Tag: trending

  • ‘Bushra Bibi is more than a mother to me’, says Noor Bukhari

    ‘Bushra Bibi is more than a mother to me’, says Noor Bukhari

    Noor Bukhari has said that Bushra Bibi is more than a mother to her.

    In a recent Q&A session on Instagram, when a follower asked the former actress about her relation to Prime Minister Imran Khan’s wife, Bushra Bibi, Bukhari said: “She’s more than a mother to me.”

    Earlier in June 2018, Bukhari had shared a picture of herself and Bushra Bibi in Saudi Arabia, where the two had gone to perform pilgrimage. Bukhari had captioned the picture with the hashtag ‘My spiritual Teacher’.

    Bukhari, who turned to the religious path to seek contentment after her fourth divorce has used social media to share her religious experiences.

    In January 2020, she reportedly remarried ex-husband and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf leader Awn Chaudhry. The couple has two daughters together.

  • No pension for new hirings at KP universities in ‘Naya Pakistan’: report

    In what appears to greatly contradict claims of the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) for ‘Naya Pakistan [new Pakistan]’, Higher Education, Archives and Libraries Department of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) has issued a notification to the public sector universities directing it to implement “no pension liability” for all future initial recruitments in addition to other strict measures to overcome the rising deficit.

    According to a report by Express Tribune, the department has also directed delinking of the pay scales from the basic pay scale scheme and university pay scale, while further stating in a notification that government grant and other resources meant for higher education shall not be expended on meeting the shortfall of the schools run by the universities.

    “These schools should have separate Board of Governors (BoG),” it reportedly read.

    Furthermore, house subsidy and requisition should be paid to the employees on the provincial government rates.

    All medical allowances in their current form have been abolished and shall be paid at the provincial government rates, says the notification, adding that the maintenance cost including repair, security and other facilities’ costs should be fully recovered from the employees provided with accommodation by the universities.

    “The universities will be assisted in the process of exploring new avenues of financial resources, including renting out academic blocks to other institutions,” says the notification.

    The report also quoted a university official as saying that in the presence of the University Act 2012, amended in 2016, all the incentives provided to the employees by the universities had completely been protected and in the presence of an act, no notification could change it including abolishing of the pension, house rents and medical allowances.

  • Amir rubbishes Misbah & Waqar’s explanations over his retirement

    Amir rubbishes Misbah & Waqar’s explanations over his retirement

    Head coach Misbah-ul-Haq, and bowling coach Waqar Younis, in a recent media briefing, said that Mohammad Amir’s exclusion from the team was only due to his poor performance and refuted his claims of not selecting him due to personal dislike

    In response, Mohammad Amir hit back at the duo, saying that they are portraying a different picture to take the blame off their backs.

    Responding to cricket journalist Shoaib Jutt, who asked him to “please tell now what was that [mental] torture”, Amir said that Misbah and Waqar have twisted the whole scenario and that he will respond to their claims in due time.

    Amir recently retired from all formats of international cricket, claiming he was mentally tortured by the current team management. He said that he will not play international cricket under this management.

    Amir was dropped from the team in the series against Zimbabwe and was also not part of the 35-man squad for the tour of New Zealand.

    Misbah and Waqar said that Amir’s recent performances have been really poor and he does not warrant a place in the squad. They did, however, say that Amir will be welcomed back into the team if he is able to perform better in the domestic circuit.

    Meanwhile, according to reports, Misbah and Waqar’s future is to be decided after the South Africa series. The coaches were under fire after the Kiwis thrashed Pakistan, with the Men in Green winning only one out of three T20Is, and losing both matches of the Test series.

  • Man about to lose over $300 million after forgetting Bitcoin password

    Man about to lose over $300 million after forgetting Bitcoin password

    A San Francisco computer programmer has just two password attempts left if he is to unlock a Bitcoin wallet worth more than $300 million.

    If Thomas fails and burns through his final two of 10 attempts, he will lose 7002 Bitcoin, currently worth an eye-watering and lifechanging $303 million. The forgotten password which is keeping Thomas awake at night would let him unlock a small hard drive, known as an IronKey.

