New Zealand’s cricketing stalwart Jimmy Neesham has responded to a Pakistani’s biryani invitation, which has made his fans in Pakistan love him even more.
As per the details, Jimmy had last weak turned to Twitter to ask for recommendations for a good place to have dinner in Toronto where he is currently playing the Global T20 League.
Anybody have any recommendations for nice spots in Toronto for dinner/beers? Thinking rooftop bar maybe, nice views etc etc. Many thanks
The Sri Lankan circket team is likely to visit Pakistan in October to play a two-match test series, Cricket Pakistan has reported.
According to reports, Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) has confirmed the dates of their security delegation’s arrival in Pakistan on a three-day visit. The delegation will begin its evaluation with a trip to Karachi, Lahore and Islamabad on August 7, 8 and 9, respectively.
It will assess the security situation in the country ahead of providing its recommendations to the SLC.
They will visit the stadiums and hotels in the three major cities and will be briefed by local security officials as well. SLC, on the basis of those recommendations, will decide whether to tour Pakistan or not.
“I’m confident that the delegation will be satisfied with the security arrangements in Pakistan and hopefully we will soon see red-ball cricket on home soil,” reports quoted Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) Chairman Ehsan Mani as saying.
Pakistan, since the unfortunate attack on the Sri Lankan cricket team in March 2009, has not hosted any test series.
With the International Court of Justice (ICJ) pronouncing the long-awaited verdict in the Kulbhushan Jadhav case, both Pakistan and India have claimed victory.
The narrative in Indian media paints a different picture of the judgment than the one shown by Pakistan. But how is that even possible?
PAKISTAN’S WIN:
According to the ICJ, Jadhav’s conviction and sentence by a military court were not to be regarded as a violation of Article 36 of the Vienna Convention, which India had claimed.
“As regards India’s claim based on the Vienna Convention, the court considers that it is not the conviction and sentence of Jadhav which are to be regarded as a violation of the provisions of the Vienna Convention,” read the verdict.
Article 36 states that foreign nationals who are arrested or detained be given notice without delay of their right to have their embassy and consulate be notified of the arrest and have consular officers visit them.
Among other Indian demands were the annulment of the military court’s decision and permitting Jadhav a safe passage to India. However, the same was denied.
— Government of Pakistan (@GovtofPakistan) July 17, 2019
But what exactly is that India is celebrating?
INDIA’S WIN:
India had also demanded that Jadhav be tried once again by a civilian court after giving him consular access. No retrial was granted, however, Pakistan was ordered to grant the convicted spy consular access.
India also demanded the relief of “review and reconsideration” for its spy, which ICJ has granted, but by means of Pakistan’s own choice.
It means that Islamabad is now required to judicially review Jadhav’s trial and assess if denial of consular access prejudiced his trial.
FOREIGN MEDIA:
Meanwhile, international media reports focused on the ICJ’s directive to Pakistan to review its death sentence to Kulbhushan Jadhav.
“World Court Orders Review of Pakistan Death Sentence for Indian Convicted of Spying”, The New York Times‘ headline said. The Washington Post story on the judgment said: “Alleged Indian spy on death row in Pakistan wins reprieve from execution”.
British media also focussed on the part of the ICJ judgment which went in India’s favour. “UN court orders Pakistan not to execute Indian man accused of spying” The Guardian said in its report.
KULBHUSHAN JADHAV:
Commander Jadhav — an Indian Navy officer working for Indian covert agency Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) — was arrested on March 3, 2016, from Balochistan after he entered Pakistan from Iran.
Jadhav was tried in a military court that sentenced him to death for espionage and subversive activities. In a reaction to the move, Pakistan’s relations with neighbouring India tensed and New Delhi approached the ICJ to hear the case.
On May 18, 2017, the ICJ had ordered Pakistan to halt the execution of Jadhav until a final decision was made.
Chinese tech giant Huawei Group has unveiled an $170 million investment plan to set up its regional headquarters and upgrade technical support centre in Pakistan, a private media outlet reported.
Huawei Group Vice President Mark Xueman said on Wednesday that his company would invest around $100 million in Pakistan this year.
“Huawei will also set up a regional headquarters in Islamabad at a cost of $55 million that will create job opportunities for young engineers in Pakistan,” he said while talking to Planning, Development and Reforms Minister Makhdoom Khusro Bakhtiar.
Huawei’s official further informed the minister that the company would also invest $15 million more in its technical support centre and it will also hire more workforce for the centre, taking the number of its staff to 800 from 600 this year.
“Huawei is eager to initiate more projects in Pakistan on grant funding from the Chinese government,” Xueman said; responding to which the minister assured him of all cooperation in future joint ventures.
Pakistan is a fast-growing telecom market with subscribers of mobile phones having crossed the 160 million mark compared with the country’s population of 210 million. Of total subscribers, 68 million use 3G/4G. There are 70 million broadband subscribers.
The country imports millions of dollars of mobile phones to meet the local requirements with manufacturing and assembling of handheld devices not present in the country.
According to the government, Huawei has a 25 per cent share in the country’s mobile industry and is also the top tax paying Chinese company in the country.
Members of the federal cabinet have been informed that around $60,000 will be spent on Prime Minister (PM) Imran Khan’s forthcoming visit of to the United States (US), unlike ex-PM Nawaz Sharif’s $460,000.
As per the details, PM Imran on Tuesday chaired a meeting of his cabinet wherein the members were informed about the $400,000 cut.
They were also provided details of over Rs27 billion expenditure incurred on security, camp offices and foreign visits of former presidents Asif Ali Zardari and Mamnoon Hussain, former PMs Nawaz Sharif, Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, Yousuf Raza Gilani and Raja Pervaiz Ashraf besides ex-Punjab chief minister Shehbaz Sharif.
