Britain’s first hijab-wearing cricketer wants to be an inspiration for Muslim girls

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August 4, 2021

BIRMINGHAM: Abtaha Maqsood is Britain’s first hijab-wearing Muslim female to play international cricket and she wants other young British Muslim girls, who might be facing cultural and religious barriers, to take up cricket as a profession.

Abtaha, whose parents are originally from Lahore, Pakistan, was born in Glasgow, Scotland, on June 11, 1999, the day Pakistan beat Zimbabwe to qualify for the semi-finals of the Cricket World Cup played in England and Scotland.

The 22-year-old cricketer, who is currently playing for Birmingham Phoenix in the new short format 200-ball cricket tournament “The Hundred” in England, started playing cricket as a little girl in the garden of her house with her father and brothers.

Abtaha was just 11 when she joined her local cricket club “Poloc”. Only four months after joining the club, she was selected to represent Scotland’s under-17 squad against Ireland in a T20 tournament at the age of 12.

The inspiration behind playing cricket is her partners and brothers, Abtaha said, adding that she had the complete support of her family to pursue the sport as a profession.

Abtaha termed her father as her top supporter throughout the journey. “My dad and my mom are both massive cricket lovers. But my dad, in particular, says all sports are important,” she said.

Besides playing cricket, Abtaha Maqsood also holds a black belt in Taekwondo, which she got at the age of 11. She has participated in British and Scottish Taekwondo championships as well.

The young cricketer said she never thought of choosing cricket as a career path at that time. But the experience of playing cricket so far has been amazing for her.

Abtaha revealed that she started it at the age of 11 after she saw her mother doing the same. She, however, stressed that her decision to wear one was completely voluntary. The cricketer said that her parents even gave her the choice of not wearing one as she was very young at the time but she insisted.

“Wearing a hijab was my own choice. I went away to perform Umrah with my family when I was 11, and on our way back to the UK, I saw my mum started wearing hijab. So I asked her why was she wearing that and then she told me [how it was a religious obligation], so I decided to wear one as well,” said Abtaha.

“It was really important for me at that time as it is now and I’m going to keep wearing that”, she added.

In terms of education, Abtaha is a third-year student at Glasgow University where she is pursuing a degree in dentistry. She said that at present, she’s managing her time between her studies and playing international cricket for Scotland and The Hundred as she loves both dentistry and cricket.

“It’s quite tough for me at the moment but I am trying to give my cent per cent to both,” she said.

Abtaha said that she thinks talking about her hijab is equally important as it is the representation that matters. “This is the first time people have really seen a woman wearing the hijab and playing cricket at the highest level, so I think it’s still important to be talked about,” she said.

“I never really had a role model who looked like me when I was growing up. I think that would have really helped me and given me a sense of belonging. So, hopefully, I can be that person for young girls now”, she added.

She said that although she never faced any cultural barriers herself, she is aware that there are roadblocks out there for other young Muslim girls. She, therefore, wants to be an inspiration for those girls.

“I really hope that people, when seeing me, could realise that it is possible to play cricket and wear hijab at the same time. And there are people out there who can support young girls through it if they really want to play cricket at a high level or any other professional sport for that matter”.

Abtaha said that although she is a leg-spinner, she did not start her cricket journey with that specialization. “I used to be a seam bowler when I was young,” she revealed, adding that it was her father who discovered that she could be a better spinner than a seamer.

“I was playing in our front garden one day and I was just bowling seam up and my dad was batting. He told me that my wrist was naturally moving like a spinner and it will be easier for me to bowl spin so I might just try that. Ever since then, I’ve never looked back and I love it”.

Being a leg spinner, her obvious role model is Australia’s Shane Warn whom she termed as the “King of Leg Spin”, adding that she has watched all of his videos on YouTube. Incidentally, Shane Warn is also part of The Hundred where he is coaching London Spirit.

Abtaha said that playing The Hundred and representing Birmingham Phoenix in the tournament is the most amazing experience of her life.

