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  • Reporter Umar Cheema says parties were not dictated to vote against Imran Khan

    Reporter Umar Cheema says parties were not dictated to vote against Imran Khan

    Umar Cheema, a senior investigative reporter for The News, recently stated on Geo News, “We are not ready to believe that a person [General Bajwa] is speaking the truth under oath, but are still discussing the words of a person [Imran Khan] who has a track record of lying and running away.”

    Cheema was talking about a recent report that former Chief of Army Staff (COAS) General Bajwa took an oath on the Holy Quran that he did not conspire against Imran Khan.

    “All those parties which are considered very close to the establishment did not get any clear dictation whether they should vote for or against then Prime Minister Imran Khan in the 2022 Vote of No Confidence (VoNC) against him,” Cheema pointed out.

    According to the reporter, the [establishment] way of pressurising and harassing is well known which was absent during the VoNC.

    Moreover, he commented that Bilawal Bhutto asserted, “General Bajwa informed me that Imran Khan is prepared to dissolve the assembly if the Vote of No Confidence is withdrawn.”

    Umar Cheema said that if he [Gen Bajwa] did conspire against Imran Khan then he would have no need to tell this to Bhutto.

  • Yeh nahi ho sakta: Four time champion Arslan Ash unable to attend EVO Japan

    Yeh nahi ho sakta: Four time champion Arslan Ash unable to attend EVO Japan

    Four time EVO champion Arslan Ash will not be able to participate in the EVO championship this year due to a visa issue.

    One of the biggest fighting game tournaments EVO Japan is set to take place this weekend at Ariake GYM-EX, Tokyo. Tekken 8 will be a big game in the event but one of the best Tekken players in the world, Arslan Ash will not be able to participate due to visa issues.

    In a recent tweet shared on X (formerly Twitter), Arslan Ash said, “It’s official! No Pakistan reps at Evo JP this year. Insha’Allah next year!”

    This year including Arslan Ash two Pakistani PUBG mobile teams (AsAgi8 and 52 Esports) could not participate in the PUBG mobile global open (PMGO).

  • India has right to Ravi water, says federal law minister

    India has right to Ravi water, says federal law minister

    Federal Minister for Law and Justice, Azam Nazeer Tarar, said on Tuesday that neighbouring India has the right to the waters of the River Ravi according to the Indus Waters Treaty. Pakistan can’t take the matter of India’s “water aggression” to the International Court of Justice (ICJ).

    “There is a water treaty between Pakistan and India, and it is an international obligation. The right to water on the River Ravi belongs to India, and we cannot interfere with it. Pakistan has right on the water of the rivers Chanab, Jhelum, and Indus,” the law minister said while addressing in National Assembly (NA) on Tuesday, adding that the Indians have the right to the waters of Ravi, Satluj, and Beas.

    He also stressed that legal issues shouldn’t be politicised.

    He told NA that India wants to exit the 1960 Indus Waters Treaty but is unable to do so due to Pakistan’s disagreements.

  • Hip hop star Megan Thee Stallion sued for harassment by cameraman

    Hip hop star Megan Thee Stallion sued for harassment by cameraman

    Megan Thee Stallion forced her cameraman to watch her having sex in a moving car, according to a lawsuit filed in Los Angeles. Emilio Garcia says the incident, which happened on the Spanish holiday island of Ibiza, was part of a campaign of harassment that also included fat-shaming him.

    “Emilio should never have been put in a position of having to be in the vehicle with her while she had sex with another woman,” said Garcia’s lawyer Ron Zambrano. “‘Inappropriate’ is putting it lightly. Exposing this behaviour to employees is definitely illegal.”

    The suit alleges the incident took place in June of 2022 when Garcia, who worked as a personal photographer to the star, was on tour with her.

    “Plaintiff could not get out of the car as it was both moving and he was in the middle of nowhere in a foreign country,” says the suit, filed Tuesday in Los Angeles Superior Court. “Plaintiff was embarrassed, mortified and offended throughout the whole ordeal.”

    The Hot Girl Summer artist told Garcia not to talk about what he had seen, says the suit, which also claims she would tell him he was fat and ate too much.

    Garcia’s suit says the 29-year-old star began employing him in 2018, but classified him as an independent contractor, rather than an employee. That meant he was not eligible for benefits such as health care or overtime pay, which could have run into the six figures. The suit claims Garcia was contracted to work eight-hour days, but was required to take calls from Megan Thee Stallion, whose real name is Megan Pete, outside those times and to perform other tasks without being given proper breaks.

