Pakistani business tycoon, Malik Riaz has agreed to hand over cash and assets worth £190 million to National Crime Agency in the United Kingdom (UK).
NCA in recent tweet disclosed the news about a settlement with a Pakistani businessman. The tweet said, “The NCA has agreed a £190m settlement with a family that owns large property developments in Pakistan and elsewhere after a frozen funds investigation”.
The NCA has agreed a £190m settlement with a family that owns large property developments in Pakistan and elsewhere after a frozen funds investigation.
The NCA has accepted a settlement offer in region of £190 million which includes a UK property, 1 Hyde Park Place, London, W2 2LH, valued at approximately £50 million and all of the funds in the frozen accounts.
The agency also said that agreement had been reached with Hussain to hand over the cash and ownership of the exclusive address, which overlooks Hyde Park, adding that the assets will be given to the government of Pakistan.
In August 2019 eight account freezing orders were secured at Westminster Magistrates’ Court in connection with funds totalling around £120 million.
These orders followed an earlier freezing order secured in December 2018 linked to the same investigation for £20 million. All of the account freezing orders relate to money held in UK bank accounts.
Deputy Commissioner Peshawar Muhammad Ali Asghar has ordered that motorcyclists without a helmet would not be able to get petrol in Peshawar.
As perreports, action will be taken against owners of petrol stations if they violate the rule.
A similar rule was enforced in Rawalpindi a few weeks ago following the orders of the Lahore High Court. Deputy Commissioner (DC) Rawalpindi Dr Umar Jahangir had directed all petrol stations not to give petrol to bikers without a helmet.
The stock market in Pakistan has witnessed an increase by gaining 40,000 points after a gap of around 10 months, and netizens are thanking Danish from the popular TV serial ‘Mere Paas Tum Ho‘ for buying shares worth Rs7.8 million in the latest episode that aired Saturday.
The TV serial took an unexpected turn after Danish purchased shares of Shahwar Chemicals — a company owned by his ex-wife Mehwish’s new lover Shahwar Ahmed — to further inflict damage to the company that is undergoing losses for the past few months.
While Danish buying shares played a typical form of karma in the serial for his wife, people can’t help but laud the character for causing an actual stock market upsurge.
Twitterati couldn’t help but notice how that moment in the serial coincided perfectly with a stock market rise in Pakistan in reality, and the microblogging website was soon flooded with memes.
Actor Humayun Saeed, who plays Danish, is once again breaking the internet and here’s what social media users have to say about the coincidence:
Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) on Monday crossed the 40,000 mark after a gap of around 10 months as the KSE-100 index closed at 40,122 points with a positive change of 836 points. A total of 361,655,400 shares were traded during the day, whereas the value of shares traded stood at Rs13.75 billion as compared to the previous day’s value of Rs11.9 billion.
Pakistan has successfully reapaid a foreign debt of over $1 billion, shaking up the country’s foreign currency reserves on the day Moody’s rating agency upgraded Islamabad’s credit rating outlook to from ‘negative’ to ‘stable’, Express Tribunereported.
According to the details, Pakistan on Monday has paid back around $1 billion on maturity of five-year international Sukuk.
“We paid over $1 billion including interest payment at the maturity of a Sukuk today (Monday),” reports quoted SBP’s official as saying.
Pakistan had earlier launched a $-denominated Islamic bond worth $1 billion with a five-year tenure in the international bond market in November 2014, during the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) government’s tenure. The sovereign bonds were issued at a rate of 6.75%.
The bond got matured in November 2019 and accordingly, the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) has repaid $1 billion, borrowed to build the foreign exchange reserves.
A sukuk is an Islamic financial certificate, similar to a bond in Western finance, also commonly referred to as “sharia compliant” bonds. Since the traditional Western interest-paying bond structure is not permissible, the issuer of a sukuk sells an investor group a certificate, and then uses the proceeds to purchase an asset, of which the investor group has partial ownership. The issuer of the sukuk bond must also make a contractual promise to buy back the bond at a future date at par value.
The said payment from the SBP’s foreign exchange reserves will be reflected in the next weekly forex report. However, the reports reveal that with this repayment, the SBP’s reserves will most likely slip below $7 billion.
Moody’s in its report has highlighted that Pakistan’s foreign exchange reserve adequacy remains low, adding that that foreign exchange reserve adequacy will take time to rebuild.
At the time of launching the Sukuk, the bond fetched bids amounting to $2.3 billion, five times higher than the actual target set by the government.
The government had planned to raise $1-2 billion in fresh foreign debt before the Sukuk payment was made. The floating of new Sukuk and Eurobond has remained pending for long.
At the time of launching the Sukuk bond, it fetched bids amounting to $2.3 billion which is five times higher than the actual target set by the government.
The government had planned to raise $1-2 billion in fresh foreign debt before the Sukuk payment was made. The floating of new Sukuk and Eurobond has remained pending for long.