“This feeling is unreal for me,” she enthused. Recalling how she made it to the tournament, Abtaha said that she got the call confirming her participation while she was at the university.

“I was over the moon! I was so happy as I wasn’t expecting that at all. I was completely buzzing and shared the news with my parents and they were obviously really excited as well. It’s just a surreal experience being here now at Edgbaston”.

Talking about her experience in the tournament so far, Abtaha said that she still can’t believe that she’s playing with some of the best cricketers in the world — an opportunity she never had before.

“In my team, I got players like England’s Amy Jones and Shefali Verma from India, and I’m learning so much from them and then playing against some of the best cricketers in the world. I’m enjoying and learning a lot and really excited to see where it goes from here,” she said.

Abtaha Maqsood has represented Scotland’s national team 17 times in international T20 matches, claiming 23 wickets so far in her career at an impressive average of 12.28.

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London High Court orders NAB to pay $1.2m to Broadsheet

By

TNT Monitoring Desk

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August 3, 2021

LONDON: London High Court has ordered the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) and Pakistan government to pay a sum of 1.2 million dollars to asset-recovery firm Broadsheet LLC by next week.

After hearing the arguments from both sides, the court ordered NAB and the Pakistan government to pay $1,222,037 and GBP110 as well as the claimant’s application cost of GBP26,296 to NAB’s solicitors until 4.30pm on August 10. It said NAB’s solicitors Allen and Overy shall pay all sums received from the government of Pakistan to Broadsheet LLC’s solicitors Crowell and Moring by 4.30pm on August 13.

If this payment is not made by the government of Pakistan and NAB to its solicitors, and subsequently to Broadsheet, the court ordered that Broadsheet’s lawyers will notify United National Bank Limited (UBL UK) and that UBL UK will pay the outstanding funds. The failure to pay will trigger the enforcement of a third-party debt order, which allows a creditor to take the money owed to them directly from whoever has the money.

NAB and Broadsheet landed up in court once again after the two could not agree on the payments of legal costs and interests.

Lawyers on behalf of NAB agreed to pay $1,222,037 and GBP110 but contested the payment of interest demanded by Broadsheet amounting to GBP33,646.84 and costs of GBP35,000.

On Monday, the court ordered that along with the payment of $1.2m and GBP110, NAB and the Pakistan government must pay Broadsheet additional GBP26,296. The amount was less than demanded by Broadsheet for interest and costs.

Owned since the mid-2000s by Iranian-born former Oxford University academic Kaveh Moussavi, Broadsheet now stands liquidated. Moussavi, who was not initially involved with the company when it entered into an agreement with the Musharraf government, later funded the arbitration. He also served a year-long prison sentence in England for contempt of court in unrelated proceedings.

Broadsheet maintains that it was created to be a company specialising in the recovery of assets and funds, and was therefore engaged to trace, locate and transfer such items back to the state.

In December 2018, former English court of appeal judge Sir Anthony Evans QC, as sole arbitrator, issued an order for payment of $22m to Broadsheet by the government of Pakistan.

In July 2019, the government appealed the arbitration, but was unsuccessful in its bid.

The arbitrator found that Pakistan and NAB had wrongfully repudiated an asset recovery agreement with Broadsheet and ruled that the company is entitled to damages.

Since then, the asset recovery firm has attempted to secure the payment for its services by targeting several entities in the UK with purported links to the Pakistan government.

Broadsheet laid a claim to four Avenfield House flats, though the claim was later discharged by the court. Broadsheet LLC also wrote to the Pakistan government and threatened to “seize the assets of the Pakistani cricket team” to recover the outstanding funds owed by NAB.

Earlier, in its effort to recover the payment from the Pakistan government, Broadsheet’s lawyers even approached the Sharif legal team for assistance, but were denied.

In January this year, a high court in the UK ordered a debit of $28.7m from the accounts of the Pakistan High Commission in London over non-payment of the penalty by NAB to the foreign firm.