    The IronKey contains the critical private keys to Thomas’ digital wallet, where the Bitcoin fortune is locked up. If Thomas makes 10 failed IronKey password attempts, the hard drive will seize up and encrypt everything for eternity.

    According to The New York Times, Thomas lost the piece of paper he wrote the IronKey password on. “I would just lay in bed and think about it,” he says.

    “Then I would go to the computer with some new strategy, and it wouldn’t work, and I would be desperate again.”

    His plight has drawn the attention of hard drive and password crackers, offering their services for a slice of the quarter-billion-dollar pie. Alex Stamos, an internet security expert at Stanford Internet Observatory, claimed he can crack the password within six months. His price? Stamos wants a 10 per cent cut (roughly $30 million) of the fortune.

    “Um, for $220m in locked-up bitcoin, you don’t make 10 password guesses but take it to professionals to buy 20 IronKeys and spend six months finding a side-channel or uncapping,” Stomas tweeted, adding that he would make it happen for 10%.

    https://twitter.com/alexstamos/status/1348999178702057476

    Thomas was paid the Bitcoin for making a video about how the cryptocurrency worked, back when it was worth around $5 a coin. Last week, on the back of a record-breaking run, Bitcoin was trading at more than US$40,000.

    Perhaps the best-known case of anyone losing their Bitcoin fortune was James Howells, a Welsh IT worker, who in 2013 unintentionally threw 7500 Bitcoin in a landfill.

    Howells’ Bitcoin would also be worth more than a quarter-billion-dollars on today’s rate.

  • Imran beats de Villiers, Kohli and Lanning to win ICC ‘best captain’ poll

    Imran Khan, who led the Pakistani cricket team to victory in the 1992 world cup, has been voted as the ‘best captain’ in a poll tweeted by the International Cricket Council.

    In a tweet, the ICC had shared a list of the best captain that included India’s Virat Kohli, South Africa’s Ab de Villiers and Australia’s Meg Lanning and asked: “Who would you rate as the best among these giants?”

    People chose Imran over all these “legends”, who narrowly defeated India’s Kohli to come on top.

    The poll was created after the ICC shared statistics of these “extraordinary cricketers”. It said captaincy “proved a blessing” for Imran, de Villiers, Lanning and Kohli whose “averages improved as leaders” of their respective teams.

    WHO ARE THESE ‘PACESETTERS’?

    Virat Kohli:

    Virat Kohli is the captain of the India national team since 2013. He is regarded as one of the best contemporary batsmen in the world. In 2018, he became the first cricketer to be awarded the top three International Cricket Council (ICC) awards—Cricketer of the Year, Test Cricketer of the Year and ODI Cricketer of the Year.

    Ab de Villiers:

    The South African skipper has been named as the ICC ODI Player of the Year three times during his 15-year international career. Cricinfo has described him as a “cricketer with overflowing talent and the temperament to back it up”.

    Meg Lanning:

    As the captain of the Australian women team, Lanning has multiple world cup titles in her name: one Women’s Cricket World Cup and four ICC Women’s World Twenty20 titles. She also holds the record of most ODI centuries.

    Imran Khan:

    Imran Khan was the captain of the Pakistani team that won the world cup. He is also the one who introduced reverse swing and popularised it.  Spot a left-arm pacer in Pakistan, you’ll glimpse a Wasim Akram; you spot a right-arm pacer in Pakistan, said an article in Cricbuzz.

    REACTIONS TO IMRAN AS THE BEST CAPTAIN:

  • VIDEO: Indian media apologises for airing doctored video of Pakistani analyst on Balakot airstrike

    VIDEO: Indian media apologises for airing doctored video of Pakistani analyst on Balakot airstrike

    Media outlets from across the border, including India Today and NDTV, have apologised for airing a doctored video of Pakistani analyst and former diplomat Zafar Hilaly, wherein due to editing, he appeared to be supporting Indian claims of hundreds of casualties in the 2018 cross-border aggression by New Delhi.

    Several Indian television channels, newspapers and websites had carried the report by news agency ANI on Hilaly’s remarks that he made while speaking to a Pakistani media outlet over Indian claims of 300 terrorists dying in the Balakot airstrike on February 26, 2019.

