Pakistani digital artist shoots to fame with art inspired by royal visit

Updated 23 October 2019
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Pakistani digital artist shoots to fame with art inspired by royal visit

  • Digink released four portraits of iconic Pakistani musicians in traditional British royal style paintings
  • Digink has been producing digital art since 2015

ISLAMABAD: British fever has relatively simmered down in Pakistan where last week the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge concluded their four-day visit to the country. On their arrival, some artists and artisans opted to gift the couple with portraits and culturally important items, but some decided to have a little tongue-in-cheek fun with their arrival and the surrounding media frenzy. Pakistani digital media artist, Digink, whose Instagram has reached nearly 25 thousand followers, created one of a kind digital art, placing Pakistani music greats in paintings that one might find in, say, a British Duke’s home.




“Abida the First,” reads the caption of the first image Digink released of his portrait series inspired by the British royal visit. (Image via Digink/Instagram)

“I was messing around with a lot of photo manipulation and putting people in scenarios where they aren’t supposed to be,” Digink, who prefers using his artist tag, told Arab News. “That theme already was in the works on my page where I was putting rappers in dabbas, for example, creating scenarios that would never happen in real life.”
“During the time the royal family were on their way, I was thinking to myself, ‘How awesome would it be if those paintings in British mansions, those very specific types of paintings, had a Pakistani icon in them.’”
Inspired by the Royal visit and truly the reaction to it, Digink produced four portraits featuring some of Pakistan’s most prominent music legends.




“Nusrat the Great,” features the late Qawal legend Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan. (Image via Digink/Instagram)

“I came up with the idea of doing a portrait of Abida Parveen,” said Digink. He had a tough time coming up with the right idea and danced between possibly first producing an Atif Aslam or Rahat Fateh Ali Khan portrait, but eventually ended up back at using Parveen’s face first. “It took me around three to four hours to completely make it.”
All the posts have over a thousand likes with majority of comments praising Digink for the series and its timing.




Digink’s last image in the series features the late Nur Jehan with the caption “Queen Nur Jehan.” (Image via Digink/Instagram)

Digink, a self-taught digital artist, playing around with different software while studying abroad in Australia, is known for his clever social commentary, particularly targeting what he recognizes people like himself in Pakistan. His art work is populated with references to life in Islamabad, and of relative privilege, never shying away from tackling a tough subject or calling out more privileged, read “burger” classes, one he himself identifies with.
“The commentary around on my art is so different I think to what other artists get,” Digink told Arab News. “There is a group of people who relate to my stuff. They love it and want more. Then there is that opposite group that comments like ‘You are disrespecting our culture’ and all that, but I don’t see it that way. In order to progress, we have to be willing to be critical.”
Digink’s work is available both for free and for purchase, including his iconic portraits, on his Instagram account.




Arif Lohar features as general in Digink’s poster series. This image came out on the first full day of the royal visit on Oct. 15, 2019. (Image via Digink/Instagram)

 


China, Pakistan discuss advancement of rail, road and economic zone projects under CPEC

Updated 08 November 2024
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China, Pakistan discuss advancement of rail, road and economic zone projects under CPEC

  • The discussions included sections of Main Line-1 railway project, Karakoram Highway as well as Gwadar port and economic zone
  • Beijing has invested over $65 billion in energy, infrastructure and other projects as part of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor

