Pakistan TV Satellite

ISLAMABAD: Information Minister Attaullah Tarar has said a truly futuristic approach is essential to move forward. Speaking at PTV Home&rsquo;s programme &lsquo;Rising Pakistan&rsquo; on the occasion of the channel&rsquo;s 61st anniversary, Attaullah Tarar said new platforms are being created to connect Gen Z with PTV. The minister said during Pakistan-India war, it was realized that there was a need to start channels as a stratcom tool. &ldquo;We are encouraging private sector channels as well,&rdquo; he said. Attaullah Tarar said Pakistan TV Satellite has a fresh and new look and &ldquo;our stories are being quoted by international media outlets like BBC and Reuters&rdquo;. He said our strategic and geopolitical situation is such that exclusive stories from here have international significance.&ldquo;We brought new vigour in English media, whether it be digital or satellite,&rdquo; he said. Attaullah Tarar said very capable women were heading most departments in PTV, adding that it is a women-led initiative in the information domain.He said in sports, we got exclusive rights of many series through which we generated revenue. The minister said a sustainable model is needed.&nbsp; He went on to say that we are trying to do collaboration with the private sector for PTV Home. &ldquo;We can make good dramas and do collaborations with the private sector under profit-cost sharing basis,&rdquo; he said, adding that public-private partnership is a way forward. He said those who are leaders in entertainment in private sector should be invited to collaborate with PTV. The minister said today all those who are leading the entertainment industry say they started from PTV. He added that PTV has given birth to the entertainment, sports and news industries. Attaullah Tarar said he does not believe in criticism for the sake of criticism, adding that there should be constructive criticism to bring reforms. He said the private sector will be strongly encouraged in media projects, adding that Pakistan Idol was launched as private sector collaboration at a minimum cost. The information minister said the government aims to expand youth involvement through private sector programmes.

Speaking at PTV Home’s programme ‘Rising Pakistan’ on the occasion of the channel’s 61st anniversary, Information Minister Attaullah Tarar said new platforms are being created to connect Gen Z with PTV. (Photo: Pakistan TV Satellite)

SAT News Desk

Speaking at an event marking PTV's 61st anniversary, the information minister said new platforms are being created to connect Gen Z with PTV.

Moving forward with futuristic approach is essential: Tarar

Faraz Saeed

LAHORE: Hamid holds up an imported blazer, its designer label still intact, and makes his pitch to a crowd of shoppers huddled against the winter cold. &quot;Abroad, this would cost Rs20,0000 ($71.24), maybe Rs15,000 ($53.43),&quot; he says, gesturing at his stall filled with imported blazers and suits. &quot;Here? Just Rs2,500 ($8.9).&quot; Within minutes, it&#39;s sold. Welcome to landa bazaar, Lahore&#39;s sprawling secondhand clothing market, where Pakistan&#39;s thrift revolution is hitting its stride. What began decades ago as a necessity for low-income families has transformed into a cultural phenomenon. It is driven by social media, sustainability trends and a generation that turned &quot;landa&quot; from stigma to status symbol. The numbers tell the story: Pakistan imported $511 million worth of used clothing in fiscal 2024-2025, according to customs data. This shattered the previous year&#39;s record of $434 million. Much of it flows through markets like this one, where tons of coats, shoes and handbags from Europe, the United States, Japan, South Korea and China arrive each season. They sell for a fraction of their original prices. From railway stalls to Instagram stores Landa bazaar started as a tight cluster of stalls near Lahore Railway Station, a place where working-class families could afford winter coats and school shoes. Government cleanups scattered the vendors across the city to Anarkali, Ichhra, Liberty Market, Makkah Colony, but the market only grew. The real shift came around 2020, when Western thrift culture exploded on TikTok and Instagram. Gen Z and millennials turned secondhand shopping into content: thrift hauls, #thriftflip videos, vintage finds. Platforms like Poshmark made it mainstream. That wave reached South Asia quickly. In Lahore, young shoppers began posting their &quot;landa hauls&quot; online, showing off branded jackets and retro sneakers. The same clothes their parents once bought quietly, they now advertised proudly. &quot;It&#39;s from landa,&quot; became a boast, not an admission. The resellers Ijaz, who sells imported trousers from a roadside stall, has watched his customer base change. Luxury cars now park near his setup. Women from affluent neighborhoods arrive with shopping lists. &quot;The word landa used to have a stigma,&quot; he says. &quot;Social media changed everything. Now people buy in bundles, wear the clothes, photograph them and sell them online.&quot; These entrepreneurs, mostly young women, have built businesses around &quot;pre-loved fashion.&quot; They source inventory from landa bazaar, curate collections and market them on Instagram as sustainable, affordable alternatives to fast fashion. Weekly &quot;drops&quot; sell out in hours. Social media reframed secondhand clothes as &quot;finds&quot; rather than castoffs. The stigma faded. In its place: pride, individuality and the appeal of smart shopping. Winter rush Winter still brings the biggest crowds. Shoppers hunt for coats, boots and scarves as temperatures drop. But the thrift culture now runs year-round, fueled by a steady stream of imports and online demand. The government crackdowns that pushed vendors from the railway station haven&#39;t slowed business. If anything, landa bazaars have multiplied. Vendors adapt, customers follow. On a recent morning, the Anarkali market buzzed with activity. Shoppers sorted through piles of jeans, held jackets up to the light, negotiated prices.&nbsp;A teenager filmed herself trying on a vintage leather jacket for TikTok. Nearby, a woman filled two large bags with sweaters, likely destined for her Instagram store. Hamid folded another blazer, ready for the next customer.

