Explore the lively spirit of Karachi with Jalebi Express’s Mix Plate City Tour, a Sunday morning ride on the iconic W-11 Karachi Mini Bus. From 8:30 am to 1:30 pm, discover the city’s rich culture, blending old and new aspects. Experience the charm and diversity of Karachi with Jalebi Express – turning every Sunday into an adventure!
Mark your calendar for a night full of laughter as comedian Hashim takes the stage at Cafe Forex (Lahore) on December 9th. From 7 to 9 PM, join in for continuous comedy, promising an evening of hearty laughs with friends and family. Don’t miss this chance to relax and enjoy a Comedy Night that will leave you in stitches!
Join us for an unforgettable day at BazaarFest 2.0, a unique event on December 9th, 2023, at Lahore Fort. Experience cultural fusion and futuristic fun with live performances, rhythmic dhamaal, futuristic light shows, food stalls, family-friendly shopping, and much more from 3:00 pm to 12:00 am. Don’t miss the Faris Shafi concert, Baeyyet dance, open mic sessions, pottery workshop, live graffiti, and experiential rooms!
Support over 150 home-based women entrepreneurs at the Islamabad Women Gala on December 9th and 10th, 11 am to 9 pm, at Pakistan China Friendship Centre. Enjoy a vibrant family atmosphere with a kids’ arena, interactive activities, food court, magical show, Christmas corner, and a craft corner promoting inclusion and religious harmony. Join them for a festive and empowering experience!
A powerful fire broke out in the Arshi shopping mall in Karachi’s Ayesha Manzil area on Wednesday evening, leaving three people dead and two injured.
The six-storeyed building, consisted of two commercial floors (ground and mezzanine), while the remaining four were residential.
Several people trapped in the residential floors of the building above the shops were rescued but lost their belongings to the inferno. The fire was so intense that clouds of black smoke could be seen from many kilometres away.
Karachi Mayor Murtaza Wahab confirmed the tragic loss of three lives in the devastating fire at Arshi Mall. Two people who sustained burn injuries are under treatment. He also went to the spot to monitor rescue efforts late at night.
Mayor Karachi @murtazawahab1 visited the fire site at Arshi shopping mall at Ayesha Manzil ,district central Karachi . @KmcPakistan fire officers are working ,situation is under control pic.twitter.com/GnvTL90L5d
K-Electric cut off the electricity supply to the area to avoid further damage. They also participated in rescue efforts.
The fire severely impacted approximately 100 shops, warehouses, and 450 flats.
Shopkeepers have stated that their entire stock had been burned to the ground. They demanded financial compensation from the government for their losses.
The fire erupted around 5:47pm.
It originated in a clothes shop and rapidly spread to neighbouring stores selling foam and furniture.
The Director of Rescue 1122 stated that approximately 300 individuals have been evacuated from the building.
This is the second fire in 12 days in Karachi and probably not the last as experts say more than 90 per cent of the industries, residential buildings, and structures in Karachi, which is the largest industrial hub in Pakistan, lack fire safety arrangements as building codes were not being implemented by the authorities concerned, reported Geo.
The Supreme Court has ruled that haq mahr must be paid by the husband whenever the wife demands it, not just in the event of divorce. Mahr is the mandatory payment or gift from the groom to the bride at the time of marriage. It is a fundamental part of an Islamic marriage contract and is considered the bride’s exclusive right, reports The Express Tribune.
In a petition to the court, a husband had contended that since he had not divorced his wife, he was not liable to pay the mahr.
Rejecting the contention, a three-member bench led by Chief Justice Pakistan Isa referred to a 2001 judgment in which the Supreme Court had held that mahr can be demanded even when a marriage continues and that the husband is under obligation to pay the amount agreed upon at the time of the wedding.
Referring to that case, the bench lamented that the wife had to file a suit for recovery of her mahr and maintenance and the husband unnecessarily involved her in legal proceedings that reached the court after six-and-a-half years.
Chief Justice Isa criticised lower courts that did not penalize the husband for filing unnecessary appeals. “If the man was fined for filing unnecessary appeals, it would not have taken too long to decide the case. Filing of unnecessary appeals is paralyzing the judicial system,” he observed. The CJP said that the courts should not hesitate to impose fines to end unnecessary litigation.
The chief justice ordered Khalid Parvez, the petitioner, to pay a Rs100,000 fine, the cost of legal proceedings along with mahr to his wife Samina, and dismissed his appeal, reported Dunya News.
