FARUKH SHEHZAD

LAHORE, NOV 8 - Daraz is bringing the biggest sale of the world, better known as 11.11, from 11^th November to 17^th November in Pakistan. This year there are 15 million products on which you can avail discounts worth up to Rs. 50 Crore. The platform houses both international and local brands to suit every individual’s shopping taste.

There are a 100 exclusive electronic item launches during the 11.11 sale including iPhone 12, OnePlus 8T and the Vivo20 and a lot of more electronic items such as mobile phones, tablets, smartwatches and many more at the best prices this 11.11.

“The Commercial Director, Imran Saleem, says, “This year, from a stock, pricing and assortment perspective, I can confidently say that we are better than ever! The market is very supportive and confident, and we are expecting amazing results on the platform. We have a plethora of mechanics for a unique experience for our customers including mega-deals, crazy flash sales, brand flash sales, HBL mega-deals and a lot more bank vouchers.”

Our valued co-sponsors for this year’s sale have hosted a range of their products on Daraz offering exciting discounts alongside. Nestlé Pakistan is giving out exclusive bundles for Daraz customers along with P&G brands available at up to 40% off. Additionally, Unilever is offering up to 80% off on their products. Likewise, RB products are up to 67% off, OnePlus is marking down their products at up to 20% off, Xiaomi is giving discounts worth up to 25%, Haier is discounting their product range at up to 23% off the original prices while TCL is offering up to 24% off their products.

You will also find the trendiest fashion brands at noteworthy discounts this 11.11. To set foot on this statement, we have local brands such as Generation and Limelight offering up to 50% off, Warda offering up to 20% off while Aerosoft is offering flat 20% off on their collection. Additionally, there will also be daily brand flash sales throughout the week along with 1000+ mega deals that we’re offering for all of our users this 11.11.

Daraz also hosts a total of 17 official international brands from China, USA, Sri Lanka under the Global Collection channel. We have brands such as Daniel Wellington on our channel offering an exquisite variety to our customers. The large assortment on this channel will be up to 80% off this 11.11 sale.

We know that Pakistanis love entertainment and we’re very excited to offer vouchers and deals for restaurants and recreational sites for all of you to enjoy! This 11.11 enjoy up to 50% off on all deals offered by Pizza Point Karachi and up to 33% off at Winterland Karachi.

The platform will also allow you to stock up essentials from dMart through exclusive bundle deals and avail your staples at special prices.

There’s much to browse and many decisions that our customers will be making. We’re very excited to present all that you require at staggering discounts this 11.11 only on Daraz. We can’t wait to host all customers for this year’s online shopping sale. Happy Shopping!

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Azeris celebrated on the streets of Baku after President Ilham Aliyev said on Sunday his country's forces had taken Shusha, the second-largest city in the Nagorno-Karabakh enclave, but Armenian officials denied the city had been captured.

Shusha, which Armenians call Shushi, is of cultural and strategic importance to both sides and is located 15 km (nine miles) south of the enclave's largest city Stepanakert.

At least 1,000 people have died in nearly six weeks of fighting in and around Nagorno-Karabakh, a mountainous enclave internationally recognised as part of Azerbaijan but populated and controlled by ethnic Armenians.

“(This day) will become a great day in the history of Azerbaijan,” Aliyev said, announcing that Baku's troops had taken Shusha/Shushi.

In Baku, Azeris gathered in large numbers to celebrate, waving flags and chanting slogans, while drivers sounded their car horns.

Officials from the Nagorno-Karabakh region and Armenia's Defence Ministry denied Aliyev's statement.

“Shushi remains an unattainable pipe dream for Azerbaijan. Despite heavy destruction, the fortress city withstands the blows of the enemy,” the Nagorno-Karabakh Rescue Service said.

Armenia's defence ministry said that heavy fighting for the strategic site continues, while the Defence Army of Nagorno-Karabakh said they had repelled multiple attempts by the Azeri side to advance on the town.

Emboldened by Turkish support, Azerbaijan has the upper hand in the bloodiest fighting in more than 25 years in the South Caucasus. In just over a month, it has retaken much of the land in and around Nagorno-Karabakh that it lost in a previous war over the territory in the 1990s.

The city could serve as a key staging post for an Azeri assault on the enclave's largest city, Stepanakert.

Both have come under heavy shelling in recent days. Azerbaijan's defence ministry said allegations that it had shelled civilian areas were 'misinformation'.

The town is also culturally significant to both sides, Thomas de Waal, analyst at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, said.

Its population was predominantly made up of Azeris before the previous conflict, making it historically significant for Azerbaijan. For Armenians, it is the site of Karabakh's cathedral, de Waal said.

