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  • Man sentenced to eight years for sharing indecent photos of ex-fiancée

    Man sentenced to eight years for sharing indecent photos of ex-fiancée

    A cyber-crime court has handed an eight-year sentence to a man for posting his ex-fiancée’s indecent photos on social media and directed him to pay Rs500,000 in damages.

    As per reports, the case had been registered by the woman in the FIA’s cyber-crime wing. During the hearing, the woman told the court that she had been engaged to the suspect Sajjad two years ago but the engagement broke off after her family learnt about his criminal history. Sajjad, in anger, forced her to come to his house where he took pictures of her without clothes and then blackmailed her with them.

    The suspect
    threatened to kill her, post her indecent pictures on social media, and make
    them viral on the Internet.

    Later, when the woman got married to another man, Sajjad uploaded the same pictures on Facebook and shared them with her husband as well as her relatives, resulting in her marriage to end.

    Sajjad was sentenced eight-year jail and fine of Rs 500,000 in accordance with Pakistan’s Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act, 2016.

  • Elif Shafak’s ’10 minutes 38 seconds’ is thought-provoking, insightful and relevant

    Elif Shafak’s ’10 minutes 38 seconds’ is thought-provoking, insightful and relevant

    “We must do what we can to mend our lives, we owe that to ourselves – but we need to be careful not to break others while achieving that”.

    The main theme in Elif Shafak’s new book 10 minutes 38 seconds in this strange world is kindness and tolerance, or rather the lack of them in this world.

    The novel follows the journey of a young girl Leila from her small rustic village in the backroads of Turkey, to the bright lights, fast lanes and seedy underbelly of Istanbul. Here she suffers unspeakable ordeals, but at the same time also befriends a motley crew of vagrants, all trying to find their way in this strange world. Each has a different story, a different background but what is common to all of them is that each one lives on the outskirts of society; never really accepted. Never really loved.

    Elif has weaved the story in the beautiful way she usually does. Her words pulse with spirituality and insightful meaning. She has taken up the cause of those who cant stand up for themselves and whom society shuns.

    What really stands out for the reader is that humanity and human emotions are the same everywhere, as is bigotry and prejudice even if they have different faces in different cultures. This world ought to be safe place for everyone regardless of race, religion or orientation.

    Do read this for all the various themes she has addressed and definitely for her prose.

  • ‘PTI illegally amassed $3 million from offshore firms in 2014,’ founding member

    ‘PTI illegally amassed $3 million from offshore firms in 2014,’ founding member

    A founding member of the Pakistan Tehreeke Insaf (PTI) party, Akbar S. Babar, had filed a case in 2014, alleging that the party had collected nearly $3 million in illegal foreign funds through two offshore companies, Dawn reported.

    Akbar alleged that money was sent through illegal ‘hundi’ channels from the Middle East to certain accounts of “PTI employees” and that the foreign accounts used to collect the funds were not mentioned in the annual audit reports submitted to the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP).

    For investigation in this matter, a scrutiny committee was formed in March last year to complete an audit of PTI’s funding sources in one month. Its mandate was later extended for an indefinite period.

    After the beginning of the probe, PTI submitted four applications to the ECP seeking secrecy during the scrutiny of its foreign funding sources.

    However, the ECP rejected all four applications of PTI and instructed the scrutiny committee to continue its work and instructed PTI representatives to appear before the committee on Oct 14.

    Foreign Funding Case

    Akbar S. Babar had filed the foreign funding case before the ECP in 2014 after he developed differences with PTI Chairman Imran Khan over alleged internal corruption and abuse of laws governing political funding.

    For over a year, the proceedings of the case were delayed in the ECP as the PTI had filed a writ petition in October 2015 in the Islamabad High Court (IHC) seeking to restrain the ECP from scrutinising its accounts.

    Later in February 2017, the IHC had remanded the case back to the ECP for a fresh review of its jurisdiction. On May 8 of the same year, a full bench of the ECP had once again declared its complete jurisdiction over the matter and stated that the PTI had failed to produce any evidence that the petitioner had been expelled from the party and hence lost the right to question the PTI’s accounts.

    In March 2018, a scrutiny panel had been formed to look into PTI’s foreign funding accounts to search for any wrongdoing.