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Four girls go missing in Lahore’s Hanjarwal area

By

Qamar Malik

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August 3, 2021

LAHORE: Four girls have gone missing in Lahore’s Hanjarwal area on Tuesday, Police said. The mother of two of the girls talking to media said that her daughters went missing with their neighbours’ daughters at 8pm, on July 30.

“Out of fear of humiliation, we did not inform anyone and searched for the girls ourselves,” she said, adding that police was cooperating with the family to recover her daughters.

Meanwhile, Punjab Chief Minister Usman Buzdar has issued directives to the Punjab Police to recover the missing girls.

Buzdar has directed the Capital City Police Officer (CCPO) Lahore to submit a report on the incident.

Hanjarwal Police SHO Qaiser Aziz said the case is being investigated from every possible angle, adding that it will be resolved soon and the perpetrators will be caught.

CM Buzdar has issued instructions to police, urging them to take necessary steps to ensure the safe return of the missing girls.

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Pakistan achieves 1m daily vaccination doses’ mark for first time

By

Sara Maqsood

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August 3, 2021

ISLAMABAD: As the fourth wave of COVID-19 worsens, Pakistan achieved on Monday the 1 million daily doses’ mark, with Islamabad becoming the first city to get 50 per cent of its eligible population vaccinated with at least one dose.

Federal Minister for Planning Asad Umar took to Twitter to share details about the vaccination drive being ramped up to curb the COVID-19 spread.

“Happy to report that the target we had set for 1 million vaccinations in a day was crossed yesterday with 10 lakh 72 thousand vaccinations,” he tweeted.

All federating entities, Umar said, contributed, with Punjab, Sindh, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Islamabad all administering record numbers of vaccine doses. “Amazing performance by all involved,” he wrote.

Pakistan has administered 31,929,581 doses so far. Of this, 25,208,663 people have received one dose, while 6,720,918 people have gotten the second dose.

According to data from Johns Hopkins University, Pakistan is at the 17th position of doses administered among the nations vaccinating their citizens.

Special Assistant to PM on Health Dr Faisal Sultan, meanwhile, shared that the country has crossed the 30 million (cumulative) doses mark.

He said that the last 10 million doses took 16 days, which is eight times faster than what it took to administer the first 10 million.

The federal capital has become the first Pakistani city with a population of one million or more to get 50 per cent of its eligible population vaccinated with at least one dose.

Peshawar and Rawalpindi have inoculated 35 per cent of their population with one dose, Faisalabad 28 per cent, Lahore, Gujranwala, Sialkot and Sargodha 27 per cent, Karachi 26 per cent and Hyderabad 25 per cent.

Sindh Minister for Information Nasir Hussain Shah said that due to a large number of people coming to get the COVID-19 jab, the province is facing a shortage of vaccines.

While talking to media, Shah said vaccination centres have been established in localities with Burmi and Bangladeshi population.

He said the Sindh government has ramped up vaccination drives and more drive through vaccination centres are being opened in Karachi.

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Faisalabad imam arrested for attempted rape of two girls

By

Our Correspondent

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August 2, 2021

FAISALABAD: The imam (prayer leader) of a mosque in Faisalabad has been arrested after a video of him trying to rape two small girls inside went viral on social media. The girls are five and seven years old.

Police said that they received the information that the attack took place in Chak 59GB of District Faisalabad.

Locals identified the man in the video. The imam was arrested and an FIR was registered under Sections 376 (for rape), 511 and 295 of the Pakistan Penal Code.

Police say that the case was registered on behalf of the State as the parents were not ready to take legal action against the imam.

The family of the victims girls refused to talk to media on the issue and declined to comment.

A statement issued by the CPO Faisalabad’s office say that the “police will present case well to merit the case.”

If you or anyone you know is a survivor of online harassment, then you can contact the following organisations:

Punjab Commission on the Status of Women- 1043

FIA cybercrime wing- report the complaint at complaints@fia.gov.pk or helpdesk@nr3c.gov.pk

Madadgaar Toll-Free Helpline- 1098

Digital Rights Foundation’s Cyber Harassment Toll-Free Helpline- 0800-39393

Sahil Toll-Free helpline- 0800-13518

Pakistan Citizen portal

Islamabad smart lockdown: 44 streets sealed, movement restricted

By

Sara Maqsood

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August 2, 2021

ISLAMABAD: The administration of Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT) has decided to impose a smart lockdown and seal 44 streets in different sectors of the federal capital.