Culture

Each coat, bag, and pair of shoes carries a second life - a reminder that style doesn’t need a heavy price tag.

Designer coats for $9: Winter brings thrifting crowds to Lahore's landa bazaar

SYDNEY: Australian police are working on an AI prototype that will help them decipher Gen Z slang and emoji-laden messages written by online predators, a top official said on&nbsp;Wednesday. Australian Federal Police Commissioner Krissy Barrett said social media had become a breeding ground for bullying, sexual exploitation and radicalization. Police were working with software giant Microsoft to develop a tool that would unravel sinister messages hidden by seemingly innocuous emojis and slang, she said. Clever AFP members, with Microsoft, are developing a prototype AI tool that will interpret emojis and Gen Z-and-Alpha slang in encrypted communications. &quot;This prototype aims to make it quicker for our teams to save children from harm much earlier.&quot; Barrett also warned about the rise of so-called &quot;crimefluencers&quot; -- online predators who used their social media savvy to target young and vulnerable users. &quot;They are crimefluencers, and they are motivated by anarchy and hurting others, with most of their victims pre-teen or teenage girls,&quot; she said. Australia will from December 10 force social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram and TikTok to remove users under the age of 16. There is keen interest in whether Australia&#39;s sweeping restrictions can work, as regulators around the globe wrestle with the dangers of social media.

Artificial Intelligence

Australian police, in partnership with Microsoft, are developing an AI tool to decode Gen Z slang and emojis used by online predators. The initiative aims to detect hidden abuse, counter “crimefluencers,” and protect children online.

Australian police build AI to decode Gen Z slang in predator chats

Reuters

Saturday marked the 20th anniversary of the publication of Twilight, the first book in Stephanie Meyer&rsquo;s teen vampire romance saga published between 2005 and 2020. It has also been almost 20 years since Kristen Stewart&rsquo;s awkward &ldquo;plain girl&rdquo; Bella and Robert Pattinson&rsquo;s century-old glittery Edward appeared in the first movie. The film Twilight (2008) grossed more than $407 million worldwide during its theatrical release. It is often credited with launching the careers of Stewart and Pattinson. Full of awkward dialogue, melodramatic acting, and absurd scenes, such as the iconic vampire family-bonding baseball game, Twilight has earned a cult status.&nbsp; The franchise has amassed a dedicated fandom of &ldquo;Twihards&rdquo;, including some surprisingly young fans who, two decades on, won&rsquo;t let it fade from the cultural consciousness. The Twilight renaissanceMeyer&rsquo;s Twilight books sired a growing brood of 2000s teen vampire romance novels, including L.J. Smith&rsquo;s The Vampire Diaries series (2009&ndash;17) and Richelle Mead&rsquo;s Vampire Academy series (2007&ndash;10). The COVID pandemic also ushered in the revival of the romantasy genre on #BookTok, TikTok&rsquo;s sub-community for bibliophiles. BookTok has greatly resurrected our collective nostalgia for paranormal romances, providing a useful context for understanding the &ldquo;Twilight renaissance&rdquo; of recent years. The most obvious sign of the Twilight franchise&rsquo;s ongoing popularity is the non-stop parade of memes on social media, spoofing everything from the characters to the plot, acting, and continuity errors, as well as low-budget visual effects. Across YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok, Twihards create and share daily Twilight-themed content on their own accounts and on dedicated fan accounts. In the 2009 film sequel, Twilight: New Moon, the teen-werewolf Jacob (Taylor Lautner) runs grinning towards Bella, exclaiming: &ldquo;Bella, where the hell have you been, loca?&rdquo;. This bizarre line and its delivery inadvertently created one of the most popular Twilight memes of all time. Even the actors have gotten on board with poking fun at the franchise&rsquo;s unintentionally goofy moments. The resurgence of the Twilight subculture also comes down to fans re-watching the films after they were added to Netflix in 2021. All five films quickly entered the streaming platforms&rsquo; top ten most-watched list. The first film, produced with a budget of just $37 million, lends itself particularly well to repeat viewing, as it is full of odd and quirky details. Escaping to Forks, WashingtonIn her book, Memes and Digital Culture, Professor of Communications Limor Shifman argues that, despite their seemingly trivial nature, memes play a crucial role in shaping and reflecting how people perceive the world. Members of Gen Z, many of whom grew up watching the Twilight films, are now young adults navigating a complex world. They also happen to be the most meme-obsessed generation. The Twilight renaissance may reveal how they are grappling with contemporary life, with some fans calling it a &ldquo;recession indicator.&rdquo; Fans seeking safety and familiarity in tough times will watch the films over and over. &ldquo;Watching them brings me right back to a time in my childhood where possibilities were endless, and it makes me so happy,&rdquo; says one Reddit user. Twilight across the generational divideYoung adult fiction &mdash;&nbsp;particularly narratives with supernatural, paranormal, or fantasy romance elements&nbsp;&mdash; offers an escape from reality that centers&nbsp;on the universal experience of adolescence. Coming-of-age stories, such as Twilight, allow young people to navigate the emotional trials of love, friendship, and self-discovery in a way that feels both sufficiently different and familiar. And while millennials experienced Twilight first-hand, throngs of Gen Zers are now finding their way to Forks through this resurgence of 2000s pop culture. For both generations, Twilight provides comfort and escapism, while its memeification fosters the kind of online camaraderie that&rsquo;s often sought in tumultuous times.