  • The state of mental health in Pakistan

    The state of mental health in Pakistan

    World Mental Health Day – 10 October – is a day for global mental health education, awareness and advocacy. On 10/10 each year professionals, health care organisations, advocacy groups, international and national agencies and individuals aim to bring attention to mental illness and its effects on people’s lives.

    Over the years, as a therapist, I have observed an increase in awareness and focus by individuals and advocacy groups in Pakistan to highlight mental health challenges. Though that’s brilliant, it also serves as a reminder of the state of the mental health in Pakistan and the uphill challenges we have to face. A day of celebration and remembrance is gone by 11/10 but the suffering of someone facing psychological issues isn’t. And we’ve all got to think about it because there’s a high likelihood that someone you know is facing mental health issues: in your own home, your class, your gym, your club or at your workplace.

    Here are some things that would be useful for you to know to educate yourself on this World Mental Health Day:

    1. Stop stigmatising the topic

    With the topic being stigmatised, most individuals don’t seek treatment believing that this wasn’t meant to happen to them, or it must be something else e.g. supernatural, temporary, etc. It’s a lot easier to ascribe our ill mental health to causes outside of us than to believe that we’re losing our mind. So people conceal their inner life and wear a mask showing they’re ok. The person sitting next to you may be wearing one, and you won’t know. In the rare instances that individuals open up to friends, coworkers and family about struggling the men are told that they are meant to be stronger; the women are told to stop thinking too much and serve families; the children are told to stop wasting time and focus on their studies; and the elderly are advised to attend to God and be grateful.

    WHAT CAN YOU DO – If your brother, spouse, friend, co-worker seems distressed, irritated, gloomy, distracted, offer to listen to them if they’d like to share what’s bothering them. Don’t offer any advice, just listen to them and offer support and understanding. Validate their struggle and where you feel you can’t offer help, encourage them to seek professional help.

    2. Emotional and psychological wounds don’t always show

    Someone who was teased for their looks or weight, mocked for their grades, made fun of for their complexion, touched without their consent, humiliated in front of others or unfriended without explaining may seem okay on the outside, but even 20 years later be struggling very deeply as a consequence of it. We assume that someone who holds a degree, a job or having a family has come out okay, but there’s more to it than meets the eye.

    WHAT CAN YOU DO – If you’ve caused this kind of sorrow to your child or friend, take responsibility. Commit to being mindful of your words from now onwards. As a parent, don’t break your child’s bones or their self-esteem thinking this is for their best. It is not, and chances are you’re reliving the trauma of your own parents treating you this way, and this cycle has got to stop with your seeking help.

    As a friend, be a safe one, and not the jerk who’d be spoken about in my office 20 years later as the reason why someone quit university or didn’t aim higher in life. Be the friend that understood others when they were at our weakest.

    3. Anxiety, depression, trauma, eating disorders are medically as valid conditions as hepatitis, ulcers and cholesterol.

    Just like cholesterol can’t be exorcised away, and hepatitis cured by praying for it, anxiety, depression, trauma, eating disorders, etc also require attention. Mental illnesses especially psychosis, eating disorders, bipolar disorder and autism are understood to have biological roots. The estimated heritability for bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, and autism (80% or higher) is much higher than that of diseases like breast cancer and Parkinson’s disease.

    WHAT CAN YOU DO – Refer them to a proper mental health specialist and encourage them to seek treatment. Don’t act doctor to your friend who says nothing makes them happy and they don’t wish to live. You won’t try to cure someone’s cancer would you? Stop trying to treat mental health concerns if you’re not qualified to do so.

    4. A psychologist or therapist is not meant to give you medication

    This one’s straight – if they’re doing that, they are acting unethically, and that is considered a good ground for malpractice in countries abroad. Only a psychiatrist (someone who holds a medical degree as well as a training to diagnose mental illnesses) is authorised to prescribe medication and that too if needed.

    WHAT CAN YOU DO – If someone seeking help has severe symptoms (e.g. suicidal ideation and intent is strong, are hallucinating, have impaired functionality) they should first be assessed by a psychiatrist to determine if medication is necessary. For someone who feels they can work on their issues for weeks and months, a good starting point would be a therapist or psychologist.

    5. People recover from mental health issues

    Our brain over its entire lifespan is capable of changing and rewiring. Don’t assume that you visited a shrink 30 years ago and that didn’t help, and now it’s too late. Things have drastically changed since then, in terms of how and what we can do to help. Every year new technologies are emerging which promise better care, management, and treatments available.

