Newsletter - Page 250 of 304

Family Court Allows Feroze Khan to Meet His Son

Popular Pakistani actor Feroze has been the talk of the town because of his public divorce from his ex-wife Syeda Alizey Fatima.

Alizey Fatima filed for divorce and accused the actor of physically, mentally, and emotionally abusing her. She posted on Instagram about the abuse and showed pictures.

However, Feroze Khan denied all the accusations.

Moreover, Alizey filed for custody of her son and daughter in the fanily court and asked for monthly expenses from actor Feroze Khan.

Now, the family court has decided that Feroze Khan will pay Rs.50,000 for his son and Rs.30,000 for his daughter.

Furthermore, Feroze Khan asked the family court to allow him to meet and keep his son. So, the family court allowed Feroze Khan to meet and keep his son for few days.

Also, the court mentioned that whenever he wants to meet his children, he has to leave his ID card and passport in the court. But if he wishes to take his children abroad for a couple of days, then he is allowed to do so as well.

Joyland Gets Shortlisted for Oscars

Pakistani film Joyland has been nominated for Oscars and it is the first Pakistani movie to achieve this milestone.

Saim Sadiq’s Joyland is shortlisted for Oscar’s International feature film category.

The film stars Alina Khan, Ali Junejo, Sarwat Gilani, Salman Peerzada, Sania Saeed, and Rasti Farooq.

The Academy of Pictures Art and Sciences revealed the 10 shortlisted categories and the films that are shortlisted.

Joyland first premièred at Cannes Film Festival where it was the only official entry from Pakistani film industry, where it made history and was loved by the critics and audience alike.

Since then Joyland has been making headlines for its success and controversies side by side.

However, this headline regarding its nomination in the biggest award show, Oscars is achieving praise from the film fraternity.

22 December, Shortest Day of the Year Today

Did you know that today is the shortest day and longest night of the year in the northern hemisphere, including Pakistan?

The shortest day of the year is called winter solstice.

Interestingly many people searched for the winter solstice across the globe on the Internet on December 18, according to the Google CEO.

From 6 months, June 22, the duration of the day was decreasing in the northern hemisphere including Pakistan, but now the matter will be reversed which means the duration of the day will gradually increase.

Winter solstice is said to be the first day of the onset of winter, which starts on December 21 in some countries where as in Pakistan it starts on December 22.

The science behind this phenomenon is that one half of the earth is pushes away from the sun while the other half is towards the sun. This is all because of the earth’s tilted axis. We are pointed farther away from the sun. This is why our sun angle seems lower on the horizon.

The situation is reversed in the southern hemisphere, where December 22 will be the longest day of the year.

It includes countries such as Argentina, New Zealand and South Africa, where only 10 percent of the world’s population lives.

Usually, the shortest day of the year in the Northern Hemisphere is on December 21 or 22.

In some countries the shortest day of the year is observed on December 21 or December 22.

On this occasion, daylight in the North Pole is dramatically reduced, but there is a reign of darkness for about 24 hours.

In comparison, people living in Singapore, 85 miles north of the equator, do not feel much difference, because there is only 9 minutes less sunset time in December than in June.

Which makes it ab12 hours throughout the year.

Paris has an 8 hour 14 minute long day and about 16 hours long night.

In Oslo, Norway, the sun rises at 9:18 a.m. and sets at 3:12 p.m., in less than 6 hours.

Where as in Islamabad, the sun rises at 7:08 a.m. and sets at 5:04 p.m., which makes it 10 hours.

Why does this happen?

When our earth revolves around the sun, then on the occasion of winter Solstic the sun tilts towards the south pole and is away from the northern hemisphere.

Due to this, the duration of the day decreases while in summer it is the opposite.

However, in the northern hemisphere regions, the sunrise remains the same for the next three days, even when the sunset time changes.

WHO Shows Concern as Chinese Hospitals Fill Up

China is witnessing another wave of coronavirus during the Christmas holiday season and the sources suggest that Chinese hospitals are filling up with covid infected patients.

Also, the reports suggest that ICUs in China are filling up rapidly but the mortality rate is quite low, and China reported no deaths on Wednesday.

World Health Organization (WHO) showed its concern over this situation and advised China to deal with it in more effective ways.

