Taliban authorities issued a decree on Wednesday, ordering female Afghan TV presenters and other women on screen to cover their faces while appearing on air.
The Afghan spokesman of the Ministry for the Prevention of Vice and Promotion of Virtue announced that it will be mandatory for all women in the country to cover their faces in public, including those who appear on the screen. The new decree will take effect from 21 May, reports Reuters.
One female Afghan journalist working for a local TV station in Kabul told BBC, “They are putting indirect pressure on us to stop us presenting on TV.”
“How can I read the news with my mouth covered? I don’t know what to do now but I must work, I am the breadwinner of my family,” she added.
The spokesman referred to the ruling as “advice” as it is not clear what will happen to anyone who fails to comply. “Based on information received by Tolo news, the order has been issued to all media outlets in Afghanistan.”
The decision is being widely criticised on Twitter, many people calling it another step by the Taliban to promote extremism.
Under a new Taliban order, female journalists in Afghanistan must now wear masks and cover their faces. The Taliban have apparently considered women and girls as their number one enemy since the beginning of their rule in Afghanistan. #AfghanWomen#HumanRightspic.twitter.com/JJbHsqsCZC
Our fight is the same let our sisters go to school , let our sisters to breathe in a open air don’t make a prison out of their homeland 😷Afghan women are being forgotten and pushed to accept injustice #AfghanWomen@HNajibullah we are not covering our faces pic.twitter.com/LrDwLzNK77
— Spogmai.jabarkhil (@Spogmaijabarkh1) May 20, 2022
The National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (NEPRA) will hold a hearing on a petition on May 31 to raise electricity prices in conjunction with April’s monthly fuel adjustment. The price of power is projected to rise by Rs4.5, reports ARY.
The Central Power Purchasing Agency (CPPA) has requested an increase in the power price due to a fuel adjustment for the month of April. The final decision on the rate hike will be taken by the authority after the hearing.
According to reports, the petition will overburden the masses by Rs59.45 billion.
According to the CPPA, in April, 18.55% of electricity was generated from water, 16.74% from coal and 12.07% from furnace oil. The cost per unit of electricity generated from furnace oil was Rs28 to 19 per unit, 9.85% from domestic gas and 19.42% from imported LNG in April. 17.37% of electricity was generated from nuclear fuel and 3.59% from wind.
The increase will not apply to electricity and lifeline customers.
The University of Engineering and Technology (UET) in Peshawar was ranked first in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in the ultimate ranking for SDG-17, ‘Partnerships for Goals’.
This is an outstanding achievement for UET Peshawar, demonstrating the institution’s determination for maintaining pristine educational standards.
In the fourth edition of the Times Higher Education (THE) Impact Ranking, 2022, UET Peshawar ranks first in Pakistan under the ‘Engineering and Technology’ table and second in the league for SDG-8, ‘Decent work for economic progress’.
THE is a British journal that monitors worldwide higher education and ranks universities based on their performance in four key areas: research, stewardship, outreach, and teaching, as well as their assessment of the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals.
THE impact ratings highlight an institution’s dedication towards delivering the UN SDGs by considering SDG-17 (Partnership for the Goals) mandatory for listing in the overall standings.
Prof Dr Iftikhar Hussain, the Vice-Chancellor, commended the employees and faculty on their achievement and noted that the university’s objective is to build meaningful collaborations with local industry, government, and academics for the benefit of society. He lauded ORIC’s and affiliated departments’ efforts in providing frequent updates on the impact rankings through 2022.
The UN Sustainable Development Summit in September 2015 established the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development (the 2030 Agenda), a set of worldwide development goals for the years 2016 to 2030 that builds on the success of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).
Luxury label Gucci and sportswear firm Adidas AG are receiving a barrage of criticism in China for selling an umbrella which roughly costs Rs 3 lakh ($1,644) and it isn’t even waterproof.