    WHAT CAN YOU DO – It is human to be affected by pain. If you’re in pain, seek help. It’s never too late. I work with people in a broad age range, professions, classes, sexual orientations, ethnic backgrounds, status who have benefited from being in therapy.

    On this mental health day, let’s be more mindful of attending to the every day stuff that happens in our emotional lives as well as that of people whom we love and live with. Let’s not let these every day stressors become something more difficult. One day you’ll have to attend to them. So don’t wait for that. And if you or a loved one are in the midst of complicated emotional circumstances please seek help.

  • Warned Nawaz against fighting establishment, but he didn’t listen: Shehbaz

    Warned Nawaz against fighting establishment, but he didn’t listen: Shehbaz

    Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) chief Shehbaz Sharif has criticised his elder brother and jailed former prime minister (PM) Nawaz Sharif “for picking fights with the establishment and not paying heed to his advice”, SamaaTV reported.

    Reports quoted Shehbaz as saying at a party meeting on Thursday that he had told Nawaz during his last stint “to stop fighting with the establishment and serve the people”.

    “[I] advised him [Nawaz] to not remove General (r) Jahangir Karamat and General (r) Pervez Musharraf as army chiefs, but my brother didn’t listen.”

    “Tayyip Erdogan had served his country for 15 years, that’s why people came out in his support [and foiled the coup]”, he said, adding that if the PML-N government had completed another two or three terms, people would have come out in their support as well.

    “We suffered major losses at a crucial time because my brother didn’t listen to me,” Shehbaz said further.

    “I also advised him against joining the Jamiat Ulema Islam-Fazl’s (JUI-F) Azadi March later this month. We cannot fight and always end up hurting ourselves.”

    SHARIF BROTHERS DIVIDED:

    However, Nawaz while speaking to reporters during his hearing at an accountability court in Lahore on Friday said that he fully supported the forthcoming JUI-F rally against the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government.

    “Our viewpoint is the same as that of Maulana [Fazlur Rehman],” the former premier said.

    He recalled that Rehman had called for resignations and protest after the 2018 general elections and added, “But [now] I feel that his argument was solid.”

    “Not paying heed to Maulana’s call for the march would be a mistake,” he said.

    “I have already written a letter to Shehbaz in this regard, detailing the future course of action of the party and the PML-N president would brief the media soon.”

  • Atif Aslam’s ‘Wohi Khuda Hai’ for Coke Studio 12 will give you goosebumps

    Atif Aslam’s ‘Wohi Khuda Hai’ for Coke Studio 12 will give you goosebumps

    After a disastrous Season 11, Coke Studio is back with Rohail Hyatt donning the producer’s hat. Anticipation and expectations for this season is high given the producer and the line-up.

    Season 12 opened with Atif Aslam’s rendition of Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan’s immensely popular qawaali Wohi Khuda Hai. It comes as no surprise that Atif has nailed his performance and delivered a beautifully soothing track.

    The hamd penned by Muzaffar Warsi reflects the praise of God as the omnipotence, who maintains the balance and harmony in the universe.

    And we’re not the only ones blown away by Coke Studio’s opening track – it had 400K plus views on Youtube in its first one hour. Twitter is also lit with #CokeStudio12, #WohiKhudaHai and Atif Aslam trending.

    Atif has dedicated this beautiful rendition to his five years old son. Listen to it here:

  • Raheela: The Girl Child

    It’s the International Day of the Girl and Pakistan is shamelessly on the bottom of the global ranking in empowering them. They face death; stunted growth; violence; child labour and limited or no access to education and medical care.

    I took a dirt road two hours away from Peshawar in 2017 to find out more about how young girls with no access to education can be brought back into the gig economy.

    I spoke to about a dozen young girls and recorded their
    interviews to put a report for the people who were working to change the
    traditional set up in the conservative Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) district.

    I spoke to the adolescent girls learning vocational skills like tutoring, tailoring and computer skills. Some girls between 15 and 19 were clad in burqas, others in chadors and most, in a deep sense of shame. Their body language was subdued and their presence was mild like they were a bit too grateful for the donor support I had gone to assess.

    Raheela was an unforgettable young girl. She was a Frida
    Pinto lookalike, big eyes and a chiseled jawbone with fierceness about her life
    story that both humbled and awed me. She was what we call a success story that
    we were to tout for more funding in the area of adolescent girls, where
    government support failed or was neglectful.