China followed a strict zero covid policy to safeguard the nation against coronavirus but eased many of the restrictions because of nationwide protests to lift lockdowns and restrictions.

However,, Emergency chief of WHO, Dr. Ryan said, “In China, what’s been reported is relatively low numbers of cases in ICUs, but anecdotally ICUs are filling up.”

He further added, “We’ve been saying this for weeks that this highly infectious virus was always going to be very hard to stop completely, with just public health and social measures.”

Elon Musk Looks for “Foolish” To Become Twitter Chief

Tesla CEO, Elon Musk on Tuesday disclosed he will retire as Twitter’s chief executive after he finds a replacement.

He took to his Twitter account to say “I will resign as CEO as soon as I find someone foolish enough to take the job!”

Musk further announced in a tweet that “After that, I will just run the software & servers teams.”

Musk’s statement comes following Twitter users voted for him to step down in a poll conducted by the platform’s billionaire owner.

Nearly 57.5 percent of people voted in favour of Elon Musk stelling down as Twitter chief while more than 17.5 million votes were cast in the Twitter poll.

The Tesla CEO conducted his poll after Twitter’s announcement that it would no longer allow the “free promotion” of other social media platforms which did not sit well with Twitter users and resulted in backlash.

Musk, who bought Twitter in October for $44bn, has sparked controversy after his decision of taking control of the influential social media platform.

Recently, Musk, who also runs Tesla and several other startups, temporarily barred more than half a dozen journalists after charging the media of putting his family in threat by publicizing the location of his private jet.

Musk disclosed this after modifying the site’s ‘doxxing’ rules to restrict accounts that track private planes.

Flight tracking data compiled by the United States Federal Aviation Administration is shared online by private websites such as FlightAware and Flightradar24.

Musk had earlier seemed to reject a report Twitter chief was looking for someone to take over this role by posting a laughing emoji and claiming that no one wanted the job of keeping Twitter alive.

As Elon Musk took charge of the social media giant, Tesla’s share price has declined by one-third, sparking speculation that the billionaire has come under pressure to step back from the social media platform.

Saudi Arabia to Build Tower Taller Than Burj Khalifa

Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) is planning to establish a tower structure that will be taller than Burj Khalifa.

Saudi Arabia Public Investment Fund is developing an 18-square-kilometer masterland in the north of Riyadh

The tallest building in the world is Dubai’s Burj Khalifa and its height is around 828 meters.

The new project in Saudi Arabia aims to develop a tall structure that will be twice the height of the Burj Khalifa. The height of this project will be around 2 kilometers.

Moreover, the contractors having the idea of the megastructure revealed that this undertaking will cost around $5 billion for a 2-kilometer-tall megastructure,

Meanwhile, a design competition is being held in Saudi Arabia to determine the people who will work on this massive project.

The entry of this event is said to be around $1 million.

Syngenta Pakistan Launches Crop Insurance Program

Syngenta is one of the leading agricultural companies in the world that specializes in all aspects of agriculture and its relation with technology. Syngenta aims to develop programs to save plants and improve the quality and sustainability of agriculture and agricultural products.

Syngenta recently launched a program in Pakistan which is a weather and pragmatic index-based crop insurance program in partnership with Salam Takaful Limited.

According to this program, farmers from Punjab especially from Arifwala and Vehari regions will get PKR. 8,500 pay-out amount.

All the farmers appreciated the efforts of Syngenta for transforming the agricultural scenario in Pakistan. They believe that this program will increase agricultural activities and robust growth in this sector.

Syngenta developed this program to ensure that farmers are not affected by climate change as much and to empower them by solving their problems.

Globe Residency REIT Raises PKR. 388 Million

Globe Residency REIT or GRR is a construction project that is managed by Arif Habib Dolmen REIT at Naya Nazimabad. The developmental scheme contains nine towers or buildings with apartments that will be ready for possession in 3 years.

This scheme allowed the general public to invest in the project. It also offers investors the opportunity to become investors in the Globe Residency Project in Naya Nazimabad.

The project cost is estimated to be PKR 20 billion.

Javedan Corporation Limited announced a 10% of total units in the scheme to the general public at PKR 10 per unit.

Because of this scheme, Javedan corporation limited received PKR 388 million from the general public through a two-day sale offer.

