Comedian and “official United States (US) Ambassador of Pindi boys”, Jeremy McLellan, has said he wants to go back to his country and run for president “so that he can meet Prime Minister (PM) Imran Khan”.
Known for his love for Pakistan and its people, Jeremy is currently visiting the country for the second time in three years.
He was spotted enjoying desi cuisines, cherishing the culture, eating mangoes and playing street cricket among other desi activities in and around Islamabad over the past two weeks.
However, he is only left with two more days in the country and it does not look like he will be able to meet PM Imran on this trip.
Expressing his disappointment on Twitter, Jeremy wrote:
Only two days left in Pakistan and it looks like I won’t be able to meet @ImranKhanPTI on this trip. My only option is to return to the United States and run for President so I can arrange for his return visit to the White House.
“Only two days left in Pakistan and it looks like I won’t be able to meet @ImranKhanPTI on this trip. My only option is to return to the United States and run for President so I can arrange for his return visit to the White House [sic],” he wrote.
Here are some of his most memorable moments from the ongoing trip.
Ever felt like you’ve entered a new world just by walking up two steps? That’s Okra Test Kitchen – a small off-shoot of Okra, one of Karachi’s most loved fine dining restaurants.
Okra’s well known for pushing the boundaries and creating fancy phoo-phoo food. But it’s also homey, organic and comforting. Many uncles and aunties would say, 1000 Rupees for an “anday ka omelette” isn’t worth it, but with the younger lot, knowing the main guy, Vincent, and getting a table for Sunday Brunch is equal to hanging out with Kareena Kapoor in London.
View of the Restaurant from the Kitchen. Source: Okra Test Kitchen’s Facebook Page
Okra Test Kitchen doesn’t have that kind of pressure. A very small place, with three, four tables, it’s walk-in only. And when you walk in, take a deep breath.
It smells like Paris, freshly baked bread, croissants, soft music, the soft clinking of cutlery, the bright light streaming in from the large window. Breathe it all in and take the corner table.
Some of the most enviable Instagram moments are images of small cafes, on bright sunny days, scintillating conversation, softly munching on bread. That’s what Okra Test Kitchen has managed to achieve. A place that sings Europe with such authenticity that you feel like you’re on vacation. It’s okay if you’ve come out in your lounge pants and you really don’t know Vincent. But the thing is, you don’t need to.
Portuguese Custard Tart. Source: Okra Test Kitchen Facebook
The menu hangs on the wall, the chefs greet you from the small, makeshift kitchen, cooking right there, baking right there. You order right where the menu hangs, you ask for a coffee from the coffee machine you can see.
If you make it to heaven, you’ll ask for an Okra Test Kitchen croissant. If you live outside Karachi, you’ll take boxes with you because you won’t find it anywhere else. You’ll never say this out loud but you know that Parisian croissants have nothing on the incredibly soft, flaky, crunch of the Karachi Croissant. You’ll ask for more, and if it’s not your day, they’ll be sold out.
The Croissants. Source: Okra Test Kitchen’s Facebook (and my heart)
The scrambled eggs are moist and fluffy, slow-cooked but without much comfort. The maritozzo, a sweet Utalian brioche bun, filled with cream, is light but doesn’t do much for the Pakistani palette, except making you start to count calories. However, the Portuguese custard tarts are sweet and delightful, joy filled in their crust.
Okra Test Kitchen is all about the bread, the pastry, the croissants, and there is nothing else like it in Pakistan. The food is above average, (pushed up by The Forbidden Croissant) and strongly elevated by the atmosphere it has so flawlessly created. You ignore that the place is so small, you’re bound to knock off one of the bottles, precariously resting on a shelf on the wall, causing a rather embarrassing stir, promising to pay for it but not having to in the end. You ignore that sometimes you’ll walk in and never get a place to sit but are willing to wait a good hour just so you can stay there and breathe. You will go back, week after week, just so you can step into a different universe, one that promises a mini vacation for an hour or two. It’s an hour or more, of first world peace, before you step back into the grime of Karachi, relishing the time when you could get away and be transported to the streets of Europe.
The Lahore High Court (LHC) has directed the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) to take action on complaints against unwarranted promotional text messages and calls to telecom customers.
Hearing a citizen’s petition questioning business promotions by different companies on Friday, Justice Shahid Jamil Khan observed that mobile phone users frequently complained about receiving text messages from water tank cleaning service providers.
The PTA representative stated that there was no mechanism to control such text messages being received on a daily basis. However, the judge said that the authority could take action against mobile numbers used for sending these unnecessary promotions.
The petitioner’s lawyer, on the other hand, demanded that PTA being a regulatory body be ordered to ban such promotional activities on phones.
The hearing was then adjourned till July 19 and the judge hinted at summoning the PTA chief if an action was not taken on complaints against unwanted text messages and calls.
A 15-year-old girl has accused her mother of having her “sexually assaulted for money” after she refused to get into a relationship with the alleged rapist, Geo News reported.
Reports quoted the Gulistane Johar resident as saying that her mother was “a woman of bad character” and eight months ago had told her to get into a relationship with a man named Javed.
“Upon refusal, she [the mother] beat me up and had me raped by Javed over and over for many months. In return, she took money from him,” the victim claimed in the First Information Report (FIR) against her mother.
She further said that her mother had released a fake video of sexual assault on social media and filed a rape case against a man named Raza Bugti. “My mother had gotten into an argument with Bugti and forced me to support the allegations against him.”
When the victim refused, her mother allegedly beat her up and threatened to make the same rape allegations against her brother, Kabeer.
Identity credentials of around 45,000 international passengers have been stolen to unlock smuggled mobile phones since the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) launched its crackdown on illegally-imported devices.
This was revealed by PTA and the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) while briefing a federal cabinet meeting presided by Prime Minister (PM) Imran Khan last week, a private media outlet reported.
The authorities informed the cabinet that travel documents such as passport, CNIC copies etc of around 44,943 resident and overseas Pakistanis were stolen and misused to unlock the smuggled phones since the implementation of PTA’s Device Identification Registration and Blocking System (DIRBS).
According to PTA, 986,000 mobiles phones were received for registration, out of which around 656,000 were registered under FBR baggage rule exemption with no tax while around 33,000 mobile phones were registered under the duty paid category.
PTA says that with the implementation of DIRBS, a significant increase has been seen in the legal commercial import of mobile phones. The authority hopes the system will give more dividends towards the elimination of smuggled phones.