“Mahr has to be paid whenever demanded by the wife,” said a three-page written order authored by Chief Justice of Pakistan Qazi Faez Isa in a case related to non-payment of the money. The court also noted that mahr is an Islamic concept mentioned in the Holy Quran— Surah An-Nisa verse 4 and Surah Al-Baqrah verses 236-7. It is specifically recognized by the law of Pakistan in Section 2 of the Muslim Personal Law (Shariat) Application Act, 1962.
In a significant political development, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) head Nawaz Sharif visited Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid (PML-Q) President Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain at his residence after a gap of almost 15 years.
According to the sources of Geo News, the meeting lasted for almost 40 minutes, with both leaders discussing the possibility of a political alliance for the upcoming general elections on February 8 next year.
PML-N President Shehbaz Sharif and other leaders, including Maryam Nawaz, Rana Sanaullah, Ayaz Sadiq, and Azam Nazeer Tarar, also attended the huddle.
PML-Q leaders Chaudhry Wajahat Hussain, Salik Hussain and Shafay Hussain were also in the meeting.
The gathering occurs amidst heightened political engagement, with parties actively conducting election campaigns and forming electoral alliances to strengthen their position in the polls.
Nawaz, a three-time former prime minister, came back to the country in October after nearly four years of exile in London. His return was aimed at energising his supporters in preparation for the elections.
Earlier, the PML-N supremo succeeded in wooing electables from Balochistan to join his party ranks and also forged an electoral alliance with Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P).
Journalist Rana Ghulam Qadir has published a report in The News about the shocking drop in the number of applications submitted for the Hajj 2024.
The report states the last date for receiving Hajj applications is approaching. The Ministry of Religious Affairs said on Tuesday that the number of applications received in five days from November 27 to December 5 was disappointing. One week is left till the ending date.
The number of Hajj quotas under the government scheme is 89,605. Out of this, the quota of the sponsorship scheme has been fixed at 25,000. According to the ministry, the number of Hajj applications received in the last ten days is 12,600.
Out of them, 800 have come under the sponsorship scheme while the remaining one comes under the regular scheme.
In the past, a large number of applications was submitted in the initial days, but this year the number is very low. There is a possibility that there may not be a required number of applications as per the Hajj quota, especially since the target of the sponsorship scheme seems difficult to achieve.
Officials of the ministry said that if the target is not met by December 12, the deadline will be extended.
One reason for the low demand is inflation and the other reason is that Hajj is in June and the ministry is already moving six months in advance. The ministry sought the applications early so that Hajj arrangements could be improved.
Renowned journalist Saleem Safi shared a TikTok video on Tuesday on X (formerly Twitter) of a newlywed couple in wedding attire running around the Governor House for their wedding photoshoot. He criticised the KP governor for allowing such practices.
گورنر ہاؤس پشاور جہاں ان دنوں جے یوآئی کے سربراہ مولانا فضل الرحمان کے سمدھی حاجی غلام علی براجمان ہیں ، میں ان دنوں فلموں اور گانوں کی شوٹنگ بھی ہوتی ہے ۔ تبدیلی آنہیں رہی ،تبدیلی آگئی ہے۔ pic.twitter.com/Gb6JKclCo2
Safi later shared the response of Governor Haji Ghulam Ali where he was defending the practice as something that has been happening for a long time. The media in-charge to KP Governor Maaz Fida issued a clarification, explaining that governor house has always been open to the public for wedding photo shoots, with the condition that they obtained prior permission. In a post shared by Saleem Safi, the screenshot of the clarification, Fida dismissed the news of any film shooting taking place in the governor house.
He said, “Public’s governor’s public governor house is just as accessible to newly married couples as it is for anyone else”. He said that the video doing rounds on social media is of such a couple that had formally obtained permission for the photoshoot.
Fida added that there used to be a fee for such photo shoots, which was abolished by Ghulam Ali when he became the governor. He said that a specific portion of the governor house is open for such photo shoots and anyone can obtain the facility.
Safi counter-criticized the Governor’s statement by saying that if this is the case then would couples from lower strata of society be allowed to have their photoshoots in there.
