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The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge have said they are excited to visit Pakistan to meet its people and to witness and experience its beautiful culture, although the Duke of Cambridge is wary of spicy food, the Duchess likes spicy food.

Prince William and Kate Middleton were speaking to around 70 selected Pakistanis at the Aga Khan Centre at an exclusive reception hosted for them by His Highness The Aga Khan in association with Pakistan High Commission. The royal couple visited the centre for two hours ahead of their Royal Highnesses’ official visit to Pakistan, which will take place between Monday 14th and Friday 18th October.

Pakistan’s High Commissioner to the UK Nafees Zakaria and the Aga Khan welcomed the royal couple when they arrived for the visit of the centre. While the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, both 37, mingled with the guests, a Pakistani musician played tabla in the background. The couple were seen going round to the guests and asked them questions about Pakistan and the work they did.

The Aga Khan, 82, told the guests he was hosting the Royal Couple at the centre to showcase them the contribution Pakistanis are making to the cultural diversity of Britain. Speaking briefly to this correspondent, Prince William said he looked forward to visiting Pakistan as he has heard so many wonderful things about Pakistan.

The food for the guests was cooked by Saliha Mahmood Ahmed, the MasterCheff 2017 winner. She told Geo News that the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge asked her about Pakistani food and sought tips on what to eat.

Saliha said, “They asked me about Pakistani culture, they wanted to know about Pakistani food. They are much excited to visit Pakistan. I recommended that they should eat traditional food of Pakistan. I suggested them not to worry about putting on fats, you can exercise later on and burn the fats!”.

Saliha said the Duchess likes spicy food and the Duke is wary of it but both looked forward to enjoying the local cuisine. Writer and broadcaster Sarfraz Manzoor quoted the Duke as saying that he likes medium spice but “I don’t think it exists in Pakistan”.

Producer and composer of Naughty Boy (Shahed Khan) said the royal couple asked him how bansri and tabla are played and that they looked forward to enjoying Pakistani music during their visit.

Lord Zameer Choudrey said he welcomed the Royal couple. Banker Arif M Ali said the couple asked him how he helped Pakistan. “They were eager to know more about my work for Pakistan and wanted to know in what way I helped Pakistan’s economy.”

Mahmood H Ahmed of Agha Khan Foundation said that the event was organised to showcase modern Pakistani culture and the royal couple were able to meet a range of people from Pakistan, including community leaders, those involved in British and Pakistani business, and key figures within the diaspora community, including musicians, chefs and artists.

He said the Aga Khan Development Network (AKDN) has been working in Pakistan for over a century to improve the quality of life, promote pluralism, and enhance civil society.

High Commissioner Nafees Zakari said, “The Royal couple is much excited to visit Pakistan. I told them that the whole Pakistan awaits them with excitement. I think this will be a great visit.

This visit will boost relations between the two countries and will project the real soft image of Pakistan before the world. The visit will draw attention of many people towards Pakistan.”

Zakaria said the people of Pakistan still cherish and fondly recall” the visits by the Queen and described the upcoming trip as a “reflection of the importance the United Kingdom attaches to its relations with Pakistan. The two countries enjoy historical links which both sides wish to strengthen further”.

The prominent Pakistanis who attended the reception included artist Mehtab Hussain, Shahed Karim, Shaista Gohar, Arif Rangoonwala, Adil Ray, Shazia Mirza, Sarfraz Manzoor and many others.

President Muhammadu Buhari will departed Abuja on Wednesday on a three-day visit to the Republic of South Africa.

The visit comes against the background of recent xenophobic attacks, the evacuation of hundreds of Nigerians and the exchange of visits by special envoys of the two leaders.

While in South Africa, the Nigerian leader will hold a town hall meeting with Nigerians living in the country, with a view to sharing in their experiences and reassuring them of Nigeria’s government commitment to working for the protection of their lives and property and promoting peaceful co-existence.

President Buhari and his host will preside over the South Africa/Nigeria Bi-National Commission, during which a progress report will be presented. At the end of the meeting, both leaders will sign a joint communiqué.

The President and his delegation including Nigerian business representatives will also participate at a South Africa-Nigeria Business Forum with their host counterparts.

President Buhari will be accompanied by Governor Abdullahi Umar Ganduje of Kano State, Governor Simon Lalong of Plateau State and Governor David Umahi of Ebonyi State.

Others are: Minister of Foreign Affairs, Geoffrey Onyeama; Minister of Defence, Maj. Gen. Bashir Magashi (retd); Minister of Power, Eng. Saleh Mamman; Minister of Interior, Rauf Aregbesola; Minister of Mines and Steel Development, Arch. Olamilekan Adegbite; Minister of Police Affairs, Maigari Dingyadi; and Minister of State, Industry, Trade and Investment, Amb. Mariam Katagum.

