The Pakistan Stock Exchange ended Wednesday’s trading session on a negative note, with the benchmark KSE-100 index losing 194.38 points, or 0.40 per cent, by the close of the trading session to reach 48,495.04.
Volumes were led by power generation and distribution companies and commercial banking stocks as volumes surged in a fairly volatile session.
"Stocks closed sharply lower on institutional profit taking in the post earnings season," said Ahsan Mehanti from Arif Habib Corp.
"Dismal CPI inflation data for April'17 invited support in banking stock likely surge in bond yields. Pre-budget uncertainty, foreign outflows and major fall in global crude prices played a catalyst role in bearish close at PSX," he added.
134.9 million shares had changed hands by the end of the session, with a total worth of nearly Rs9.9 billion.
Stocks of 370 companies were traded, of which 132 gained in value, 220 declined and 18 remained unchanged.
Red carpet, free snacks, celebrities... free snacks. (Sometimes they don't have free snacks and we do not appreciate that at all, but that rant is for another time.)
All in all, it's a pretty happening event and eventually you detect a method to the madness — the showtime is rarely ever when they say it is, the major celebrities often don't turn up on the red carpet until you're already seated in the cinema, etc etc.
After a while, you also start noticing a pattern to the people who attend movie premieres.
Here are 5 kinds of people you're bound to spot at a Pakistani movie premiere.
1) The 'mufta'
Anyone who asks Iss film may hai kaun? at a movie premiere clearly just had some time to kill... and a free movie ticket. This person is often a more important person's plus one and tends to lose their partner who is busy schmoozing with other VIPs.
The mufta is spotted lounging about, phoro-ing on free popcorn and drinks, and expects to be entertained in the next few hours.
Let's hope they didn't get a premiere pass to Raasta...
Better yet, let's hope they did. #ThatWillTeachThem
2) The PR phupho
Now this person takes movie premieres far more seriously. She (or he, you'd be surprised) turns it into a family excursion.
The said phupho probably has an aisle booked in her name and gets offended when organisers didn't think to keep a seat for her sister's brother-in-law's best friend's son's possible fiancee. If she can't demonstrate her connections, how else will the poor lad impress the girl.
You'll immediately recognise this person as they'll be the one yelling at some staffer about not letting in their family. You can't miss them — they're loud and screechy, we're talking "Who gives you that right!?" screechy.
3) The celeb swarm
Lots of people are invited to movie premieres 'cos they're famous. Not the actors in the film but just the stars of the industry. Together, they are there to support their friends, but end up hogging the seats. This is a problem when cinemas are overbooked. #Scowl
It's easy to spot these guys, even if you're not good with faces. These celebs (who insist that they are 'just like us') show up in gowns and tuxes, blending in oh so well with the rest of us in a kurta and jeans (pick any outfit you guys, you know what we're saying).
But hey, we don't mind, selfie please!
4) The star-struck
Some people just show up to take a picture of Mahira Khan.
Those people have zero qualms about stepping on toes, elbowing people squarely in the chest and brushing against unmentionable areas to get to the right spot near the red carpet to accomplish said task.
These fellas don't care about the movie. In fact, most will leave after the first ten minutes because they've Snapchatted their proof of being there. They only want a couple of selfies with the stars and are so desperate for them they'll take pics with anyone and everyone in the movie just for connections.
Sometimes they're a lil' creepy. Distinguishable features include heavy breathing, a leering glare and a hoarse whisper saying "Selfie pliss." These people should be sent home without popcorn or movie.
5) The over dressed
These pretty folks are not in the movie, and probably not there to cover it. They are there because they got the last HSY direct from ramp ensemble and need to flaunt it. And no, they aren't models either, although they do look like they catwalked all the way here.
Usually socialites who have to be where the party's at, these people have enough couture on them to have a mobile exhibition right there on the red carpet. The media usually confuses them for some celebrity, not because of any resemblance but because their outfits make it difficult to look anywhere else.
We might be jealous, but when we see their painful shoes, we feel more pity.
KARACHI : What might seem very easy to us while attending a stand-up comedy act is rarely as easy to achieve. A comedian’s job is not only to quote and create funny situations but it also entails looking at the most serious scenarios and presenting them in a funny fashion.
Which is why it is common practice to start by making jokes about your own personality, looks or race, before you pick on someone else’s. However, not everything in the world is there to be laughed about in public , perhaps that’s why American actor and comedian Steve Martin says, “Comedy is the art of making people laugh without making them puke,” and we all have been puking since Friday night – courtesy Yasir Hussain.
