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  • Govt appoints Aslam Khan as new PIA chairman

    Govt appoints Aslam Khan as new PIA chairman

    ISLAMABAD: The federal government on Tuesday appointed Aslam R. Khan as the new chairman of Pakistan International Airline (PIA), ARY News reported.

    The decision for the appointment of new chairman was taken at the cabinet meeting held at Prime Minister House. The meeting was presided over by Prime Minister Khan.

    Last year, Aslam Khan had been appointed as Chairman of the PIACL Board.

    With over three decades of multi-faceted airline experience, Aslam Khan had also been served as the Managing Director of Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) Investments Limited for 14 years.

    Moreover, the federal cabinet gave a go-ahead to the import of one million tonnes of wheat to meet rising demand of the commodity in the country.

    Briefing the media on the decisions taken by the cabinet in today’s meeting with Prime Minister Imran Khan in the chair, Information and Broadcasting Minister Fawad Chaudhry said that the approval to import more wheat was given due to the ballooning population.

    Besides, Federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting Fawad Chaudhry said the cabinet approved the draft Public Property Encroachment Bill 2021 and the appointment of the executive director of the National Vocational and Technical Training Commission.

    He said the government will bring in a new law to remove encroachments from its pricey properties.

  • Liquor bottles being taken to student hostel seized at PU gate: security staff

    Liquor bottles being taken to student hostel seized at PU gate: security staff

    LAHORE: The security staff has seized 20 liquor bottles at Punjab University (PU) gate from a motorcyclist who allegedly told them to take the alcoholic beverage to the varsity’s hostel, ARY News reported on Tuesday.

    The PU security staff seized a huge quantity of liquor allegedly from a motorcyclist who was taking the liquor bottles to the hostel by using the name of a student organisation’s president.

    The security guards have stopped a motorcyclist on the varsity’s Gate Number 1 for having suspicion over bags that he was carrying with him.

    punjab university liquor bottles motorcyclist student organisation

    After checking the bags, the guards caught the motorcyclist red-handed while he was carrying 20 liquor bottles with him. When questioned, the motorcyclist told the guards that he was taking the liquor bottles for a student organisation’s president.

    Following the discovery, the varsity administration called the police and immediately the student for carrying out the action. Police registered a case against the student and motorcyclist.

    punjab university liquor bottles motorcyclist student organisation

    The administration said in a statement that vehicles are not allowed the enter the varsity’s premises without undergoing a security inspection. The administration also appreciated the security staff members for seizing the liquor bottles.

  • 9.8mn videos removed from TikTok over immoral content, PTA tells PHC  

    9.8mn videos removed from TikTok over immoral content, PTA tells PHC  

    PESHAWAR: Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) has removed 9.8 million videos on TikTok having immoral content besides also blocking 720,000 accounts uploading such content, ARY NEWS reported.

    Sharing the details with the Peshawar High Court (PHC) bench headed by Chief Justice Qaiser Rashid Khan in a case pertaining to the removal of immoral content from TikTok, the director [technical] of the authority said that after their actions, the TikTok has appointed a focal person for Pakistan for the first time.

    It was further conveyed that several countries have also been approached during the process for the removal of obscene content before being uploaded on the platform.

    Chief Justice of the PHC Qaiser Rashid Khan directed the PTA to continue action against the video-sharing app and remarked that they do not want to shut down the platform.

    He said that immoral content has inflicted the worst effects on society and action should be taken to filter such obscene material.

    The court later adjourned the hearing for December 22.

    It is pertinent to mention here that on June 14, National Assembly’s Standing Committee on Defence was briefed over compliance from Facebook, Twitter, TikTok, and other social media platforms.

    “Facebook even does not respond to our requests,” the NACTA official said while also lamenting the absence of data protection law and urging lawmakers to play their role in this regard.

    The PTA officials during the hearing said that they act mainly on the directives of the FIA and had so far shut down all major obscene websites in the country.

    He further shared that TikTok responds to their 64 percent requests, following by 35 percent compliance from Twitter.

  • US dollar climb continues as rupee loses another 68 paisa

    US dollar climb continues as rupee loses another 68 paisa

    KARACHI: The United States (US) dollar continued to move upwards against the Pakistani rupee in the interbank currency market on Tuesday.