گورنر ہاوس پشاور میں ایک جوڑے کی شوٹ سے متعلق میرے ٹویٹ کے جواب میں گورنر حاجی غلام علی کا اپنے ترجمان کے ذریعے وضاحتی بیان۔۔۔ مجھے تحقیق کا درس دینے والے نے خود یہ تحقیق نہیں کی کہ ویڈیو میں نے جاری نہیں کی بلکہ وہ ٹک ٹالک کی ویڈیو ہے جو میں نے شئیر کی۔ یہ ویڈیو جوڑے نے خود یا… pic.twitter.com/99de0ZoNee
The interaction has divided social media where some are defending the practice while others are criticising the fact that romantic photoshoots mar the sanctity of the place.
There’s nothing wrong with it. The governor house is supported by taxpayer money and isn’t anyone’s personal property – it’s a public property. If someone wants to use it for their wedding photoshoot or TikTok videos after paying a token fee, there should be no controversy about… https://t.co/FW6ad6PuwZ
It is important to note that renting out public properties for a nominal fee for photo shoots or events is a common practice, all across the world and in Pakistan as well. In March 2020, the then-Governor Punjab, Chaudhry Sarwar, had also approved renting out the Lahore Governor House estate for commercial activities to generate operational expenditures.
A large number of university students in Islamabad protested on Tuesday demanding their universities and the Higher Education Commission (HEC) resolve their accommodation problem.
Thousands of students were evicted from privately-run hostels after the Capital Development Authority (CDA) sealed many buildings over ‘non-conforming use’. It means that they were operating as a commercial enterprise without authorisation, reports The Express Tribune.
The students also registered a public interest petition in Islamabad High Court (IHC) against CDA’s policy that has left around 30,000 students on the verge of eviction.
The petition is filed under section 4(xxiii) of the Federal Universities Act and other laws stating that the universities are bound to create sufficient student accommodation on campus and also to “approve or license” hostels and lodgings existing in the city.
However, in Islamabad, only five out of the 35 universities over the last two decades have taken any such steps. “As a result, students are compelled to reside in privately-managed student hostels located in the CDA sectors,” it informed.
CDA issued non-conforming notices to over 70 hostels in November.
According to the hostel owners, many students had to spend the night on the street after at least two hostels were shut down late in the evening without proper warning.
The petition also points out that HEC has a statutory mandate to protect the interests of students including their accommodation matters, “but has so far failed to intervene in this crisis”.
At the preliminary hearing, Justice Miangul Hassan Aurangzeb issued directions for the HEC chairman to grant a hearing to the students and redress their grievances.
Another cross-border marriage is about to take place, this time in India. Jaweria from Karachi and Sameer from Kolkata are set to get married soon. Jaweria Khanum finally made it to India after a wait of five years to marry Sameer Khan Yousafzai.
The two befriended each other on social media and got the approval of their families in 2018. The pair got engaged and started trying to get a visa to culminate their deep bond into marriage.
Detailing the difficulties she met, Jaweria revealed that her visa was rejected twice, in addition to travel restrictions imposed during the Covid-19 pandemic.
‘Pure intent transcends borders’: Pak woman arrives in India to marry Kolkata man
Javeria Khanum, a woman from Pakistan’s Karachi, arrived in India on Tuesday to marry her fiancé Sameer Khan, a Kolkata resident. The 21-year-old woman has been granted a 45-day visa by the Indian… pic.twitter.com/AUFisFXt4I
She was eventually granted a 45-day visa after two rejections. The couple plans to marry in the first week of January, with Jaweria expressing joy at fulfilling her wish after five years.
Following her arrival in India, she was received with a wholehearted welcome from her future in-laws. The couple is set to travel from Amritsar to Kolkata, where the marriage ceremony is scheduled to take place.
Update: The Organised Crime Unit (OCU) of the Lahore police in a press conference revealed that a gang of robbers who reportedly looted members of a Sikh family in Gulberg a week ago are citizens of a neighbouring country. However, they did not mention the country they belong to.
OCU SP Aftab Phularwan told Dawn on Tuesday that the police examined over 1,000 private cameras to trace the suspects who were living at a rented house in a private housing society near Raiwind and the landlord had not got his tenants (suspects) registered with the local police station.
He said the OCU arrested the ringleader of the robbers’ gang Shahrukh, his wife Rehana Shahrukh and a cousin Irfan, who were “citizens of a neighbouring country”.
In reply to a question whether the suspects belonged to India, he said “not at all”, adding that it would not be wise to name the country.
SP Aftab informed the media that the alleged robbers would conduct snatching bids with Sikh yatrees and inform a hostile agency to defame Pakistan. A uniform of a government institution was also recovered from their custody.
