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Category: Lifestyle

  • Punjab education minister urges students to ‘ignore’ misinformation and ‘be patient’

    Punjab education minister urges students to ‘ignore’ misinformation and ‘be patient’

    Punjab Minister for Education Dr Murad Raas has urged students in the province not to believe any any information coming from unofficial sources.

    “Ignore all tweets wherever they are coming from,” wrote the minister in a tweet. “Anything to do with Punjab will be tweeted by me. Please be patient, dates will be announced in a day or two.”

    “These amount of calls and messages is insanity,” he added.

    Earlier, Federal Minister for Education Shafqat Mahmood announced that schools located in COVID-19 hotspot areas will remain closed till April 11.

    Mahmood also informed that after several rounds of talks, Cambridge has agreed to reschedule this year’s O’ Level exams to after May 15.

    “A’ and AS’ Level exams will take place as per the original timetable following all the SOP,” stated the minister.

    Prior to the announcement, Mahmood had told students that all “decisions are made keeping their best interest in view not what is popular”.

    “Educational institutions are closed on the advice of health authorities,” said Mahmood. “Decisions about exams are being made considering what is best for them. Have faith.”

    Pakistan is currently battling with its third wave of COVID-19. According to the National Command and Operations Centre (NCOC), Pakistan has reported 4,368 cases and 63 deaths in the last 24 hours.

    Number of cases recorded in different provinces in the last 24 hours are as follows:

  • COVID-19: Schools in hotspot areas to stay closed till April 11

    COVID-19: Schools in hotspot areas to stay closed till April 11

    Schools located in COVID-19 hotspot areas will remain closed till April 11, Minister for Education Shafqat Mahmood has announced.

    Addressing a press conference on Wednesday, after an important meeting of education and health ministers at the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC), Mahmood said that the number of active COVID-19 cases have doubled in the last three weeks while the positivity ratio has crossed 8%.

    Mahmood further said the government will discuss this with the Cambridge exams board to see whether CIE examinations can be postponed or not.

    “We have seen that the number of cases in Punjab, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Azad Kashmir has increased,” said Mahmood, adding: “The number of infections is relatively less in Sindh, Balochistan and Gilgit-Balochistan.”

    Pakistan has reported 637,042 cases and 13,965 deaths so far. 3,301 cases and 30 deaths have been reported in the last 24 hours.

    Number of cases recorded in different provinces in the last 24 hours are:

  • Maryam Nawaz’s statement about father’s struggles sparks off a meme fest

    Maryam Nawaz’s statement about father’s struggles sparks off a meme fest

    Maryam Nawaz Sharif, who has emerged as a strong political leader in the past couple of months, recently talked about the hardships faced by her father, asking everyone to name any other person who has suffered as much as he has.

    Maryam’s statement has given memers an opportunity to treat us with some hilarious memes.

    https://twitter.com/_noor_nama/status/1373922426451591168?s=20
    https://twitter.com/TaimoorGhik/status/1373742864337936385?s=20
  • ‘Increase the price or it’s going somewhere else’ threatens vaccine importer

    ‘Increase the price or it’s going somewhere else’ threatens vaccine importer

    Rs 8,449 not enough for the vaccine, says the importer of the Russian Sputnik V vaccine and is threatening to “re-export” the 50,000 doses it brought to Pakistan. Officials say that the importer is saying that they can send the vaccine to ‘another country’ if the importer’s desired price is not set by the government.

    “The drug pricing committee of DRAP (Drug Regulatory Authority of Pakistan had recommended Rs8,449 for two doses of the vaccine, which is not acceptable to the importer,” an anonymous official of the federal government told news network, Geo News .

    RELATED: Fake COVID-19 reports, vaccines being sold on darkweb

    “The government is already under harsh criticism for the price recommended by DRAP’s pricing committee at Rs8,449. It was calculated on the basis of a landing cost of $30 but people are comparing it with the cost of the Russian vaccine in India and criticising the government for fixing higher price as compared to the neighbouring country,” the official stated.