Addressing a post-meeting press conference, Federal Minister for Communication Murad Saeed said that more than Rs4.3 billion had been spent on security, camp offices and travels of Nawaz, Rs3.16 billion on Zardari, Rs8.72 billion on Shehbaz, Rs350 million on Abbasi, Rs245 million on Gilani, Rs32 million on Ashraf and Rs300 million on Mamnoon back when they were in power.
He added that an amount of Rs8.3 billion was spent on the security of the Sharif family members within the past 10 years, while over Rs2 billion was spent on renovation and other expenditures of the Sharif family’s Raiwind residence, Jati Umra.
“Super cute… Hina on hands and guns in hands… on duty Pakistani girls… [sic],” he wrote while tweeting the image that has now gone viral. Hamid also wondered if the commando had recently gotten married.
The image has been receiving mixed reaction on Twitter.
The Elite Force of Punjab Police specialises in counter-terrorist operations and VIP security duties. It is known for acting against serious crimes and performing high-risk operations that can’t be carried out by the regular police.
According to information released by the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) in 2010, women first became part of the police force in the subcontinent in 1939 when seven female constables and a head constable were inducted to contain female agitators of a farmers’ movement in Punjab.
There was no significant change in numbers until 1952 when 25 constables, two head constables and an assistant superintendant were recruited.
Inclusion of women to Pakistan’s anti-terror squads was initiated in the 1990s. With women joining the force in large numbers over the years, the trend has continued since.
In October 2001, less than a month after the 9/11 attacks, the first women-only anti-terror squad was established in the country.
As car sales drop amid rising prices due to the imposition of higher taxes and rupee depreciation, Honda Atlas Cars Pakistan (HACP) has halted production in the country for 10 days, Dawn reported Saturday.
According to reports, HACP shut down its plant for 10 days as its inventories piled up to 2,000 units while Indus Motor Company (IMC), which produces Toyota models in Pakistan, has also decided to stop car production for eight days, two days every week, during this month.
The report quoted HACP and IMC executives as saying that their decision to scale down production during July was informed by plummeting sales in the first 10 days of the month.
“Our inventories from the last month and the first 10 days of July have grown rapidly because of the steep increase in car prices after currency devaluation as well as the imposition of Advance Customs Duty (ACD) on all our imports and Federal Excise Duty (FED) on assembled cars,” an HACP senior executive said.
“It has left us with no option but to shut down the plant to cut production. If the present trend holds, we expect our sales to drop to less than 30,000 units this business year (April 2019-March 2020) from over 48,000 units last year.”
An IMC official also gave the same reasons for “observing eight no-production days” during July. The executive, however, did not give the size of inventory the company has built so far, saying the production cuts could increase next month if sales do not pick up.
Indian tennis star and Pakistani cricketer Shoaib Malik’s wife, Sania Mirza, has said she is proud of her husband, who announced retirement from ODI cricket following Pakistan’s last match of the 2019 Cricket World Cup.
“Today I retire from One Day International [ODI] cricket. Huge thank you to all the players I have played with, coaches I have trained under, family, friends, media and sponsors. Most importantly, my fans. I love you all. PakistanZindabad,” the all-rounder tweeted, ending his career spanning over 20 years.
Today I retire from One Day International cricket. Huge Thank you to all the players I have played with, coaches I have trained under, family, friends, media, and sponsors. Most importantly my fans, I love you all#PakistanZindabadpic.twitter.com/zlYvhNk8n0
As soon as Malik announced his decision, Sania took to social media to congratulate the veteran on an astounding career.
“Every story has an end, but in life, every ending is a new beginning. Shoaib Malik, you have proudly played for your country for 20 years and you continue to do so with so much honour and humility. Izhaan and I are so proud of everything you have achieved but also for who you are,” she wrote.
“I am retiring from one-day cricket. I’m sad as I’m leaving the format I loved the most but this will allow me to spend more time with my family and concentrate on the Twenty20 World Cup next year,” Malik had said in a press conference after the match against Bangladesh Friday.
Malik played 287 ODIs and scored 7,534 runs with nine hundreds. His performance in the 2019 World Cup, however, left his fans disappointed.
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.
A hashtag calling for the arrest of journalists briefly became the top Twitter trend in Pakistan on Thursday, deepening concern over a shrinking space for dissent in the country.
The hashtag #ArrestAntiPakjournalists had dropped to second place by evening, but not before it had been used or forwarded more than 28,000 times.
Many users accompanied it with a composite photograph of prominent journalists and TV anchors, some of whom regularly criticise the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) of Prime Minister Imran Khan and the powerful military establishment.
“These are the people who are responsible for chaos, anarchy, manipulation. They are the real enemy of the states,” said one tweet.
“Hang them all #ArrestAntiPakJournalists,” said another.
Last year, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) said in a report that the military has “quietly, but effectively, set restrictions on reporting”, although it denies doing so.
Shahzad Ahmed, of digital rights group Bytes for All, said the hashtag appeared to have been “planted” by pro-PTI accounts and was not “genuine public opinion”.
“There are organised groups who start such trends… which is a very dangerous phenomenon in our country, regarding freedom of expression and personal freedom,” he told AFP.
“Responsible use of social media is now becoming impossible in our country. Now we use social media, only to abuse others and to promote fake news and to disrespect each other, which is completely wrong.”
An image of Hamid Mir, one of Pakistan’s most high-profile TV anchors, was prominent among the photographs of journalists being shared.
Mir made international headlines in 2014 after surviving multiple gunshot wounds in an attack he blamed on Pakistan’s top spy organisation.
Two days ago he launched a Twitter tirade against increasing censorship after his interview with former president Asif Ali Zardari, now an opposition leader, was abruptly taken off the air shortly after it began.