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RAMALLAH, NOV 8 – President Mahmoud Abbas offered his congratulations to the President-elect Joe Biden on his victory as President of the United States of America for the coming period, and to his elected Vice President Kamala Harris as well.

President Abbas said he was looking forward to working with the President-elect and his administration to strengthen the Palestinian-American relations and to achieve freedom, independence, justice and dignity for our people, as well as to work for peace, stability and security for all in our region and the world.

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ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Imran Khan congratulated US President-elect Joe Biden and vice president-elect, Kamala Harris, for winning the US election 2020.

In a tweet on Saturday night, the premier said he looked forward to working with the American president on ending “illegal tax havens & stealth of nation’s wealth by corrupt leaders”.

“Congratulations @JoeBiden & @KamalaHarris. Look forward to President Elect Biden’s Global Summit on Democracy & working with him to end illegal tax havens & stealth of nation’s wealth by corrupt leaders. We will also continue to work with US for peace in Afghanistan & in the region,” he tweeted.

Joe Biden to become 46th US president

Joe Biden defeated US President Donald Trump in the US election 2020 after the Democrat won the state of Pennsylvania Saturday which got him 20 more electoral college votes, enabling him to cross the required 270 to hit 284 votes. Later, he won Nevada, which added six more to his count, propelling him to 290.

A centrist who promises to bring calm to Washington after four turbulent years under Trump, Biden is the oldest man to win the presidency — a position he twice sought unsuccessfully during his long political career, before being elected vice president to Barack Obama in 2008.

Following the Pennsylvania result, the President-elect issued a statement, saying he is “honoured” that America has chosen him to lead “our great country”.

“The work ahead of us will be hard, but I promise you this: I will be a President for all Americans — whether you voted for me or not,” the statement added.

“I will keep the faith that you have placed in me.”

Biden is also Delaware’s longest-serving senator.

Throughout his campaign, Biden had argued that the “soul of the nation” is at stake, and has promised that he would seek to heal a country fractured by Trump’s presidency.

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ISLAMABAD, NOV 8 – Executive Director of the Commission on Science and Technology for Sustainable Development in the South (COMSATS), Dr. S. M. Junaid Zaidi, met the Chairman of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Sefik Dzaferovic, during his recent state visit to Pakistan and extended the offer of COMSATS’ membership to the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

The brief meeting was held during a dinner hosted by the Ambassador of Bosnia and Herzegovina to Pakistan, H.E. Mr. Sakib Foric, in honor of Honorable Chairman of the Presidency.  On the occasion, Dr. Zaidi apprised the Honorable Sefik Dzaferovic of COMSATS and presented him with COMSATS’ membership documents.

The Honorable Chairman of the Presidency of Bosnia & Herzegovina was briefed that the President of Ghana, Honorable Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, is the incumbent Chairperson of the Commission on Science and Technology for Sustainable Development in the South (COMSATS), which at present has 27 countries from across the globe as Member States.

It was also highlighted that COMSATS has three statutory bodies; the Consultative Committee (comprising the national focal points in Member States); the Coordinating Council (comprising the heads of Network of International S&T Centers of Excellence; and the Technical Advisory Committee (comprising senior scientists and technologists from the North and the South. It was also noted that COMSATS Network of S&T Centers at present has 24 scientific and academic institutions as members.

The dinner was also attended by various dignitaries, including the President of Azad Jammu Kashmir, H.E. Mr. Masood Khan; Federal Minister for Interior, H.E. Mr. Ijaz Ahmad Shah; State Minister for Climate Change, Ms. Zartaj Gul; Foreign Secretary of Pakistan, H.E. Mr. Sohail Mahmood; and Ambassadors of Azerbaijan, Jordan, Turkey and Palestine.

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• Qadir resigns from party, Sanaullah quits CEC
• PML-N says their departure won’t dent party
• PPP invites the two leaders to join its ranks

QUETTA: The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz on Saturday suffered a major setback in Balochistan when its provincial chapter president retired Lt Gen Abdul Qadir Baloch formally resigned from the party and former chief minister Sanaullah Zehri announced quitting the PML-N’s central executive committee.

Their parting came after differences emerged within the PML-N over what they called their leader’s narrative against the army and Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) chiefs and for betraying the Baloch people who supported him.

They made their decisions public on the lawns of Quetta Metropolitan Corporation where a large number of councillors and party workers had gathered. 

While Mr Zehri decided to retain his provincial assembly seat that he had won in the 2018 general elections from Khuzdar (PB-38) on the PML-N ticket, Lt Gen Qadir said he would finalise his plan for future after consulting supporters and colleagues.

