Current Final

Category: Lifestyle

  • NIH confirms presence of XBB variant of Covid-19 in Pakistan

    NIH confirms presence of XBB variant of Covid-19 in Pakistan

    The National Institute of Health (NIH) in Islamabad and the Aga Khan University Hospital (AKUH) on Tuesday confirmed the presence of the XBB variant of Covid-19 in Pakistan, confirmed through genome sequencing of samples.


    A review meeting was held on the Corona situation in the country under the chairmanship of Prime Minister (PM) Shehbaz Sharif.
    The Premier commended the efforts put in by all the relevant officials and NCOC to prevent the spread of Covid-19.


    The meeting was informed in detail about the current situation of Covid in the world including the region and in Pakistan, new variants of the pandemic, measures taken to prevent them and status of vaccinations.


    Attendants at the meeting were informed that there is no apparent threat to Pakistan from the new variant of Covid-19.

    The same variant, BF.7, has recently been identified as the dominant one spreading in China’s capital Beijing, contributing to a wider surge of COVID infections in the country.

  • Man searches ‘how to commit a murder’ on google, before murdering his wife

    Man searches ‘how to commit a murder’ on google, before murdering his wife

    A man in India was arrested for murdering his wife after searching “how to commit a murder” on Google. As per details, Uttar Pradesh police said on Saturday that the accused, Vikas, had initially provided false information about a robbery.


    However, police found incriminating internet searches including “how to commit a murder” on the suspect’s phone.


    A few years after they were married, the two began having disputes over the suspect’s extramarital relations, leading to the plan to kill his wife.
    As per the police the suspect has been arrested.

  • Man stabs woman with screwdriver for refusing to talk to him

    A man in India killed a woman with a screwdriver for refusing to talk to him, Khaleej Times has reported. The girl was murdered with a screwdriver in Chhattisgarh’s Korba district after refusing to talk to one of the two suspects detained by the police on Sunday.


    The accused, identified as Shahbaan Khan, was arrested along with his aide Tarbez Khan.


    The police said that the matter was that of a ‘love triangle’.


    According to the police, Shahbaan stabbed Kusum with a screwdriver after she refused to talk to him.


    “Preliminary investigations have revealed that the accused had befriended the victim three years ago and later moved to Ahmedabad (Gujarat) for work. The duo stayed in touch for some time. Later, the girl stopped talking to him.”


    “The accused tried to approach the victim, but she refused to entertain him. Following this, the accused attacked her with a screwdriver and killed her,” the police said.

  • Police Rescue 15 helpline received more than 27 million calls in 2022: report

    Police Rescue 15 helpline received more than 27 million calls in 2022: report

    The Punjab Safe Cities Authority (PSCA) has released its annual performance report for 2022.

    The 15 Emergency Helpline received 2,73,61,000 calls, 32,80,141 cases involving grave concerns, and cases for further action were generated by the dispatch control centre. 1,65,25,000 calls were surprisingly deemed irrelevant.

    Police investigators and the Court of Law received 2,004 pieces of audio and video evidence from the Electronic Data Analysis Center.

    According to The News, police in Lahore reported 2,34,000 suspicious observations from PSCA’s Operations and Monitoring Center. In addition to recovering 1,230 motorcycles, 30 vehicles, and 27 auto rickshaws and returning them to their owners, the PSCA Lost & Found centre assisted in the recovery of 109 missing people. 3,736 social media pages were reported to LEAs by the Media Management Center.

    Additionally, 2,790 campaign messages about road safety, effective use of the 15 emergency helplines, and other topics were carried on official social media pages and radio by MMC, PSCA WebTV, and Radio Safe City 88.6. PSCA is committed to extending its assistance and collaboration to LEAs and any other parties in need as needed. 15 helplines are available for residents to call in case of an emergency or to report criminal activities in the city.

    The Safe Cities Authority was crucial to the orderly execution of Ashura, international cricket, and other security tasks in Pakistan this year. This fiscal year, the Safe Cities Authority is attempting to create contemporary centres in Nankana Sahib, Sheikhupura, Sialkot, and Rawalpindi in addition to Lahore and Kasur.

  • Hot and toasty chor: Designers Dolce and Gabbana criticised for stealing Pakistani art

    Hot and toasty chor: Designers Dolce and Gabbana criticised for stealing Pakistani art

    We may have progressed to a new year, but international brands continue with their decades-old, regressive mindset of stealing artwork from third world artists for cheap products. Writer Rafia Zakaria brought this to attention today when she shared a screenshot of a Dolce and Gabbana toaster which had designs copied from Pakistani truck art on it. The toaster is retailing for $850.
    Is it still ethical to steal art that holds a lot of significance within a particular culture, especially while knowing that this country was recently devastated by floods.

    ‘Dolce and Gabbana Pakistani Truck Art limited edition toaster a mere $850 People in Pakistan still starving. Perhaps send a few extra dollars their way.’

