As a tribute to the late Ali Suleman Habib, Founding Chairman of Indus Motor Company (IMC), the company has pledged support to the Shaukat Khanum Memorial Cancer Hospital & Research Centre (SKMCH), through a Rs. 60 million donation towards the hospital’s under construction facility at Karachi.

Indus Motor’s Vice Chairman, Shinji Yanagi and Chief Executive, Ali Asghar Jamali presented the cheque to Prime Minister Imran Khan, in Islamabad.

The SKMCH in Karachi is the third and most modern cancer facility being built on 20 acres of land at DHA City where over 75 percent cancer patients will receive free cancer care. Construction is expected to be completed over three years at an estimated cost of Rs.13 billion with state-of-the-art diagnostic, radiation and treatment facilities under one roof, catering to patients in Karachi, Sindh and Balochistan.

Armeena Khan who rose to fame through her performances in ‘Bin Roye’ and ‘Janaan’, recently took to Twitter announcing that she has been awarded a Certificate for Outstanding Public Service by the Mayor of Burnley in the UK.

She and her husband have been actively promoting the Palestinian cause in the UK. They also hosted and attended a vigil for Palestine in Manchester.

While it has not been mentioned what public service she received the certificate for, the actor has always been a believer in sending out positive messages through her platforms and by being associated with causes that demand attention.

HBL and Katalyst Labs have signed a strategic partnership agreement for Startup Acceleration and Women Leadership enablement. This will further build and strengthen the entrepreneurial ecosystem of the country.

HBL is shaping the future through a paradigm shift towards a ‘Technology company with a banking licence’. The Bank aims to form ecosystem partnerships and deliver scalable solutions to customers. The end goal remains to be a customer centric bank that is quick to pivot as opportunities present themselves by being a Mobile first, Data enabled, inclusive and agile organization.

Katalyst Labs is a technology accelerator and innovation hub, founded by Jehan Ara, who along with her team, has played a key role in building the entrepreneurship ecosystem of Pakistan.

As part of the partnership, Katalyst Labs will develop and run a cohort-based fellowship program for women entrepreneurs, professionals, and upcoming business leaders with the purpose of training them and helping them develop into a high-powered network of women leaders across the country.

An acceleration program will also be run with an aim to have an increased focus on facilitating collaboration between start-ups and corporates for knowledge sharing and market exploration with special focus on Fintech, Food & Agri Tech, mCommerce, EdTech, Health Tech and other verticals.

Commenting on the partnership, Ali Habib, Chief Marketing & Communications Officer, HBL, said, “We are delighted to enter into this partnership with Katalyst Labs. The programs will enable HBL to build and support a community of start-up founders, technology developers and service design experts with a special focus on Women Entrepreneurs. Interaction and knowledge sharing of the best talent within and outside HBL will help spark innovation.

The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has introduced its new Parental Support Policy intended to motivate and support Pakistani athletes in their journey to parenthood. Under the reform, female cricketers will now be granted 12-months maternity leave.

In accordance with global trends, the PCB has taken this much-awaited step. Athletes’ tight training schedules and long game day schedules leave little time for them to be able to plan parenthood despite their desire to start a family.

Under PCB’s renewed Parental Support Policy, female cricketers will be entitled to a year long paid maternity leave, in addition to the option of switching to a non-playing role as they approach their maternity leave. Male cricketers are now allowed concessions and will be entitled to a month-long paid paternity leave.

Only the Australian and New Zealand cricket boards have such powerful parental leave policies whileother boards are said to be working on their policies. The reforms made by PCB in their Parental Support Policy met with a lot of appreciation from both former and current cricketers.

Eminent artist Qudsia Nisar passed aw ay on April 27. She was suffering from various ailments for the past several months.

As a highly prolific painter, Ms. Nisar was widely recognized in the art fraternity as a pioneer for using water colour to express abstract visions without using conventional figures and forms. Exploring this unusual dimension with courage and creativity, she produced hundreds of works of art in about four and a half decades of her illustrious career.