Hussain who hosted the Hum Awards reportedly said “Itna khoobsurat child molester; kaash mae bhi bacha hota” as Ahsan Khan bagged the award for Udaari, a drama serial that addresses the vice of child abuse.
Since then, countless people on social media have gone on a rampage against Yasir while a select few have been requesting to give him the room for human error, for what he has already apologised for in a video post the entire episode and backlash.
A music producer from the industry was furious enough to write. “So does a public apology get someone off the hook for using child abuse as humour? Not in my proverbial book, no f***** way” and in all our fairness, I agree with him. This is way above and beyond any film or a morning show appearance; this is misuse of the stage and the microphone.
What Hussain displayed on stage was a total lack of self and social awareness. Every environment and social setting requires different sensibilities when it comes to humour and he bypassed all of them, landing us, as a society, to a point of no return. I’ll give Yasir this much room that the line between what is funny and what may make you puke is never clearly visible.
Gaffes happen irrespective of someone’s educational level, cultural background and social standing but one can always develop a sense for it. A joke you may think works within your close circle of friends may be very offensive to someone else. In a different social setting such as public forums, like the telly or award shows, require an especially keen sense of awareness. What Yasir pulled off is a potentially career-ending gaffe.
If you haven’t developed that sense of virtue, even after spending quite some time in an industry that heavily relies on being in the limelight and giving public statements then you’re clearly a misfit, an anomaly. And especially in an ideal world not ready for any further social experiments. But the question remains, do we live in an ideal society? Or, on second thoughts, leave the society alone, how about an ideal entertainment industry? Not really. In fact, not at all. Like in the case of Mashal Khan, the spectators who did not protest are as much to blame as the murderers.
For all the ‘celebs’ who claim to be making run of the mill serials, films, adverts, in order to meet the requirements of the ‘lowest common denominator’ must realise that when they laughed that night, with them, we as a society had our last laugh. When they kept silent that night and did not resist, Yasir’s one-liner became our killing joke.
If a social crime is tossed like a fart joke in a public gathering and the who’s who of the industry tries to hold on to it like charity then you realise what you’re made of, and no sense of false modesty is going to save you from yourself. Perhaps you are the real lowest common denominator, for at least the ‘masses’ don’t live in any sense of denial about their moral necessities and social bindings. You are the problem; your false sense of moral accuracy is the problem and the fact that you’re still looking for the elephant in the room, is the problem.
What took place on Friday night at the 5th Hum Awards was just the beginning of a downhill journey; Yasir Hussain is one in a long line of showmen and women who have been given the stage without realising what it takes to be a public figure and more so a public speaker. And trust me others will follow, if we let it die out like the dwarf joke last year. Some egos must be burnt and a lot more lamps must be lit for us to comprehend the darkness of this matter.
We need to look in the mirror and for once, shatter our faces instead of the mirror. This is no longer a slip of tongue; this is a slip of sanity and whatever it takes you to be considered a community. Zabt lazim hai magar dukh hai qayamat ka Faraz, zalim ab ke bhi na royega toh mar jayega.
The federal government has appointed Riaz Riazuddin as the acting Governor of the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP), a notification issued on central bank's website stated.
Riazuddin, who had been serving as a deputy governor at SBP, has been appointed as governor for a period of three months or "till the appointment of a regular governor".
Former central bank chief Ashraf Wathra's tenure had ended on April 28, and the SBP had decided not to renew his contract.
The development came hours before the Supreme Court summoned the SBP governor to court on Friday and rejected the SBP's nominees for a joint investigation team that will be investigating Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and his two sons' business dealings abroad.
After Shah, all eyes have been on Adnan Sarwar's next project. And it looks like Sohai Ali Abro will be a part of it.
The filmmaker recently announced that his second film will be a biopic of The Motorcycle Girl, that is, 20-year-old Zenith Irfan, who is said to be the first Pakistan woman to have made a solo journey through the country's north. In the latest press release, it's been announced that Sohai Ali Abro will play Zenith's character in the film.
Zenith Irfan posing with her motorcycle — Photo courtesy Zenith's Facebook
Sohai's announcement comes as a surprise and we wonder whether she wants to break out of the mould with a de-glammed role like Zenith's. Sohai has a sizable fan following and this will help boost the film's profile among mainstream cinema audiences.
