New Delhi: Owners of a high-end cafe in Pakistan’s Islamabad, who had mocked their manager for not being fluent in English in a viral video, apologised Thursday after intense backlash.
The two women — Uzma and Dia — owners of the eatery ‘Cannoli by Cafe Soul’ had posted a video where they could be seen asking their manager of nine years to introduce himself in English. When he struggled to do so, they laughed at him and even mocked him for being unable to learn the language even after three courses.
However, the video was criticised intensely on social media with the duo being accused of classist behaviour. The hashtag #BoycottCannoli was also a top trend on Twitter in Pakistan.
In a clarification Thursday, the two owners noted, “We are saddened and appalled by the reaction of the people, how they have misconstrued our banter with a team member. This video depicts the gup shup between us as a team, and is never meant or taken in a hurtful or negative way”.
The restaurant has over 4,000 followers on its Instagram page.
Imran Khan’s official sound engineer caught in political crossfire
A sound engineer, Asif Nazar Butt, known as DJ Butt, has become the target of Pakistan’s politics. Butt, who was once Prime Minister Imran Khan’s official sound engineer, was arrested last month for providing a sound system to the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) — the opposition alliance in Pakistan.
The PDM had planned a nationwide protest against the Imran Khan-led government on 13 December in Lahore, just days after Butt was picked up by the police. He was arrested under charges of “possession of illegal weapons” but he noted that his rifle was licensed.
This is not the first time the sound engineer has been arrested for being affiliated to a political party.
Butt had met Khan in 2011 when the the latter was looking for someone to set the stage for protests by his party, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf. In 2014, he was arrested for providing a sound system to a PTI gathering when the Nawaz Sharif-led government was in power and was charged for violating Section 144 of the Criminal Procedure Code, which bans usage of loudspeakers in public rallies.
Former policeman to play lead in biopic of ‘encounter specialist’
An ex-policeman, Tariq Islam, who worked under the celebrated and much-feared Karachi police officer Chaudhry Aslam Khan, will portray him in the upcoming biopic ‘Chaudhry the Martyr’.
SP Chaudhry Aslam Khan was killed in a remote-controlled bomb attack by the terrorist group Taliban in January 2014. A suicide bomber rammed his vehicle into the police officer’s convoy in Lyari Expressway, Karachi. Two other police officers were also killed in the attack.
Infamously known as the ‘encounter specialist’, Khan is said to have killed 80 suspected terrorists in his career of nearly 30 years.
Azeem Sajjad, director of the film, was quoted as saying that Islam had to be coached in acting. Both Tariq and Khan belong to the same village and had even worked together in the Pakistan Army.
Pakistan in a frenzy over ‘Sialkot ka Imran Khan’
A video of a Pakistani man, who resembles Imran Khan, has sent social media into a frenzy in the country.
The man in the video — Shah Hussain — is a fruit vendor and has said that a lot of women hit on him because he resembles the Pakistan Prime Minister.
The video was shot when Hussain, who hails from Swat, was traveling in Sialkot. He was in the city to sell fruits when someone took the clip and many are now calling him ‘Sialkot ka Imran Khan (Sialkot’s Imran Khan)’.
His look is same like young Imran Khan https://t.co/PpE88esakf
— Abbas (@Abbas1kazmi) January 18, 2021
If imran Khan & Hritik roshan had a son: https://t.co/uiGdSzJT0S
— Ayeshay (@champagne_lassi) January 18, 2021
Some even compared him to Bollywood actor Hrithik Roshan.
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