Long wait Ends: New Zealand confirms Pakistan’s tour after 18 years

Posted on by Ali Qasim

Lahore (Nut-Desk)

New Zealand Cricket (NZC) have confirmed their tour to Pakistan after long 18 years, the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) confirmed on Thursday.

According to the announced schedule, New Zealand will tour Pakistan to play three ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup Super League ODIs and five T20Is in September-October.

Rawalpindi’s Pindi Cricket Stadium will host the three ODIs on 17, 19 and 21 September, whereas Gaddafi Stadium will stage the five T20Is from 25 September to 3 October.

The ICC World Test Championship winners will return to Pakistan next year to play Test matches.

New Zealand will be the first side to visit Pakistan in what will be a bumper 2021-22 season for the local cricket fans and supporters. Following New Zealand’s tour, England’s men and women sides will play white-ball matches in Pakistan before West Indies are expected to arrive in Karachi in December for three ODIs and three T20Is. Australia is scheduled to undertake a full tour in February/March 2022.

It must be noted here that New Zealand last toured Pakistan in November 2003 when they played five ODIs. A year before, their last Test appearance in Pakistan was at the Gaddafi Stadium in May 2002.

Series schedule

11 Sep – Arrival in Islamabad
12-14 Sep – Room isolation
15-16 Sep – Training/practice/intra-squad match
17 Sep – 1st ODI, Rawalpindi
19 Sep – 2nd ODI, Rawalpindi
21 Sep – 3rd ODI, Rawalpindi
25 Sep – 1st T20I, Lahore
26 Sep – 2nd T20I, Lahore
29 Sep – 3rd T20I, Lahore
1 Oct – 4th T20I, Lahore
3 Oct – 5th T20I, Lahore

 

Shehroze Kashif visited the IMGC’s LHR Office.

Posted on by Ali Qasim

Lahore (Nut-Desk)

Shehroze Kashif, world’s youngest climber to summit K-2, second highest peak in the world visited the Lahore Office of International Multi group of companies (IMGC) today.

Mr. Abid Rasheed Sheikh senior representative from IMGC, welcomed the young icon and congratulated him to becoming the pride of the Nation. Shehroze Kashif visited different sections of the office and passed some time with Office management and staff.

Shehroze Kashif is the youngest Pakistani to summit Everest on 11 May 2021. He climbed Everest at the age of 19.After the successful summit of Mount Everest, Pakistan sports Board made him the youth ambassador of Punjab , Pakistan.

He summited Broad Peak (another 8000-meter mountain) at the age of 17, after which he was called “The Broad Boy”. He started climbing mountains at the age of 11 with the first one being Makra Peak, followed by Musa ka Musalla and Chembra Peak at age 12, Mingli Sar in Shimshal age 13 and Khurdopin Pass at age 15 and Khusar Gang in alpine style at 18 years of age.

COVID-19 positivity rate goes over 9% for first time in 3 months.

Posted on by Ali Qasim

Lahore (Nut-Desk)

Pakistan’s COVID-19 positivity rate jumped to 9.06% Thursday morning, marking the first time in nearly three months that the country has recorded a positivity rate over 9%. Last time, the country last recorded a coronavirus positivity rate of 9.12% on May 10.

The National Command and Operation Centre’s (NCOC) latest data showed a rapid increase in the number of daily cases and deaths and active cases as Pakistan continues its fight against a deadly fourth wave of the virus. The NCOC reported 5,661 new coronavirus infections over the last 24 hours after 62,462 tests were taken.

Another 60 people died of the COVID-19, pushing the national death tally to 23,635. The number of active cases are 77,409. The number of recovered patients stands at 952,616 and the total cases of the country are 1,053,660, NCOC’s stats showed.

According to a province-wise breakdown, the total number of cases in Sindh has reached 392,433, 146,485 in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 360,494 in Punjab, 89,117 in Islamabad, 30,880 in Balochistan, 25,778 in Azad Jammu and Kashmir and 8,473 in Gilgit-Baltistan.

Sindh is currently under a lockdown till August 8, while the Punjab and AJK governments, too, have imposed a partial lockdown. Punjab’s lockdown covers Lahore, Rawalpindi, Multan and Faisalabad.

WhatsApp rolls out ‘View Once’ feature that deletes photos, videos after opening.

Posted on by Ali Qasim

Lahore (Nut-Desk)

WhatsApp has rolled out a new feature called ‘View Once’, that deletes photos and videos from the chat after they have been opened, giving users even more control over their privacy. For added privacy, you can now send photos and videos that disappear from your WhatsApp chat after the recipient has opened them once.