Federal Minister for Science & Technology Fawad Chaudhry, in yet another faux pas, has messed up the history of the United States (US) on-air by not only making polymath Benjamin Franklin an “American president”, but also accrediting him for 1930s’ New Deal.
Speaking to a private media outlet on Monday, the minister had said that it was time for a “New Deal” among all state institutions. “At the moment, no institution in Pakistan is strong enough to challenge any other institution. Everyone is looking to enhance their own mandate. We must slow down and strike a New Deal.”
“A deal like the one by US president Benjamin Franklin. It changed the entire country. It is what we need as well. Specially, at a time when the chief justice has also highlighted the need for a dialogue and the army chief as well as the prime minister want to strengthen civilian institutions,” Fawad had said.
WATCH VIDEO:
But what many, including the show hosts, didn’t realise, was that the science minister himself didn’t know what he was talking about.
Not only was Franklin never elected president of the US, the New Deal — a series of programmes, public work projects, financial reforms and regulations enacted by President Franklin Roosevelt between 1933 and 1939 — came over a 140 years after his death. The programmes responded to needs for relief, reform and recovery from the Great Depression.
This, however, isn’t the first time that Fawad has put himself in an awkward situation by presenting “alternate” facts. In May this year, he had said that the Hubble Space Telescope was sent into space by Pakistan’s aeronautics and aerospace research agency Suparco, instead of its US counterpart, NASA.
وزیراعظم عمران خان کا روحانیت کوسوپر سائنس بنانے کا انوکھااعلان۔۔۔ مگر یہ منفرد کام علما حضرات کریں گے یا وزارت سائنس کے سائنس دان؟؟؟ pic.twitter.com/7leSQuz6NI
Pakistan is promoting religious tourism in the country with commendable efforts being made by the government. Opening new avenues including the Kartarpur Corridor has won the hearts of the Sikh community across the world. It has also promoted a positive image of Pakistan and given the message of religious tolerance in the country.
Pakistan is ready for another project aimed towards the Buddhist Pilgrims.
Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Overseas Pakistanis Syed Zulfiqar Abbas Bukhari in an event called “Welcome Christians Season” shared the plans for this iniative. He revealed that a Buddhist trail will be developed in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Punjab, and Azad Jammu Kashmir, allowing Buddhist pilgrims from all across the world to visit Pakistan.
Bokhari asserted that Pakistan will work towards the restoration of Buddhist cultural heritage.
Recently, a group of South Korean monks visited the Gilgit Baltistan region and visited their religious landmarks. Their visit highlighted Pakistan’s ancient links to the Gandhara civilization.
A mother, Parveen Akhtar, has killed her son’s acquitted alleged murderer Nouman, after the Lahore High Court (LHC) had exonerated him of murder charges due to lack of evidence, ARY Newsreported.
According to the details, Nouman, around seven years ago had allegedly murdered Parveen’s son Tasleem, age 21 over a domestic issue in Sialkot.
Parveen had lodged a case agianst the suspect in the lower court and after the proceedings, the court had found Nouman guilty of killing her son, handing down a death sentence to him.
Later, Nouman had filed a plea in the LHC against the death sentence, awarded to him in the murder case. After which in April 2019, the court had annulled the lower court’s verdict and declared Nouman innocent.
Nouman after getting released from the court left for Dubai and remained their for several months, and upon his return to Pakistan, he was killed by the mother in revenge.
Police have now registered a case against Parveen and her four accomplices for killing the man. A police official has said that they have arrested the woman and conducting raids to apprehend her other accomplices.
He added that two murder cases were also registered against Parveen Akhtar’s son who had been allegedly killed by Nouman.
Like it or not, plus-size individuals very much exist. Fat-shaming and fatphobia are real and not just in Pakistan but across the world as well. People look down upon those who don’t fit the society’s standard of what a person should look like. ‘Thin-ess’ is equated to beauty and fat is considered ugly, no matter what.
For instance, award-winning singer Adele recently lost 10 kgs following her divorce and people cannot stop praising her for hitting back at her estranged husband by losing weight. Any other reason is irrelevant.
Closer to home, across the border, Bollywood actor Sonakshi Sinha recently released a powerful video in which she recounted being fat-shamed and shared all the names which were used to describe her. They ranged from ‘Fatso’ and ‘Aunty’ to harsher ones like ‘Motakshi Sinha’. Just reading such terms should be enough to make you uncomfortable.
Despite all this, the world is making efforts to tackle body shaming. You visit any international clothing brand and you’ll find a section dedicated to plus-sized outfits. However, in Pakistan, this is not the case.
Last month, comedian and actor, Faiza Saleem, who is one of the leading ambassadors of plus-sized women in our country, did a campaign with Lulusar for plus-sized clothing. While on one hand people appreciated the campaign for being inclusive, there was a large population of people who wrote degrading comments on social media posts.
Speaking exclusively to The Current about the collection and backlash, Lulusar said: “Initially, this collection was never intended to become a body positivity statement. From our end, ‘Faiza Saleem x LULUSAR’ was just another collaboration in our series. We did introduce a new size-set so that Faiza could be represented accurately and fully.”