    According to the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP), the greenback appreciated 68 paisas against the local currency.

    The dollar closed at Rs158.19 against the rupee, registering appreciation of 68 paisas over previous close of 157.51, the central bank said.

    The rupee had touched an all-time low of 168.43 last year in August before recouping some losses to hit a 22-month high of Rs152.95 in April.

    The local unit gained considerable ground on the back of improved foreign exchange reserves, current account surplus, and higher remittances besides less demand of dollar due to the pandemic.

  • Cabinet gives go-ahead to import of 1m tonne wheat

    Cabinet gives go-ahead to import of 1m tonne wheat

    ISLAMABAD: The federal cabinet on Tuesday gave a go-ahead to the import of one million tonnes of wheat to meet rising demand of the commodity in the country.

    Briefing the media on the decisions taken by the cabinet in today’s meeting with Prime Minister Imran Khan in the chair, Information and Broadcasting Minister Fawad Chaudhry said that the approval to import more wheat was given due to the ballooning population.

    He said the meeting approved the appointment of Aslam Khan as the chairman of Pakistan International Airlines (PIA). It deferred its decision on issuance of prohibited arms licences and appointment of the CEO of the Sukkur Electric Power Company, he added.

    Besides, Fawad said the cabinet approved the draft Public Property Encroachment Bill 2021 and appointment of the executive director of the National Vocational and Technical Training Commission.

    He said the government will bring in a new law to remove encroachments from its pricey properties.

    The information minister claimed that the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz’s (PML-N) proposal to convene an all-parties conference on electoral reforms is a conspiracy to weaken Parliament.

    He was of the view that the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) cannot question laws made by Parliament as its sole role is to implement them. It is up to the Supreme Court to determine whether a law is in contravention of the Constitution or not, he added.

  • Aged man abducted by sons over property dispute in Lahore

    Aged man abducted by sons over property dispute in Lahore

    LAHORE: In another tragic incident, an 85-year-old man was allegedly abducted by his sons over a property dispute in Manga Mandi area of Lahore, ARY NEWS reported.

    According to details, a session court was approached by the daughters of the man, seeking judicial help in the recovery of their father, who was being held in captivity by his sons.

    The plea before the session court said their father, an 85-year-old man, was abducted by his sons over a property dispute of 20 canals of land in Manga Mandi area of Lahore.

    The man was released from captivity on the court orders and presented before the judge, where he was asked as to with whom he was willing to go.

    The aged man conveyed his willingness to go with his daughters. The court approved his plea and directed his sons to refrain from harassing him in the future.

    In a similar rather more shocking incident, a 60-year-old man was tortured to death allegedly by his own son over a property dispute in Karachi on May 20.

    According to police, Tahir Hanif, a resident of New Karachi, had been demanding his share in the family property. On Wednesday, he again demanded property from his father but he refused to give him his share.

    After a verbal brawl, Tahir Hanif lost his temper and subjected his old father to severe torture in the house situated near Baghdadi Masjid in sector 11-D. He died on the spot because of internal injuries.

    After being informed, police and rescue officials rushed to the scene and shifted the body to the hospital for medico-legal formalities.

    During the initial investigations, the police arrested Tahir Hanif and shifted him to the police station for further interrogation.

  • Govt of Pakistan and Facebook partner to fight COVID misinformation

    KARACHI: Government of Pakistan has partnered with Facebook in their fight against COVID-19.

    In Pakistan, over 32 million people received authoritative information regarding COVID prevention and vaccination through social media messaging campaigns conducted by the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Information’s Digital Media Wing (DMW) in partnership with Facebook.

    Facebook provided Marketing Partner Support and Ad Credits for these campaigns and helped the government increase its engagement rates with the public on these posts between March 16 and April 6, 2021.

    As part of these campaigns, Facebook and the Ministries focused on creating videos and messages on boosting greater Vaccine Confidence amongst the nation. The messaging campaigns helped the Ministry of Health increase its total number of page likes to 470,000 – increasing the government’s ability to connect with and provide information to its stakeholders.