    A representative of AGP Limited, the importer of the vaccine, said that they had the “option of re-exporting” the vaccine shipment or selling it to another country where they can get a much higher price.

    RELATED: ‘Govt does not plan to buy vaccines anytime soon’

    “The government’s price of Rs8,449 is not affordable for us because in addition to landing cost, there is distributor margin, storage and transportation costs, and hospitals and institutions will also take their service charges,” an official of the company clarified, also adding that if the didn’t send the vaccine back, there were ‘other options’ available too.

    “We are going to wait for a couple of days to resolve this issue but it is already over a week now and the shipment is [stored needlessly] at the cold storage. It could have been used by now to vaccinate at least 25,000 people who could afford to get it, as for millions, government’s vaccine is not available,” the official said to Geo News.

    Government officials had earlier said that AGP wants a retail price between Rs. 12,500-13,000 for two doses of their vaccine based on their expenses for procuring and delivering the vaccine but DRAP is unwilling to review its decision, since they say the recommended price of Rs. 8449 is fair.

  • ‘Pakistan, My Home’: Canadian vlogger Rosie Gabrielle expresses love for Pakistan

    ‘Pakistan, My Home’: Canadian vlogger Rosie Gabrielle expresses love for Pakistan

    Canadian vlogger Rosie Gabrielle has shared a special note on the occasion of Pakistan Resolution Day to express her love for her new “home”.

    In a detailed note posted on Instagram, Gabrielle, who earlier converted to Islam said: “Two and a half years ago, I left my home in Canada to embark on a journey of a lifetime. Little did I know then, my trip across Pakistan would forever change me in so many ways.”

    “I didn’t choose to come here, Pakistan chose me,” said Gabrielle, adding: “In 2018, I surrendered to the universe and said ‘Okay God, it’s up to you, where am I going next?’”

    The vlogger then shared that a few days later she got an invitation to visit Pakistan for a short media tour.

    “I’m not much of a ‘Group Traveller’ but took this as a divine invitation for something bigger and made my own trip after,” said Gabrielle. “I had always wanted to explore Pakistan so I gladly accepted. I didn’t know then that this trip would change my life.”

    “All I knew is, I wanted to travel the entire country by bike and document my experiences. I didn’t know at that time if it was even logistically possible, or know much about the country,” said Rosie.

    The vlogger further said that she knew she could “forever make a positive impact for Pakistan by showing the true hearts of the people and land here.”

    “It was my destiny and my calling. I didn’t know how I would, I just knew I would and the will of my heart lead the way,” she shared. “For over two years now I have dedicated my heart, soul and all my energy to promoting peace and a positive change for this nation.”

    Rosie, in her note, also talked about Adeel Amer, a Pakistani travel vlogger, who she recently got married to. The couple tied the knot earlier this month.

    “I not only fell in love with the land [but also] the people. I’m humbly grateful every day for meeting the love of my life Adeel Amer, the most inspiring (this word does not do justice) human I know and finally able to call this beautiful country my HOME,” said Gabrielle.

    Rosie first visited Pakistan in December 2018. She had extensively documented her trip on social media.

  • Pakistan State Oil hires female employees

    Pakistan State Oil hires female employees

    To keep up with changing times, the Pakistan State Oil (PSO) has started hiring female filling station attendants. Sharing the news on Facebook, PSO highlighted the importance of workplace diversity.

    The Pakistani petroleum corporation shared pictures of the female employees on social media stating that the step aims to empower Pakistani women.

    “As the nation’s own oil marketing company, we understand that women constitute a vital part of our community and we undertake constant initiatives to empower them across our value chain,” said the company.

    PSO further said that they are “proud to have them on board” and that they plan to “increase their number”.

    Earlier, Total Parco had also taken the initiative of hiring female gas station attendants.

  • Pakistan’s first tourism TV channel goes live

    Pakistan’s first tourism TV channel goes live

    Pakistan has launched its first satellite TV channel ‘Discover Pakistan‘ to boost national tourism in the country.