Her originality and ability to combine bright colours with subtle, pastel shades in innovative new forms and shapes received appreciation from renowned critics and fellow painters in Pakistan and abroad, when her work was exhibited. She received a number of national and international awards, including the President’s Pride of Performance Award in 2018.

She served as principal of the Central Institute of Arts and Crafts at the Arts Council of Pakistan in Karachi for eight years.

Supermodels and sisters Bella and Gigi Hadid have been quite vocal about their opinions on the atrocities of Israel on innocent Palestinians. The two are amongst the very few Hollywood celebrities who have publicly raised their support for Palestine amid the ongoing tensions.

The models have been actively posting on social media to emphasize on the barbaric violence. Due to their international standing, the supermodels must have enormous pressure to align with the mainstream narrative, but they have put their careers at risk to support their homeland. They even posted pictures of their grandparents and their children, recalling their Palestinian heritage.

Pakistan’s 60-year old bodybuilder, Ustad Abdul Waheed, proved that age is just a number after he earned the title of Mr. Pakistan after winning the 2021 Bodybuilding Championship, breaking barriers and skyrocketing the bar.

Mr. Pakistan Abdul Waheed is a resident of Lahore. He won the Mr. Punjab title before being crowned Mr. Pakistan. He has now set his eyes on the Mr. Asia title. According to him, the Mr. Asia competition is scheduled to be held in India sometime next year. He is gearing up to win the competition and make a name for Pakistan.

As for now, Waheed runs a fitness club in Lahore and wants to produce Mr, Pakistan winners for the future.

Ariana Grande and real estate agent Dalton Gomez have officially tied the knot in an intimate ceremony.

The couple first went public with their relationship with the release of Grande’s song ‘Stuck with U’ in collaboration with Justin Bieber. Grande and Gomez are seen dancing together in the music video for the song.

They announced their engagement in December. Grande also shared a collection of personal photos with Gomez in early April.

Media & Entertainment industry veteran Ceslie Armstrong, has joined Cheeze, Inc. as Vice President of Content and as Executive Producer. Armstrong will head the Cheeze Content Studio, Originals Division and all things content-related for the company globally.

As an award-winning writer, journalist, showrunner and media and entertainment executive, she has created, packaged and produced content across all media for major networks, digital platforms, publishers, major venues and studios, featuring celebrities, experts, world leaders, authors, artists and icons.

She has created content with renowned photographers including Lynn Goldsmith, Henry Diltz, Francesco Scavullo, Billy Name, Patrick McMullan, Jack Guy, Jerry Avenaim, Mick Rock and many more. She has also been featured and quoted in hundreds of publications, including the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune, Financial Times, WWD, Forbes, Fortune, and Entrepreneur.

After several hit serials and appearing in Pakistani and Indian films, Saba Qamar is now preparing for her next TV project titled ‘Tumhare Husn Ke Naam’.

Directed by Saqib Khan, who also directed Saba’s upcoming film ‘Ghabrana Nahi Hai’, the serial will mark Saba’s return to television after two years. She last appeared in Cheekh (2019) in which she received a lot of praise for her strong performance.

The drama has been written by Sara Qayyum.

Lovers of the Pakistani animated film ‘Allahyar and the Legend of Markhor’ are in for a surprise as a second edition is in the making. The animation studio behind the project – 3D World Studios — released a teaser of the new part titled ‘Allahyar and the 100 Flowers of God’.

The teaser shows a new and revamped Allahyar in a superhero suit which has the emblem of crescent and star on its belt buckle. The genre has been switched up to action-adventure-science-fiction. The main theme of the story is to do with deforestation and climate change

‘Allahyar and the 100 Flowers of God’ is a major upgrade from the last film, in terms of storytelling, production quality and entertainment and therefore should be a treat for theater audiences.

The first animation ‘Allahyar and the Legend of Markhor’ was based in the lush green valleys of Northern Pakistan and followed the story of Allahyar, a mischievous boy who ends up dealing with difficult circumstances when he accidentally meets Mehru (the markhor). The film highlighted themes of preservation and respect for wildlife.

‘Allahyar and the Legend of Markhor’ won Best Feature Film at the South Asian International Film Festival and was the first Pakistani animated film to be released on Netflix.