Pakistan cricket stalwart and ace fast-bowler Mohammad Amir is planning to obtain a British passport so that he may permanently settle down in England in future, Cricket Pakistan reported Saturday.
According to reports, the left-arm pacer married a British citizen, Nargis Malik, in September 2016 and has already applied for a spouse visa, which allows him to stay in England for 30 months.
In the case of obtaining a spouse visa, the 27-year-old will be able to work and take advantage of various other perks that come along with it.
It is not yet clear if Amir has already obtained the visa as he has previously spent jail time in the United Kingdom (UK) for his role in the spot-fixing scandal; however, he is reportedly also looking to purchase a house in London.
After getting permanent residency, the paceman will also be able to apply for a British passport.
The report comes a day after Amir announced his retirement from Test cricket with immediate effect, but reaffirmed his commitment to playing white-ball cricket for Pakistan.
Amir’s teammates in Pakistan have been aware of the fact that the pacer is not interested in playing for the national team anymore and wants to play T20 leagues in England and around the world.
Most restaurants in Pakistan, especially Lahore, operate on one theory: the more you have on the menu, the better it will be.
Dock 27 sounds like a seafood joint and looks like one too… or does it? Nevermind, it’s complicated.
The base of any chef, any restaurant or any food, is the basics. Books for professional chefs, bibles of food pairings, all emphasise the utmost importance of the basic commandments, which when perfected, are what the finer, complex ideas should stand on.
Dock 27 is as confused as the “About Us” section they have posted on their Facebook page.
The words, that jump at you from their Facebook page, don’t mean anything when put together. “Deepwater expeditions,” “Drifts and Jolts under the dark eclipse,” “journeys with dancing dolphins” and ultimately a “nautical hub” bistro. What did it all mean? I couldn’t tell.
Dimly lit, the clashing interior of Dock 27
Dock 27, a “worldly” restaurant in Lahore Defence, simply put, focuses on seafood, but also on cuisine from around the world. From Thai green curries to NY Strips, Italian pasta to Chinese stir-fried beef, it’s as if the owner and chef sat down and decided to make everything: because excess is always good, isn’t it?
Not spoilt for choice, but feeling overwhelmed, my dinner partner and I asked the courteous waiter for his recommendations. In the dim lighting, I could barely see his face but appreciated the impeccable service. We ordered two mains on his recommendations.
Tampa Chicken with mashed potatoes and grilled vegetables
It is incredible how something as basic as BBQ sauce can save a restaurant’s review.
What a BBQ sauce. The Tampa Chicken is grilled chicken slathered in shiny BBQ sauce, a bone dry potato mash (that I sent back) and decently grilled vegetables. The flavour was spot on, with the perfect balance of ketchup, Worchestershire and the tartness of what tasted like imli. Another bowl of the sauce was requested and dumped on everything else. Including the second main, the penne pasta with chicken and mushrooms in a creamy sauce. It elevated everything that touched it.
Penne pasta with mushrooms and grilled chicken
The al dente penne pasta had a solid flavour with and the right basics — decent white sauce, perfectly seasoned…but that was it. After a few luxurious bites, it became a little one-note — until I took a journey under the dark eclipse and mixed it with some BBQ sauce, licking the bowl clean.
Singing praises of the sauce, I left thinking that I will not return again. The dim interior, the confused setting, and the loud music left me feeling disoriented. But I would definitely send someone to pick up anything with extra BBQ sauce.
In a rather hilarious development, leaders of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) have misread a World Bank (WB) report criticising their government’s economic policies and have attacked the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) instead.
According to a draft report by the WB, Pakistan’s budget has lost its credibility and the public finance management has further weakened.
The Public Expenditure and Financial Accountability (PEFA) report, the final draft of which was shared with the Finance Ministry in June, contains findings that reflect the poor performance of the Finance Ministry and how it failed to uphold fiscal rules.
The report was widely shared by PML-N leaders and supporters, who held the incumbent PTI government responsible for the mismanagement of the country’s economic affairs.
The catch, however, is that the report assesses Pakistan’s public finance management system and an analysis of its annual budgets from 2015 to 2018 — a time period when the PML-N was in power.
Twitterati were quick to point out the blunder following which PML-N leaders, including Vice President Maryam Nawaz, deleted their tweets.
