Tag: NULL

Special Assistant to the Prime Minister (SAPM) Naeemul Haque passed away in Karachi on Saturday, losing his long battle with cancer at the age of 70. 

The senior Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leader was admitted at a private hospital in the city where he breathed his last. Haque had been battling cancer for the last two years.

PM Imran Khan took to Twitter to share how devastated he was over the death of his friend.

Senior PTI leaders, including Fawad Chaudhry and Sindh Governor Imran Ismail, also paid tribute to Haque.

OBITUARY:

A banker and businessman by trade and one of the co-founders of the PTI, Naeem was instrumental in promoting positive change in Pakistan as part of the party’s ideology.

Born on July 11, 1949 in Karachi, Naeem completed his M.A. in English Literature from University of Karachi (1970) and then pursued LLB from Sindh Muslim Law College Karachi (1971). He practiced law with Khalid Ishaq before joining Jamil Nishtar’s team at the National Bank of Pakistan (NBP). As a young banker, he was part of the team that established the NBP branch at UN Plaza in New York City, after which he moved to London in 1980 as a merchant banker for Oriental Credit Limited.

Naeem had thirty-five years’ of cumulative experience in banking, finance, corporate sector and law in Pakistan, London and New York. During his career, he also served as an Advisor/Managing Director of Aero Asia Airlines, Chairman & CEO Metropolitan Steel Corpand Managing Director, Credit & Leasing Corporation.

During his professional stint in London in early 1980s, he became close friends with Imran Khan, who used to play county cricket at that time. Imran would frequently visit Naeem and his wife, Nazli Jamil (“Nazo”). Naeem and Imran Khan became especially close friends when the latter developed a debilitating stress fracture in 1983, and Naeem famously gave his exercise bike for Imran’s recuperation.

Naeem was driven by the purpose to serve Pakistan and believed that positive change could only be brought about in the country through a democratic, political system. In 1984, he joined Air Marshal Asghar Khan’s Tehreek Istiqlal party in London and moved back to Karachi a couple of years later to setup his leasing company business and pursue political aspirations. In the post-Zia ul Haq era, he contested the 1988 elections from Tehreek Istiqlal ticket in Orangi. Even though he lost the election, he continued his interest in politics and kept a breast of economic related matters.

In 1996, he became one of the five founding members of Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) along with his close friend Imran Khan. As a trusted aide, he helped Imran Khan manage the party affairs and overcome the election setbacks of 1997 and 2001. After the death of his wife in 2008 from a bout of cancer, Naeem fully devoted his life to PTI, where he become the Central Information Secretary and President of Sindh. He is credited with organizing the huge December 25, 2011 jalsa in Karachi that helped establish PTI’s popularity as a national party.

In 2012, Naeem moved to Islamabad as Chief of Staff to the PTI Chairman and an integral part of the PTI Core Committee leading into the elections of both 2013 and 2018. He worked extremely hard and directly with Imran Khan in organizing the party at the grass roots working across the board with workers and part office bearers. He also intermittently served as the Information secretary of the party during this period playing an important part on the party’s communication strategy.

In January 2018, eight months before the general elections, Naeem was diagnosed with blood cancer. Like a true party loyalist, he soldiered on, working long hours prior to the elections while undergoing treatment. Never one to shirk from important causes and managing people and operations, he remained at the forefront. As member of the PTI core committee he was an accessible, approachable and was popular among the workers. When the 2018 victory finally came to PTI, he was appointed a Special Assistant on Political Affairs to the PM and was involved in a number of initiatives ranging from housing scheme, party operations, SDGs and appointments to name a few.

Threats of electoral manipulation and identity theft are rising in Israel after a critical flaw in a voting app used by Israeli Primer Minister (PM) Benjamin Netanyahu leaked personal data of 6.5 million voters.

The app was used to communicate with voters and it also allowed their personals to be viewed without the need for any technical skills. The leaked data includes voters’ full names, addresses, identity card numbers and phone numbers.

Read more – Windows 7 is officially out of support from Microsoft

As for how the cyberattack was inflicted, the source code of the app was available on the website and even included the personal data of administrators in charge of the app’s database. While Israel’s Privacy Protection Authority has denied the accusation and is looking into the matter, the cause of the breach still remains uncertain.

A petition has been filed against the Israeli PM’s political party after a programmer said that it was one of the largest and most compromising leaks of Israelis’ personal information in the nation’s history.

Read more – New survey reveals Pakistani businesses positive about future

The party is being accused of violating privacy laws for creating and sharing their database with access to all of the government’s voting registry.

While the flaw in the app has been fixed, it goes to show how electoral apps aren’t being tested thoroughly and aren’t ready to carry sensitive information.