Sohai says, "It is absolute honour to play Zenith in his film. The role of this incredible, empowered female is one that I can relate to and is close to my heart. I have always believed in the liberating the power of our women, especially considering the taboos we face in our society, and I am really happy that a lot of young girls would be able to look up to me for doing something positive and inspiring."
Zenith's journey has a touching backstory and we're sure it will make for a great film. The film is scheduled for a late 2017 release.
ISLAMABAD: The National Assembly’s Standing Committee on Water and Power on Wednesday expressed concerns about the performance of K-Electric, with some members saying that the whole idea of privatising the entity was flawed.
Syed Waseem Hussain of the MQM said almost all residents of Karachi are protesting against the power company for overbilling and loadshedding.
“I would like to draw your attention to the letter by the Ministry of Water and Power to the National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (Nepra), stating that overbilling amounted to Rs60 billion,” he told committee chairman Arshad Khan Leghari.
However, the committee was informed that both K-Electric and Nepra rejected the claims the ministry made in the letter.
Briefing the committee, Water and Power Secretary Yousaf Naseem Khokhar said the new buyer of K-Electric — Shanghai Electric Power — will invest $9bn in the company.
The secretary said the ministry will review the entire case of K-Electric in coming days to determine if the new buyer will be able to operate the entity efficiently as the existing management failed to achieve this task.
Mr Khokhar said K-Electric has not improved its own generation and distribution systems and is relying on 650-megawatt electricity from the national grid.
The committee was informed that the chief executives of all electricity distribution companies (Discos) were empowered to adjust power supply according to their priorities.
Talking to the media after the meeting, Mr Khokhar acknowledged that the privatisation of K-Electric did not achieve the desired objective.
He said the amount of subsidy is around Rs125bn. However, the agriculture tube well package and sales tax refunds are some of the key issues that are yet to be resolved.
The committee formed a sub-committee headed by Nawab Muhammad Yousuf Talpur to look into the issues facing Sindh-based Discos and submit its recommendations.
The chief executive officer of Peshawar Electric Supply Company informed the committee that KP is a loadshedding-free province, except those areas that have high losses or system constraints.
He claimed that 164 feeders in Peshawar are loadshedding free.
Apple on Thursday opened its brand new retail store in Dubai’s Dubai Mall.
Perched right above Dubai Fountain, the store has a 186-foot curved storefront and a balcony which overlooks Burj Khalifa and offers beautiful views.
Apple Dubai Mall will also serve as a venue to watch the spectacular evening fountain shows and will host Apple’s new global in-store experience, Today at Apple announced.
Thousands of customers gather at Apple Dubai Mall for the grand opening on Thursday afternoon. PHOTO: APPLE
“We view our stores as a modern-day town square, where visitors come to shop, be inspired, learn or connect with others in their community,” said Angela Ahrendts, Apple’s senior vice president, Retail.
“And what better place to come together than overlooking Dubai’s epicenter, where the Dubai Fountain, Burj Khalifa and Dubai Mall meet. We are so honoured to have a home at one of the world’s most incredible and dynamic intersections.”
Apple Dubai mall is unique. The third store in UAE, the store’s motorised ‘Solar Wings’ respond to changing environmental conditions. When the sun is at its hottest, they will cool the store. In the evenings, they open up to allow visitors onto the public terrace.
Inspired by the the traditional Arabic Mashrabiya, each ‘Solar Wing’ is locally fabricated from 340 carbon fiber reinforced polymer rods, and at 180 feet wide, the 18 panels make up one of the world’s largest kinetic art installations.
All of the store’s 148 employees are ready to welcome customers from around the world and speak a collective 45 languages. Apple’s location overlooking the lake will stay open as late as midnight to everyone exploring the area.
Apple Dubai Mall employees collectively speak 45 languages and are trained to assist customers from across the globe. PHOTO: APPLE
XXX leading man Vin Diesel has finally spoken up about working with Deepika Padukone in his next film — and he has nothing but praise for the Indian actress.
"I've wanted to work with Deepika for a long time. We were very close to working together in Furious 7," he begins.
Deepika Padukone's fans were delighted when it was rumoured that she'll be the Fast & Furious gal in the seventh installment of the franchise. And it turns out that they weren't the only ones disappointed when that didn't materialise.
"I've been dying to work with someone from Bollywood and bridge that gap. I think there something very multicultural about that, and very exciting," he explained.
If Deepika is experiencing any nervousness about her Hollywood debut, this shout-out ought to put her at ease:
"I think she's going to be such a delight. I think the world's going to go crazy over her character," he gushed.
