Blog

  • Naya Pakistan: FBR collects Rs580bn, petrol price decreased by Rs4.59

    Naya Pakistan: FBR collects Rs580bn, petrol price decreased by Rs4.59

    In two rare but good developments, the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has collected Rs580 billion within the first two months of the new fiscal year whereas the price of petrol has been slashed by Rs4.59 after successive escalation over the past few months.

    As per the details, FBR collected Rs297.4 billion this month, despite 8-10 non-working days. “So far, FBR’s target for FY2019-20 has been achieved to the extent of 90 per cent. Rs580 billion against the target of Rs644 billion,” the FBR chief was quoted as saying.

    “The positive aspects for the two months of FY2019-20 are that imports during the two months decreased by $1 billion,” he said, adding that the positive effect is taken into account, collection during the past two months is in line with the target.

    Meanwhile, according to a statement issued by the Finance Ministry, the prices of high-speed diesel, kerosene oil and light diesel have been lowered by Rs5.33, Rs4.27 and Rs5.63 per litre, respectively.

    The notification (effective September 1) came amid confusing statements by some cabinet members. The government had earlier issued a notification, stating ‘mistakenly’ that the price of high-speed diesel has been reduced by Rs7.67.

  • India wants me dead: Sheikh Rasheed

    India wants me dead: Sheikh Rasheed

    Federal Minister for Railways Sheikh Rashid has said that “Indian politicians have been wishing for his death”, Khaleej Times reported.

    “Indian Prime Minister (PM) Narendra Modi made a big mistake by revoking the autonomy of Indian-held Kashmir (IHK),” he said while addressing a press conference.

    “Modi’s main agenda is to destroy Pakistan,” the minister said, adding that Muslims were treated as second-class citizens in India.

    He warned Indian soldiers that if they move towards Lahore or Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK), they should know that Pakistan’s “smart bombs will welcome them”.

    “Our army is ready,” said the minister. However, he said it would be better for both nations to resolve the issue through dialogue.

  • Abhinandan returns to cockpit, flies MiG-21 with Indian air chief

    Abhinandan returns to cockpit, flies MiG-21 with Indian air chief

    Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman, who was captured after Pakistan Air Force (PAF) downed his MiG-21 aircraft during a stand-off with intruding Indian jets in February, has returned to the cockpit.

    Responding to Indian Air Force’s (IAF) violation of Pakistani airspace on February 26, PAF had hit back by sending fighters to strike Indian targets the following day. In the pursuit, a PAF fighter jet had downed at least one Indian MiG-21 aircraft and captured Abhinandan, who had ejected and landed within Pakistani territory.

    He was handed over to India by Pakistani authorities as a goodwill gesture within 60 hours of the standoff.

    “Both of us have two things in common. First, both of have ejected and second, both of us have fought Pakistanis. I fought in Kargil, he fought after Balakot. Third, I’ve flown with his father,” IAF chief BS Dhanoa, who flew his last sortie with Abhinandan, said Monday.

    The flight came after the wing commander was recently cleared to fly after treatment for injuries sustained in action. Earlier, in an ironical development, Abhinandan was conferred with the Vir Chakra, India’s third-highest wartime medal, on its Independence Day.

  • ‘No one asked Imran for an NRO,’ says Aseefa in maiden interview

    ‘No one asked Imran for an NRO,’ says Aseefa in maiden interview

    Former president Asif Ali Zardari’s daughter, Aseefa Bhutto-Zardari, has said that no one even ever asked the Prime Minister (PM) Imran Khan-led government for a National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO) and her father “would not be striking any deals to avail it”.

    NRO is an ordinance issued by former military ruler General (r) Pervez Musharraf in 2007. It grants amnesty to politicians, political workers and bureaucrats who are accused of corruption, embezzlement, money laundering or even murder.

    In her maiden solo interview to BBC Urdu, the late PM Benazir Bhutto’s daughter on Sunday said that her father spent over eleven years in jail where he was tortured without conviction and he didn’t make any deals even back then.