“Media will not be saved to the recipient’s Photos or Gallery. Once you send a view once photo or video, you won’t be able to view it again,” WhatApp said in a statement on Tuesday.

To provide users with a chance to share the moment with others and not leave a digital footprint, WhatsApp has rolled out “View Once” photos and videos that disappear from the chat after they’ve been opened, giving users greater control over their privacy.

For example, you might send a “View Once” photo of some new clothes you’re trying on at a store, a quick reaction to a moment in time, or something sensitive like a Wi-Fi password.

“As with all the personal messages you send on WhatsApp, ‘View Once’ media is protected by end-to-end encryption so WhatsApp cannot see them,” the messaging app’s blog said.

They will also be clearly marked with a new “one-time” icon. After the media has been viewed, the message will appear as “opened” to avoid any confusion about what was happening in the chat at the time.

We’re rolling out the feature to everyone starting this week and are looking forward to feedback on this new way to send private and disappearing media, the messaging app said.

More features:

  • Media will not be saved to the recipient’s photos or gallery.
  • Once you send a ‘view once’ photo or video, you won’t be able to view it again.
  • You can’t forward, save, star, or share photos or videos that were sent or received with ‘view once’ media enabled.
  • You can only see if a recipient has opened a view once photo or video if they have read receipts turned on.
  • If you don’t open the photo or video within 14 days of it being sent, the media will expire from the chat.
  • You must select view once media each time you want to send a view once photo or video.
  • View once media can be restored from backup if the message is unopened at the time of backup. If the photo or video has already been opened, the media will not be included in the backup and can’t be restored.

Arshad Nadeem, Pakistan’s last hope for Tokyo’s Olympic glory.

Posted on by Ali Qasim

Lahore (Nut-Desk)

Pakistani athlete Arshad Nadeem has impressed fans at home and abroad after qualifying for the Tokyo Olympics 2020 Men’s javelin throw final. In his first attempt, the 24 years old Pakistani athlete could reach the 78.5m mark but in the second attempt, Arshad created history with a throw of 85.16m that also placed him on top of group B.

This was overall the third-best throw in the contest after India’s Neeraj Chopra (86.65m) and Germany’s Johannes Vetter (85.64m).

Arshad Nadeem is the first-ever Pakistani athlete to qualify for the final of any track and field event in the Olympics.

Pakistanis on social media are looking towards Nadeem to make the nation proud by ending its Olympic drought and bagging the first medal of the Tokyo Olympics 2020 when he performs in the final round on August 7.

This is also Arshad’s third-best throw in a competition. Earlier this year, Arshad threw the javelin to a distance of 86.39m for his personal best and a national record during the Imam Reza championship in Iran. Earlier in 2019, he threw 86.29m at South Asian Games in Nepal.

So, one can safely say that Arshad’s best is yet to come and hope that the best comes at the final on 7th August, which is scheduled to commence at 4:00pm Pakistan time.

Mansha Pasha’s phone blows up while charging

Posted on by Ali Qasim

Lahore (Nut-Desk)

Prominent Actress Star Mansha Pasha has revealed that her mobile phone blew up next to the television while on charge. Laal Kabotar star has expressed her gratitude that no one was harmed after her smartphone went off while charging.

“My phone just blew up,” the actor wrote, sharing photos of her blackened phone with a crumpled screen.

Mansha called the accident “super dangerous” but was grateful that it didn’t cause harm to anyone. “This is an older model I gave to someone to use and it blew up next to the TV while on charge.”

She has lost her data that she didn’t transfer to her new phone.

“Thank God it wasn’t in anyone’s hands when it blew up.”

Mansha Pasha, who is an avid social media user, shared her stunning photos on Instagram and won the hearts of the fans. She is followed by one million followers on the Facebook-owned app.

 

Pak Nation is observing Youm-e-Istehsal Kashmir today

Posted on by Ali Qasim

Lahore (Nut-Desk)

Pakistan is observing Youm-e-Istehsal Kashmir today to express solidarity with the people of Kashmir, as it marks two years of Indian occupied Kashmir’s(IoK) military siege.

Two years ago, on August 5 2019, the Narendra Modi government revoked the territory’s special status, withdrawing the autonomous status that the Kashmiris and Pakistan have vehemently opposed since then.

A host of events have been arranged in order to denounce the Indian unilateral, illegal actions against the Kashmiri people. Solidarity walks of one mile will be arranged in all the main cities, including the federal capital.

The participants of the walk will wear black bands and carry the flags of Pakistan and Azad Kashmir. A one-minute silence was observed across the country while traffic was also halted for a minute, and sirens were sounded. Radio and television channels will play Pakistan and Azad Kashmir’s national anthems immediately after the one-minute silence.

