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Business Recorder
21 hours ago
- Business
- Business Recorder
‘Nation applauds Field Marshal's meeting with Trump': minister
LAHORE: Punjab Information Minister Azma Bokhari has said that while Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz is launching modern air ambulances to serve the people of Punjab, the KP government, by contrast, has merely introduced rickshaws — a clear reflection of the priorities of the two administrations. Commenting on the recent meeting between Pakistan's Field Marshal Asim Munir and US President Donald Trump, she said the encounter has rattled Modi's government and the 'Fitna' group, but brought pride and joy to the people of Pakistan. She added that world leaders are accorded respect on the global stage based on their national contributions, integrity, and service — as was clearly demonstrated by the warm reception given to Field Marshal Asim Munir in the United States. Speaking on Punjab's rapid development, Azma Bokhari noted that under Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz's leadership, the province is experiencing an unprecedented era of progress. As part of recent initiatives, 911 vehicles have been inducted into the 'Clinic on Wheels' fleet to ensure timely medical assistance for the public, she said. Highlighting the provincial budget 2025-26, Bokhari said it is a balanced, tax-free, and people-friendly financial plan that truly reflects a commitment to public welfare. She emphasized that the budget not only offers relief to salaried individuals but also lays the foundation for strengthening the economy by expanding the tax net. Efforts are underway to bring non-filers into the tax system, aiming to promote transparency and accountability. While addressing a joint press conference at DGPR alongside Provincial Minister for Labour and Sports, Malik Faisal Ayub, the minister information further stated that the Punjab government is making substantial investments in education, healthcare, sanitation, and transport. Under the 'Clean Punjab' campaign, exemplary cleanliness arrangements were made during Eid-ul-Azha, and soon, 1,100 eco-friendly buses will be operational across the province. Azma Bokhari praised Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz's vision, noting that she considers every public rupee a sacred trust and is steering Punjab toward sustainable growth through transparent governance. Concluding the press conference, Bokhari reiterated the government's resolve to continue working for the development and welfare of every segment of society. Copyright Business Recorder, 2025
Mint
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- Mint
Kate Middleton accused of playing the ‘cancer card' to skip Royal Ascot; was it fear of getting booed? Watch video
Prince William attended Royal Ascot alone on June 18 after Kate Middleton had withdrawn from the event at the last minute. Princes Kate, who is recovering from cancer treatment, is still finding the right balance as she slowly returns to public duties, according to PEOPLE. The Princess of Wales was originally listed to travel with William in the second royal carriage. However, her name was removed in a last-minute change shared by Ascot. Prince William was then moved to the first royal carriage, where he rode with King Charles, Queen Camilla and Prince Saud bin Khalid Al-Saud. Kate is said to be disappointed about missing the prestigious horse racing event. But, her health and well-being remain a top priority, reports claim. Meanwhile, social media users paint a different picture. Many of them claim that Kate's decision to withdraw from the event was not about her health. Kate Middleton was apparently booed by onlookers when she was in a horse carriage during the Trooping the Colour ceremony on June 14. Prince William's wife was accompanied by her children, George, Charlotte and Louis. 'Was it the boos that caused Kate Middleton to unceremoniously cancel Ascot just 20mins before? Is Kate that emboldened by the UK media that she knows she can't do no wrong?' wrote one user on X while sharing a clip of the alleged incident. 'Did Willy and her had a blowout just before? When is she going to stop pulling the pre-cancerous cells card? (sic)' the user added. 'Maybe she was worried about another carriage ride and getting booed? This way she has the headlines and sympathy of the public?' commented another. Another posted, 'There's no way this isn't linked! Guaranteed she can't handle the booing again.' 'Most of the British people cannot stand Kate because she chased Meghan and her family out of Britain. They despised Kate,' came from another. 'I hope Meghan saw this, and laughed her head off,' came from another. 'The cancer card is being used again by Kensington Palace and their British media. Vacation lover Kate Middleton is not going to be at the Royal Ascot, so KP and the BM decided to use cancer/in remission as the reason for her absence. Many things don't add up abt Kate's cancer story. She Never Had Cancer,' claimed another user.