The lockdown came into effect from Sunday 12am.

All kinds of movement except for essential services, groceries, medicines and patients seeking medical help, to and from sealed streets will be restricted.

The administration says that all the houses with positive cases are being quarantined and, police and administration will check them.

Anyone not staying inside will be penalized, a notification issued by the district magistrate Islamabad reads.

Islamabad streets that have been sealed:

Sector G-10/3: Street nos. 52, 53, 69 and 70
Sector F-11/3: Street nos. 46 and 53
Sector G13/2: Street nos. 47,48 abd 49
Sector E-11/4: Street nos. 1, 2 and 6
Sector I-10/2: Street nos. 32 and 33
Sector G13/2: Street nos. 30, 32, 45 and 74
Sector G-9/4: Street nos. 91, 93, 96, 98, 99 and 100
Sector G-9/4: Street no. 56, 62, 66 and 67
Sector I-8/4: Street no. 91, 92, 95 and 109
Sector I-10/1: Street no. 55, 56, 57, 58, 61, 64, 65, 80, 81, 82 and 82
Sector G-15/1@ Street no. 19A

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Two killed as urban flooding hits parts of Islamabad following cloudburst

By

Tanzeel Ahmed

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July 28, 2021

ISLAMABAD: Two persons, mother and her son, were killed in Islamabad on Wednesday as several areas of the capital experienced urban flooding after a cloudburst caused heavy rainfall.

Footage circulating on social media showed flood water sweeping away cars in the E-11 area of the capital.

Deputy Commissioner Islamabad attributed the flash flood with a cloudburst and urged the public to “cooperate and restrict unnecessary movements”.

The deputy commissioner further said the spillways of Rawal Dam were being opened as he appealed to the public to stay away from the riverbanks of Korang and Soan rivers.

Additionally, Section 144 (power to issue order absolute at once in urgent cases of nuisance or apprehended danger) was imposed on bathing in rivers, the DC said, adding that rescue and management teams were present to handle the situation.

Meanwhile, police officials confirmed the aforesaid casualties at a house in sector E11/2, saying that flood water entered the house’s basement at night which caused the death of the child, while the mother passed away later.

The officials said flooding in sector E-11 was due to “poor management” of private housing schemes, adding that there was no equipment available to deal with the situation.

Interior Minister Sheikh Rashid said the army and other local authorities were present in the federal capital to deal with the situation.

“[The] army is alert, WASA (Water and Sanitation Agency) is alert […] the whole administration is on duty,” he said.

He made those remarks in a conversation with media personnel during his visit to Lai Nullah.

Meanwhile, the Deputy Commissioner, Islamabad, Muhammed Hamza Shafqaat, confirmed the death of two persons in urban flooiding caused after cloud-burst. A cloudburst in the federal capital has caused flooding, he added.

In a weather update on his official Twitter handle, the deputy commissioner said, “Cloudburst in Islamabad has caused flooding in various areas. Teams are clearing nullahs/roads. Hopefully we will be able to clear everything in an hour”.

Later, the DC announced that the Islamabad roads were clear for traffic.

Videos from Islamabad’s sectors E-11 and D-12 show cars floating in gushing waters after heavy rains that lashed the federal capital and Rawalpindi for hours.

According to details, the twin cities received the highest rains during the current monsoon season.

Sources in Pakistan Meteorological Department said that some areas in Islamabad received up to 330mm of rain in the last few hours.

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Alert issued as torrential rains wreak havoc in parts of country

By

Sara Maqsood

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July 28, 2021

ISLAMABAD: Torrential monsoon rains in Islamabad and Rawalpindi have inundated the streets and main roads, creating immense difficulties for the residents.