ISLAMABAD: China and Pakistan on Thursday discussed advancement of key infrastructure and economic projects under the multi-billion-dollar China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), the Pakistani government said, with the two sides also discussing security of Chinese nationals working in Pakistan.
CPEC, a part of China’s Belt and Road Initiative, aims to connect China to the Arabian Sea through a network of roads, railways, pipelines and ports in Pakistan and help Islamabad expand and modernize its economy.
The discussions on key CPEC projects were held during Chinese Ambassador to Pakistan Jiang Zaidong’s meeting with Pakistani Planning Minister Ahsan Iqbal, according to Pakistan’s Press Information Department (PID).
On the occasion, the Pakistani planning minister emphasized the need for concrete mechanisms to ensure smooth and effective implementation of bilateral projects.
“Both sides deliberated on advancing key projects, including the Karachi-Hyderabad section of Main Line-1 (ML-1) and Karakoram Highway (Thakot-Raikot Section) project, and agreed to accelerate the projects’ timely execution,” the PID said in a statement.
“Regarding the Gwadar Port and Free Zone, both sides expressed a mutual commitment to ensuring the continued development of Gwadar in a holistic manner.”
The meeting came two days after a security guard at a factory in the southern Pakistani city of Karachi shot and injured two Chinese nationals before fleeing, police said.
Last month, two Chinese nationals were killed in a suicide bombing near the international airport in Karachi. In March this year, a suicide bombing killed five Chinese engineers and a Pakistani driver in northwestern Pakistan as they headed to the Dasu Dam, the biggest hydropower project in the country. In 2022, three Chinese educators and their Pakistani driver were killed when an explosion ripped through a van at the University of Karachi. A blast on a bus killed 13 people in north Pakistan in 2021, including nine Chinese nationals.
China, breaking with tradition, publicly spoken out against security threats to its workers and nationals living in Pakistan, where hundreds of them work on Beijing-funded projects linked to CPEC.
Iqbal assured the Chinese ambassador the safety of Chinese citizens was a top priority of his government.
“Pakistan will continue working closely with China to ensure the security of Chinese citizens, projects, and institutions,” he was quoted as saying by the PID.
Ambassador Jiang expressed gratitude for Pakistan’s comprehensive engagement and said the Chinese side was ready for collaboration in areas of agriculture, mines and minerals, industrial cooperation, according to the PID.
Iqbal shared that his ministry was in coordination with the National Development and Reform Commission of China to arrange high-level workshops to bring together experts from both sides to outline the future direction of CPEC’s second phase.
China has lately shown willingness for the second phase of CPEC and has given assurances for the establishment of five new corridors, including that of growth, livelihood, innovation, green economy and open regional inclusive development.
 


Pakistan to press developed nations for unconditional climate funding at COP29

Updated 08 November 2024
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Pakistan to press developed nations for unconditional climate funding at COP29

  • Pakistan is ranked as the 5th most vulnerable country to climate change, according to the Global Climate Risk Index
  • Pakistan PM’s aide Romina Khurshid Alam says vulnerable countries are suffering from their own economic challenges

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan will urge developed countries attending the upcoming Conference of the Parties (COP29) in Baku to fulfill their pledges and provide easy access to climate funding without attaching conditions, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s coordinator on climate change said on Thursday.

The COP29 climate conference, scheduled to take place in Baku between November 11 and 22, will layout new policies and bring together representatives from various nations to discuss the adverse impacts of climate change and evaluate available solutions for adaptation.

Pakistan is ranked as the 5th most vulnerable country to climate change, according to the Global Climate Risk Index. In 2022, devastating floods affected over 33 million people and caused economic losses exceeding $30 billion, highlighting the country’s high susceptibility to extreme weather events.

“Pakistan is very clear on our stance that we need all the developed countries when it comes to the pledges, one, they need to complete their pledges, they need to fulfil their pledges, and two, easy access toward the fundings,” Romina Khurshid Alam, PM Sharif’s coordinator on climate change, told Arab News in an exclusive interview.

In this file photo, taken on August 30, 2024, people wade through flood waters after heavy monsoon rains in Multan. (AFP/File)

Due to the rising temperatures, extreme climatic phenomena, including floods, droughts, cyclones, torrential rainstorms and heatwaves, have been occurring more frequently and with greater intensity across Pakistan.

The South Asian country is among the most severely threatened countries in terms of climate–induced challenges, especially in the context of its dependency on climate-sensitive sectors such as agriculture, water, natural resources and the environment, and socio-economic issues such as poverty. The country’s adaptation to the adverse impacts of climate change is inevitable and likely to become critical in the future.

Alam said vulnerable countries were suffering from their own economic challenges and vulnerabilities, while at the same time, many countries faced additional restraints on climate funding.

“It’s not fair that we always get demands to ‘do more and to do this, to do that, these sanctions are coming,’ that is something which is on the human rights violation as well,” she said, adding that Pakistan wanted to raise its voice on what happened to the pledges, how many countries benefited from them and what straightforward mechanisms could be pursued to provide effective support.

Asked about the total amount pledged by developed nations, Alam said she would provide the exact figure after COP29, but noted that “the number is very low.”

“At COP29, we are talking about the data bank system like in a way that what countries are suffering and looking forward for the carbon credits policies,” she added.

In this file photo, taken on August 30, 2024, residents gather at the site of a landslide owing to heavy monsoon rains in the remote area of Patrak, in Upper Dir district, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. (AFP/File)

Last month, Pakistan proposed the establishment of a regional climate data bank to help Vulnerable Twenty (V20) group of countries prepare an evidence-based response to climate disasters.

Alam said the South Asian country had planned “many things” to showcase at Pakistan Pavilion during COP29.

Speaking about the prevailing smog issue, she said Pakistan would take it up with the Indian team at COP29.