Time of India
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- Time of India
The Weekly Vine Edition 47: Trump's Parade, Beckham's Cross, and the Death That Didn't Matter
Nirmalya Dutta's political and economic views vacillate from woke Leninist to Rand-Marxist to Keynesian-Friedmanite. He doesn't know what any of those terms mean. Hello and welcome to another issue of the Weekly Vine. This week, we take stock of Trump's boring parade, explain why brown lives matter a little less, explore the fear illusion, remember David Beckham the footballer, and reflect on borders and immigration. A Big, Beautiful, and Boring Parade When I was an insouciant kid in boarding school, I was deemed Kachra Party (KP) and exiled to the rafters during annual parades (on Independence and Republic Day) for not being able to stay in line or flail my legs in unison like my peers. Unlike the other exiled community that shares the same initials, I had no qualms about said exile. Now imagine my joy when, nearly two decades later, I saw an entire contingent march with the same disinterred gusto. One is, of course, referring to the semiquincentennial (how the hell does one pronounce that?) commemorations of the US Army, infamous for losing wars all over the world unless aided by the Red Army. Unfortunately, the anniversary coincided with chickenhawk President Donald Trump's 79th birthday, so we got a snoozefest sponsored by Coinbase, Lockheed Martin, Palantir, and a bunch of other companies. It was exactly as bad as one imagined, as the guests—much like yours truly during march pasts in boarding school—struggled to stay awake while soldiers and other members of the US Armed Forces marched with the enthusiasm of a snail returning home from a funeral on a lazy Sunday afternoon. The seats were empty because, unlike North Korea or Russia, America isn't an actual dictatorship in the traditional sense. The farce was reinforced by songs like Creedence Clearwater Revival's Fortunate Son—a track that literally mocks chickenhawks like Trump who dodged the draft—playing in the background. All in all, it was the perfect metaphor for a democracy pretending to be an authoritarian state, led by a transactional tyrant whose morals are flexible and who seems intent on destroying the liberal world order that emerged after WWII. Of course, much like Voltaire observed about the Holy Roman Empire, there was nothing particularly liberal or orderly about that world order—but that's a debate for another time. The Fear Illusion The other day, a news anchor asked on social media: 'What's happening to couples in the Northeast?'—a pretty preposterous argument to float unless one can draw a causal link suggesting that marriages are somehow more likely to end in Macbeth-like fatal murders in a particular geographical location. What it actually is, is a fine example of the Baader-Meinhof phenomenon, also known as the frequency illusion. The term originates from a 1990s online discussion where someone mentioned they'd just heard of the Baader–Meinhof Group (a German far-left militant organisation), and then suddenly began seeing references to it everywhere. The name stuck as shorthand for this type of mental glitch—and it happens to all of us. Take, for example, when you see a sign that says 'Stalking not allowed' (quite common in the national capital, where men seem to need periodic reminders about consent). Suddenly, you start noticing similar signs everywhere. It feels like the universe is messing with you, but in reality, your brain is simply tuning into something it was previously ignoring. Why it happens: The phenomenon is a combination of: Selective attention – Once your brain learns about something new, it subconsciously starts scanning for it. – Once your brain learns about something new, it subconsciously starts scanning for it. Confirmation bias – When you see it again, your brain takes note and thinks, 'Aha! I was right—it is everywhere!' Now, why am I telling you this? Because it's the basis for so many of our modern anxieties. Take the sudden barrage of news items about airplane snags after the horrific Air India crash in Ahmedabad. Suddenly, every TV channel and newspaper clipping seems to be about aviation issues—because editors and journalists aren't immune to the frequency illusion either. But is there any definitive proof that air travel is objectively less safe than it was a year ago? Not quite. It's just that our brains are wired to worry. That doesn't mean we shouldn't drag companies over the coals to ensure better quality control—but we should be diligent before jumping the gun and assuming systemic failure. The odds of dying in a plane crash are about 1 in 8 million, whereas the odds of dying in a road accident in India are around 1 in 5,000—making road travel over 1,600 times deadlier than flying. Maybe it's your daily commute you should be afraid of. Why Brown Lives Don't Matter As Much When a white police officer knelt on the neck of a Black man named George Floyd, leading to his death, it became a global movement that eventually sunk the Democratic Party. But for a time, Black Lives Matter was the most powerful social movement in the world—even the Indian cricket team, who might not be able to name a single victim of police brutality in India, took a knee in solidarity. Now, when 42-year-old Gaurav Kundi, an Indian-origin father of two, died of catastrophic brain damage after allegedly being pinned down by police in Australia, there's hardly a murmur—let alone a montage of global solidarity. Conflicting reports suggest he was intoxicated and arguing with his wife, which the police mistook for domestic violence. None of that changes the fact that a man lost his life following an altercation with law enforcement. And yet, the silence—even from the Indian press—is deafening. Perhaps it's because brown deaths don't move moral compasses. Gaurav simply