Mr Phularwan said that the OCU recovered from the suspects’ possession a wireless set, a 9MM pistol and the car they used in the crime against the Sikh family. Requesting anonymity another police officer told Dawn that the criminals arrested by the OCU police were Persian-speaking.
He said the suspects travelled to Karachi and almost reached there to finally flee to their native country after their crime in Lahore attracted the attention of Pakistani authorities, but OCU police traced the suspects through their mobile phone call records and arrested them.
Meanwhile, the Indian Sikh family met with Chief Secretary Zahid Akhtar Zaman at the Civil Secretariat and IG Police Tuesday and thanked the Punjab government for arresting the accused and recovering the loot. The Chief Secretary assured them that such an unpleasant incident would not happen in future.
Previously, an Indian Sikh family headed by Kanwal Jeet Singh was looted by people dressed in police uniform on November 30 while they were shopping in Gulberg, Lahore. They were visiting Pakistan for the celebrations of Baba Guru Nanak Dev’s birth anniversary. The robbers took away Rs400,000 cash and jewellery belonging to the foreigners, reports Dawn.
Caretaker Chief Minister Mohsin Naqvi took notice of the incident, speeding up the investigation, claiming that the ringleader of the gang, identified as Ahmad Raza, has been arrested, while raids are being conducted for the arrest of other members of the network.
The incident
CCTV footage, collected by the police, showed two suspected robbers in a white car. They stopped the Sikh family on the pretext of checking their documents. One of the suspects was clad in a police uniform and the other was in plain clothes.
They forced the Sikh pilgrims to produce their documents while sitting in their car, as per the CCTV footage. During checking, they snatched the woman’s bag that contained cash, jewellery, and other valuables.
The family could be seen in the footage running after the suspects’ car after the incident.
An FIR was registered as a case of fraud instead of robbery. The report further says that the robbers took with them 150,000 Indian rupees, PKR 300,000, jewellery, and valuable watches.
Update: A blast shook the buildings of Warsak Road early in the morning on Tuesday in Peshawar. At least seven people, including three children, were injured in the explosion as confirmed by the police and hospital sources, reports Geo News.
The blast took place around 9:10 am on Tuesday.
SSP Operations Kashif Aftab Abbasi said the Machnigate Police Station’s mobile vehicle was on routine patrol when the bomb exploded.
“As soon as the police mobile passed by, the blast occurred three seconds later. The militants wanted to target the police vehicle,” he said, speaking with Geo News.
The police official said no arrests have been made yet, but the involved network will be apprehended soon.
Abbasi added that the CCTV footage of the explosion is being examined.
CCTV #Schools in #Peshawar have once again been targeted by Terrorist. Three children were injured in an improvised explosive device (IED) blast on Peshawar’s Warsak Road. the incident took place near the Peshawar Public School at around 9:10am. The #blast site is considered an… pic.twitter.com/57rSs4dWqX
The police have confirmed that the explosion was an Improvised Explosive Device (IED) blast.
The official revealed that four kilogrammes of explosives, planted in a cemented block on the side of the road, were used in the blast. The area has been cordoned off while further investigation is under way, Warsak Superintendent of Police Arshad Khan said.
“It would be premature to say who was the target,” SP Arshad Khan said speaking with journalists as reported by Geo.
The injured were shifted to the Lady Reading Hospital where two children are said to be in critical condition. All of them are between seven to 10 years of age, the hospital’s spokesperson told Geo News.
Rescue officials told Geo that the glass windows of two vehicles and nearby buildings were broken due to the intensity of the explosion. Mayor Metropolitan Zubair Ali told journalists that the explosion near a school was an attempt to disturb peace and order.
“The explosion near educational institutions is unfortunate.”
JUST IN : Tragic incident on #Warsak Road, Peshawar; two children injured in horrific blast. The injured children have been swiftly taken to the hospital. Police have cordoned off the area.#Blastinpeshawarورسک روڈ پر پشاور پبلک سکول کے سامنے دھماکے کے 4 زخمی لیڈی ریڈنگ ہسپتال… pic.twitter.com/7sbbvM2Y9g
Pakistan has witnessed a considerable increase in terror activities in recent months, especially in KP and Balochistan, after the Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan ended its ceasefire with the government in November last year.
Pakistan Institute for Conflict and Security Studies (PICSS) in a report showed that the country experienced 34 per cent increase in anti-state violence last month, reported Dawn.