“I will not resign from my provincial assembly seat and will continue representing the people of my constituency who have elected me as chief of Jhalawan,” Mr Zehri announced.

“From today we will oppose Nawaz Sharif up to any extent and would expose his real face to the people of Balochistan at every house and corner,” he said.

However, the PML-N general secretary Ahsan Iqbal as well as provincial chapter general secretary Jamal Shah Kakar said that the departure of the two men would not affect the party’s organisational structure in Balochistan.

Balochistan PML-N general secretary Jamal Shah Kakar said: “The resignation of General Qadir and Nawab Sanaullah Zehri was painful, but with their resignation, the party will not finish in the province. The PML-N is very much intact and would flourish in the province, as out of 33 districts only two district presidents of PML-N attended the meeting convened by General Qadir.”

Mr Kakar claimed that all other office-bearers were with the party and standing with the narrative of ex-premier Sharif.

Retired Lt Gen Qadir Baloch, who had served as governor of Balochistan and headed the army’s Southern Command, while speaking at the workers’ meeting criticised the PML-N supreme leader and declared that he could not support the anti-army narrative of Mr Sharif, who always ignored Balochistan while taking any decision at the party and government level.

“I cannot accept Nawaz Sharif’s narrative through which he tried to create mutiny in the army against the military leadership. I cannot tolerate the insult of my army chief,” he announced, adding that whatever status and honour he had gained was just because of the Army.

He said he could not support those who were speaking against the military leadership, as the peace prevailing in the province was due to the armed forced.

He complained that the PML-N central leadership had ignored their majority in Balochistan in 2013 elections and handed over the chief ministership to the National Party, despite the fact that PML-N had won 22 seats in the Balochistan Assembly. He said he and Mr Zehri had joined the PML-N in 2010 when nobody was willing to take a ticket of the party. He said he was further disappointed when the party’s central leadership refused to invite Mr Zehri on the stage during the Pakistan Democratic Movement’s public meeting in Quetta on Oct 25. He had given blood to the party as his son, brother and others were martyred during the election campaign, he added.

While referring to the attitude of PML-N vice president Maryam Nawaz, Mr Baloch said the party had arranged women’s convection during her Quetta visit but she instead of appreciating women workers left the venue without meeting them. “It is a great insult to our women workers, which had hurt him seriously.

“Maryam Nawaz is trying to reach the status of Shaheed Benazir Bhutto, but she cannot,” Mr Baloch said.

While speaking at the party workers meeting, Mr Zehri criticised Mr Sharif and accused him of betraying all those who stood by him in the testing times.

He said he had “broken the shackles” and he and his followers would expose the “real face of Nawaz Sharif” to the people of Balochistan. “Balochistan belongs to us and we will prove it. He mocked Mr Sharif for conveniently striking deals to leave the country and get himself out of difficult situations. At the same time, he heaped praise on the PPP founder Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto for staying put in the face of imminent death but not compromising on his stand.

“He [Bhutto] refused to bow down or file a mercy petition to dictator Gen Ziaul Haq and preferred to accept death,” Mr Zehri said while calling it the “true character of a real leader”.

“A deserter doesn’t deserve to be called a leader,” he said while referring to Mr Sharif who has been declared “proclaimed offender” by courts after his refusal to return to Pakistan and serve out the seven-year sentence awarded to him in a corruption case. “He should return to Pakistan,” Mr Zehri added.

Meanwhile, the PPP Balochistan chapter president Ali Madad Jattak told journalists that the Baloch leaders had been invited to join his party so that the anti-government campaign of the PDM would not be harmed with their quitting the PML-N.

Mr Zehri, retired Lt Gen Baloch and 20 former lawmakers had been invited to join the PPP, he said, adding that the assembly dignitaries and other ticket holders by joining the PPP would fight against the incompetent rulers from this platform for the progress and prosperity of the people of Balochistan.

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ISLAMABAD: With the second wave of Covid-19 intensifying, the number of coronavirus cases being reported on a daily basis crossed the 1,500 mark for the first time since July on Saturday.

As many as 1,763 cases were reported on July 23 after which the number gradually fell to fewer than 300 in September. The country saw the highest number of daily cases on June 14 when 6,825 people contracted the virus.

On the other hand, health experts have criticised the government’s recent decision to impose Rs100 fine on those not wearing masks and allow 1,000 guests at outdoor weddings.

Due to the continuous violation of health guidelines, the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) on Friday had decided to fine violators Rs100 and provide them three masks on the spot. It also announced that from Nov 20 onwards, wedding events will be held in open areas with a maximum of 1,000 guests.

