Tag: Pakistan

  • Indian man travels 1200 kilometres to meet girlfriend in Pakistan

    Indian man travels 1200 kilometres to meet girlfriend in Pakistan

    An Indian man hailing from Maharashtra, Siddiqui Mohammad Zishan, travelled nearly 1200 kilometres to meet a girl from Shah Faisal town in Karachi, Pakistan. According to details, Zishan, who is an engineering student, befriended the girl on Facebook and had been communicating with her over social media including Facebook and Whatsapp. Zishan wanted to cross the border and come to Pakistan using Google Maps.

    However, the 20-year-old’s plans were cut short when the Indian Border Security Force (BSF) caught him in Gujarat’s Rann of Kutch while he was trying to cross over to the other side of the border on foot. The young man revealed that he had travelled nearly 1200-odd kilometres to meet his friend.

    According to reports, he was found by BSF personnel in a dehydrated condition and had fainted.  An ATM card and other documents like Aadhaar card helped security officials identify him.

    During the search operation, the BSF also found a bike that the youth had abandoned when he reached close to the border. He had used the bike to travel from his hometown in Maharashtra. The young man was caught about 1.5 kilometres away from the Indo-Pakistan international border based on information shared by the Crime Branch of Maharashtra Police. The police added that Zishan had started walking towards Pakistan after his motorcycle got stuck in the sand.

    The Maharashtra Police had informed the Gujarat Police about a missing complaint that had been filed by the parents of the man. The Gujarat Police with the help of the Border Security Force personnel traced the young man by tracking his mobile phone.

    The BSF has handed over the young man to the police for further investigation and so that his story can be verified.

  • Is coronavirus ending in Pakistan?

    Is coronavirus ending in Pakistan?

    The first three weeks of June saw not only a rapid spread of the new coronavirus but deaths attributed to the COVID-19 also stood at around a daily average of 100.

    While the country, since the last week of June, has witnessed a significant decrease in the number of coronavirus infections amid conflicting claims regarding what has led to the drop, Pakistan has an optimistic recovery rate as 67.5% of people who had contracted the virus have so far recovered.

    While it is still unclear if the virus has already peaked in Pakistan or not, testing, active cases and the recovery rate are the major factors proving helpful in estimating not only the spread of the virus but also the pandemic situation.

    So far, July hasn’t been as bad as last month as government statistics from the first two weeks show there has been an increase in COVID-19 recoveries while the number of new cases has also dropped significantly.

    While the reason behind the sudden drop still remains unclear as government boasts of its successful strategy and experts attribute the decline to Pakistanis’ better immunity due to exposure to various vaccinations, it cannot be denied that the drop has been led to also because of lower testing as compared to the month of June.

    People are realising that they would recover if they have mild symptoms and only need to isolate themselves without actually heading out to get tested, surveys suggest.

    Special Assistant to Prime Minister (SAPM) on Heath Dr Zafar Mirza has also confirmed that not many people are voluntarily showing up to get tested anymore. “We are unable to conduct as many tests as we were earlier, despite having a daily capacity 60,000. Pakistan has set up more than 125 labs for COVID-19 testing but we need human resources to run those labs as the testing capacity needs to continuously be enhanced.”

    Meanwhile, a majority of people are also making use of telehealth services by consulting their doctors over the phone or contacting the government’s coronavirus helpline (1166). According to a doctor working at a COVID-19 helpline centre, she alone receives around 40 calls a day for medical advice.

  • Clean chit for Cynthia Ritchie as Interior Ministry says American blogger won’t be deported

    Clean chit for Cynthia Ritchie as Interior Ministry says American blogger won’t be deported

    Islamabad-based American Blogger Cynthia Ritchie’s stay in Pakistan has been cleared by the government as the Interior Ministry has said that she won’t be deported.

    “Cynthia Ritchie can stay in the country till August 31,” the Interior Ministry said in an order, a written copy of which was submitted to the Islamabad High Court (IHC) during the hearing of the blogger’s case on Friday.

    “I’m surprised that the petitioner is not present in the court today,” Ritchie said while speaking to the media outside the court. “In America, it’s compulsory for both the petitioner and defendant to be present in court for every hearing.”

    The blogger said that she was happy that the ministry had passed a decision in her favour, which comes a month after an additional district and sessions judge on June 15 directed the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) to file a case against her for passing defamatory remarks about the late former prime minister (PM) Benazir Bhutto on social media.

    Ritchie had approached the IHC, challenging the ruling, while naming the justice of peace — lower court judge –, the FIA and the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) as respondents in the case.

    READ: Cynthia Ritchie denies working for intelligence; adds to allegations, drags PML-N through the mud

    Former Punjab governor and Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) leader Latif Khosa has, however, said that he was not satisfied with the decision and will be challenging it. “This is an attempt to mislead the court by the secretary of the Interior Ministry,” he remarked.

    The interior ministry’s report has tried to dismiss PPP’s plea as it says that Ritchie has a visa and she’s not involved in any criminal activities, Khosa said. “We will prove the reality behind Ritchie and make sure that she’s deported.”