Also on the trip are: National Security Adviser, Maj. Gen. Babagana Monguno (retd); Director-General, National Intelligence Agency, Amb. Ahmed Rufai Abubakar; and Chairman/CEO Nigeria Diaspora Commission, Hon. Abike Dabiri-Erewa.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson will on Wednesday unveil his final Brexit offer to the EU and say that, if Brussels does not engage with it, Britain will stop talking and leave on Oct. 31 regardless.

In his closing speech to his Conservatives’ annual conference, Johnson will stick to his hard line on Brexit, offering the party faithful details of what he will describe as his “fair and reasonable compromise”.

With less than a month left until Britain is due to leave the EU, the future of Brexit, its most significant geopolitical move since World War Two, is uncertain.

It could leave with a deal or without one – or not leave at all.

“My friends, I am afraid that after three-and-a-half years, people are beginning to feel that they are being taken for fools.

“They are beginning to suspect that there are forces in this country that simply don’t want Brexit delivered at all,” he will say, according to extracts released by his office.

“Let’s get Brexit done on Oct. 31 so in 2020 our country can move on.”

In a strategy that will define the future of Brexit, the EU and his premiership, Johnson is betting he can get enough concessions from Brussels to persuade Brexit supporters in the British parliament to ratify any deal.

Johnson has been firm that the Oct. 31 deadline will be met, but parliament has put roadblocks in his way – passing a law that requires him to ask the EU for a delay if he fails to secure an acceptable deal at an EU summit on Oct. 17-18.

On Tuesday, sterling had dipped to a one-month low of 1.2205 dollars as traders became increasingly nervous about the possibility of a deal.

On Wednesday morning it was trading at 1.2228 dollars, weighed down by fears that Johnson’s proposal would not produce an agreement.

The EU has repeatedly asked Britain to come up with “legal and operational” proposals for the changes Johnson wants to a deal that his predecessor Theresa May negotiated with the bloc in 2018.

“This is the moment of truth,” Conservative Party Chairman James Cleverly said, adding that the EU must see the need to compromise if it wanted to avoid a ‘no-deal’ Brexit.

“This would mean no measures to soften the sudden rupture of trade and cooperation agreements that have been in force for decades.

Following its rejection three times by parliament, Johnson has demanded changes to the Withdrawal Agreement, especially over new arrangements with the bloc for the border between the British province of Northern Ireland and EU member Ireland.

But weeks of talks since Johnson took power have made little headway, and British officials described the proposal to be unveiled on Wednesday as a final offer.

The Telegraph newspaper cited a briefing to European capitals to report that Britain was proposing to leave Northern Ireland in a special trading relationship with the EU until 2025, after which Belfast would decide whether to remain aligned to the bloc or return to following British rules.

The newspaper said London was proposing that Northern Ireland leave the EU customs union at the end of the transition period in 2021 alongside Britain, which would move directly into a Free Trade Agreement with Europe.

Customs checks would take place at a distance from the Ireland-Northern Ireland border – which will have become the border of the EU’s tariff-free internal market.

A senior British government official said: “The government is either going to be negotiating a new deal or working on ‘no deal’ — nobody will work on delay.”

“We will keep fighting to respect the biggest democratic vote in British history.

“The EU is obliged by EU law only to negotiate with member state governments, they cannot negotiate with parliament, and this government will not negotiate delay.”

Johnson is gambling that, by taking a hard line on Brexit, he will steal votes from others such as the Brexit Party, led by veteran euroskeptic Nigel Farage, at an election widely expected to come before the end of the year.

He also has the main opposition Labour Party in his sights, and will use his speech to attack its leader, Jeremy Corbyn, who has led efforts to try to block a ‘no-deal’ Brexit. (Reuters/NAN)

Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan ordered authorities to prepare a mobile phone app to help parents report child sex abuse after a series of crimes shocked the nation.

Khan announced the initiative after police arrested a man for the alleged sexual abuse and murder of four young boys in Punjab province’s Kasur district.

The abduction, rape and murder of the four boys in September took place in the same district where a seven-year-old girl named Zainab was raped and murdered in 2018.

The “Mera Bacha Alert” (My Child Alert) app will allow parents the option of avoiding a decades-old in-person police reporting system.

Many parents, especially in rural areas and smaller communities, avoid reporting incidents like rape due to shame, fears of stigmatisation and pressure to avoid lodging such allegations.

The new method should help ease the barriers to reporting crimes of abuse, Khan’s office said.

The app will alert officials in all four provinces of the country about the incident.

“The app will help parents report and we will ensure safety and security of our children,” the prime minister said in a statement issued by his office.

“The PM has ordered to complete the task within two weeks,” a spokesperson at Khan’s office said on Wednesday.

In 2018, at least 3,832 cases of abduction, sodomy and rape were reported in which 55 per cent victims were girls, according to Sahil, a not-for-profit organisation that records reported cases related to children.

It welcomed the launch of the app.

In 2015, the city of Kasur made global headlines when hundreds of videos of child molestation surfaced and police later arrested several members of a racket involved in selling child pornography to websites in Europe.