    Social media users sided with Zakaria’s criticism by sharing how unethical it is for international brands to steal art and profiting from it without giving credit to artists.

    https://twitter.com/amna_mir/status/1609779503844171776?s=20&t=bmGIgxNjOYxmmR6RjxDDog
    https://twitter.com/Rafeyah/status/1609763113972146179?s=20&t=bmGIgxNjOYxmmR6RjxDDog
  • Can’t find your medicine? Pharmaceutical firms threaten to protest from January 5

    Can’t find your medicine? Pharmaceutical firms threaten to protest from January 5

    Pharmaceutical firms in Pakistan have threatened to start boycotts from January 5 after growing shortage of medicines and other life-saving drugs and to put pressure on the government to resolve the sector’s problems.


    After the federal government introduced policies to increase prices of raw material, several medicines including insulin, are now unavilable in markets.
    According to the Pakistan Drug Lawyer Forum President Noor Meher, 91% of raw materials used to create these medicines are imported to Pakistan. He said that stocks of new medicines are sitting at Karachi port and Lahore Dry Port, however government authorities are not providing clearance to deliver these to stores. Meher revealed that the dire situation has now pushed pharmaceutical workers to protest on streets to demand the government’s attention for the sector’s problems.

    In October 2022, healthcare organization GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) announced that it was shutting down the production of Panadol tablets, Panadol Extra Tablets and Cildren’s Panadol Liquid Range in Pakistan after suffering financial losses.


    In a letter to PM’s Principal Secretary Syed Tauqir Shah, the CEO of GSK Consumer Healthcare Pakistan, Farhan Haroon had written:


    “We are incurring heavy financial losses on the production of the entire Panadol range due to an increase in the price of their raw ingredients and in the absence of due approval by the federal government on the recommendation of Drug Pricing Committee of Drug Regulatory Committee of Pakistan. Due to these challenges, manufacturing of Panadol range on negative margins is unsustainable and despite exhaustive efforts of the company to mitigate the issue through dialogue, the situation is now beyond our control, compelling us to declare force majeure.”

  • FACT CHECK: The video of snowfall in Makkah is fake

    FACT CHECK: The video of snowfall in Makkah is fake

    Claim: A video clip of heavy snowfall in Makkah’s Grand Mosque has been circulating on various social media platforms. The video appeared on YouTube and Facebook showing heavy snowfall close to the Grand Mosque and pilgrims enjoying the rare phenomenon. The 55-second video appeared on YouTube channel Bazme Masarrat on Saturday.


    Fact: The National Meteorological Center (NMC) of Saudi Arabia said that the video is fake. The video is actually doctored.

    Verdict: FALSE

  • 32,000 job seekers fill stadium in Islamabad to take police force test

    32,000 job seekers fill stadium in Islamabad to take police force test

    Pakistan is facing serious financial troubles, and rising unemployment is just making matters worse for the country. Thousands of applicants can be seen seated on a stadium field to take a written test to be hired as constables by the Islamabad Police in a video that has recently surfaced on social media.

    For the written exam, which was held on Saturday at the Sports Complex in Islamabad, at least 32,000 applicants were forced to sit outside in the cold.

    For the 1,667 openings for police constables that were announced, more than 30,000 male and female applicants from all over Pakistan, according to Islamabad police, took the written test.

    The positions of police constables have been unfilled for the past five years.

    A new debate on how to increase employment in the nation has been ignited by the massive turnout at the Islamabad Police recruitment. Pakistan’s unemployment rate has peaked. The number of unemployed people is also steadily rising because there is so little hiring for government positions. Despite this, thousands of applicants are vying for open positions in the public sector.

    Over 31 per cent of the country’s youth are unemployed, according to a report published by the Pakistan Institute of Development Economics (PIDE) in 2022. There are 51 per cent girls and 16 per cent of boys among them, and many of them have professional degrees.

    Pakistan has approximately 60 per cent of its population under the age of 30, and its unemployment rate is currently 6.9 per cent. 

  • Faisalabad man climbs Ghanta Ghar to protest against family pressure to get married

    Faisalabad man climbs Ghanta Ghar to protest against family pressure to get married

    A young man in Faisalabad climbed up the Ghanta Ghar to protest against his family for pressuring him to get married, SAMAA has reported.


    The man climbed the tower after knocking out the guard. He then hurled bricks from his vantage point at the people down below. This alarmed locals who later called the police and rescue services.

    He was finally subdued and brought down from the tower after three and a half hours of effort by the authorities.
    The police are investigating the case.

  • Iesco issues two-hour load-shedding plan for Rawalpindi, Islamabad

    Iesco issues two-hour load-shedding plan for Rawalpindi, Islamabad

    All areas of Rawalpindi, Islamabad, Jhelum, Chakwal, Azad Kashmir, Murree, Attock, Pindigheb, Kotli Sattiyan, and other circles will face two hours of load-shedding, according to the Islamabad Electric Supply Company (Iesco).

    According to The News, the citizens of these cities have been experiencing regular load-shedding for more than a month that lasts between six and eight hours. Muhammad Tanvir Kiani, who is head of Iesco’s technical division, stated that Iesco has announced a two-hour load-shedding timetable in each of the aforementioned locations.

    He said that the load-shedding schedule would initially last indefinitely until further instruction. Furthermore, he stated that due to an electricity shortage, load-shedding has been implemented in all areas in light of the current situation.