    Raheela had learned to make a lot of money over the past few
    months. She was given a grant to receive a brand new Singer sewing machine. The
    machine allowed her to sell clothes to local women that she sewed faster and
    better. She could now afford to send her younger siblings to school. That
    month, she made more money in thirty days than her drunk and abusive father
    made in a year.

    Many would consider this a success, but for Raheela, it meant a disrupted order of status quo that led her father to rage and episodic beatings.

    She looked at me to answer questions with a black eye that she unsuccessfully attempted to mask under a cheap concealer, three shades lighter than her wheat skin colour. I had to, so I asked her about the black-blue eye.

    Her face comes to me like a floating ghost when I hear politicians rattle their podiums and make big promises. When big men with power claim justice for the common people who are facing stagflation in the economy, I wonder if they really ever see Raheela.

    Am I ugly, bad and unworthy? She asked me in response.

    No.

    I said she was beautiful and good and worthy and that it was
    the people who exploited her that should be put away.

    She was not fearless, but she was incredibly brave.

    Today, we mark the International Day of the Girl Child, so I went back to my notes from that day I met Raheela.

    I often think of Raheela because she is far away from the
    cult of cool that many young adolescent girls her age are obsessed with. She
    cares more about how to hide her siblings when her father picks up the rod than
    she does about getting the corners of her wing eyeliner right. Her life is more
    immediate and her troubles are not imagined.

    Her face comes to me like a floating ghost when I hear politicians rattle their podiums and make big promises. When big men with power claim justice for the common people who are facing stagflation in the economy, I wonder if they really ever see Raheela. I wonder if they hear the tremble in her voice when she describes going back to a home where she faces chronic punishment for working to support her family. I wonder if they even know that in this country, girls are prematurely sexualised and prematurely made into grown-up adults when they are too young to even understand their own bodies.

    I’m going to dare to dream a world for her today because that is what the day calls for – after all the GirlForce is unscripted and unstoppable.

    If I could reimagine a world for Pakistan’s Raheela, I would dare to dream that she has a lot of hygiene. That she has access to sanitary pads that are biodegradable and safe. Many girls in the programme who enter puberty end up missing their vocational classes just because they are on their period. The norm is unsanitary cloth packs that leak and limit their mobility. I want a world where a period doesn’t signal young women’s child-bearing age, but an age that needs care and protection from people who have an exploitative mindset. Commercial sanitary pads are prohibitively expensive in rural areas and there is no education on how to maintain mobility during menstruation. As a result, menstruation is used as a weapon to ground Raheela.

    I often think of Raheela because she is far away from the cult of cool that many young adolescent girls her age are obsessed with. She cares more about how to hide her siblings when her father picks up the rod than she does about getting the corners of her wing eyeliner right.

    I would also imagine a world for her where the road to the vocational centre would not be planted with land mines of honour culture. Where the local village perverts won’t call her a slut for wandering instead of being invisible. I’d want local police to punish those men if they dare make her feel threatened. Instead, local police usually victim-blame young women who face eve-teasing and sexual harassment. Raheela was asked to go back home and fetch her abusive father before a legal complaint is lodged. She ended up not complaining and facing the men in her path day after day, passively.

    It would be rather nice if Raheela had a basic smartphone that allowed her to receive her stipend in a mobile wallet, safe from the drug-addiction ambitions of her father. A mobile wallet that allows her to buy her mother the medicines she needs to repair her mental health, her self-esteem and her social embarrassment for only giving birth to girls.

    Access to the internet would be great for Raheela. She could get socially connected to friends and family she trusts and can rely on. She could even search the latest fashion trends to remix in the clothes she designs and sells in larger cities. She could learn English, the language the internet uses and sharpen her Urdu skills using tutorials. She could search for entertainment and watch shows that give her respite from her reality. She could use YouTube to research how to manage money and do basic bookkeeping so her business can stay afloat longer.

    I’d want a world where Raheela knows that elsewhere in the universe, there are doctors who perform surgeries remotely; that holograms exist; that future jobs will focus on creativity and collaboration; that there are smart shoes that measure everything including steps. Most importantly, that she can protect her digital footprint and have her cyber world secure from prying eyes of men who can hurt her now or in the future. She could know her rights as a citizen. She would know then, that the state has promised to protect her, educate her for free and punish anyone who harms her physically. That would change her mindset.