    The suit, which alleges retaliation and multiple state Labour Code violations names as defendants Megan Thee Stallion, Megan Thee Stallion Entertainment, Inc., Hot Girl Touring LLC, and Roc Nation. Garcia is seeking unspecified compensatory and punitive damages.

    “Megan just needs to pay our client what he’s due, own up to her behaviour and quit this sort of sexual harassment and fat shaming conduct,” said Zambrano.

    Entertainment outlet Page Six cited Megan Thee Stallion’s lawyer Alex Spiro as denying the allegations. “This is an employment claim for money — with no sexual harassment claim filed and with salacious accusations to attempt to embarrass her,” the lawyer told the outlet. “We will deal with this in court.”

    Last year, Canadian rapper Tory Lanez was jailed for 10 years in prison for shooting Megan Thee Stallion in the feet during a drunken argument after a Hollywood party.

  • Shah Rukh Khan will be back as ‘Don’

    Shah Rukh Khan will be back as ‘Don’

    Bollywood King Shah Rukh Khan is gearing up to return as Don in his next movie, ‘King’, but this time not as the main character in Farhan Akhtar’s ‘Don 3.’

    Directed by Sujoy Ghosh and produced by Shah Rukh and Gauri Khan’s Red Chillies Entertainment, ‘King’ will feature the Badshah in the role of Don, marking his daughter Suhana Khan’s debut in the film industry.

    According to a report by Pinkvilla, Shah Rukh understands the audience’s desire to see him in complex roles and is passionately involved in every aspect of the production alongside directors Siddharth Anand and Sujoy Ghosh. The movie features a character with shades of grey, exuding attitude and swag.
    Shah Rukh is actively involved in the creative process and is training with Suhana for some modern action scenes.

    Throughout his career, Khan has portrayed negative characters in films like the 1993 romantic thriller ‘Darr,’ Abbas-Mustan’s 1993 revenge thriller ‘Baazigar,’ and the 1994 psychological thriller ‘Anjaam.’ However, his most iconic negative role is that of Don in Farhan Akhtar’s crime thriller franchise.
    Earlier reports suggested that Shah Rukh Khan has invested a significant amount, around INR 2 billion, in ‘King.’

  • Our words are scripted; Faysal Quraishi replies to ‘Zulm’ legal notice

    Our words are scripted; Faysal Quraishi replies to ‘Zulm’ legal notice

    Karachi Bar Association turned its guns on famous actor Faysal Quraishi and HUM for allegedly showing lawyers in a bad light in their show ‘Zulm’.

    Led by Ikhtiar Ali Channa and Zahid Hussain Soomro, the Association is especially unhappy about Faysal supposedly saying rude things about lawyers.

    The Bar Association said that how lawyers are shown in the drama is disrespectful and hurts their image. They want everyone involved, including Faysal and the TV channel owner, to say sorry.

    The Bar Association also said they might take legal action against those involved. Faysal responded on Instagram, thanking Kaiser Khan Nizamani, a lawyer, for talking to him about the problem.
    “A notification was issued after which all hell broke loose. My fans and friends were worried all morning. At the place I was at, there weren’t any signals there. So anyway, I was getting a lot of calls but I’m very grateful to Kaiser Khan Nizamani Sahib, who is a lawyer of Karachi High Court and Karachi Bar Court,” Faysal said.

    He added, “I’m very thankful to him that he called me up and he asked me what the problem was. So I told him, look Sir you understand that as an actor there is no fault of ours in this, we say whatever is written.”

    The actor understood why lawyers were upset and said sorry if anyone felt bad because of the show. He reminded his followers that he just acts out what’s written in the scripts.”In this show, there were things we didn’t agree with personally. We told them we wouldn’t say certain things, so we didn’t.”

    “Sometimes, mistakes happen, and things get said that shouldn’t. Those can be fixed later. Anyway, the show aired, and our lawyer friend was upset. I’m really sorry if anyone got hurt,” he said.
    Faysal emphasized that even though it’s normal in showbiz, he felt really sorry that people were hurt. “I don’t like hurting anyone personally because I’m part of this community too. If someone said something hurtful about me, it would hurt. So, we’ll try to make sure this doesn’t happen again,” he concluded.

  • Thousands in heatwave-hit Bangladesh pray for rain

    Thousands in heatwave-hit Bangladesh pray for rain

    Dhaka (AFP) – Thousands of Bangladeshis gathered to pray for rain on Wednesday in the middle of an extreme heatwave that prompted authorities to shut down schools around the country.