According to The Express Tribune, when compared with a similar assessment that the WB carried out in 2012, the country fared poorer on almost all indicators and seven key pillars.
There were hardly two indicators where the score improved while on the other two the score remained unchanged. In 2012, the country had secured five A grades – the highest score – but in the 2019 assessment, there was not even a single indicator where it got an A.
Pakistan lost the highest score on critical indicators like the classification of budget, comprehensiveness of budget information, transparency in inter-governmental fiscal operations, participation in budget process and predictability of direct budget support.
The lowest score is D plus and D. In 2012, the country got only six Ds and D plus but the lowest score reached a staggering 13 in 2019, reflecting the extremely poor performance of the Finance Ministry from 2015 to 2018.
One of the country’s most notorious gangsters, Zafar Khan Supari, nicknamed ‘Gold Boy’ for flaunting gold jewelry and weapons, has been arrested by the police for “obstructing official work”.
In the episode, which somewhat proves that Supari has lost the power and respect he once enjoyed owing to his strong political clout, the Gold Boy and his friend were locked up by the R.A. Bazaar police in Rawalpindi.
According to the details, Supari’s friend and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) activist Asad Numberdar tried to hit a rickshaw with his car near a police picket on Harley Street.
The rickshaw driver, who was going from Lal Kurti towards Bakr Mandi, asked Numberdar why did he do it, following which the latter lost his temper, cocked a pistol and pointed it at the rickshaw driver identified as Sajjad.
When the personnel on duty at a police picket saw him pointing a pistol at the distraught man, they jumped into action and overpowered Numberdar, who was later brought to the R.A. Bazaar police station and locked-up there.
It wasn’t later that notorious gangster Zafar Supari walked into the precinct to meet his friend, however, he too was thrown behind bars on charges of obstructing official work.
According to The Express Tribune, Supari has also been booked in cases of protecting wanted criminals and proclaimed offenders in his locality, besides posing with illegal firearms on social media.
Numberdar has served a prison sentence for the murder of Raja Shoaib, a nephew of ex-Punjab Law Minister Raja Basharat. Police will produce both arrestees before a judge to seek their physical remand for further investigation.
Renowned media law firm Carter Ruck has sued British newspaper The Mail on Sunday, online news site Mail Online and its journalist David Rose on behalf of former Punjab chief minister (CM) Shehbaz Sharif for publishing a “politically motivated” article.
The story, published on July 14, 2019, had suggested that Shehbaz and his family “stole British taxpayers’ money” given to Earthquake Relief and Reconstruction Authority (ERRA) set up to help the victims of the 2005 Pakistan earthquake.
“Our response to the question asked in the headline was robust and clear. It was carried close to the bottom of the 2,500-word story,” United Kingdom (UK) Aid had said in its clarification.
“The UK’s financial support to ERRA over this period was for payment by results – which means we only gave money once the agreed work, which was primarily focused on building schools, was completed, and the work audited and verified,” a Department for International Development spokesperson had said.
According to The News, Carter Ruck has agreed to act on behalf of Shebhaz after reviewing the case for a week. Alasdair Pepper, Antonia Foster and Victoria Anderson will represent the leader of opposition in the National Assembly and former Punjab chief minister in his legal claim against the publication.
“Stealing from earthquake victims is like feeding on corpses,” Shehbaz had said while responding to the allegations against him by the British publication.
Former prime minister (PM) Nawaz Sharif, who is rather infamous for his high-protein diet and love for meaty festivities, is reportedly unhappy with the vegetarian food being served to him in jail.
According to a private media outlet, the ex-premier has complained about the “tasteless” vegetarian meals to his personal doctor, who believes the environment is not fit for ailing Nawaz.
“The jail food can further deteriorate his health,” the former PM’s doctor was quoted as saying.
Earlier this month, the Punjab government had discontinued provision of home-cooked food for the ousted premier – currently incarcerated in Lahore’s Kot Lakhpat jail.
Reacting to the move, Nawaz’s brother and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) chief Shehbaz Sharif had said that the ex-PM is a heart patient and needs homemade food to control his health.
PML-N vice president Maryam Nawaz has also, time and again, stressed the need for her father to be provided with home-cooked meals for the sake of his health.
Prime Minister (PM) Imran Khan, on the other hand, has vowed to ensure the “criminal” doesn’t even enjoy air-conditioning and television facilities in his jail cell.