    I want Raheela to know that clothes look better when you wear them on your back while standing up straight, chin up, shoulders back. Raheela is not ugly, not a bad person and she is not unworthy of this dream I have dreamed entirely on her behalf.

    I’d like to give her some representation in the local government, perhaps even as a citizen. She could understand that there are others like her suffering in the community and hold a town hall with them to support community involvement. Raheela could help create public pressure to have easier access to schools, transport, healthcare and plumbing by speaking up for more young women.

    I want Raheela to know that clothes look better when you wear them on your back while standing up straight, chin up, shoulders back. Raheela is not ugly, not a bad person and she is not unworthy of this dream I have dreamed entirely on her behalf.

    It’s the International Day of the Girl. Pakistan is shamelessly on the bottom of the global ranking in empowering them. Girls in Pakistan face death; stunted growth; violence; child labour and limited or no access to education and medical care.

    It’s too late for Raheela, by now she may have a few girls of her own, her father may have won at patriarchy and she may have lost at it. Can we please get this dream in a politician’s speech so it could maybe… maybe become a part of the cult of cool that some girls can never reach.

  • Vaccination to replace poisoning for rabies eradication in Sindh

    Vaccination to replace poisoning for rabies eradication in Sindh

    Authorities in Sindh have decided to avoid the traditional method of fighting rabies by choosing to vaccinate the stray dogs instead of poisoning them to eradicate the deadly virus.

    As per reports, the decision was taken by Karachi Commissioner Iftikhar Shallwani in light of the rise in the death toll due to rabies across Sindh. The meeting was co-chaired by Health Secretary Saeed Awan.

    In the meeting, it was decided that a complete plan to vaccinate the stray dogs in Sindh would be designed with the guidance of the Department of Infectious Diseases at The Indus Hospital (TIH) and the World Health Organisation (WHO).

    Moreover, it was also agreed that a training program should be conducted by the TIH’s Department of Infectious Diseases at all major public hospitals in Sindh to train doctors for ensuring effective vaccination and treatement of the disease. Training will be given to the doctors through different workshops and seminars.

  • ISPR chief defends Indian pooja of new jet, trolls neighbours for their ‘incompetence’

    ISPR chief defends Indian pooja of new jet, trolls neighbours for their ‘incompetence’

    With India finally receiving the first unit of Indian Air Force’s (IAF) Rafale fighter jet from France, Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) chief Major General Asif Ghafoor has defended Indian defence minister’s “weapon worship”, but also trolled the neighbours for their incompetence.

    The French-made aircraft was acquired by the IAF at a handover ceremony in Merignac where Defence Minister Rajnath Singh performed “shastra pooja” on Rafale.

    The act was severely criticised by the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BRP) rival Indian National Congress (INC) as opposition leaders questioned the Prime Minister (PM) Narendra Modi-led government for “saffronising” the handover.

    With Pakistani Twitterati also taking to the microblogging site to call out their neighbours over Singh’s move, the ISPR chief has said that there was nothing wrong in it.

    “Nothing wrong in #RafalePuja as it goes by the religion and that must be respected [sic],” Maj Gen Asif Ghafoor wrote.

    He, however, also trolled Indians over their incompetence in words that appeared to be hinting at the aerial standoff between airforces of the two countries from earlier this year.

    “Please remember… it’s not the machine alone which matters but competence, passion & resolve of the men handling that machine. Proud of our PAF [Pakistan Air Force] Shaheens. #PAFtheMenAtTheirBest [sic].”

  • Mother helps police arrest son for kidnapping minor girl

    Mother helps police arrest son for kidnapping minor girl

    Police officials have recovered an eleven-year-old girl from Chishtian who was kidnapped at the age of two from Multan. The mother of the kidnapper assisted the police in arresting her son.

    As per reports, the recovery of the girl was made after the kidnapper’s mother revealed that her son had brought a minor girl home nine years ago and claimed to be the child’s father after his secret marriage.

    The woman told the police that she suspected his claims as the innocent child was subjected to torture by her son. Later, the brave mother stepped forward by herself to file a case against son’s alleged crime at a local police station. 

    The parents of the girl were traced through DNA tests and
    handed over to them after nine years.

    The police said that the local administration will assist the parents in organising the marriage of the recently recovered girl. They praised the mother for setting an example by registering a case against her son. The local police department has also commenced a thorough investigation against the alleged kidnapper.