    Extensive scientific research has found climate change is causing heat waves to become longer, more frequent and more intense.

    Bangladesh’s weather bureau says that average maximum temperatures in the capital Dhaka over the past week have been 4-5 degrees Celsius (39-41 degrees Fahrenheit) higher than the 30-year average for the same period.

    Muslim worshippers gathered in city mosques and rural fields to pray for relief from the scorching heat, which forecasters expect to continue for at least another week.

    “Praying for rains is a tradition of our prophet. We repented for our sins and prayed for his blessings for rains,” Muhammad Abu Yusuf, an Islamic cleric who led a morning prayer service for 1,000 people in central Dhaka, told AFP.

    “Life has become unbearable due to lack of rains,” he said. “Poor people are suffering immensely.”

    Police said similarly sized prayer services were held in several other parts of Bangladesh.

    The country’s largest Islamist party, Jamaat-e-Islami, issued a statement calling its members to join the prayer services planned for Wednesday and Thursday.

    Authorities ordered all schools last week to cancel classes until the end of the month.

    Temperatures across Bangladesh have reached more than 42C (108F) in the past week.

    “April is usually the hottest month in Bangladesh. But this April has been one of the hottest since the country’s independence (in 1971),” government forecaster Tariful Newaz Kabir told AFP.

    Kabir said fewer rainstorms than average for the period had contributed to the heat.

    “We expect the high temperature will remain until the end of this month,” he said.

    Hospitals in the southern coastal district of Patuakhali had recorded local outbreaks of diarrhoea due to higher temperatures and the resulting increased salinity of local water sources, state medical officer Bhupen Chandra Mondal told AFP.

    “The number of diarrhoea patients is very high this year,” he said. “This is all linked to climate change.”

  • IHC full court decides to give ‘institutional response’ to interference in judiciary

    IHC full court decides to give ‘institutional response’ to interference in judiciary

    A full court meeting of the Islamabad High Court (IHC) has ‘unanimously decided’ to give an “institutional response” to any interference in judicial matters, Geo reported.

    The full court meeting was held with Chief Justice IHC Aamer Farooq in the chair to finalise proposals of suitable response before submission to the Supreme Court in connection with the matter of six IHC judges writing a letter to the Supreme Judicial Council (SJC) alleging blatant meddling by spy agencies in judicial matters.

    Later, the Supreme Court (SC) initiated suo motu on the letter and also sought a proposal from the Pakistan Bar Council (PBC), the Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA), high courts and the federal government in this regard.

    The Supreme Court order on April 3 read, “They should suggest what should be the institutional response and mechanism to address the issues like the ones raised in the letter [of IHC judges] and ensure that such issues do not arise in future and, if they do, to fix liability and proceed against those responsible.”

    In response, a draft comprising the proposals would be prepared and submitted to the Supreme Court on April 24.

  • “Opposition ko phaansi lagado,” Imran used to tell Bajwa

    “Opposition ko phaansi lagado,” Imran used to tell Bajwa

    Nadeem Afzal Chan, former MNA, has revealed on a talk show on Hum News that he heard Imran Khan saying to former Chief of Army Staff (COAS) General (retd) Qamar Javed Bajwa that they should “hang the opposition”.

    Nadeem joined Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) in 2018 but later quit the party in 2021 while serving as spokesperson to Prime Minister Imran Khan and rejoined the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP).

    The former MNA stated that Imran Khan also told the former Army Chief Bajwa that they should “keep MNAs and MPAs satisfied because the masses are angry.”

    Chan also remarked that there was definitely a “one-page” between the PTI government and the establishment, and they protected PTI a lot.

    The former PTI member also said that such level of cooperation was rare in Pakistan’s history.

  • Naumaan Ijaz thinks Pakistani dramas destroying relationships; asks for ban

    Naumaan Ijaz thinks Pakistani dramas destroying relationships; asks for ban

    Naumaan Ijaz has delivered countless outstanding performances in popular Pakistani dramas.
    Recently, a clip from the show ‘Meer Means Business’ has been circulating online, featuring the actor discussing current Pakistani television dramas. In the clip, he expressed concerns about the serials destroying the importance of relationships and expressed a desire to ban them.

    “If I were in charge of the censor board, I’d ban all dramas because they ruin relationships. They disgrace relationships, and it’s sad that people don’t speak out against such negative content. The makers depict every relationship as evil, which influences society negatively. The drama ‘Nand’ gained popularity by portraying a sister-in-law as evil. I prefer dramas with moral lessons. Also, I personally censor certain dialogues.”