistani boyfriend

    Pakistani authorities last month thwarted an attempt by a Sikh girl to enter the country illegally.  

    According to reports, the girl came to Darbar Sahib Gurdwara in Kartarpur and entered Pakistan as a Sikh pilgrim in order to meet her Pakistani boyfriend at the Darbar Sahib.

    The girl, identified as Manjeet Kaur, met her boyfriend who was from
    Faisalabad. The guy had come along with a couple of friends including a woman.

    Kaur decided to stay in Pakistan and the woman who had accompanied the Faisalabad man gave the girl her visitor card. Kaur then discarded her pilgrim card in a dustbin in order to avoid being caught.

    However, Pakistani authorities hindered the plan and confronted the couple before the girl could escape into the country.  

    Following the incident, security around the Sikh holy site was tightened and visitors will now have to provide biometric verification when exiting the holy place as well. 

  • PM Imran requests PTV to air Turkish drama in Urdu

    PM Imran requests PTV to air Turkish drama in Urdu

    Prime Minister Imran Khan has requested PTV to air famous Turkish historical fiction series Dirilis: Ertugrul. The drama is popularly referred to as the Turkish ‘Game of Thrones‘ by fans.

    According to a report in Arab News, the drama will soon air on PTV after being dubbed in Urdu. PTV has gotten exclusive rights for dubbing and screening it in Pakistan and voice actors for the drama have been selected.

    The report said that PM Khan had recommended the popular TV opera to all Pakistanis as promoting the true Islamic values.

    Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Information and Broadcasting Dr Firdous Ashiq Awan said that the initiative has been taken at the behest of the prime minister to protect “our social, cultural and religious norms.”

    She said that the Muslim world has its own cultural heritage and values and that the drama can enlighten and broaden the understanding of the history of Islam, especially among younger generations.

    “It is also PM Khan’s vision to share media content to counter Islamophobia and improve understanding of Islamic values,” Awan added.

    Back in September PM Khan has shared that Pakistan, Turkey and Malaysia will jointly launch a TV channel to fight Islamophobia. PM Imran had said that the English language TV Channel will be like BBC which will also highlight the issues faced by the Muslim world.

    Dirilis: Ertugrul is set in 13th century Anatolia, before the establishment of the Ottoman Empire. It illustrates the struggle of Ertugrul Gazi, the father of Osman I – the founder of the Ottoman dynasty.

    Since its premiere on state-run Turkish TV channel TRT 1 in November 2014, the serial has been telecasted in 60 countries.