    “People of Pakistan are living in abhorring conditions, while the government is continuously insisting that it won’t give an NRO to anyone,” she said.

    WATCH VIDEO:

    “…but the question is that who even asked the government for one?”

    To a question regarding joining politics, Aseefa said it was not a compulsion, but one could raise his or her voice for the masses by entering politics. “I will continue to be their voice along with my brother.”

    She also said that family members of the jailed former president were not satisfied with the healthcare facilities being provided to the latter in prison.

  • Momina Mustehsan’s ‘Tera Woh Pyaar’ is Nawazuddin Siddiqui’s jam

    Momina Mustehsan’s ‘Tera Woh Pyaar’ is Nawazuddin Siddiqui’s jam

    Momina Mustehsan has a famous new fan across the border.

    Bollywood actor Nawazuddin Siddiqui, popular for playing Ganesh Gaitonde on Netflix’s Sacred Games, has revealed that he loves Momina and Asim Azhar’s Coke Studio song Tera Woh Pyaar.

    Responding to a question on Arbaaz Khan’s show Quick Heal Pinch, Nawazuddin shared that he has a habit of listening to songs while shooting his films before saying that he used to listen to “Maimoona Mustehsan’s”Tera Woh Pyaar during the shoot of Manto. He added that he would listen to the song before every scene of the film.

    Asim who sang this duet with Momina expressed his excitement at this by sharing the video on his Instagram account with the caption, “When your favorite actor listens to your song every day.”

    https://www.instagram.com/p/B13vPA5lM9K/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link
  • Women snipers to undertake Muharram security duty with commandos

    Women snipers to undertake Muharram security duty with commandos

    A fresh batch of women cops has completed snipe shooting training to perform security duty along with already trained police commandos, The Express Tribune reported Monday.

    According to reports, the 50-women batch was imparted training at Qila Gujjar Singh Police Lines, during which they were taught to insert bullets in the magazine of an SMG rifle and pistol.

    After this, the women officers were trained to load and unload weapons and also encouraged to practice by the trainer by taking their positions to fire at their targets.

    All-female personnel engaged in this snipe shooting training fired 50 bullets from the SMG rifle and 50 bullets from the pistol, reports said and quoted an official as saying that training women police personnel had become important in the current wave of terrorism.

    “A large number of men and women will participate in the upcoming processions and gatherings of Muharram. Women police officers are being deployed equally as men on the entrances of processions and meetings for police checking.”

    The police official also said that there were difficulties in deploying male police officers on the roofs of several houses along the procession routes. “Local people used to complain that there were women in their houses and they could not allow male officers in their homes due to personal reasons.”

    He explained that women police force was trained in snipe shooting to address these complaints and added that women shooters will be deployed on the roofs of houses that fall under the routes of the procession.

  • FBR serves ARY tax evasion notice, demands Rs992 million

    The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has served a notice to ARY News, demanding Rs992 million which the channel owes to the tax body, The News has reported.

    The entity has evaded millions of rupees in taxes through misrepresentation, concealment and misuse of exemptions, causing a substantial loss to the national exchequer, reports quoted FBR as saying.

    The body also claimed that in a bid to escape the fresh tax demand, the media house allegedly tampered with previously-submitted official agreement documents — which was discovered by the authorities.

    The investigation from FBR states that “an offshore related party (co-owned) entity ARY FZLLC undertook transactions with the other two companies, ARY COMM and ARY Films and TV Productions Pvt, which by, virtue of section 85 of the Income Tax Ordinance, 2001, were its associates”.

    The investigation further revealed that the tripartite agreement was used to allow the three companies to settle their receivables and payables in Pakistan on behalf of ARY FZLLC.

    The media group’s tax assessment showed that it obtained exemptions by claiming to export locally-produced content to the offshore entity in order to evade local taxes.