“However, the comments and messages we received on the campaign were a shock. We debated on deleting disparaging & hateful comments in the beginning, but they multiplied every hour,” they stated.
“After this, we did release a statement with Faiza standing up for our values and our philosophy, highlighting the fact that Lulusar is for all. As a brand, we realised we have the platform to ignite change and breakthrough social barriers that all of us are bound by in this society,” added Lulusar.
Speaking further, the brand said, “We began to see comments from women talking about how they regained confidence, how they wanted to dress in bright colors and patterns and never thought they could until this campaign, and the overwhelming support that poured in helped us realise the impact we had made.”
On whether plus-sized fashion has made its way to Pakistan, Lulusar said, “We think that there is definitely a dialogue that has started about the concept of inclusivity, but it hasn’t reached the masses yet.”
“Major brands still don’t have options for women of all shapes and sizes and, if they do, they’re not advertised or they are extremely limited. Plus-sized women are not invited to take part in the newest trends, prints or designs and still have to resort to unstitched dresses. There’s a long way to go in local fashion when it comes to making sure it’s available for all women,” they added.
On the other hand, Khadijah Shah, who is the brains behind one of Pakistan’s most successful fashion brands, Élan said that plus-sized fashion has not yet made its way to Pakistan as it should have.
“I don’t think it has as [of] yet. But, I feel like I see the winds of change,” said Khadijah in her interview with The Current.
In the past, Generation has experimented with plus-size clothing and has even received a positive response for it, but apart from a few campaigns here and there, no one has really carried forward the idea or made it a permanent feature.
On why most Pakistani brands resist from making plus-size clothing, Lulusar remarked, “Cost could definitely be a factor since this is a very niche market and the lower return on investment when compared to conventional campaigns wouldn’t be preferable.”
“However, more than that, it’s the fact that our general society is more receptive towards conventional campaigns, models and fashion. Fear of backlash is probably a greater reason why most brands haven’t taken a step towards inclusivity. For most brands, the negative response is just not worth it.”
Eleven episodes in, ISPR and Hum TV’s joint collaboration Ehd-e-Wafa has begun to gather momentum and is picking up pace.
Directed by Saifee Hassan, the drama follows the life of four friends – Shahzain (Osman Khalid Butt), Saad (Ahad Raza Mir), Sheheryar (Ahmed Ali Akbar) and Shariq (Wahaj Ali). The boys were together in Lawrence College Murree before they were expelled because of their shenanigans. While Saad went onto join the army, Shariq is pursuing a career and education in journalism. Sheheryar’s profession is still unclear and Shahzain, who belongs to a feudal family is incorporating himself into the family business.
All four boys also have their love interests, though the stories of Shariq and Sheheryar aren’t as well developed yet. Alizeh Shah as Dua plays Ahad’s love interests while Zara Noor Abbas as Rani is Osman’s.
While the premise and central plot of the story is the life of the four boys, there are several subplots running side by side because of which the episodes are a bit packed and muddled at some points. Instead of one scene flowing into the next, the episode tends jumps from scene to scene.
However, the acting of all the main characters is superb. Particularly note-worthy is Zara Noor Abbas as Rani, whose lively and colourful performance puts a smile on your face no matter what. Adnan Samad Khan, who is playing Gulzar Hussain from Basti Malook, Dera Ghazi Khan, is phenomenal in his character and has won the audiences with his strong performance. Ahad and Alizeh’s chemistry is very lit and their scenes together are very adorable.
Zara Noor Abbas as Rani
Adnan Samad Khan as Gulzar Hussain
Saad and Dua
The supporting cast of the drama including Vaneezah Ahmed and Syed Muhammad Ahmed are also doing a commendable job.
Last but not least, the background score and OST is very enjoyable – the upbeat tune perfectly complements the mood of the drama.
Ehd-e-Wafa is no Alpha Bravo Charlie but the drama is a much-needed refresher in the list of dramas which are either tackling serious topics such as rape (Ruswai) or are the usual masala fest (Meray Paas Tum Ho). Moreso, it also qualifies as a great family entertainer.
The poster Aurat
March was met with rape and death threats after it was upload on social media
last week.
Aurat March
(women march) calls for women, transgender, and other suppressed gender groups
to raise voice against injustice and deeply embedded patriarchy in our society.
Unfortunately, within an hour of upload – the post was bombarded with crushing
sexist and misogynist comments
While talking to
Express Tribune, the organizers said that they can take little action against
such response on social media.
“The maximum we
can do is to report it on Facebook,” said the organizers adding, “We’ll stand
for the cause and call out this unjust treatment – those who’re posting threats
will not get away with all this.”
The Aurat March
team said that they are partnering with legal teams to tackle bullying and
threats.
It is ironic that
these people are getting uncomfortable because suppressed genders are demanding
equal rights and better treatment in society, whereas when people like Khadim
Hussain Rizvi outrageously abused and curse publically – the only concern for
people is the inconvenience in traveling and day to day life.