Our Workforce is Our Strength – CEO Indus Motors

Recently a major car company, Indus Motors the biggest dealer of Toyota in Pakistan announced that it will shut down its operations for ten days.

Indus Motors made the announcement as the non-issuance of letters of credit by the State Bank caused immense restrictions on imported car parts.

Due to this situation, the automobile company could not move ahead with productive activities in the company.

However, the CEO of Indus Motors, Ali Asghar Jamali stated “Our workforce is our strength, and we will not fire them during this hard time.”

He further mentioned that restrictions on their production activities have been suffering for more than six months.

Jamali added that their company believes in humanity and kindness, and even during difficult times in the past, they did not fire their employees.

He remained hopeful and suggested that “these hard times will pass soon.”

Sindh Government Mismanaged Covid Spending – Audit Body

During the coronavirus pandemic in 2019, all countries went through a tough time as millions of people died all over the world and many suffered gruesome symptoms.

A lot of financial amounts were allocated to deal with the coronavirus, to help people get treatment, to provide food and supplies to people, to avoid shortage of basic necessities of life, and to prevent the further spread of the virus.

The auditing body of Pakistan released a report regarding Sindh Government’s performance during the pandemic related to financial matters.

The report suggested that the Sindh government massively mismanaged all the expenses without any transparent accountability.

It also stated that the federal government provided 9 billion Rupees to the Sindh government to provide rations to people affected by the virus, but it was highly mismanaged.

Most of the people did not receive any aid from the Sindh Government.

CM Punjab Announces Clubs for Overseas Pakistanis

Chief Minister of Punjab, Parvez Elahi announced regularizations for overseas contract employees to address their issues.

Parvez Elahi held a meeting with Overseas Pakistanis Commissions’ (OPC) Vice Chairperson, Syed Tariq Mehmoodul Hassan to discuss issues regarding overseas Pakistani communities.

CM Punjab mentioned that regularizations for 56 Pakistani employees were in demand for a very long time, and they must be resolved quickly.

Moreover, Syed Tariq suggested that clubs will be set up for overseas Pakistanis in each divisional headquarters to address their problems and solve them.

He further added that government will hold a conference in those clubs to give a platform where overseas Pakistanis can speak their minds so their issues can be solved.

Old Design Banknotes will not be exchanged after December 31

Karachi: The Federal Government vide Gazette Notification had extended the last date for exchange ability of old banknotes of Rs 10, 50, 100 & 1000 by one year.

The holders of these old design large banknotes have been given the last chance to exchange these old design large size banknotes from the field offices of the SBP Banking Services Corporation (BSC) by 31st December 2022.

It is once again emphasized that this is the last and final deadline for exchange of such banknotes, upon expiry of which, these banknotes shall no longer be exchangeable from the counters of the SBP BSC and thus will lose their value.

The general public is therefore, requested to avail this final opportunity and get their holdings of these banknotes, if any, exchanged from SBP BSC Field Offices by 31st December 2022 and protect the value of their savings in these banknotes.

New Zealand Announces Residency Visa for Nurses

New Zealand recently made an announcement regarding the Residency visa situation for doctors and nurses.

New Zealand stated that it will give immediate residency visa to immigrant doctors and nurses.

Nation’s immigration minister, Michael Wood also mentioned that this changed policy will be implemented on the 15th of December in 2022.

Moreover, Michael Wood suggested that by 15th of December, specialist doctors and nurses will be eligible to apply for New Zealand’s Residency visa immediately.

New Zealand’s government made changes in the immigration policy program because of an acute shortage of doctors and nurses in the healthcare system.

According to a research, there is a 60% drop in the number of nurses applying for New Zealand’s immigration. Nurses and Doctors prefer to apply for other countries rather than New which has created a shortage in the country.

Some critics suggest that this shortage has happened because New Zealand doesn’t offer enticing benefits to healthcare professionals which is why specialists are not applying for the island nation.

Pakistan Airlines Increases Revenue By 2 Billion

Pakistan international airlines (PIA) collborated with Turkish airlines to begin a new venture. This venture turned out quite fruitful for PIA in terms of the revenue it generated.

According to PIA, the airlines sold around 38,000 tickets after making collaborations with Turkish airlines in just a month.