    Besides ANI, India Today and NDTV, the story was reported by Republic, The Times of India, Moneycontrol, WION, Hindustan Times, NE Now, Odisha TV, Jagran, Swarajya, Lokmat, Oneindia, Deccan Herald, Business Today, Livemint, DNA, The Quint, News18 India, HW News, CNBC TV18 and ABP News among others.

    One of the reports said, “The admission by the former Pakistani diplomat, who regularly takes the Pakistan army side in TV debates, goes against the zero casualties claim made by Islamabad at that time.”

    Here’s how India Today reported the same:

    “India crossed the international border and did an act of war in which at least 300 were reported dead. Our target was different from theirs. We targeted their high command. That was our legitimate target because they are men of the military. We subconsciously accepted that a surgical strike — a limited action — did not result in any casualty. Now we have subconsciously told them that, whatever they will do, we’ll do only that much and won’t escalate,” ANI had quoted Hilaly as saying.

    But a fact-check by Alt News found that the comments were misreported. Hilaly also tweeted a video saying his statement was spliced and edited.

    In the debate posted on YouTube by HUM News as part of a programme called “Agenda Pakistan”, Hilaly had actually said, “What you did, India, was an act of war. By crossing the international boundary, India committed an act of war in which they intended to kill at least 300 people.”

    While the report has since been retracted by all outlets, here’s what India Today tweeted.

    BALAKOT AIRSTRIKE:

    The 2019 Balakot airstrike was conducted by India in the early morning hours of February 27 when Indian warplanes crossed the de facto border in the disputed region of Kashmir, and dropped bombs in the vicinity of the town of Balakot in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) province in Pakistan.

    While India claimed having destroyed terror camps “established on the Pakistani side” with hundreds of terrorists dead, Pakistan had rebutted the claims and sent a group of both local and foreign journalists to the area to ascertain the facts by themselves.

    The episode had led to tensions running high between the two countries for months and embarrassment for India after Pakistan shot down one of its intruding fighter jets besides capturing an Indian Air Force (IAF) pilot.

    What do you think of the yet another rather embarrassing moment for Indian media? Let The Current know in the comments…

  • National Stock Exchange of India accidentally tweets steamy photoshoot of Bollywood actor, deletes later

    National Stock Exchange of India accidentally tweets steamy photoshoot of Bollywood actor, deletes later

    Netizens are continuing to brutally troll the National Stock Exchange (NSE) of India for erroneously tweeting a “breathtaking” photoshoot of Bollywood actor Mouni Roy from its official handle on the social networking website.

    The post, which remained on the NSE handle for seven hours, showed Roy in a black sleeveless top with hashtags like “#sexydiva”, “#hotgirl” and “#mouniroyhot”.

    The tweet was later deleted and an apology was issued for what was termed by NSE as “human error”.

    “Today there was an unwanted post on NSE handle at 12:25 pm. It was a human error made by the agency handling NSE account and there was no hacking. Our sincere apologies to our followers for the inconvenience caused,” read the subsequent tweet.

    However, screenshots of the tweet went viral as Twitterati did not let go of the gaffe easily.

    https://twitter.com/Srivis125/status/1348154621651419137

    https://twitter.com/GabbbarSingh/status/1347921085199568896

    What do you think of the blunder? Let The Current know in the comments…

  • Imran Ashraf, Sarah Khan shine in ‘Raqs-e-Bismil’

    Imran Ashraf, Sarah Khan shine in ‘Raqs-e-Bismil’

    While most of the time, we critics or drama viewers, complain about how Pakistani dramas have become redundant and monotonous with the same old storyline based on unrequited love, marital woes, or love triangles, every now and then comes a new drama that shakes things up and makes you believe in the drama industry once again.

    Sarah Khan and Imran Ashraf’s ongoing drama Raqs e Bismil is one such example. Directed by Wajahat Rauf and written by Hashim Nadeem, the drama’s plot revolves around Sarah and Imran’s characters – Zohra and Moosa. Moosa comes from a very conservative background – he refuses to let his sister marry her love because he did not belong to the same sect – while Zohra belongs to a family of dancers and entertainers. The two cross paths on a bus and Zohra, who is wearing a burka at the time, catches Moosa’s attention, who immediately falls for her and her gutsy nature and asks her to marry him after their second meeting.

