We all know that Cows are sacred for Hindus but now an Indian expert has come forward to claim that covering yourself with its dung or urine can save you from nuclear radiations.
The expert claims that NASA’s research has proved what he’s saying, and you can also google it. He further went on to claim that cow’s dung, urine, its breath, and everything is pure and purity gives birth to purity.
The Pakistani Academy Selection Committee, chaired by two-time Academy Award winner Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy, has selected crime thriller Laal Kabootar as Pakistan’s official entry to the Oscars.
The Oscar committee which includes Zeba Bakhtiar, Zarrar Khuhro, Sarmad Khoosat, Asim Abbasi, Rizwan Beyg and Sanam Saeed among others chose the film to be submitted for Oscar consideration in the ‘International Feature Film Award’ category for the 92nd Academy Awards.
Laal Kabootar features Ahmed Ali Akbar and Mansha Pasha in the lead roles. Ahmed plays a taxi-driver, looking for a way out of Karachi while Mansha plays Aliya, a strong-headed woman navigating through the city. The film was well-received both critically and commercially.
The film has been directed by Kamal Khan while Hania Chima and Kamil Chima were the executive producers.
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences will choose the final nominees for all award categories including International Feature Film in December 2019. The complete and final list of Oscar nominees will be announced on 13th January 2020 with the presentation show for the 92nd Academy Awards scheduled to take place on 9th February 2020.
Speaking about the selection, producers Kamil and Hania said, “This is very exciting news. This is a moment of immense pride for the entire team, from the investors who put their faith in us, to the cast and crew that worked tirelessly to tell a daring story.”
Meanwhile, committee member Sarmad Khoosat was all praises for the film remarking, “Laal Kabootar is an authentic representation of the new wave cinema in Pakistan. Karachi’s raw and fierce beauty has never been shown like this on screen before.”
Watch the trailer here:
Acclaimed writer and son of Indian journalist Tavleen Singh and former governor Salmaan Taseer, Aatish Taseer has written a controversial piece for Vanity Fair. From interviewing PM Khan’s former wife Reham Khan to singer Ali Zafar, Taseer is being severely criticised for writing a puff piece with quotes from an ex-wife and a singer accused of sexual harassment.
The Current decided to sum up the major points from his article.
According to a journalist who has not been named, Bushra Bibi, known as “Pinky Peerni” has two jinns and when people seek her guidance, she asks them for “great vats of cooked meat,” that she “fed to the jinns she has kept at her disposal”.
When PM Khan sought guidance from Bushra Bibi, according to Taseer, she told him that she had had a dream and according to the dream, “it was imperative he be married to the right woman—i.e., a member of Maneka’s own family.”
Taseer then relates that Bushra “offered her sister to Khan,” as well as her daughter. PM Khan refused and “then Maneka went away to dream again…and the voice in her head told her that she, Bushra Maneka, a married woman and a mother of five, was the wife Imran Khan needed.”
According to the article, Bushra Bibi’s husband Khawar Maneka, “agreed to give her a divorce,” so she could marry Khan.
Long-time friend Yousaf Salahuddin tells Taseer that Khan was a very wanted man in his younger days and girls as young as six years were crazy about him. This quote was inserted in a paragraph that describes Khan as a sex symbol.
Taseer said that he approached close aide and Special Assistant to the PM on Overseas Pakistanis, Zulfi Bokhari to set up an interview with PM Khan. But “when I spoke to Zulfi Bokhari, a frequenter of nightclubs from the London days… he sought assurances that my piece would be positive; otherwise, he told me, it would be his a** on the line. A few days later, Bokhari WhatsApped me: “Unfortunately the PM has said he can’t do it right now. Perhaps in the near future.”
Taseer writes that when Benazir Bhutto died in 2007, Khan came to Pakistan a few days later “with a French girlfriend” and had been “photographed poolside in swimming trunks as his country was engulfed in trauma”.
Taseer also mentions the time when he met Khan alone after BB’s death, Khan said that God had saved Benazir. Khan said that BB, in making a deal with General Musharraf had done, “the most immoral thing you could have done. So this thing has come as a blessing for her.” Taseer asked Khan what he meant by “this thing” and Khan replied, “Death,” as a matter-of-fact. Then, with what sounded almost like envy, he added, “Benazir has become a martyr. She has become immortal.”
In a discussion with singer Ali Zafar, Khan said that he was “a liberal” and said about his “right-wing” tilt that, “you just can’t talk about those issues so openly, because you’re going to be penalized for it.”
Khan told Ali that “You know me…I’m a liberal; I’ve got friends in India; I’ve got friends who are atheists. But you’ve got to be careful here,” meaning Pakistan.
Social media had mixed reactions to Taseer’s account.
Amid reports claiming that Punjab Chief Minister (CM) Usman Buzdar will soon be sacked by Prime Minister (PM) Imran Khan, his spokesperson, Dr Shahbaz Gill, has resigned from office.
“I hereby resign from the post of official spokesperson to Punjab CM,” Gill stated in a handwritten note submitted to the office of the provincial chief executive.
Initially, Gill did not cite any reason behind his abrupt decision, however, reports quoted the former spokesperson as saying that “it was difficult for him to defend the poor performance of the Punjab government”.