    As COVID-19 vaccines are becoming more readily available to larger groups, Facebook launched new Facebook profile frames in partnership with the Ministry of Health that allow users to share their support for getting vaccinated with their family and friends. Research shows, when people see others who they know and trust getting the vaccine, they will be encouraged to do the same. This can be particularly effective when it comes to encouraging those who were otherwise unsure about getting themselves vaccinated.

    Speaking in regard to the support extended by Facebook Dr. Faisal Sultan—Special Assistant to the Prime Minister (SAPM) on Health said, “We are appreciative of the support extended by Facebook in our fight against COVID-19. We reached 76% of our target population through our social media messaging campaigns. The pandemic has brought to the forefront the importance of using digital tools for transmitting critical health information to citizens and keeping them safe and healthy.”

    Throughout the pandemic, Facebook has worked closely with the two ministries to direct people to authoritative COVID-19 information. A campaign to create awareness about spotting COVID related misinformation on social media was also launched in Urdu for the Facebook community in Pakistan in partnership with the Ministry of Information’s Digital Media Wing.

    Fawad Chaudhry, Minister for Information & Broadcasting stated, “We appreciate the hard work put in by the Ministry of Health and the Digital Media Wing of Government of Pakistan in bringing together an engaging campaign in partnership with Facebook. It is crucial to differentiate between information and misinformation in the age of digital communication. Facebook has supported the spread of accurate information through their drive of removing misinformation and fact checking of news. We hope to partner with Facebook in the future to ensure that the people of our nation are provided with accurate information.”

    Facebook has worked to take aggressive steps to remove harmful misinformation and connect people to resources from health authorities. Since the start of the pandemic in March 2020, Facebook removed more than 16 million pieces of content from Facebook and Instagram globally for violations against our policies on COVID-19-related misinformation and harm. Between March and October of 2020, Facebook displayed warnings on about 167 million pieces of content on Facebook worldwide based on COVID-19 related debunking articles written by our fact checking partners.

    Globally, Facebook has connected over 2 billion people to resources from health authorities through the COVID-19 Information Center and pop-ups on Facebook and Instagram with over 600 million people clicking through to learn more.

    On WhatsApp, over 3 billion messages have been sent by governments, nonprofits, and international organizations to citizens through the WhatsApp government chatbots on COVID 19.

    Sehar Tariq, leading Public Policy for Pakistan at Facebook, said: “By working closely with the Ministry of Health and Ministry of Information’s Digital Media Wing in Pakistan we’re doing our part to help the users in Pakistan in getting credible information. We would like to express our gratitude to Honorable Fawad Chaudhry, Minister of Information and Broadcasting and Dr. Faisal Sultan, SAPM on Health for the tireless coordination and support they have extended to our team throughout. We at Facebook will continuously work towards making the fight against the pandemic easier for the Government and our community in Pakistan and across the globe. We hope to keep extending our support and expertise where possible in the Government of Pakistan’s fight against COVID. It is so important that we come together as a community to protect ourselves and each other through credible health information and support vaccine confidence in our community.”

    Imran Ghazali, General Manager at Digital Media Wing (DMW), said: “One of the important step to win the battle against COVID19 is to create awareness among masses with the latest and authentic health information and at the same time fight the disinformation on social media. In this regard, our partnership with Facebook has played a critical role in reaching the masses with information related to vaccine registration, following of SOPs and we will continue to work with Facebook to reach and engage more citizens across Pakistan”.

  • Cabinet approves increase in Ehsaas cash stipend

    Cabinet approves increase in Ehsaas cash stipend

    ISLAMABAD: The federal cabinet on Tuesday endorsed its Economic Coordination Committee’s (ECC) decision of increasing cash stipend of Ehsaas Kafalat beneficiaries by Rs2,000 per annum.

    In a message on his official Twitter account, Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Poverty Alleviation and Social Protection Dr Sania Nishtar announced, “Cabinet has ratified ECC’s decision to approve the Ministry of Povery Alleviation’s proposal to increase #EhsaasKafaalat stipend & grant equivalent of an extra month of payment to all beneficiaries every year.”

    Prime Minister Imran Khan presided over a meeting of the federal cabinet in Islamabad.

    Dr Sania Nishtar said the six-month stipend will increase from Rs 12,000 to 13,000 from January 22.