    Announcing the news of the channel on social media, the management of Discover Pakistan said that the TV channel aims to highlight Pakistan’s soft image with documentaries and coverage of tourism-related events and travelogues.

    Discover Pakistan will broadcast its content in HD (high definition) to project the country’s natural wonders around the world.

    The management has urged the citizens to ask their cable operators to initiate broadcasting the channel.

    As per Prime Minister Imran Khan’s vision, the Discover Pakistan TV channel had been in the pipeline since 2017.

    Prime Minister Imran Khan on August 26 last year had formed a 12-member National Coordination Committee on tourism to facilitate and coordinate the government’s commitment to give tourism a priority in mainstream development.

    The committee was made to oversee and review the implementation of national tourism strategy and integration of provincial and regional policies.

  • Study shows Thai sniffer dogs 95% accurate in detecting COVID-19 from human sweat

    Thai sniffer dogs trained to sense COVID-19 in human sweat proved almost 95% correct during training and could be used to identify virus at busy transport hubs within seconds, the head of a pilot project said.

    According to details, six Labrador Retrievers were involved in six-month research that included unleashing them to test an infected patient’s sweat on a spinning wheel of six canned vessels.

    “The dogs take only one to two seconds to detect the virus,” Professor Kaywalee Chatdarong, the leader of the project at the veterinary faculty of Thailand’s Chulalongkorn University, told Reuters.

    “Within a minute, they will manage to go through 60 samples.”

    The dogs can detect a volatile organic compound secreted in the sweat of COVID-19 patients, even if hey are not showing any virus symptoms, the Thai researcher said.

    The dogs would not need to directly sniff people, but could screen samples of sweat, a task that should not be difficult in a tropical country such as Thailand, she added.

    Chile, Finland and India are other countries that have also launched efforts to get sniffer dogs to detect the virus, with a German veterinary clinic saying last month its sniffer dogs had achieved 94% detection accuracy in human saliva.

    “The next step is we will put them out in the field,” said Kaywalee.

    “In the future, when we send them to airports or ports, where there is an influx of commuters, they will be much faster and more precise in detecting the virus than temperature checks.”

    Thailand has been relatively successful in containing the virus with a new wave of infections in the first two months of the year now levelling off and after recording 88 deaths.

    The country has also started vaccinating front-line health workers and hopes to find a way to let tourists come again after its tourism-dependent economy was affected by the pandemic.

  • Gomal University fines students for listening to music

    Dera Ismail Khan’s Gomal University has fined two students for listening to music on university premises.

    According to reports, the university has imposed a fine of Rs 5000 on the students of the Institute of Computing and Information Technology ( ICIT ) department for listening to the music in the department “while classes were in session.”

    Chairman of the ICIT Department Zia Ud Din said the two students had been playing music on a Bluetooth speaker in a teaching area of the university.  

    He said that “[their action] disturbed the classes ongoing in the department at the time”.

    As per details, one of the students was enrolled in a Master’s programme at the university while the other was enrolled in the undergraduate programme.

    “Music that disturbs the educational environment” is banned in the university, said Gomal University’s Vice-Chancellor Professor Dr Iftikhar Ahmed, clarifying that the administration does not have any issues if someone is listening to music without disturbing others.

    He also said that the administration has only banned smoking, drugs and political activity in the varsity.

    Earlier, a university in Lahore expelled two students for publicly expressing their love on university premises.

  • 400-year-old tunnel discovered during restoration at Lahore Fort

    400-year-old tunnel discovered during restoration at Lahore Fort

    According to The Express Tribune, the tunnel discovered at the opulently designed Mughal fort — that already houses over 20 key monuments — is still firmly in place.

    The 625-feet tunnel is well ventilated and lighted, and consists of niches that have been made for lighting lamps.

    The excavation of the tunnel

    As per the opinion of experts, the tunnel was used as drainage and secret passage.

    While modern machinery and equipment are used for the restoration of historical monuments, the archaeology team has done it successfully in the traditional fashion.

    “Snakes and scorpions were also found during the excavation,” experts said, adding that traces of it were found during excavation on another restoration project.