    He added that his party had lost faith in the federal government which was why they had approached the court.

    The tussle between the blogger and the PPP continues ever since Ritchie had made derogatory remarks against the former and current leadership of the PPP. She had later also accused PPP stalwart and former interior minister Rehman Malik of raping her, and former PM Yousaf Raza Gilani of manhandling her in 2011.

    The accusations have been denied by the PPP leaders.

  • American Federal Aviation Administration downgrades Pakistan to category 2

    American Federal Aviation Administration downgrades Pakistan to category 2

    America’s Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has downgraded Pakistan’s safety rating to category 2, which foreign media reports say is a serious but not unexpected blow to a country with a scandal-plagued aviation sector.

    As per the details, the FAA’s decision that follows a fatal Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) crash in Karachi in May and more recently, the aviation minister claiming up to one-third of Pakistan’s commercial pilots hold “dubious” licenses, means that no Pakistani airlines can establish new services to the United States (US) or codeshare with US airlines.

    While the decision has effectively locked PIA out of the US, the ruling only impacts new services to the country. The national carrier does not fly across the Atlantic to the US and as far as can be ascertained, no US airline operates codeshare or interline agreements with PIA either.

    Longstanding security issues have thwarted PIA’s ambitions to access the US. While PIA had tentatively planned a service to begin between Islamabad and New York earlier this year, the downturn in travel derailed that. Now, safety issues are joining the list of concerns.

    It merits a mention that the decision on Thursday came despite Federal Minister for Aviation Ghulam Sarwar Khan and the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) a day earlier having to face embarrassment at the hands of Pakistan Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) that said all commercial pilot licences (CPL) and airline transport licences (ATPL) issued by the authority were genuine and validly issued.

    Earlier, the European Union (EU) and the United Kingdom (UK) had suspended PIA operations as well, while several Pakistani pilots working with foreign airlines had also been grounded.

  • Armeena Khan says the scripts and projects coming her way ‘killed her passion’ for acting

    Armeena Khan says the scripts and projects coming her way ‘killed her passion’ for acting

    Armeena Khan has often been in the headlines but it has been a while since we saw her on the screen. Her last drama outing was Daldal, which aired in 2017.

    Recently, one of her fans asked her why she hasn’t done any project lately.

    In response to that, Khan gave a detailed reply in which explained her reasons.

    “This is an interesting question, so I will try to give a detailed answer. People work for two reasons: Because they need financial stability (thankfully, that wasn’t the case for me) or because they have a passion or an incentive.”

    She further said that in the past she worked in the industry because she was passionate about the work she did. But now, she has no passion to work because of the scripts coming her way.

    “I used to get angry at the kind of projects that were coming my way. Why would you work for something that is killing your passion?”

    Khan believes that it’s not the actors’ or audience’s fault. It is the system that has some flaws. However, she plans to come to Pakistan whenever she is offered a decent project.

    Meanwhile, Armeena while responding to a follower on Twitter said that she would love to play a “strong, self-determined female character”.

    https://twitter.com/ArmeenaRK/status/1283050805172502528?s=20

    She also revealed that she has signed her next project.

    https://twitter.com/ArmeenaRK/status/1283045008501886978?s=20
    https://twitter.com/ArmeenaRK/status/1283043141675778055?s=20
  • PML-N lawmaker in Punjab seeks action against men with fashionable beards, their barbers

    PML-N lawmaker in Punjab seeks action against men with fashionable beards, their barbers

    Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PML-N) MPA Rukhsana Kausar has tabled a resolution in the provincial house of Punjab seeking a ban on beard styling and action against men with fashionable beards as well as their barbers.

    According to Kausar’s resolution, beard is the sunnah of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) and legislation to decide strict action against those who shape beards in fashionable styles is needed.

    The resolution contends that any kind of styling of the beard is a “grave sin”, and it is an “insult to the beard”. The resolution calls for strict action against those “who make fun of beard”.

    “When I see youngsters on the streets and in the markets with different designs of beard in the name of fashion, I feel hurt, because that is against the teachings of Islam,” she told a private media outlet.

    Federal Minister for Science & Technology Fawad Chaudhry has also reacted to the resolution in the Punjab Assembly.

    This is not the first time that beard designing has been a priority of the ruling elite as barbers have time and again been “strictly barred” from styling customers’ beards in different shapes or clipping them into designs in areas of rural Punjab, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) and Balochistan.

    KP police in Shabqadar tehsil of Charsadda had in 2019 detained at least four barbers for styling customers’ beards during an unofficial ban imposed by a local traders’ union that had termed such beards “un-Islamic”.

  • Police arrest man who allegedly gang-raped TikTok friend

    Police arrest man who allegedly gang-raped TikTok friend

    The Lahore Police has arrested a man who allegedly gang-raped a girl with his two accomplices. The two reportedly became friends at a popular video-sharing app, TikTok.

    According to reports, the victim girl filed a complaint at Millat Park police station in Lahore in which she accused three men of gang-raping her.