    During a meeting on Monday, Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) approved the enhancement of Ehsaas Kafalat monthly stipend to the tune of Rs166 per beneficiary w.e.f. 1s January 2022. The beneficiaries would receive additional cash of Rs 166 per month due to indexation.

    It approved the request of the Poverty Alleviation & Social Safety Division regarding the Indexation Policy for cash transfer and allowed Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP) to adopt the institutional mechanism for periodic update of regular cash transfer benefits to Ehsaas Kafalat Beneficiaries of Benazir Income Support Program (BISP).

  • Work on international standard runway at Faisalabad airport begins

    Work on international standard runway at Faisalabad airport begins

    KARACHI: Work on the international standard runway at Faisalabad Airport has begun with Rs3.58 billion and is likely to be completed by August 2022, ARY NEWS reported on Tuesday.

    Sharing details on the construction of the runway, the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) said that it would be the main runway of the airport and would be equipped with a modern ILS system.

    The construction of a runway built on international standards will help in the landing of the Boeing 777 and other heavy planes. “Cargo flights will also be operated after its construction,” the CAA said.

    Moreover, the aviation authority’s spokesman said that besides the runway, a fire station with an amount of Rs220 million would also be built at the airport.

    The secondary runway of Faisalabad airport was opened for commercial flights by the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) after completing all safety checks in January this year.

    A foreign airline’s aircraft has successfully landed at the secondary runway of Faisalabad International Airport which was opened for air traffic by the aviation authority at the beginning of 2021.

    The CAA spokesperson said that the construction of the secondary runway at the Faisalabad airport aims to continue flight operation during the upgradation of the main runway.

    The concerned authorities have already initiated upgradation of the main runway of the airport which will be completed within 18 months.

  • Nadia Jamil announces that she’s ‘officially cancer free’

    Nadia Jamil announces that she’s ‘officially cancer free’

    Actor Nadia Jamil is “officially cancer-free” after a year-long battle with breast cancer. 

    Jamil took to Instagram to announce the happy news, sharing a smiling picture of herself with a lengthy caption. “Officially cancer-free. All tests cancer clear. Shukar Alhamdolillah,” she said, before thanking her fans and followers for their love, prayers, and support.

    While Jamil did sustain some nerve damage in her feet as an effect of intense chemotherapy, she plans to “live to dance my way, coz bhangra is all in the shoulders anyways,” and we can’t be more proud of her courage! 

     

     

    View this post on Instagram

     

    A post shared by Nadia Jamil (@njlahori)

     

    She also thanked a specific business for offering her a platform to continue to work and earn to help her through “financially trying times” before giving a special shoutout to industry friends Sania Saeed, Adnan Siddiqui, and Muniba Mazari for being by her side.

    However, not all friends stuck around, and Jamil also called them out without taking any names, saying that some colleagues who are now megastars would leave her waiting or chasing them for a response.

    “I can only pray Allah brings respect and humility to their hearts. After all fame and name are nothing in the scheme of the universe and we are all, in the end, buried in the same soil,” she said.

    Jamil also shared some lessons that she learned on her ‘#journeytowellness’, including shedding people who made her feel small.

    In lieu of them, Jamil said she’s made “new friends and family, to whom I am bound for life. Not by blood, but by the solid support they offered me during cancer and isolation during the pandemic.”

     

     

    View this post on Instagram

     

    A post shared by Nadia Jamil (@njlahori)

     

    “In the end though, I have stood by myself. It is my breath that keeps me alive, myself that protects me. It is my mind that wakes up to the dawn light, searching for clarity…,” she further wrote, adding, “It is my heart that feels full to the brim with gratitude and joy for every amazing blessing and gifts the creator exposes me to.”

    Jamil announced her breast cancer diagnosis last year in April. The Damsa actor took to Twitter to share with her followers that she had developed stage one breast cancer with a grade three tumor.

    “Last week I was diagnosed with cancer. Now 4 days into treatment. In the last few days have felt all sorts of feelings from apprehension, fear, unbeatably huge love to calm, acceptance, patience, overwhelming gratitude & a deep sense of responsibility to my children, parents, loved ones, myself, you,” she had shared.