Tag: Pakistan

  • Fact Check: TikTokers are not banned in public parks

    Fact Check: TikTokers are not banned in public parks

    Claim: TikTokers are banned from public parks in Pakistan

    Fact: A fake notification by the Parks and Horticulture Authority claimed TikTokers have been banned in public parks

    Media outlets reported on Sunday, August 22nd, 2021 that the Punjab Parks and Horticulture Authority (PHA) has officially banned TikTokers in all public parks. A document was also circulated, stating that ‘we are a responsible authority expect responsible attitude from the public too…[Youtubers and TikTokers] will be taking permission and sharing the content of the video prior to any shoot from now onwards.”

    However Azhar Mashwani, Focal Person of Digital Media to the Chief Minister of Punjab has clarified this statement, in a tweet. He, while calling the news a fake one said that “no such decision taken so far by Govt Currently TikTok is banned in Pakistan.”

    The Current spoke to Mashwani and asked him about the official notification related to the ban which is circulating.

    He stated that it is merely a suggestion by the Vice Chairman of PHA and it requires a lot of approval from the other high officials. We even asked him that if we go to a public park right now and make a TikTok video there would the authorities there allow us? He responded with a yes.

    The notice has been making rounds on social media platforms since yesterday following the Minar-e-Pakistan incident in which Ayesha Akram, a TikToker survived a mass sexual assault on August 14.

    No other official from PHA or Punjab Government has commented so far on the matter.

    VERDICT: FALSE

  • Ban sources responsible for spreading obscenity and nudity demand ulema

    Ban sources responsible for spreading obscenity and nudity demand ulema

    Religious scholars (ulema) have condemned the rape of a girl in a seminary in Rawalpindi and demanded that perpetrators of such detestable crimes should be given punishment in public through speedy trial, reported Dawn.

    In a joint declaration issued after attending a consultative meeting, ulemas expressed grief over the rising incidents of child abuse and women harassment in Pakistan and said that the prime minister and chief justice of Pakistan should take immediate action against the culprits and order their speedy trials.

    They urged the Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (PEMRA), Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA), and Ministry of Information to block porn websites and pornographic and nude content and advertisements on social media.

    The joint declaration said that the rules of Shariah are clear for both men and women. It is obligatory for both men and women to cover themselves properly and avoid obscenity and nudity. Shariah does not allow a man to touch or harass a woman, the declaration said.

    The joint declaration said that the rising incidents of abuse and harassment of boys and girls and the state of fear and intimidation prevailing among women demand from all sections of society, especially the government and judiciary, to ban and close all such sources responsible for spreading obscenity and nudity in society.

  • Pakistan issues visas to Afghan cricket team: Fawad Chaudhry

    Pakistan issues visas to Afghan cricket team: Fawad Chaudhry

    Minister for Information and Broadcasting Fawad Chaudhry on Sunday said that Pakistan has issued visas to the Afghan cricket team.

    Taking to Twitter, Chaudhry wrote that he hoped and prayed that the Afghan cricket team would bring smiles on the faces of its people. “My sincere prayers and best wishes are with you.” Fawad wrote the last line of his tweet in Pashto language.

    The Pakistan and Afghanistan cricket teams’ series was scheduled in Sri Lanka, which had announced 10-day restrictions on gatherings and other events in the wake of rising cases of Coronavirus.

    As per reports, the series is in jeopardy and is expected to be shifted to any other country.

    Meanwhile, the three-match ODI series between Pakistan and Afghanistan is back on track as Islamabad has issued visas to Afghan cricketers, reported Geo News.

  • Rickshaw driver allegedly rapes woman, minor daughter

    Rickshaw driver allegedly rapes woman, minor daughter

    A rickshaw driver along with his companion have allegedly gang-raped a woman and her minor daughter near LDA Avenue, ARY News reported on Monday.

    According to the police statement of the victim, the rickshaw drove the mother and the daughter around before stopping it at a shady spot near LDA Avenue where the driver, along with his friend, allegedly raped them both.