“We are open to dialogues and open to come up with the solution, we want to get the things done by dialogue,” she said, noting that the chief minister of Pakistan’s Punjab, Maryam Nawaz, had also urged India to sit together to resolve this issue.

People walk along a street amid smog in Lahore on November 2, 2024. (AFP/File)

“CM Punjab very clearly said that ‘let’s sit together to sort out this issue because this cannot be done in a way that we are not doing this or you are doing this’,” Alam said.

“This is not a game, the main thing is to think about the children and to think about the future.”

Winter smog has become an annual crisis in Pakistan’s Punjab, particularly the provincial capital of Lahore, with air quality deteriorating to hazardous levels each season. The city consistently ranks among the world’s worst for air pollution, leading to a significant rise in respiratory issues and hospital admissions, especially affecting children and the elderly.

Last year, severe pollution levels prompted a surge in cases of asthma, lung infections and other respiratory problems among residents, according to media reports.

The problem this week prompted Punjab CM Nawaz to propose cross-border cooperation with Indian authorities to tackle shared pollution sources, such as crop residue burning, which exacerbate the region’s smog problem.


Pakistan PM performs groundbreaking of first private sector university in Gilgit-Baltistan

Updated 08 November 2024
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Pakistan PM performs groundbreaking of first private sector university in Gilgit-Baltistan

  • Ramday University is being built by a trust with construction set to complete by donations from overseas Pakistanis
  • Home to some of the world’s tallest mountains, semi-autonomous GB region is among Pakistan’s least developed areas

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif this week laid the foundation stone of first private sector university in Gilgit-Baltistan (GB), promising a bright future for the youth of the remote mountainous region.

Home to some of the tallest mountains in the world, the semi-autonomous GB region is counted among the least developed areas administered by Pakistan.

Ramday University is located in Thagos area of GB’s Ghanche district at an altitude of 11,000 feet. The university is being built on a 200-kanal area of land under a trust, with construction set to be completed through the donations of overseas Pakistanis, the state-run Associated Press of Pakistan reported.

GB-based news portal Pamir Times said the university will offer specialized programs in environmental studies, climate change, hydrology and mineral studies subjects.

“The establishment of an institution of higher learning in a remote area like Ghanche in Gilgit-Baltistan is highly encouraging,” Sharif was quoted as saying on by the APP during the groundbreaking ceremony in Islamabad on Thursday.

The prime minister congratulated former Supreme Cour judge Khalil ur Rehman Ramday on establishing the university.

“He expressed his confidence that this university, located at an altitude of 11,000 feet in Thagos, will reach the peak of modern knowledge and research standards,” the APP said.

Sharif stressed that GB’s development and the welfare of its people were among the government’s top priorities.

The development takes place a day after Sharif visited the mountainous northern region, where he inaugurated a model village for flood-affected families during a day-long visit to Ghizer.

There, Sharif pledged to provide residents with ownership documents to help them acquire new houses that were destroyed by the 2022 floods.


Father accused of murder of British-Pakistani girl blames stepmother

Updated 08 November 2024
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Father accused of murder of British-Pakistani girl blames stepmother

  • Sara Sharif was found dead in her bed in southwest of London in Aug. 2023 with injuries including broken bones, burns
  • Her father, Urfan Sharif, had fled to Pakistan a day before the body was found, along with his wife and the girl’s uncle

LONDON: The father of a 10-year-old British-Pakistani girl on Thursday denied her murder and instead blamed the girl’s stepmother, calling her “evil” and “psycho.”

Sara Sharif was found dead in her bed in Woking, southwest of London, on August 10, 2023 with injuries including broken bones, burns and bite marks.

Her father, Urfan Sharif, 42, had fled to Pakistan a day before the body was found, along with his wife Beinash Batool, 30, and the girl’s uncle, Faisal Malik, 29.

Sharif then called police in the UK shortly after arriving in Islamabad and said he had “beat her up too much.” During the trial, Sharif said he made up this and another confession to “protect my family.”

All three adults were arrested upon their return to the UK a month later. They deny charges of murder and allowing the death of a child.

Details of the extent of Sara’s injuries have been detailed at London’s Old Bailey court, including claims from Batool that Sharif would beat his daughter badly.

Giving evidence for a third day, Sharif admitted slapping Sara “multiple times” but denied beating, burning, or biting her, insisting that he was “never at home” when she was injured.

Sharif broke down when his lawyer, Naeem Mian, questioned him about beating Sara, who was home schooled, with a cricket bat.