Deepika is set to play Serena, a huntress who will help Xander on his latest mission, in the upcoming film. She begins shooting with the crew next month.
The New Republican Health-Care Plan Is Single-Payer for Dummies
It’s important to understand what the GOP is trying to do.
Every time some upstanding leftist brings up
single-payer health care, the punditocracy dismisses them as deluded fantasists
without any understanding of the realities of government or markets. But House Republicans
are apparently going to vote tomorrow on an Obamacare replacement framework
that accepts the entire logic of single-payer. It just does it in the dumbest
way imaginable.
Let’s understand what House Republicans are
trying to do. The American Health
Care Act is described as a repeal to Obamacare. But the party’s constituents
and even the president
of the United States don’t favor such a move, or at least don’t want to
deal with the consequences of denying someone coverage because of a
pre-existing condition. Yet this is precisely what the House Freedom Caucus
demands, based on their belief that “Obamacare regulations” (like insurance
companies having to accept sick people) are raising prices.
So an amendment
negotiated between the Freedom Caucus and a moderate Republican backbencher
from New Jersey named Tom McArthur gives states the ability to obtain waivers
to several Obamacare requirements, including the “essential benefits” package
that defines acceptable insurance, and the “community rating” provision that
forces insurers to charge the same rate for all applicants, except for a narrow
band based on age and whether or not the patient smokes. This effectively
repeals the pre-existing condition exclusion, because in the states that
receive the waiver, they can charge an unlimited amount to the sick, pricing
them out of the market.
States could only get the waiver if they showed
that their new plan would either “reduce average premiums, increase enrollment,
stabilize the market, stabilize premiums for individuals with pre-existing
conditions or increase the choice of health plans,” according to Politifact.
But there’s enough wiggle room in there (after all, if you purge the sick from
the health-insurance rolls, average premiums would indeed probably go down)
that a state government friendly to the cause of dismantling Obamacare would
surely grant the waiver.
Moderate Republicans grew nervous at the idea
that health care would only be affordable for the healthy and not the sick.
McArthur claimed, in a
press
release, that no state could get a waiver unless it figured out how to
handle those with pre-existing conditions, like by creating a high-risk pool.
These are prohibitively expensive and have failed almost wherever they’ve been
tried. McArthur also said that only those with a lapse in coverage can be
charged more based on health status, but this creates an incentive for
health-insurance companies to jack up prices for everyone, to weed out the
poor, who correlate with those who require more health care.
The point is, the moderates needed more
assurances. So Representative Fred Upton engineered another
amendment to alleviate the consequences of the previous amendment. Upton’s
provision would use $8 billion in public funds over five years to
compensate people with pre-existing conditions who face higher health-insurance
prices (possibly through a privately issued high-risk pool, possibly through
just subsidizing those who experience cost increases; it’s a bit unclear at
this point). After going over this with President Trump, Upton, and
Representative Billy Long reversed
their position and agreed to support the bill. The vote is likely to be
tomorrow.
This is so convoluted it’s going to be hard to
work through. And the money involved, a mere $1.6 billion a year, is really
pathetic and nearly 90 percent less of what experts say would be
necessary to properly fund such a mechanism. But let’s break down what
Republicans are doing. By allowing health-insurance companies to discriminate
based on a pre-existing condition, the GOP would break the market for this
subset of people. And then they would use government funds to fix this market
failure. But they would funnel it directly to health-insurance companies,
rather than eliminating the middleman.
This is single-payer for dummies. In a
single-payer system, the government picks up the health-care costs for the
population, paid for through progressive taxation. The market power of having
one insurance payer
can work to lower overall health care costs, making the system sustainable. In
Trumpcare’s single-payer for dummies, the fragmented private-insurance
middleman remains intact. But taxpayer dollars still pick up the health-care
costs for those who cannot afford it. Instead of acquiring market power, they
just give those taxpayer dollars to the private middlemen, which tells the
private middlemen they can charge whatever they want and always get paid.
It's a fun event, a movie premiere.
KARACHI : 
The federal government has appointed Riaz Riazuddin as the acting Governor of the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP), a 
After Shah, all eyes have been on Adnan Sarwar's next project. And it looks like Sohai Ali Abro will be a part of it.
XXX leading man Vin Diesel has finally spoken up about working with Deepika Padukone in his next film — and he has nothing but praise for the Indian actress.