    The woman said she reached Thokar Niaz Baig on a coach and sat in a rickshaw for Saddar Cantt, but then the accused drove them wayward and finally parked the vehicle at LDA Avenue in the dark of the night.

    Chung Police have arrested the suspect while the victims have been taken to the hospital for medical tests.

    Read More: 12-year-old boys ‘gang rape four-year-old girl’ in Punjab

    Police said they are still gathering more evidence into the case and confirmed the rickshaw had the registration plate LEU-4882, which the alleged rapist abandoned when victims shouted for help.

    “They both raped me and my daughter one after another inside the rickshaw,” the victim said, adding that they ran away when they shouted for help.
    FIR states that the suspects snatched a phone and Rs5,000 cash from the woman as well.

  • Pakistan’s Syed Imaad Ali wins World Youth Scrabble Championship

    Pakistan’s Syed Imaad Ali wins World Youth Scrabble Championship

    Pakistan’s Syed Imaad Ali won the World Youth Scrabble Championship in Karachi on Sunday, reported Dawn.

    The 15-year-old player defeated his opponent in nine out of 13 games in Sunday’s finals as Pakistan finished first in the tournament, with Hasham Hadi Khan — another Pakistani — to qualify for the final with 26 wins, coming in fourth after winning in seven games.

    Two more Pakistani players, Ali Salman and Usman Shaukat, remained in the top 10 till the last round of the championship’s group stage but were unlucky to miss out narrowly after losing their last games.

    Syed Imaad Ali opened up an early lead in the tournament and had soared to the top position with 11 wins and one tie by the completion of the first 12 rounds.

    After this success, he is now the first and only scrabble player to win the World Youth title twice. He previously won the 2018 championship in Dubai, clinched the Junior World Scrabble Championship in Torquay, England, in November 2019, and was also the youngest player to do so.

    Pakistan was awarded the rights to hold the World English Scrabble Players Association (WESPA) Youth Cup for the second year running.

    The championship has been played annually since 2006 in different parts of the world but could not be played after 2019 due to the pandemic outbreak.

  • Mob beats up woman reportedly in Lahore Park

    A video is doing rounds on social media that shows several people beating a woman reportedly in a park in Lahore.

    A mob can be seen physically assaulting a woman while a few people helped her and dragged her out of that crowd.

    https://youtu.be/iQqU-E8QJfs

    Earlier, two more women were harassed in separate incidents on August 14 that sparked outrage on social media.

  • Pakistan has failed its women

    Pakistan has failed its women

    Just this week, we wrote about the heart-wrenching incident of sexual assault and harassment of a woman at Minar-e-Pakistan on August 14. As if this was not enough, two new videos surfaced yesterday — one in which a woman was forcefully kissed by a man when she was travelling on a Chingchi rickshaw on August 14.

    The man jumped on the Chingchi while it was stuck on the road due to traffic and tried to kiss the woman and we heard another woman’s scream, who was sitting with her. Another video shows a mob trying to harass a woman at Minar-e-Pakistan and she is only saved because she keeps waving a stick to disperse them and keep them at bay. 

    When we say that the women of Pakistan feel unsafe, we hear that these are just odd incidents and should not be used to distort the image of Pakistan. What exactly is the image of Pakistan if women of the country are being harassed, assaulted, and attacked every single day, in multiple incidents? These are not odd incidents. These incidents and their aftermath depict the reality of Pakistan: women are blamed after each incident.

    A TikToker gets sexually assaulted by hundreds of men for more than two and a half hours at Minar-e-Pakistan and no one helped her but she is blamed for going there for a meet and greet session with her fans. So, is a meet and greet session now forbidden for women in Pakistan, and does it warrant hundreds of men sexually assaulting a woman? When Noor Mukadam was beheaded, the women of Pakistan demanded justice. But there were those who started blaming a dead woman for being killed: ‘Why did she go there, why was she with a man alone, she had no family values.’ These were the disgusting comments being made to justify — JUSTIFY — a gruesome murder of an innocent woman. 