Also, PIA revealed that it generated a revenue of worth 2 billion because of this collaboration with Turkish airlines.

Pakistan international airlines partnered with Turkish airlines to begin flight operations from Lahore and Islamabad airports to Istanbul.

PIA is operating 6 flights at the moment from Lahore and Islamabad airports to Istanbul in Turkey. Most of these tickets in 38,000 are return tickets from these main two cities to Istanbul.

Analysts are impressed with commendable performance from Pakistan international airlines and believe that it’s a great news for PIA in the long run.

Messi Makes Another Record on Instagram

Lionel Messi just created history for Argentina as his team won the FIFA Worldcup Finals in Qatar 2022 after 36 years. Messi is currently celebrating his victory in his country.

But that’s not the only record he broke. He also added another record in his name on a popular social media platform.

Lionel Messi made another history as he holds the record for having the most-liked picture on Instagram. The picture he shared is of him celebrating and holding the FIFA Worldcup trophy in his hands.

His Instagram post got more than 68 million likes within a couple of hours and the numbers keep rising every minute.

Previously, the most liked picture on Instagram record was held by a simple picture of an egg which got more than 57 million likes.

Women-Only Pink Taxis in Karachi

There are several taxi services in Pakistan such as Uber, Careem, inDriver, and Bykea that are the most popular. However, all of them are mostly run by men. Drivers in these services are men.

Women for a long time have been demanding a taxi service that promotes female driving so women can feel safe going alone at any hour with a female driver without being terrified.

Sindh government has decided to answer women’s appeal.

Sindh government has decided to launch a taxi service that will have female drivers. The government will launch electric taxi services along with pink taxis that female drivers will drive for women passengers.

Sindh Transport Minister, Sharjeel Inam Memon said, “The government is going to start the electrical vehicle (EV) taxi services in Karachi. We have principally agreed to start this taxi service under the Sindh Mass Transit Authority,”

He further mentioned that the services will commence in two phases. One phase will focus on the blue taxis and other phase on pink taxis.

Google’s New Feature Allows You to Read Doctors’ messy handwriting

Many doctors write prescriptions for medicines in such a hurry that it is almost impossible for patients to understand what they have written. This problem has been around for decades and many technology companies have tried to solve it with little success.

Google is currently trying to translate these cryptic texts. The search giant announced at its annual conference in India on Monday that it is working with pharmacists to find a way to decipher doctors’ handwriting.

The feature is currently a research prototype and not yet ready for public release, but users can take a photo of a recipe or upload one from their photo library. As the images are processed, the app recognizes and highlights the drugs mentioned in the notes, as demonstrated by Google executives.

“This will act as an assistive technology for digitizing handwritten medical documents by augmenting the humans in the loop such as pharmacists, however no decision will be made solely based on the output provided by this technology,” the company said in a statement.

Apart from this AI Translate feature, Google also revealed that it is employed on a single unified model covering over 100 Indian languages in voice and text. This feature will enable millions of his Android smartphone users, including Galaxy devices, to join them on their internet journey in the South Asian market.

Sindh Assembly Passes the Bill for Human Rights

On Monday, Sindh Assembly passed a much-needed bill called, “Sindh Protection of Human Rights (Amendment) Bill, 2022” to empower and strengthen the Sindh Human Rights Commission institution.

The bill holds that the amendment will look at alternative dispute resolution methods and focus on accountability for the abuse of human rights in business settings.

The bill also suggests that Sindh Human Rights Commission should visit different business premises to view whether they are upholding human rights or not.

Moreover, according to the bill, the Sindh Human rights commission will have nine members who are experienced in the field. The Speaker of the assembly will choose two Sindh legislators to be part of the commission.

Also, the human rights commissioner will assess the working conditions of employees so that the commission can resolve their problems.

The bill suggests, “In view of the country’s international commitment to UN conventions Generalized Scheme of Preference (GSP+) and United Nations Guiding Principles on Human Rights and to make Sindh Human Rights Commission an effective institution to cater contemporary demands and challenges, the capacity and role of the SHRC is required to be strengthened and enhanced so as to make it work in a proactive and response manner and to serve as a provincial alternative dispute resolution forum, in the domain of business and human rights.”