Experts assail govt measures to check virus spread

The NCOC also directed that only 50 per cent staff may work from their offices, both in the public and private sectors, while the remaining from home.

According to the centre’s data, 1,543 people tested positive for the virus on Saturday while the number of active cases, which was less than 6,000 last month, has reached 17,520.

As many as 129 ventilators, out of 1,857 allocated for Covid-19 treatment, were in use with no patient on vent in Azad Kashmir, Gilgit-Baltistan and Balochistan.

Talking to Dawn, University of Health Sciences (UHS) Vice Chancellor Prof Dr Javed Akram said the rise in cases was expected as 90 per cent of the people had started ignoring standard operating procedures.

“The fact is that the virus was subdued due to the hot weather, and with the change in temperature, it has started to spread rapidly,” he said.

Replying to a question, Dr Akram said the Rs100 fine was nothing but a joke, suggesting that up to Rs10,000 fine should be announced to create a deterrence.

“Allowing 1,000 guests at a wedding function is also unacceptable. I suggest not more than 100 people should attend such events. By permitting outdoor functions, people might get an impression that the virus does not affect people in an open area. However, they should know that US President Donald Trump and his staff contracted the virus from the Rose Garden of the White House,” he said.

About the phase-III clinical trial of a potential vaccine, the vice chancellor, who is also a member of the Scientific Task Force on Covid-19, said 3,000 volunteers had been vaccinated across the country and the results on its tolerance and efficacy have so far been satisfactory. However, he said results would be shared after 10,000 volunteers received shots of the vaccine.

Pakistan Medical Association general secretary Dr Qaiser Sajjad told Dawn that a minimum Rs1,000 fine should be imposed on violators and 100 to 150 people permitted to attend wedding events. Guests should also be given takeaways instead of serving them lunch or dinner at the event, he added.

“The virus in this second spell seems to be more lethal as nine doctors have died in the last three weeks. The PMA had observed that the majority of patients on ventilators were not recovering so we need to avoid putting them on vents as there was a possibility that the machines were damaging their lungs. China had also taken a similar decision,” he said.

Dr Sajjad urged the government to distribute free masks and regulate their prices as well as of sanitisers so that they were affordable for people.

He feared that with the increase in cases, medicines, oxygen cylinders and other necessary items might disappear from the markets, therefore, it was all the more important for the relevant departments to ensure their availability at affordable rates.

Meanwhile, Ministry of National Health Services spokesperson Sajid Shah said all possible efforts were being made to control the virus.

“The NCOC meets on a daily basis with all stakeholders brainstorming on ways to protect people from the deadly virus,” he added.

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Actor Minal Khan can’t get enough of the memories she made during her trip to Egypt earlier this year.

She shared pictures of “the most wonderful” sunrise she witnessed while trekking in Egypt’s majestic Mount Sinai.

“Throwback to the most memorable trek and sunrise of my life at Jabal Musa (Mount Sinai, Egypt) we trekked all night in -10 temperature to offer Fajar and witnessed the most wonderful sunrise !! Sometimes I wonder what have i done so right in my light to deserve this moment.

In February, Minal took a trip to Egypt with her mother. She shared an aesthetically pleasing shot of her posing against the Great Pyramid of Giza on a travel group with the message: exploring EGYPT and loving it. Let me know if anyone of you is around.

Minal’s travel partner, Uzma Mubeen, also posted a photo with her daughter from Egypt.

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Kamala Harris made history on Saturday with her election as Joe Biden's vice president, becoming the first woman, first Black American and first Asian American to win the second highest US office.

Harris, 56, is widely seen as an obvious candidate for the Democratic Party nomination in 2024 should Biden, who will be 78 at their inauguration on January 20, decide not to seek a second term. She hasn't weighed in publicly on such speculation.

Edison Research and the major US television networks on Saturday projected their victory, based on unofficial final results, even though the incumbent president, Republican Donald Trump, vowed to continue fighting in courts.

A US senator from California, Harris has a track record of shattering glass ceilings. She served as San Francisco's first female district attorney and was California's first woman of colour to be elected attorney general.

Her background in criminal justice could help a Biden administration tackle the issues of racial equality and policing after the country was swept by protests this year. She is expected to be a top adviser on judicial nominations.

Harris, whose mother and father emigrated from India and Jamaica, respectively, had her sights set on becoming the first woman US president when she competed against Biden and others for their party's 2020 nomination.

She dropped out of the race last December after a campaign hurt by her wavering views on healthcare and indecision about embracing her past as a prosecutor.