A Pakistani-American police officer has become the first Muslim to head the New York Police Department’s volunteer force.

According to reports, Nasir Saleem, a 30-year veteran of the New York police, became the first Pakistani and Muslim to be appointed as the auxiliary deputy chief of the nearly 5,000-strong force.

The volunteer force serves in the city’s neighborhoods as the “eyes and ears” of the regular police through foot, vehicle, and bicycle patrols.

“It’s a great honour […] I am speechless. I dedicate my new title to Pakistan,” said Saleem speaking to reporters after taking the oath of office.

Saleem was inducted into his new assignment at a ceremony where senior police officials and members of the Pakistani community were present. Captain Adeel Rana and Lt Zaigham Abbas, fellow Pakistani-American police officers, pinned badges on Saleem’s uniform.

Taking to Twitter, the New York Police Department Chief of Patrol Fausto Pichardo stated that Saleem’s “28 years and 14,000 hours does not go unnoticed”.

Auxiliary police officers are trained to observe and report on conditions requiring the services of the regular police, assisting in non-enforcement and non-hazardous duties.

With less than a month remaining to the ultimate sports festival of the year, the Pakistan Super League, excitement levels are high. What makes this PSL even more special is the fact that all the matches will be played in Pakistan and fans will be able to witness the match live in the stadiums.

The PSL team officially kickstarted the event by releasing the anthem for this year’s edition. This year’s PSL track has been sung by Ali Azmat, Haroon and Asim Azhar with a special appearance by Arif Lohar. The track has been composed by Xulfi. The tune is catchy and full of energy but the highlight of the video has to be Asim and Haroon dancing. They seem to light up the mood even more with their moves.

Laal Kabootar director Kamal Khan has directed the music video which also features star cricketers including Babar Azam, Hasan Ali, Rumman Raees, Sarfaraz Ahmed, Shaheen Shah Afridi and Shan Masood.

According to the press release, “A total of 22 instruments have been used in creating Tayyar Hain, including indigenous instruments such as tumba, chimta, rubab and harmonium“.

Listen to the song here:

Meanwhile, the track received a mix response from the audiences. While some loved it, others didn’t like it at all.

Magazine covers from the beginning of the previous decade highlight the contrasting fortunes of Pakistan and India as the two neighbouring countries enter a new decade on the back of an eventful past ten years, Geo reported.

While India has been declared “intolerant”, about a decade ago, as shown in The Economist’s cover, it was portrayed as the fastest growing country that would eventually outpace the growth of China.  

However, on the contrary, Pakistan is “the best holiday destination for 2020” according to the cover of Conde Nast Traveler magazine. 

Pakistan was known as “one of the most dangerous countries” in the world just about ten years ago, but is now the top tourist destination for travellers as reported by Forbes.

Intimate photos of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and his girlfriend, American news anchor Lauren Sanchez, were leaked by the latter’s brother, The New York Times (NYT) has reported.

According to reports, Michael Sanchez released the images to National Enquirer — an American tabloid newspaper — which was reported by NYT after the publication accessed the four unnamed sources and a written contract between Michael and American Media Inc — parent company of The Enquirer.

The Enquirer had long ago claimed that the source of the picture was Michael Sanchez, but the paradigm shifted when Bezos’ forensic team accused Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad Bin Salman (MBS) for hacking his cellphone. 

In reaction to The Guardian’s report, the Saudi Embassy in Washington DC and AMI had, however, denied the involvement of the Saudi crown prince.

Earlier, the pictures in question had also become the reason behind Bezos’ divorce. Things are still not very clear as different media outlets are making varying claims.

Suleman Khan, a young man from Quetta’s Kachlak area, who helped more than 100 people stuck in snow-jammed roads has received an award from the Chief Minister of Balochistan Jam Kamal Khan for his selfless act of bravery.

According to details, Suleman took out his Land Cruiser to help passengers stuck on Quetta-Zhob highway after the recent spell of heavy snowfall in the province. The 30-year-old hero took them to his home and offered them food and shelter. Not only this, he also pulled many cars out of the snow and helped people get fuel and even paid for it from his pocket.

Prime Minister Imran Khan also took to twitter to appreciate him.

“I did everything for the will of God. I saw that people were stuck because of the storm and had I not helped them, they probably wouldn’t have returned alive. I was trying to help them since 2 pm,” Khan said adding that rescue officials arrived around 12 am.

Earlier this week, the Quetta-Zhob Highway was shut down due to heavy snowfall. The situation led to several cars being stranded on the road, with women, children and elderly passengers left helpless in the harsh weather without enough food supplies or clothing.