Shaheen Shah Afridi All Set to Tie the Knot

Pakistan’s pride and cricketer Shaheen Shah Afridi is all set to tie the knot next year in February.

Shaheen Shah Afridi is Pakistan’s fast bowler who made his debut in 2018 and won hearts as he took crucial wickets in important matches.

Shaheen Shah Afridi is engaged to another famous cricketer’s daughter. He is engaged to Shahid Afridi’s daughter, Ansha Afridi.

Shahid Afridi himself confirmed the news that the two will get married on the 3rd of February next year. He also spilled some details saying that the couple will get married in an intimate Nikkah ceremony according to Afridi tribal traditions.

He also mentioned that after a decent Nikkah, the reception will also take place in Karachi.

Ansha Afridi is the eldest daughter of legend Shahid Afridi and she got engaged to Shaheen earlier this year. Fans of Shaheen Shah Afridi are wishing the couple for their happy married life ahead.

Taliban Must Stop Attacking Neighbours – UN Secretary

Tehreek e Taliban (TTP) has been carrying out several attacks in Pakistan which resulted in a number of casualties. Pakistan’s government does not contend with this situation.

Now the Secretary of the United Nations, Antonio Guterres mentions that the Taliban should stop doing terrorist attacks on its neighboring countries.

In one of the press conferences, a reporter asked the UN Chief about the cross-border terrorist attacks from the Afghan side to Pakistan.

In his response, he said, “We consider that it is absolutely essential for the Taliban not to allow any form of terrorist activity that might have an impact in relation to Pakistan, as in relation to any other country of the region.”

Advocate Appeals in Favour of Dania Shah

The ex-wife and widow of a famous media personality Aamir Liaquat Hussain, Dania Shah was arrested from Lodhran by FIA.

FIA arrested her on charges of releasing and promoting the obscene video of her late husband, Aamir Liaquat. She was sent on judicial remand to present herself before the court.

District Judge South has demanded a response from the Federal Investigative Agency regarding Dania Shah’s case.

Dania Shah’s advocate presented a bail plea in the court in favour of Dania Shah. Advocate Liaquat Gabol said, “my client was falsely implicated in the case to disenfranchise her from her right to inheritance.”

He mentioned that Dania Shah is being framed in a false case so that she cannot acquire the right to inheritance. Gabol also added that Dania Shah is innocent and she did not release any obscene video of her husband.

He further stated that Aamir Liaquat did not file any legal complain against Dania during his lifetime. Therefore, she should be free from this case.

Egyptian Companies to Invest in Pakistan

Pakistan’s Finance Minister, Ishaq Dar held a meeting in Islamabad with the Egyptian business Tycoon and CEO of an Egyptian company called Eighteen Elite Real Estate, Tarek Hamdy.

In this meeting, the Egyptian tycoon revealed his desire to work and invest in Pakistan. He said, Egyptian investors, have long-standing business relations with Pakistan in the fields of telecommunications and real estate, and are keen to deepen these relations.”

He further added that his company wants to invest in other sectors of Pakistan along with the real estate business.

Finance Minister, Ishaq Dar appreciated the contributions of Egyptian businessmen and mentioned that government always welcomes direct foreign investment.

Moreover, Dar assured that Pakistan will take necessary measures to ensure providing a conducive environment for foreign investors.

Indus Motor Company Closes Business

Within four days, two major motor car companies closed down their business. First Millat Tractor company closed down its business, and after four days, the makers of Toyota in Pakistan, Indus Motors also announced to shut down their business from 20th December to 30th December.

The company stated that they are closing down because of the non-issuance of Letters of Credit (LCs) and restrictions on the import of auto parts.

Indus Motors sent a notice to the Pakistan Stock Exchange in which they mentioned that the State Bank of Pakistan has a new mechanism, according to which the companies need approval before importing kits and components of passenger cars from other countries.

They further added that these restrictions have created hurdles in the effective functioning of the company, and affected the supply chain production activities.

Indus Motors’ notification stated “the company is unable to continue its production activities. In light of the above, the company has decided to completely shut down its production plant from December 20, 2022, to December 30, 2022 – both days inclusive.”

Analysts suggest that this condition will negatively impact the economic growth of the country and may result in unemployment on a large scale.