A rally was also arranged at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to mark the day. Speaking to the rally, President Alvi said no Pakistani will rest until occupied Kashmir, under Indian military siege, is not liberated.

“Pakistan will liberate occupied Kashmir,” he said. “Let me warn India that Pakistan is a strong nation,” he added.

President Alvi said that Kashmir was to become part of Pakistan at the time of partition, if it were not for India’s wrongful actions. He said Islamabad would not hold talks with New Delhi until it reversed its August 5 actions.

He said India was changing the demographics of occupied Kashmir to suit its agenda, adding that New Delhi had trampled the principles of freedom and was setting back efforts to restore peace in the region.

Speaking to the media, Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi said Pakistan will continue to support oppressed Kashmiris. “A day will come when they get the freedom from Indian occupation. Indian Aug 5 actions have been rejected by the people of Kashmir and the rest of the world,” he noted.

 

Mahira Khan’s new play “Hum Kahan ke sachay thay” OST released

Posted on by Ali Qasim

Lahore (Nut-Desk)

Hum Kahan Ke Sachay Thay is a drama based on the novel titled ‘Hum Kahan Ke Sachay Thay’ by Umera Ahmed. This project is marking Mahira Khan’s comeback on Television after 6 years. It has already garnered a lot of attention because the novel has been widely read, therefore the novel readers, as well as drama viewers, are eagerly waiting to see how the story has been dramatized.

Hum Kahan ke Sachay thay addresses the childhood trauma. Dealing with a sensitive issue at hand and representing characters who have many layers to them, it was essential for the OST of the drama to convey the pain experienced by the characters. The track sung by Yashal Shahid achieves just that as the singer does a phenomenal job with the vocals. The lyrics encapsulate the sense of loss that characters like Mehreen (played by Mahira Khan) feel in the drama, while the Azan Sami’s soft music makes way for the vocalist to fully explore her potential without overwhelming the listeners.

Directed by Farooq Rind, Hum Kahan Ke Sachay Thay opens up with three cousins Mehreen, Aswad, and Mashal in their early teens. Three of them are first cousins and share an unbreakable bond. Mashal, a young pretty girl from the elite household, whereas Mehreen who is also her ‘phuppo ki beti’ is a troubled child after her parents’ break up and her father’s death. Aswad (Usman Mukhtar), a cousin of both – who lives abroad – adores Mehreen and this makes Mashal and her mother Shugufta (Zainab Qayyum) jealous.

Microsoft Paint gets a new look in Windows 11 operating system

Posted on by Ali Qasim

Lahore (Nut-Desk)

With much anticipation and hype built around Windows 11 which arrives before the year end, come the refreshed versions of Microsoft Paint and Photos.

Initially spotted by Windows Latest, Microsoft has quietly posted pics of the two refreshed apps on stock photography website Unsplash.

As you might expect, the refresh updates the MS Paint app to better fit in with the overall Windows 11 design.

The old ribbon menu is bids its final goodbye once and for all and with it all our nostalgia with the app as it’s being replaced by a Fluent header.

In its revamped look, the MS Paint’s simplified toolbar has reportedly replaced the Undo and Redo buttons up at the top next to the File and View options.

Last, but not the least to be noted, the whole new packaging has rounded corners and WinUI controls as well. WinUI is a user interface layer that contains modern controls and styles for building Windows apps.

However, it doesn’t appear, not as yet anyway, that there are any additional functions and new tools. But whom are we kidding, MS Paint was never a full-featured graphics editor in the vein of Photoshop.

Asim Bajwa resigns as CPEC Authority chairman

Posted on by Ali Qasim

Lahore (Nut-Desk)

Lt Gen (retd) Asim Saleem Bajwa has stepped down as the chairman of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) Authority. Bajwa confirmed his departure in a series of tweets saying he will be replaced by Khalid Mansoor as the CPEC Authority head.

“I bow my head before Allah Almighty for giving me an opportunity to raise & steer the important institution of CPEC Authority as one window for all CPEC projects, charting the future direction. [It] wouldn’t have been possible without full confidence& support of the PM & his Govt,” he tweeted.

“The course is set for future progression of CPEC, this journey will go on,” he continued.

“My best wishes to Kahlid Mansoor sb, who is fully equipped to take it forward. CPEC is life line for Pakistan, it will transform us into a progressive and fully developed country InshaAllah.”

NUT sources said Prime Minister Imran Khan has approved the appointment of Khalid Mansoor as his special assistant on CPEC and on Tuesday, Prime Minister Imran Khan appointed Khalid Mansoor as his special assistant on China-Pakistan Economic Corridor affairs, resulting in the resignation of chairman of CPEC Authority, Lt Gen (retd) Asim Saleem Bajwa.