Biden looked beyond some of the harsh words Harris had for him in that campaign to name her his running mate in August. She has proven to be a valuable and polished stand-in, appealing especially to women, progressives and voters of color, all critical to the party's election hopes.

Harris, who developed a deep fundraising network during her Senate and White House bids, has been instrumental to Biden's raking in record sums of money in the closing months of the campaign. Her selection sparked a burst of excitement in the Democratic base and among the party's donors.

“Harris always made the most sense as a running mate for Biden because she had the ability to help him unify the Democratic coalition across racial and generational lines and was able to spike base enthusiasm,” said Joel Payne, a Democratic strategist who worked for Hillary Clinton's 2016 presidential campaign.

A team player

Accusations from progressives that Harris did not do enough to investigate police shootings and wrongful conviction cases when she was California's attorney general helped doom her own presidential run but surfaced little during her time as Biden's running mate.

Harris has often defended her record, saying as she did in a town hall event last year that she had worked her whole career “to reform the criminal justice system with the understanding that it is deeply flawed and in need of repair”.

Trump and his re-election campaign had sought to paint Harris instead as a tool of the Democratic left who would wield power and influence behind the scenes in a Biden presidency.

Prior to her selection, several Biden aides say that Harris was able to put to rest concerns among some in the former vice president's camp that she would be too personally ambitious to make a trustworthy partner.

Harris has shown herself to be a team player, taking on a lower-profile role and holding virtual and in-person political events that sometimes drew little news coverage, while often speaking in terms of what Biden would do for the country if elected and making an impassioned case against Trump.

“Joe and I were raised in a very similar way,” Harris said of Biden at her October debate against Vice President Mike Pence. “We were raised with values that are about hard work, about the value and the dignity of public service and about the importance of fighting for the dignity of all people.”

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After three days of uncertainty, Biden surpasses the magic number of 270 electoral votes needed to win the election

He is the oldest candidate ever elected to the White House

Democrat Joe Biden has won the White House, US media reported Saturday, defeating Donald Trump and ending a presidency that convulsed American politics, shocked the world and left the United States more divided than at any time in decades.

CNN, NBC News and CBS News called the race in Biden’s favor just before 11:30 am (1630 GMT) as an insurmountable lead in Pennsylvania took the 77-year-old over the top in the state-by-state count that decides the presidency.

Trump had no immediate reaction to the announcement, but as Biden’s lead grew during vote counts since Tuesday’s election, the Republican president lashed out with unsubstantiated claims of fraud and claimed, falsely, that he had won.

Earlier Saturday, as he headed to his golf course in Virginia, he repeated this, tweeting: “I WON THIS ELECTION, BY A LOT!”

However, the result now condemns 74-year-old Trump to becoming the first one-term president since George H. W. Bush at the start of the 1990s.

Biden, who got the votes of a record more than 74 million people, was hunkered down with his running mate Kamala Harris, in his home town of Wilmington, Delaware.

Late Friday he delivered an address urging Americans to “come together as a nation and heal.”

The Secret Service has already begun intensifying its protective bubble around the president-elect, who will be inaugurated on January 20.

A centrist who promises to bring calm to Washington after four turbulent years under Trump, Biden is the oldest man to win the presidency — a position he twice sought unsuccessfully during his long political career, before being elected vice president to Barack Obama in 2008.

Harris, a senator and former California attorney general, will make history as the first Black woman to enter the White House in either of the two top jobs. At 56, she is seen as a leading contender to succeed Biden and try to become the first female US president.

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Babar Azam’s stylish half-century was enough to help Pakistan register a comfortable six-wicket win against Zimbabwe in the first T20I in Rawalpindi on Saturday.

Chasing a tricky target of 157, the home team got over the line with six balls to spare at the expense of just four wickets.

Star of the show for the Men in Green was captain Babar, who scored 82 off just 56 balls with the help of nine fours and one six.

He was well-supported by veteran middle-order batsman Mohammad Hafeez who scored 36 off 32 balls with the help of three fours and one six.

Earlier, the visitors, after opting to bat first, posted 156 for six in their allotted 20 overs, courtesy sublime half-century from youngster Wesley Madhevere.

The right-handed batsman scored an unbeaten 70 off 48 balls with the help of nine fours and one six.

For Pakistan, pacers Haris Rauf and Wahab Riaz claimed two wickets each.

Second match of the three-match series will be played on Sunday at the same venue whereas the last fixture will be played on Tuesday.

So that’s it from us for today. Do join us for the second T20I, tomorrow on Sunday.

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