Lahore Fashion Week concludes with style

Audiences say such events are very good for the cultural life of the city, but if management flaws could be overcome, they would become all the more fascinating

By Ali Usman

LAHORE: The glaring success of the city’s maiden fashion week has made headlines across the world bringing eminence to its burgeoning fashion industry.

The four-day long Pakistan Fashion Design Council (PFDC) Sunsilk Fashion Week, which brought together 32 designers from across the country, concluded on Friday, with great aplomb and fiesta. Fashionistas from across the industry showed great confidence in the fashion week, saying it would help develop links between local designers and people from outside Pakistan.

PFDC spokesman Hassan Sheheryar Yasin said, “This fashion week has proved the immense creativity and prowess of the Pakistani people.” He lauded the courage and vibrancy of the Lahori people and their immense support for the fashion week despite unstable conditions, adding, “It had indeed proved itself the cultural hub of the country.” The last day of the fashion event saw Strings and Ali Zafar walk down on the ramp. They also sang for the designers and received a huge applause from the audiences. PFDC Chairperson Sehyr Saigol paid tribute to Lahore and its people for making the event successful. She also thanked the buyers who had come from across Pakistan. “Such events are very important for Pakistan and we should keep organising more and more fashion weeks in Pakistan,” she added.

The crowds said, “Such events are very fascinating for the cultural life of the city but if management flaws could be overcome, they would be all the more fascinating.” Participating designers included Ali Xeeshan, Ammar Belal, Asifa & Nabeel, Asian Institute of Fashion Design, Body Focus Museum, Élan by Khadija Shah, Hajra Hayat, Hoorain, HSY, Kamiar Rokni, Karma, Khaadi, Maria B., Mehdi, Munib Nawaz, Muse, Nayna, Nickie Nina, Nida Azwer, Nomi Ansari, Pakistan Institute of Fashion Design, Rehana Saigol, Rouge, Saai by Sahar Atif, Sadaf Malaterre, Sarah Salman, Shaiyanne Malik, Sobia Nazir, Sublime by Sara Shahid, Tazeen Hasan, Teejays by Feeha Jamshed, Yahsir Waheed and Yousuf Bashir Qureshi (YBQ).

Film stars and actors Shaan, Moamar Rana, Sana, Saleem Shekih, Fiza Ali, Amna Haq, stylist Tariq Amin, US Consul General Carmela Conroy, Governor Salmaan Taseer, Begum Aamna Taseer, Hollywood hair stylist Jammal Hammadi were also present at the four-day fashion event.

Unlock for baseband 05.12.01 for iPhone 3.1.3 might be coming soon!

For you unlucky people who updated their unlocked phones to firmware 3.1.3, have hope! George Hotz has confirmed that he has a working exploit which can be used to unlock the latest 05.12.01 baseband which was upgraded if you updated to newest firmware. No ETA was given was given regarding the release in his tweet, but it could be soon.

Last week, Sherif Hashim, an iPhone hacker and developer, found an exploit for the latest baseband. He sent it to the iPhone Dev-Team and they confirmed it’s working, but no ETA was given, or even if they will release a tool to unlock this baseband, because they don’t want to waste the important exploit for a minor update firmware. They might be waiting for a more major firmware update such as 3.2 or 4.0 or maybe even for the next gen iPhone 4G.
But, what if both geohot and the dev team have the same exploit, if one releases it now, and it was the same, it will be useless in the future for any other firmwares. But if it’s different it could do a lot. That’s why both parties are communicating to see if it’s the same exploit so they don’t waste it on this minor update firmware.
Here is the excerpt posted by @visnet’s twitter that is going around from the IRC Channel.

What does geohot tweet mean?
<%geohot> its my bb exploit for safekeeping
<%Par4doX> geohot: did you turn that over to the dev team or are you doing something with it?
<%geohot> my days of turning things over are done
<%geohot> i hope its different from the one they have
<%geohot> but they prob already have it
<%geohot> its the one i orig wanted to release blacksn0w with
<%Par4doX> it’s still there in the new bb
<%geohot> yep, just checked
<%geohot> but then opted to use xemn since it was public
Oo, it carries over from 05.11 to 05.12?
<%geohot> why wouldn’t it, apple doesn’t fix things proactivly
<@MuscleNerd> geohot we prob should figure out a way to know if we have same exploit double blind, otherwise we may release 2 different ones at same time
<%geohot> any suggestions?
<@MuscleNerd> not sure how to do that without making it easy to brute force tho
<%geohot> yea, i salted the hash
<@MuscleNerd> yeah
<@MuscleNerd> hmm maybe if we both hash the stack dump
<@Confucious> Can you two take this out of public sight?
<@MuscleNerd> the stack itself, not the header before it or the registers after it
muscle: any notice about the exploits are the same ?
<%geohot> we are working on it
<%geohot> cryptography, perfect for people who don’t trust each other

All we can do is wait, and see if things work out, but I am pretty sure the hackers know what they are doing.

Government fases multiple challenges: PM Gilani

Lahore,Feb.21(PP) Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani said the PPP government had promoted the politics of reconciliation by bringing different political parties with diverse manifestos into a coalition government.He said the PPP government respected the difference of opinion among coalition partners.“The present governemnt is facing multiple challenges like terrorism and extremism.  Our jawans are fighting terrorists on the western front and embracing martyrdom for a safer tomorrow of the country,” he added.

He said it was the success of the government that it had convinced the people that terrorism was the biggest threat to the country, adding the PPP government should be given due credit to meet the misries of the masses to some extent dispite facing extreme crises.
Referring to an earlier comment by PML (N) MNA Khawaja Muhammad Asif, the Prime Minister said politicians should not be eliminated from mainstream politics on flimsy allegations of corruption as was done in 1958. He said politicians like Khawaja Nazim ud Din and Feroz Khan Noon were sent packing on baseless charges of corruption and the constitution was abrogated.
“Ploitical figures need to be given time to attain political maturity”, Gilani said.
About the Accountability Bill, the Premier said there was a thin line between accountability and victimization and the government wanted to draw a line between the two in order to protect people’s rights and freedoms.
“No journalist or politician is behind the bar during my tenure as Prime Minister”, he added.
He said people should not crticise the government for the sake of crticism. “Good governance cannot be achieved by the Prime Minister and the President only but other instituitions and politicians should play their due role in this regard,” he added.
The Premier expressed his optimism that problems like dearness would be overcome through joint efforts of all political forces. “All political forces should join hands for the betterment of the country. Issues are so grave that one man cannot resolve them single-handedly,” he observed.
About his efforts to resolve a clash with the judiciary, the Prime Minister said parliament and the Judiciary should respect each other. “Whatever I did for an amicable settlement of the judges issue, I did it in the larger interest of the country,” he said.
He said the executive and the judiciary believed in democracy and performed their constitutional roles within their powers and parameters.
The Premier said the PPP government had pursued the politics of reconciliation as per the vision of Shaheed Benazir Bhutto,adding that she believed in taking all politial forces alongwith for national stablitiy and achieving political maturity.
Syed Yusuf Raza Gilani reiterated his resolve that no compromise would be made on national interest and solidairty of Pakistan at any cost.  Barrister Aitzaz Ahsan, Mujibur Rehman Shami, Orya Jan Maqbool, Ata-ul- Haq Qasmi, Prof Sajjad Mir, Humayun Akhtar and Kh Muhammad Asif also addressed the seminar.