    When we hear such comments even after the most heinous crimes, it shows that Pakistan is no place for women. We do not respect our women. We do not like independent women. We dislike opinionated women. We justify crimes against women. We blame women for society’s ills. 

    Our leaders pass extremely violent and misogynistic comments against their women opponents and are still lauded instead of being reprimanded. When our top leader issues a rape apology, he is defended by women parliamentarians. When such is the attitude of the people on top, imagine what message it gives to the common people. They think they can do anything with women and get away with it. And they do get away in almost all cases. 
    This is our sad reality. Dear women of Pakistan, we are sorry. We have failed you.

  • 12-year-old boys ‘gang rape four-year-old girl’ in Punjab

    12-year-old boys ‘gang rape four-year-old girl’ in Punjab

    A four-year-old girl was allegedly raped by two minor boys aged 12 and 13 in the fields in Lodhran district of the Punjab province, ARY News reported on Friday.

    According to the police, the suspects took the girl to the nearby fields in Lodhran and sexually assaulted her. “Both of them are aged 12 and 13 years old,” police said, adding that they later left the girl in the fields.

    She was later taken to a nearby hospital for medico-legal formalities.

    Read More: Imam Masjid arrested for trying to rape two minor girls

    The police said they have detained one of the suspects involved in the crime. “The other suspect will also be arrested soon,” the district police officer (DPO) said while advising the citizens to play their role in identifying and reporting such incidents.

  • China urges Pak for ‘practical measures’ after suicide attack kills two in Gwadar

    China urges Pak for ‘practical measures’ after suicide attack kills two in Gwadar

    The Chinese Embassy in Pakistan on Saturday strongly condemned a suicide attack targeting a vehicle carrying Chinese nationals in Balochistan’s Gwadar district on Friday, asking Pakistan “to take practical and effective measures” to prevent recurrence of such incidents in the future, reported Dawn.

    At least two children were killed and three people were injured when a suicide bomber blew himself near the vehicle at around 7pm on Friday.

    In its statement, the Chinese Embassy demanded Pakistan to properly treat the wounded and conduct a thorough investigation on the attack, and severely punish the perpetrators.”

    It also extended “its sincere sympathies to the injured of both countries” and expressed its deep condolences to the victims in Pakistan.

    “At the same time, relevant departments at all levels in Pakistan must take practical and effective measures to accelerate, to implement strengthened whole-process security measures and upgrade security cooperation mechanism to ensure that similar incidents will not happen again,” the embassy said.

    Previously, on July 14, nine Chinese nationals and three Pakistanis lost their lives. Chinese workers and accompanying Pakistani staff were proceeding to their workplace for an ongoing project, as per a statement from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA).

    After initially suggesting that the incident was an accident, the government earlier this month said a suicide bomber had attacked the bus which was carrying Chinese workers to the under-construction Dasu dam.

  • Atif, Hania and Kubra start shooting for ‘Sang-e-Mah’ in Islamabad

    The stellar ensemble cast of ‘Sang-e-Mah’ has started shooting in Islamabad, a sequel of the 2016 blockbuster, ‘Sang-e-Mar Mar’. Directed by Saife Hassan the drama starred Nauman Ijaz, Sania Saeed, Kubra Khan, Mikaal Zulfiqar, and Omair Rana in leading roles.

    While the makers are keeping Atif and Hania’s look under-wraps, a few behind the scene pictures has gone viral on social media, featuring Kubra Khan, Nadia Afgan, Nouman Ijaz and Shamil Khan.

    Atif Aslam will make his small screen debut in the drama. Hania Aamir has been roped into play the parallel female lead.  It is basically a trilogy series with Sang-e-Mah, and Sang-e- Siyah in the pipeline.

    The drama depicted the story of a Pathan family and took the audience on a roller coaster ride of emotions. Even though people weren’t so happy with the ending of the drama yet, it achieved success and critical acclaim.