    However, ARY Communications has accused the FBR of conducting a fishing expedition and also added that the proceedings were “based on whims, assumptions, and guesswork”.

    Reports further revealed that FBR served the tax notice to the channel despite facing a lot of pressure from influential quarters to withdraw any such demand.

  • Aamir Liaqat, Adnan Sami call each other ‘pimples’ on Twitter

    Aamir Liaqat, Adnan Sami call each other ‘pimples’ on Twitter

    Aamir Liaqat and Adnan Sami are among those people who are always in the news because of their controversial comments. The two recently came face to face on Twitter and the end result is cringe and hilarious at the same time.

    It all started when a Twitter user tweeted to ask Abhinandan if the tea was fantastic.

    Adnan Sami, being the patriotic he is, jumps in to tell people about Wing Commander Abhinandan’s “achievements.”

    Aamir Bhai was not having any of that so he decided to set the facts right.

    This did not go down well with Adnan Sami, who responded with a tweet that only he understood.

    Turns out Aamir was able to make some sense of Adnan’s tweet, so he fired back with an equally fiery tweet.

    One would have thought that after the two called each other pimples, things would have settled. But no. Adnan decided he had not had enough so he posted another tweet, which he later deleted. But Aamir’s reply is still there.

    We wonder why Aamir Bhai called Adnan “my frustrated eunuch!”

  • ‘Pakistan even has atom bombs as small as 250 grams,’ Sheikh Rasheed warns India

    ‘Pakistan even has atom bombs as small as 250 grams,’ Sheikh Rasheed warns India

    Federal Minister for Railways Sheikh Rasheed Ahmad has warned India that Pakistan even has small nuclear bombs weighing 125-250 grams, which can hit and destroy targeted areas, The News reported.

    “We know if we want to use our 1-inch, 2-inch or half an inch [atomic bombs],” the minister said on Sunday, leaving netizens all cracked up.

    WATCH VIDEO:

    “India committed two blunders. The first one was carrying out atomic explosions while presuming that Pakistan would not do so and secondly, it scrapped special status of Kashmir on August 5 this year, believing Kashmiris won’t react”, the minister said further.

    Tensions soar on either side of the border ever since New Delhi on August 5 revoked Article 370 of the Indian constitution, robbing the people of the troubled valley of their autonomous state. India has since kept Kashmir under lockdown.

  • ‘Hide in a basement, take a bath’: Indian media airs tips on surviving nuclear attack

    ‘Hide in a basement, take a bath’: Indian media airs tips on surviving nuclear attack

    As tensions continue to soar between nuclear-capable Pakistan and India amid Kashmir crisis, an India media outlet has aired tips on how to survive a nuclear attack, Scroll.in reported.

    According to the details, a recent video clip from television channel Zee News, informing its viewers about what to do in case of a nuclear attack, has left people on social media in disbelief.

    News anchor Sudhir Chaudhary’s tips on surviving nukes include not looking directly at the explosion, running to the basement of the strongest building around you for shelter, taking a bath and sealing clothes exposed to radioactive waves to avoid them from being spread further.

    WATCH VIDEO:

    “The spe­c­ter of nuclear war haunts tensions between Pakistan and India, and the disputed territory of Kashmir could provide the spark that lights South Asia’s nuclear fuse,” warned a report published by a United States (US) think-tank last week.

    The report — by Stratfor, a geopolitical intelligence platform based in Austin, Texas — also disputed the classification of the Kashmir issue as India’s “internal affair” or a “bilateral” issue between the two neighbours.

    “It isn’t. A potential nuc­lear conflagration cannot be anything other than a matter of international peace and security,” the report warned.

    According to the report, the possibility of “the conflict going nuclear may have increased on Aug 16”, when Indian Defence Minister Rajnath Singh seemed to abandon India’s “no first use” doctrine.

    “India has strictly adhered to this doctrine. What happens in the future depends on the circumstances,” he had tweeted.