On the Chinese social media network, Weibo, criticism of the item dubbed a “sun umbrella” has gone viral.
The umbrella is not made for water, according to Gucci’s website. It is “not waterproof and is suitable for sun protection or decorative use,” according to Gucci’s website.
On Weibo, a hashtag stating that “the collaborative umbrella being sold for 11,100 yuan is not waterproof” received over 140 million views.
A video of a girl dancing on the streets of Islamabad went viral two days ago. In the video, the girl is fully clothed. can be seen dancing around a parking sign and people passing her are least bothered.
However, someone made the video of her and uploaded it on social media, after which the girl started facing a lot of backlash.
Islamabad Police has said the girl was not “sound-minded.”
“Dear citizen, As per the initial enquiry, The above video is three days old and eyewitnesses said that she wasn’t of sound mind,” Islamabad police wrote in a tweet.
Dear citizen, As per initial enquiry, The above video is 3 days old and eye witnesses said that she wasn't of sound mind.
While some people on social media are criticising the girl, many others are of the view that there is nothing wrong with it. Social media users are asking Islamabad police to take action against those who made video with out the consent of the girl.
You should investigated the ones making this video ,and posting it on social media, without her consent, it's against laws and a harmful act.
the man filming this didn't stop for one second to think about how weird and disturbing it is to film someone like this? especially a young girl? https://t.co/sX7fvny5Gu
Claim: TikToker Dolly set the Margalla Hills on fire leading to a forest fire lasting several days
Fact: TikToker Dolly on her way back from Haripur came across an already lit fire and shot her TikTok
On May 15th 2022, TikToker Dolly uploaded an 11 second video of her performing to a song with a forest fire in the background. On May 17th 2022, this video was viral on Twitter, being shared and condemned by Twitter users with hundreds of thousands of followers. It was widely believed that she lit the fire in order to shoot her video.
Surfing through Dolly’s TikTok account @dollyofficiall, it became clear that 6 days ago, on Thursday, May 12th, 2022 Dolly was attending an event in Haripur where she was specially invited as a TikTok star and influencer. It is the same outfit in which she shot her video with the forest fire in the background. Team Current reached Dolly’s Signature Salon in Gulberg on May 17th, where although we were unable to meet the celebrity herself, we met Usman who is her personal assistant and often appears in her TikToks as well. Usman informed us that the viral 11 second TikTok was shot as an afterthought. Usman later also shared a video with us, embedded below, which was shot when Dolly and Usman found the fire while on the motorway back from Haripur and made a video with a local who claimed to have set the fire himself to protect his children from snakes.
Video shared by Usman from Dolly’s Signature Salon: Dolly explains that while on her way back from Haripur she saw this fire on the side of the motorway and chose to record a TikTok. She also introduces the man who claims to have the set fire himself.
This video conclusively proves that the fire was set before Dolly reached the location. Mainstream news channels such as ARY, GEO, Bol have all covered this event quoting an FIR that was lodged against her and teammates in Kohsar Police Station. Social media users as well as TV channels are connecting this instance of forest fire with another video in which two men are seen setting fire in Margalla Hills. This video was recorded two days after Dolly recorded her own TikTok on May 15th.
Several Twitter users openly condemned Dolly, called for her arrest and shamed her. Eventually the collective internet action led to the registration of an FIR against her at the Kohsar Police, Islamabad. However, it is clear that even though Dolly made a TikTok with a forest fire that has ranged over an expansive region by this point, she did not cause it. Dawn reports that the fire started out in the Chinari area of the Margalla Hills, another fire was also reported in forest 16 of the Saidpur Range earlier on Sunday.
These yearly occurring forest fires are continuously increasing and the blame for these is often misdirected while local authorities such as Capital Development Authority (CDA) and Islamabad Wildlife Management Board (IWMB) display negligence and disregard towards establishing a system of pre-emptive mechanisms to deal with this consequence of climate change
Ayub National Park Zoo in Rawalpindi has declared a heatwave emergency to safeguard animals from heatstroke and dehydration amid an extraordinary surge in temperature in Rawalpindi and Islamabad. It has been decided to install air-conditioners for animals if the temperature reaches 50 degrees Celsius.