In a tweet posted earlier in the day, Gill had said that he would be sharing an “important decision” very soon.
Rumour has it that Gill will be replacing Dr Firdous Ashiq Awan as the special assistant to the PM on information and broadcasting.
Meanwhile, PM Imran’s close aide Awn Chaudhry has reportedly been removed as the advisor to Punjab CM as well. He has been replaced by Asif Mehmood.
Shahid Afridi, Humayun Saeed, Maya Ali, Hareem Farooq, Shehzad Roy, Faakhir and Javed Sheikh have landed in Muzaffarabad to participate in Prime Minister Imran Khan’s Kashmir Solidarity Rally.
PM Imran on Wednesday had announced that he will hold “a big jalsa in Muzzafarabad on Friday 13 Sept, to send a message to the world about the continuing siege” of Indian occupied Kashmir and “to show the Kashmiris that Pakistan stands resolutely with them.”
The Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) has banned the use of mobile phones in Peshawar’s Bacha Khan Airport’s restricted areas, the apron (where the planes are parked, unloaded or loaded, refuelled, or boarded) and lounges.
The new rule has been introduced after a video showing passengers climbing onto the luggage conveyor belt and crossing over into the baggage area went viral. The passengers, who had landed in Peshawar from Saudi Arabia, were impatient for their bottles of Ab-e-Zamzam and decided the airport staff was taking too long to give it to them. Hence, they decided to climb onto the conveyor belts.
According to the CAA notification, “not obeying this new rule will result in airport entry passes being confiscated. The matter will [also] be taken up with the higher authorities of the concerned department/functionary”
The foreign exchange reserves held by the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) increased 2.2 per cent on a weekly basis, data released by the central bank has revealed.
According to The Express Tribune, the reserves had earlier spiralled downwards, falling below the $7 billion mark, which raised concern over Pakistan’s ability to meet its financing requirements. However, financial assistance from the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Saudi Arabia and other friendly nations helped shore up the foreign exchange reserves.
On September 6, the foreign currency reserves held by the SBP were recorded at $8,462.3 million, up by $181.8 million compared with $8,280.5 million in the previous week. The central bank cited official inflows as the reason for the increase in reserves.
Overall, liquid foreign currency reserves, held by the country, including net reserves held by banks other than the SBP, stood at $15,751.7 million. Net reserves held by banks amounted to $7,289.4 million.
Pakistan received the first loan tranche of $991.4 million from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) on July 9, which helped bolster the reserves. Previously, the reserves had jumped on account of $2.5 billion in inflows from China.
Over time, the declining reserves have forced the central bank to let the rupee depreciate massively, sparking concern about the country’s ability to finance a hefty import bill as well as meet debt obligations in coming months.
The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is facing massive criticism from prominent South Asian lawyers, human rights activists and philanthropists in the United States (US) after it announced to honour Indian Prime Minister (PM) Narendra Modi with an award, The Guardian reported.
According to the details, the foundation is said to give Modi “The Global Goalkeeper” award for his “Clean India Programme” under which millions of toilets were set up and benefits of sanitation and hygiene were publicised.
Reacting to the news about the award, a group of South Asian Americans working in philanthropy on Tuesday wrote an open letter to the Gates Foundation, alleging that Modi had effectively confined millions to their communities.
The letter also urged the organisation to rescind the award.
“For over a month now, PM Modi has placed 8 million people in Indian occupied Kashmir (IoK) under house arrest, blocked communications and media coverage to the outside world, detained thousands of people, including children, and denied basic benefits,” said the letter.
The award comes amid growing criticism of detention and deportation of Muslims in Assam and Kashmir and human rights violations in IoK since August 5 under Modi’s rule have made front pages around the world.
While Modi’s government claims that the programme has given 90% of Indians access to clean toilets, press reports suggest otherwise. Reports claim that many of the newly-built toilets remain unused because of poor access to water and caste rules that restrict people from cleaning them.
Former prime minister (PM) Shahid Khaqan Abbasi has apologised to the nation for having appointed Justice (r) Javed Iqbal as the chairman of the National Accountability Bureau (NAB), The News reported.
A jurist and professor of law, Iqbal has served as a senior justice of the Supreme Court (SC). He was appointed as the NAB chief on October 8, 2017, by then Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) government led by Abbasi.
“The name of NAB chairman had come from Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) and the appointment was made with consensus,” the former premier said in an informal talk with media outside an accountability court Thursday.
The PML-N leader said the “main aim of NAB was to break the PML-N” and questioned the bureau’s actions for having “instituted the case after arresting an ex-PM”.
Abbasi said he was accused of using a vehicle of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs as the PM and had he knew about such allegations beforehand, he would have hired a tonga or taxi for reaching the PM Office.
“NAB is conducting investigation against me and remand is also continuing for 55 days, but it doesn’t know anything about the case,” he said further.
Earlier in the day, an accountability court extended the physical remand of former PM Abbasi and former finance adviser Miftah Ismail in the LNG case. Both the leaders were presented before the court that approved NAB’s plea for remand extension and asked it to present the suspects once again on September 26.