According to details, the contingents of Pakistan Army have arrived at the rain-hit areas after the authorities issued alert.122 millimeter rain has been recorded in different parts of the twin cities while the water level has also risen in Nullah Lai.

Meanwhile, heavy rains have also lashed Gujranwala and Sialkot.

As per Pakistan Meteorological Department (PMD), rain wind/thundershower (with Isolated heavy fall) is expected in Kashmir, Islamabad, Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

Hot and humid weather is likely to prevail over other parts of the country.

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa: Balakot 75, Takht Bai 20, Malam Jabba 05, Punjab: Islamabad (Golra 47, Bokra, Zero Point 20, Airport 16, Saidpur 02), Sialkot (City 44, Airport 10), Narowal 34, Rawalpindi (Chaklala 20, Shamsabad 05), Jhelum 05, Murree 04, Gujranwala 02, Kashmir: Muzaffarabad (City 07, Airport 03), Kotli 06, Garhi Dupatta 02 and Rawalakot 01.

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Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal arrives in Islamabad

By

Nuzhat Aftab

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July 27, 2021

ISLAMABAD: Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud arrived in Islamabad today (Tuesday) for a day-long visit at the invitation of Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi.

Saudi Arabia’s top diplomat was received by Special Assistant to Prime Minister Tahir Ashrafi at the Nur Khan Air Base.

The Foreign Office said that Prince Faisal is leading a delegation comprising senior officials of the Saudi government.

“During the visit, the two foreign ministers will exchange views on the entire gamut of bilateral relations and regional and international issues. The Saudi Foreign Minister will call on other dignitaries as well during the visit,” the Foreign Office had said about the visit.

The FO said that the visit holds “special significance in the backdrop of the recent visit of Prime Minister Imran Khan to Saudi Arabia in May 2021”.

Pakistan hopes that the visit will provide a timely opportunity to both countries to review the progress in bilateral cooperation.

“Pakistan and Saudi Arabia have long-standing and historic fraternal relations, rooted deep in common faith, shared history and mutual support. The relationship is marked by close cooperation in all fields and mutual collaboration on regional and international issues,” the FO said.

The FO hopes that Prince Faisal’s visit will reinforce the positive momentum in high-level exchanges and the deepening of bilateral cooperation in diverse fields.

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PML-N will block Shahrah-e-Dastoor if AJK elections rigged: Maryam Nawaz

By

Tanzeel Ahmed

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July 20, 2021

BAGH: Maryam Nawaz Sharif, Vice-President, Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PML-N) has warned that her party would give a call for a sit-in at Shahrah-e-Dastoor (Constitution Avenue) in Islamabad if the July 25 Azad Jammu and Kashmir elections are rigged.

“We will not accept the results if elections are rigged,” she said while addressing a rally ahead of the polls in AJK’s Haveli.

“For how much did Sardar Tanvir Ilyas buy you (Imran Khan) and for how much did you try to buy the vote of Kashmiris through your new ATM?” she asked.

Maryam alleged that PM Imran Khan had “smuggled his new ATM” Ilyas to AJK from Islamabad. “Ilyas had bribed a government official by giving him Rs1 billion, think what he must’ve given to Imran Khan.”

The PML-N vice-president said “despite using government funds” for small rallies, the premier’s party was unable to attract people, and following their “public humiliation”, PTI candidates are asking PM Imran Khan to not come back into their constituencies.

“His candidates are saying don’t come back or we might not even get four votes,” she said.

Speaking about the Afghan ambassador’s daughter’s alleged abduction, Maryam said it was the PTI-led government’s “failure.”

AJK Prime Minister Raja Farooq Haider, addressing a press conference in Muzaffarabad, said he would not allow PM Imran Khan to rig the July elections.

“I have no personal grudge against Federal Minister for Kashmir Affairs and Gilgit Baltistan Ali Amin Gandapur, but it is beyond my understand that it tomatoes and eggs are thrown at you, then you respond by firing at the people,” he said.

The AJK PM asked whether it was Bani Gala — PM Imran Khan’s resident — that the federal minister resorted to such actions. “I will present my case before the people of Kashmir.”

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