    In her complaint, the girl stated that she became friends with a boy, Shiraz, through the TikTok app 20 days ago. Shiraz then called her to come to the Samanabad area on June 13. When she reached there, Shiraz asked her to sit in his car. Two men were already sitting in the vehicle.

    The girl said that she was gang-raped by all three men on gunpoint inside the car.

  • New heights of friendship: Turkish Airlines to manage Pakistan’s fruit, vegetable exports after PIA ban

    New heights of friendship: Turkish Airlines to manage Pakistan’s fruit, vegetable exports after PIA ban

    As Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) flight operations in Europe remain suspended, Turkish Airlines has offered its services to transport fruit and vegetable exports to other countries, Profit reported.

    According to fruit and vegetable exporters, Turkish Airlines will charge lower freight charges for transport of Pakistani fruits and vegetables to England, Germany and other western countries and has assured that it will facilitate the promotion of the same. 

    Earlier the European Union Air Safety Agency (EASA) imposed a six-month ban on PIA’s flight operations to Europe after reports emerged that several PIA pilots held dubious flying licences. 

    Among other issues, the ban created problems for the export of Pakistani fruits and vegetables. In this regard,  the Pakistani Embassy in Istanbul Commercial Counselor Bilal Khan Pasha met with Turkish Airlines Chairman Ilker Ayci who assured that Turkish Airlines will resume its flight operation in Pakistan and will help in the export of fruits and vegetables to the European Union (EU).

    Moreover, a delegation of exporters led by Waheed Ahmed, the head of All Pakistan Fruit and Vegetable Exporters, Importers and Merchants Association (PFVA) met with Turkish Airlines General Manager (GM) Gurhan Sozen.

    READ: Embarrassment for aviation minister as Civil Aviation Authority says all licences issued are real

    According to Waheed Ahmed, PIA had recently reduced freight charges in order to assist exporters to reduce cost of export shipments, however, after the six month ban on PIA, exporters will have to use the services of foreign airlines who might charge higher freight charges.

    According to exporters, during the meeting with Turkish Airlines GM the need for reduction in freight charges and provision of special handling facilities for perishable cargo to facilitate the export of Pakistani fruits and vegetables to Europe, the UK and Canada was stressed.

  • Pakistan to host World Tourism Forum 2021

    Pakistan to host World Tourism Forum 2021

    Special Assistant to the PM for Overseas Pakistanis Chairman National Tourism Board, Sayed Zulfikar Bukhari has announced that World Tourism Forum 2021 will be held in Pakistan.

    Speaking to a private news channel, the PM’s aide said that it will be a five-day event with over 1,000 foreign visitors expected to attend the event.

    “The World Tourism Forum will have three days for conference and two days for tourism”, revealed the SAPM.

    He added that the event had been planned for this year but postponed due to the coronavirus pandemic.

    Bukhari further said that over 32 new three-star to four-star hotels will be constructed in Pakistan in the next two years. He said that the government will renovate PTDC buildings and motels across the country to boost tourism.

    The minister said that the government had shut down Pakistan Tourism Development Corporation (PTDC) operations to restructure it.

    “We are making changes in PTDC to restructure it in accordance with global best practices,” he stated.

    Earlier, Bukhari had said the government would be bringing reforms in the PTDC rather than closing it down.

    The World Tourism Forum is an organisation based in Istanbul, Turkey dedicated to developing tourism around the world with its annual meetings.

  • Govt considers reopening marriage halls in Punjab from September

    Govt considers reopening marriage halls in Punjab from September

    The Punjab government has considered reopening marriage halls in the province from the first week of September after country-wide protests by halls association against continuous closure of businesses during the coronavirus pandemic.

    According to reports, the Marriage Halls Association on Monday threatened to march towards the Chief Minister House in Karachi if they were not allowed to restart their businesses under suggested coronavirus SOPs.

    Head of the Marriage Halls Association Rana Raees said that wedding halls remained closed till date due to the coronavirus spread.

    “The government has allowed other businesses to reopen under devised SOPs. However they remain reluctant to allow marriage halls to operate,” he said.

    He said that they had given a sample to the government to reopen marriage halls while following the SOPs.

    “We have gone bankrupt due to the ongoing financial crisis amid the pandemic,” said Raees and demanded the government to allow halls to resume their work under SOPs.

    He also warned that if the ban will continue then they could extend the scope of their protest and could march towards the chief minister’s house for the fulfilment of their demands.

    Following the protests, the Punjab government announced that the marriage halls will be allowed to operate in the province from the first week of September if the coronavirus situation improves in the province.

    Provincial Minister for Commerce Mian Aslam Iqbal reached out to the protesting owners of the wedding halls outside the Punjab Assembly.

    “You will be allowed to arrange wedding functions from the first week of September,” he said adding that he would meet their representatives for outsourcing functions after two days.

    The protestors, however, refused to accept his offer and demanded to immediately reopen activities of the marriage halls.

    https://twitter.com/GOPunjabPK/status/1283036958575517700?s=20