doesn't evoke the same emotions as George. While that's understandable on some levels—given America's long and brutal history with race, and its compulsive need to overcorrect for its original sin—there's a deeper reason: brown lives simply don't offer the political payoff or financial traction required to fuel a global moral crusade. It's the same reason Western media outlets have no qualms referring to terrorists who murder Hindu pilgrims as 'gunmen', but would never dream of using such euphemisms if the same act occurred in Paris, London, or New York. Moral outrage, like everything else in this post-liberal order, is market-driven. And Gaurav Kundi's death, tragically, just doesn't sell. Sir David Beckham 'Beckham, into Sheringham… and Solskjaer has won it!''Manchester United have reached the promised land.' The corner came in like a hymn. Beckham's delivery—whipped, precise, inevitable—was scripture in motion. In the annals of football, there are players who pass, players who dribble, players who score. But there was no one who could bend it like Beckham. Or to paraphrase Leonard Cohen: David had a secret chord that pleased the United fans of the current vintage, it's hard to forget how good Beckham and his mates were and how terrifying it was for opposing teams when they played together. Because at that moment we were all in a Gurinder Chadha film, hoping to bend it like Beckham and if we couldn't copy his mohawk hairstyle, much to the chagrin of mothers and teachers. You had Ryan Giggs running like a cocker spaniel chasing a silver piece of paper. You had Roy Keane looking at you menacingly as he covered every blade of grass. You had Paul Scholes hitting the ball with such power that it took Sir Alex Ferguson's breath away. And you had David Beckham pinging crosses and passes with such accuracy that it seemed barely human. It's easy to forget now, with the beard oils and whisky launches, the sarongs and showmanship, that before he became a brand, Beckham was a baller. And not just a decent one. A magnificent one. Read more. Post-Script by Prasad Sanyal: The Border Isn't Where You Think It Is There's an old video of Milton Friedman doing the rounds on Instagram. Sepia-toned, clipped, and inconveniently intelligent, it shows the economist calmly explaining why immigration worked better before 1914—largely because there was no welfare system. Immigrants came to work, not to collect benefits. And in that measured, almost surgical voice, Friedman drops the line that still makes policy wonks twitch: 'You can't have free immigration and a welfare state.' Read more. Facebook Twitter Linkedin Email Disclaimer Views expressed above are the author's own.
Business Recorder
4 days ago
- Politics
- Business Recorder
Reserved seats case: SC CB accepts KP govt's plea, issues notices to PML-N, PPP & ECP
ISLAMABAD: The Constitutional Bench of the Supreme Court in reserved seats case, while accepting the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa provincial government's application, issued notices to the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), and the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP). An 11-member Constitutional Bench, headed by Justice Aminuddin Khan, on Monday, heard the review petitions of PML-N, PPP and the ECP. The proceeding was live-streamed on the Supreme Court's YouTube channel. Advocate General KP submitted that the KP government and the KP speaker are the necessary and the proper parties; therefore, they should be impleaded in review petitions against the Supreme Court majority judgment of eight judges. 'The applicants have valuable rights and interests in the matter in issue i.e. allocation of reserved seats, which is directly affected by the consolidated judgment dated 12-07-2024,' he stated. During the proceeding, Faisal Siddiqui, representing the Sunni Ittehad Council (SIC), argued that Article 254 of the constitution seems to apply to his case, as when any act or thing is required by the Constitution to be done within a particular period and it is not done within that period, the doing of the act or thing shall not be invalid or otherwise, ineffective by reason only that it was not done within that period. Muhammad Ali Mazhar questioned how when the PTI-backed independents had already joined the SIC within three days of their victory notification by the ECP. He said Article 254 is not to rectify mistake or error, but it is for coverage of an act or thing that is required to be done in a particular period and is not done within that particular period. Justice Jamal Khan Mandokhail remarked that if the independents have not joined the SIC then you (the SIC) are nobody before the Court. Justice Salahuddin Panhwar said if a thing is to be done in a particular manner then it should be done in that particular manner. He said when Article 51 says that the independent candidates have to join any political parties within three days of their victory notification then why the majority judgment gave them 15 days to join PTI. Justice Mandokhail noted that the majority judgment has not declared 41 candidates, out of 80, as members of a political party then it means those 41 candidates are still independents, and the ECP had made a mistake only upto 39 candidates. He said those candidates who in their nomination paper had mentioned that they are independent then the Court has no right to tell them to join such and such party. Faisal Siddiqui argued that Justice Yahya's judgment said that all the 80 independent candidates' cases be remanded to the Commission. He then contended that the majority judgment stated that the independents could not join the SIC. Justice Mandokhail corrected him by saying that the independents could not join the SIC only for the purpose of reserved seats, adding how come anyone be barred from joining a political party, then it would be a violation of Article 17(2) of the constitution. Justice Amin noted that all the 13 judges in their judgments declared that if a political party is not in the Parliament then it is not entitled for the reserved seats. Justice Mandokhail said for reserved seat a political party is required to contest elections and win at least one seat. He then asked from Faisal how many independent candidates had mentioned PTI in their nomination papers? Justice Mandokhail noted that only 14 candidates, out of 80, described in nomination forms that they are affiliated with PTI and filed the PTI's certificate with their papers before the Commission. 