Film & TV

Two decades on, Twilight remains popular with Gen Z, who find comfort, nostalgia, and humor in its cringey charm. Streaming, memes, and BookTok have fueled a cultural revival of the iconic vampire romance saga.

Why Gen Z is still obsessed with Twilight, two decades on

Romesa Umar

ISLAMABAD: At least 14 people were killed and dozens injured in Kathmandu on Monday after police opened fire on protesters storming Nepal&rsquo;s Federal Parliament in response to a controversial social media ban, Reuters reported.The unrest broke out outside the parliament building, where thousands of mostly young demonstrators had gathered. Witnesses said police fired live rounds, rubber bullets, and tear gas after some protesters breached barricades, set fire to an ambulance, and attempted to enter the compound.Others hurled stones at security forces and transported the wounded away on motorcycles.The protests were sparked by the government&rsquo;s decision to block major social media platforms that failed to meet new regulatory requirements. Under the new policy, platforms were ordered to register with Nepal&rsquo;s Ministry of Communications and Information Technology, open local offices, and appoint official representatives by a September 3 deadline.Platforms that complied and those blockedOfficials said apps like TikTok, Viber, and WeTalk complied with the rules. However, Meta-owned Messenger and others were blocked.A government official told Reuters that the restrictions aim to curb fake accounts and rising cybercrime, which authorities claim threaten national unity.Popularity of Social Media ApplicationsThe ban has hit Nepal&rsquo;s diaspora community especially hard. Roughly 7.5% of Nepal&rsquo;s population lives abroad and relies on messaging apps to stay in touch with family.According to the Nepal Telecommunications Authority&rsquo;s 2021 report, over 90% of the country&rsquo;s 30 million people use the internet. Many have already shifted to platforms like Viber to maintain communication.&ldquo;The new generation in Nepal&rdquo;Protesters argue that the ban restricts free expression and blocks critical communication tools. Chants like &ldquo;Shut down corruption, not social media,&rdquo; and &ldquo;Youth against corruption,&rdquo; echoed through the crowd, reflecting wider dissatisfaction with government transparency and governance.The situation escalated rapidly, merging frustrations over corruption, censorship, and what many see as an authoritarian overreach into digital life.While the government has not declared a state of emergency, officials have warned of stricter crackdowns if the violence continues.The incident marks one of the deadliest outbreaks of civil unrest in Nepal in recent years and underscores a growing clash between the state&rsquo;s push for digital regulation and the demands of a young, connected population seeking free access to global platforms.

Asia

At least 14 killed in Kathmandu as protests against Nepal’s ban on 26 social media platforms escalate into violent clashes with police.

Articles tagged with "Gen Z"

Moving forward with futuristic approach is essential: Tarar

Designer coats for $9: Winter brings thrifting crowds to Lahore's landa bazaar

Australian police build AI to decode Gen Z slang in predator chats

Why Gen Z is still obsessed with Twilight, two decades on

14 killed as Nepal protests erupt over social media ban

Moving forward with futuristic approach is essential: Tarar