To prevent heatstroke in lions, bears, monkeys, zebras, deer, wolves, birds, and tigers, water ponds have been installed in their cages, as well as air-coolers and extra fans with ice blocks in their night barracks.
Army Heritage Foundation Director-General Brig (retd) Asif Akhtar while talking to The Express Tribune said that unusually high temperatures have increased the risk of heatstroke and dehydration in animals and birds, thus the zoo administration has declared an emergency to preserve animals and birds from the heatwave’s detrimental consequences.
Jungle World Zoo Deputy Director Major (retd) Salman explained that as the temperature rises, the animals’ feeding patterns alter, and the veterinary staff adjusts their nutrition accordingly.
“Lions, bears, tigers, deer, zebras, monkeys, puma, and wolves are fed a variety of vitamins and minerals in water to protect them from heatstroke and dehydration,” he said.
In the current situation, the zoo administration has urged visitors not to disturb the animals in cages, as the current heatwave is already causing them harm.
A woman who wasseparated from her family during the partition of the Indian subcontinent met her Sikh brothers at Kartarpur, reports Dawn.
In 1947, Mumtaz Bibi was an infant who was lying on the dead body of her mother who was killed by violent mobs. Muhammad Iqbal and his wife, Allah Rakhi, adopted Mumtaz Bibi during the time of partition and raised her as their own daughter.
Iqbal and his wife did not tell Mumtaz that she was not their daughter. Two years ago, Iqbal’s health suddenly deteriorated and he told Mumtaz that she was not his real daughter and that her real family was Sikh.
After Iqbal’s death, Mumtaz and her son Shahbaz started searching for her family through social media. They knew the name of Mumtaz’s real father and the village (Sidrana) in Patiala district of Indian Punjab where they settled after being forced to leave their native home.
The families once lost through violence got connected through social media. Mumtaz, along with her other family members, reached Gurdwara Darbar Sahib at Kartarpur and met her lost brothers after 75 years. Mumtaz’s brothers Sardar Gurumeet Singh, Sardar Narendra Singh, and Sardar Amrinder Singh, accompanied by family members, also reached Kartarpur to meet their lost sister.
Addressing a meeting of the National Task Force on Polio Eradication in Islamabad on Wednesday, Prime Minister (PM) Shehbaz Sharif urged for a concerted effort to eradicate polio in Pakistan. The meeting was informed that three polio cases were reported in North Waziristan during the months of April and May this year but no polio case was reported in the period between February 2021 and March 2022. PM Shehbaz expressed his concern about recent polio cases in the country and stated that the federal government will provide all available assistance and cooperation in the fight against the illness.
He said that all parties, including federal departments, provincial governments, and international organisations, had contributed significantly to the country’s polio eradication campaign. PM kickstarted a polio campaign today (May 18).
Pakistan and Afghanistan are the only two countries where polio has not yet been eradicated. To formally eradicate the disease, a nation must be polio-free for three consecutive years. Nigeria was declared free from wild polio in August 2020.
The Parks and Horticulture Authority (PHA) on May 17 planted around 400 fruit trees alongside the canal road Lahore which were provided by the civil society.
The Director-General (DG) PHA Zeeshan Javed applauded the efforts of PHA for the beautification of the provincial capital.
He also praised the PHA workers for performing their responsibilities outside in such heat and insisted that PHA is dedicated to beautifying the city by implementing various beautification programmes.
Last week, Commissioner Lahore Captain (retd) Muhammad Usman presided over a meeting at the PHA office to examine the city’s beautification efforts. The DG PHA Zeeshan Javed briefed the Commissioner on clean and green Lahore, tree planting, and ongoing and finished projects in the city during the meeting.