'But we thought the ECP might have misplaced documents of some candidates therefore wrote in judgment that 39 candidates are members of PTI. Justice Mazhar said that the majority judgment despite the fact that the PTI was not necessary and proper party before the Court granted it relief by invoking Article 254, adding Rule 94 of the Election Rules was struck down by exercising the suo moto jurisdiction. He further said as the seats were given to PTI by the majority judgment, therefore now the SIC is espousing their (PTI) right. Faisal said; 'I am neither supporting the SIC, nor the PTI, but only support the majority judgment.' He mentioned that the 90 per cent judgment of Justice Mandokhail and ex-CJP Qazi Faez is similar to the majority judgment. The case was adjourned until today (Tuesday). Copyright Business Recorder, 2025
Business Recorder
6 days ago
- Business
- Business Recorder
‘KP has placed Rs150bn in Debt Management Fund for repayment of loans'
PESHAWAR: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government has put Rs150billion in Debt Management Fund to timely ensure repayment of the hovering debts of the province. Speaking at a post-budget press conference here on Saturday, Advisor to Finance and Interprovincial Coordination Muzammil Aslam informed that a Debt Management Fund was created to ensure timely repayment of government's loans and improve financial stability. He added the total volume of KP debts stand near Rs709billion, which will be gradually repaid through this debt management fund. KP Finance advisor said the government is gaining daily profit Rs60million through putting Rs150Billion in the Debt Management Fund. In fiscal year 2024-25, according to budget documents, the provincial government repaid a significant Rs 49 billion in outstanding loans, which included Rs 18 billion in mark-up. He hoped the KP will achieve income of Rs17 to Rs18 Billion from Debt Management Fund. Advisor Finance said the government has no plan to get new loans in the next financial year 2025-26. He, however, said the government would gain a loan, if in case of launching any new project in the province. Flanked by Secretary Finance Amer Sultan Tareen and other administrative secretaries and senior officers of all departments concerned, Muzammil Aslam said KP had never received full payment on head of NFC and Net hydel profit. He said the KP government is expecting to receive full payment of Rs 70 Billion from the centre in the next fiscal year. Finance advisor explained the Federal government was giving Rs 3Billion on monthly basis to KP on head of payment of net-hydel. Responding to various queries of reporters, Muzammil Aslam said KP government has increased its annual development financing upto Rs 153Billion. He said the government has offered 30 forms of allowances to government employees. Out of secretariat employees' disparity allowance increased by 30 percent, he said. He said salaries of police were equalized to Punjab police, besides a 10 percent increase made in police salaries. To another question, Muzammil Aslam said 810 development schemes worth Rs 500Billion have been included in the FY 2025-26. In the current financial year, he said the government had allocated Rs 156Billion for settled areas. He added that over Rs 145Billion had so far been released for settled districts in the outgoing fiscal year. Out of allocated Rs 41Billion, he explained over Rs 26Billion had so far been released for merged districts under Accelerated Implementation Program (AIP) in the current fiscal year. In the outgoing fiscal year, Muzammil Aslam furthermore said KP had received Rs 74Billion out of Rs 143Billion on head of foreign assistance and grants. Finance advisor said the government has allocated Rs 278Billion through its own resources for various development schemes in the next fiscal year. He said professional tax will be imposed on those who are earning Rs 40,000/month. He said the period of throw forward has been reduced to 5.1 year from 10 years. He said funds for public sector universities have been increased from Rs 3Billion to Rs10Billion. Of the total budgetary allocation, Muzammil said the government is spending 36.5 percent of the budget on education and health sector. To a question regarding imposition of tax on erstwhile Fata and Pata, he said tax was imposed on demand of the business community of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. He said the federal government has imposed sales tax on former Fata and Pata, and it has maintained exemptions of income tax and withholding tax in these regions. KP Advisor on Finance on the occasion criticized the federal and Punjab governments for not allowing him to meet with PTI patron in chief and founder Imran Khan. He said his meeting with party founder Imran Khan to hold discussion on the budget proposals. He said the federal government has duty to arrange a meeting with PTI founder Imran Khan. We wanted to take the device and directions from Imran Khan on the budget proposals. He said this issue was also raised by Chief Minister Ali Amin Gandapur, who was allowed to meet with Imran Khan. He, however, said the government will take any decision after consultation with party founder Imran Khan and other leadership. Copyright Business Recorder, 2025