“Nawaz Sharif wants food from home in jail, he wants air-conditioning in jail. But in a country where half the population has no air-conditioning or TV, what kind of punishment would this be?” the premier was recently quoted as questioning.
Former Indian cricket team captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni, commonly known as MS Dhoni, after making himself unavailable for the West Indies tour, will serve the army in Indian-occupied Kashmir.
According to media reports, the 38-year-old wicketkeeper-batsman will be undertaking the duties of patrolling, guard and post in held Kashmir for a period of 15 days starting July 31.
“As requested by the officer and approved by army headquarters; he will be taking on the duties of patrolling, guard and post and would be staying with troops,” the statement read.
The right-handed batsman holds the honourary rank of lieutenant colonel in the Territorial Army Unit of the Indian army’s Parachute Regiment since 2011.
He had earlier made himself unavailable for the Men in Blue’s upcoming West Indies tour where the two teams will be crossing swords in three T20s, three ODIs and two Test matches.
The Anti-Narcotics Force (ANF) has claimed that Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) MNA and Punjab President Rana Sanaullah Khan has admitted starting a drug business to earn money for politics, The News reported.
According to reports, the ANF, in its challan submitted to a court Tuesday, quoted Sanaullah as saying that he has been associated with drug smuggling for years.
“My expenditures swelled up soon after I entered politics, but my income was not too much. I developed links with drug smugglers after entering politics and becoming Punjab law minister in particular.”
Sanaullah was further quoted as saying that a few politicians known to him “became billionaires through illegal means”.
“The business suited me well so I started facilitating drug dealers and gradually started sending narcotics through my personal vehicles. It was an easy way to avoid the police, as being an influential person, no one dared to check my vehicle. I used to get drugs from Afghans in Faisalabad, drop them off to dealers who used to smuggle them abroad,” the ANF quoted him as saying in the four-page challan submitted.
Sanaullah’s wife Nabeela has denied all charges and termed it a fake story. “My husband is innocent,” she told a private media outlet. Meanwhile, members of the opposition parties term the PML-N leader’s arrest the “worst example of lawlessness and political revenge”.
The Punjab government has asked inspector general (IG) of prisons to remove the air-conditioner installed in ex-prime minister (PM) Nawaz Sharif’s cell at Lahore’s Kot Lakhpat jail.
“The following directions of PM [Imran Khan] have been intimated for implementation and report ‘No Preferential Treatment be Given to the Criminals and Money Launders in the Prison in Punjab’,” The Express Tribune quoted a July 17 letter, written by Punjab Home Department to the IG prisons, as saying.
The letter asks the IG to take necessary action in the matter immediately and submit a report in three days.
PM Imran, in his address to Pakistani-American community in Washington last Sunday, had announced to withdraw air-conditioning and television facilities provided to jailed former PM Nawaz as well as ex-president Asif Ali Zardari.
However, the letter being dated July 17 suggests that the authorities had been ordered to take away the facilities long before the premier’s announcement.
Meanwhile, according to the ex-PM’s daughter, Maryam Nawaz, doctors have advised that her father’s room temperature be maintained at a comfortable level to prevent dehydration and the possible deterioration of his renal function.
The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leader has also said that withdrawing the air-conditioning facility would be equivalent to putting Nawaz’s life in danger.
Since the first lady did not accompany Prime Minister (PM) Imran Khan on his maiden trip to the United States (US), a theory to address the concerns of the people has been introduced by Twitterati.
After meeting President Donald Trump as well as top US govt officials, including Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, PM Imran on Wednesday left for Pakistan, marking the end of his three-day visit to Washington.
While some termed the premier’s trip as a “historic” one owing to the chemistry he forged with President Trump and the crowd he pulled for the event at Capital One Arena, a group of social media users pointed out that Bushra Bibi was not accompanying PM Imran.
Wonder why Pakistan’s First Lady didn’t come along. Would have been great. https://t.co/xvM6RkmYFT
Multiple theories made their way to Twitter as people started guessing why the first lady was nowhere to be seen; however, the most popular one remained that the premier was actually “saving taxpayers’ money”.
Will you pay for her ticket? I as a tax payer do not want my taxes wasted on an irrelevant persons airfare and accommodation. https://t.co/GRQ6x62s4J