    While Zohra initially rejects Moosa’s advances with some powerful dialogues, she later invites him to her home so that he can find out her reality first-hand. The third episode of the drama ends with Moosa finding out Zohra’s reality and viewers are excited to know what will happen next for the two protagonists, who are worlds apart.

    Read more – Sarah Khan hits back at troll who criticised her over father’s death

    The first three episodes were engaging and fast-paced with brilliant performances by the lead and supporting cast. Imran and Sarah were brilliant as Moosa and Sarah, while their chemistry was also lit. Moosa, in particular, has many shades and Imran manages to portray them flawlessly; fluidly switching between a hardened family-man and a man smitten. A special mention to Momin Saqib, who really gave a solid performance as Essa, Moosa’s brother and wingman.

    Raqs e Bismal has quickly made it to our list of must-watch dramas and one we are delighted to recommend.

  • Army announces tea for opposition if it marches to Rawalpindi

    Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) Director General (DG) Major General Babar Iftikhar has said that leaders of the opposition alliance, the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM), will be offered tea and snacks and looked after if they decide to stage a long march towards Rawalpindi.

    “I don’t see a reason for [them] to come to Pindi. And if at all they want to come, we will offer them chai paani [refreshments] and look after them. What more can I say?” the military spokesperson said while responding to a journalist’s question regarding PDM chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman during a wide-ranging press briefing.

    Maulana had indicated that the opposition could turn the direction of its anti-government movement towards the army leadership, saying that the opposition alliance’s movement would no longer be directed only at the Prime Minister (PM) Imran Khan-led government but also “his backers”, hinting that its possible long march to the capital “could also be to Rawalpindi”.

    Earlier, Maj Gen Babar spoke on a broad range of issues, including the border situation and to present an analysis of the security challenges of the past decade.

    The army’s spokesperson said the last 10 years were a challenging time in every aspect for Pakistan, but in 2020 alone the coronavirus pandemic and locust attack had put the country’s food security and economy in severe danger. He said while banned organisations were also being facilitated on the western border, the state, institutions, the armed forces and intelligence agencies, and most importantly the people of Pakistan were facing all challenges with a united front.

    Saying that along with restoring peace in the tribal districts on the western border, socio-economic projects were also launched in this period; he added that concrete steps were taken to strengthen Pakistan’s borders with Afghanistan and Iran. “The security situation improved considerably as a result of successful operations against terrorism.”

    Maj Gen Babar further said that whether it was India’s condemnable designs or the application of hybrid warfare against Pakistan, internal threats or external challenges, the country not only identified the threats and presented facts, but also combatted them successfully.

    “The world is recognising this [Pakistan’s position] because truth always prevails,” he maintained.

  • It’s a girl for Virat and Anushka

    Bollywood actor Anushka Sharma and Indian cricket captain Virat Kohli have been blessed with a baby girl.

    Announcing the news on social media, Virat said: “We are thrilled to share with you that we have been blessed with a baby girl this afternoon.”

    “Anushka and the baby are both healthy and we are feeling beyond blessed to start this new chapter of our lives. We hope that you can respect our privacy at this time,” he added.

    Read more – Anushka Sharma slams photographer for invading her privacy

    Virat and Anushka announced their pregnancy in August, with their announcement tweet becoming the most-liked tweet of 2020.

    In an interview with a fashion magazine, Anushka had said that she wants to raise her child away from media attention, which means that we might have to wait a while till the parents release their child’s first picture.

    “We’ve thought about it a lot. We definitely do not want to raise a child in the public eye — we don’t plan on engaging our child in social media,” Anushka had said. “I think it’s a decision your child should be able to take. No kid should be made to be more special than the other. It’s hard enough for adults to deal with it. It’s going to be difficult, but we intend to follow through.”

    Anushka, while talking about her pregnancy journey had also said that the pandemic turned out to be a “weird blessing” for the couple, who fiercely guard their privacy.

    “The pandemic has been a weird blessing in a way. Virat was around and I could keep it a secret. We only left to go to the doctor’s clinic. No one was on the streets so we couldn’t be spotted,” shared the actor.

    Wishing the power couple all the best for the new chapter in their lives!