The taxi driver denied burning his daughter with an iron and instead said he was “made to” slap Sara by Batool, who constantly accused the girl of behaving badly.

Pointing to Batool sitting in the dock, Sharif shouted: “I should not have believed her... I didn’t realize I’m living with evil and a psycho.”

He also suggested that Batool was the one who bit her “like an animal.”

The jury was previously told that Sharif and Malik had provided their dental impressions but Batool had refused.

“I didn’t do it. Faisal didn’t do it. Who else was at home?” Sharif said.

He denied ever being aware of Sara being in pain. “She never told me that,” he said and indicated that he did not see injuries because Sara wore full-sleeve tops and long bottoms as well as a hijab head covering.

In the month leading up to Sara’s death, Mian said Sharif was out of the house at work from early in the morning to late at night while holing frequent telephone conversations with Batool, who would largely be at home.

Sharif wept as he recalled a time he came home and saw that Sara’s hands had been tied behind her back with brown packaging tape, accusing Batool of the act.

Asked why he did not call the police or ask Batool to leave, Sharif said that his wife was “manipulative” and that he believed her apology.

“I have been an idiot,” he added.

Forensic evidence shown to court included bundles of packaging tape and a white plastic carrier bag fashioned into a hood that could have been used on Sara’s head.

The bag had packaging tape stuck to it as well as long, brown hairs that matched Sara’s DNA, the court was told.

Both the bag and the non-sticky side of the tape had fingerprints that matched Sharif’s, who denied fashioning a hood out of the plastic bag or using it on Sara.

He said the fingerprints could be a result of him handling the items while sorting the garbage.

Sharif had previously accused Batool of being abusive toward him and preventing him from asking Sara about how she obtained her injuries.

In 2022, Batool texted her sister that Sharif had suggested using make-up to cover up bruises after beating Sara, to which the sister replied: “LOL it was going to happen you can tell.”

In the days before her death, Sharif said Sara, who did chores around the house, had asked him to “not go to work.”


Rauf takes five as Australia out for 163 in 2nd Pakistan ODI

Updated 26 min 39 sec ago
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Rauf takes five as Australia out for 163 in 2nd Pakistan ODI

  • After losing a tense first match, Pakistan skipper Mohammad Rizwan won the toss and sent Australia in to bat first
  • Rauf’s pace caused all sorts of problems, with Steve Smith’s 35 the top score as the hosts succumbed in 35th over

ADELAIDE: Pace spearhead Haris Rauf took 5-29 to skittle Australia for 163 in the second game of their three-match one-day international series on Friday at the Adelaide Oval.
After losing a tense first match by two wickets, Pakistan skipper Mohammad Rizwan won the toss and sent Australia in on a well-grassed, bouncy pitch.
In perfect conditions, Rauf’s pace caused all sorts of problems, with Steve Smith’s 35 the top score as the hosts succumbed in the 35th over.
Wicketkeeper Rizwan took six catches.
In the absence of Mitchell Marsh and Travis Head, who both remain on paternity leave, Jake Fraser-McGurk and Matt Short again opened, keen to make their mark after falling cheaply in the opening match.
But both failed once more.

Pakistan teammates huddle after dismissing Australia all out for 163 during their one day international cricket match in Adelaide, Australia, on November 8, 2024. (AP)

The aggressive Fraser-McGurk slammed three boundaries from Naseem Shah’s first over, but was out lbw in the following over for 13 to Shaheen Shah Afridi with the ball nipping back.
Short had a huge left-off on eight, with Afridi dropping a sitter by the ropes.
But the veteran paceman made amends, tempting Short into a cover drive shortly after on 19 that Babar Azam did well to hold.
Josh Inglis hit a breezy 18 before he gloved behind to Rizwan off Rauf, with the same pair accounting for Marnus Labuschagne (6) to leave Australia on 87-4 in the 16th over.
At the other end, Smith had a let-off on 14, with Saim Ayub getting his fingertips to a cover drive but unable to cling on.

Pakistan's Shaheen Afridi celebrates the dismissal of Australia's Jake Fraser-McGurk during the second one day international cricket match between Australia and Pakistan in Adelaide, November 8, 2024. (AP)


The veteran finally fell when he got an edge to a Mohammad Hasnain delivery, and when Rauf and Rizwan again combined to remove Aaron Hardie (13) the hosts were 121-6.
Rauf struck again with the key wicket of dangerman Glenn Maxwell, bowling him for 16, while Michell Starc lasted only four balls before falling to Shah.
Rauf collected only his second ODI five-wicket haul by once more teaming with Rizwan to remove Pat Cummins (13).