Punjab Police wants to ban the popular video game ‘Players Unknown’s Battlegrounds’ (PUBG) after two young people in Lahore committed suicide over the game.
According to reports, a 16-year-old boy took his own life on Tuesday when his parents stopped him from playing PUBG. His parents called the Hanjarwal police in Gulshan-e-Abbas’s Phase 2 when they found his body.
The parents refused to allow a post-mortem autopsy. Police have registered this as a case of suicide and further investigation is in process.
In a similar incident, another 20-year-old boy also committed suicide in Saddar Bazaar in North Cantonment when his parents told him to stop playing the online game.
As per reports, Deputy Inspector General (DIG) of Police (Operations Wing) Lahore, Ashfaq Khan has decided to write a letter to the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) and Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) to ban PUBG.
— DIG Operations Lahore (@digopslahore) June 23, 2020
PUBG is a battle royale game developed by a South Korean company. The game involves multiple players that are connected online as they face off and kill each other to become the last survivor.
A day after testing positive for coronavirus at Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB), Mohammad Hafeez says he has tested negative at a private facility.
On Tuesday, Hafeez was announced as one of ten Pakistani national cricket team players who tested positive for the virus as the entire 29-man squad due to fly out to England on June 28 underwent COVID-19 testing.
Hafeez, however, got himself tested from a different lab in Lahore for a “second opinion” for him and his family. That result, he said in a tweet, was negative.
All of PCB’s tests were conducted by Shaukat Khanum Laboratory.
Other players who tested positive for the virus include Fakhar Zaman, Imran Khan, Kashif Bhatti, Mohammad Hasnain, Mohammad Rizwan, and Wahab Riaz.
Apart from the seven players, one support personnel — the masseur — also contracted the illness after the cricket body had 35 tests carried out for COVID-19 in Karachi, Lahore, and Peshawar.
Pakistan’s Test and limited-overs squads will tour England for three Tests and three T20 internationals.
England director of cricket Ashley Giles has said that the tour is expected to go ahead.
In a first, a ceremony was held to start construction of a Hindu temple in the federal capital, Dawn reported.
According to reports, a crematorium will also be built in Islamabad for the Hindu community, members of which earlier had to travel out of the city to perform religious rituals.
The Krishna temple will be constructed on a 20,000 sq ft plot in the H-9 sector, and has been named Shri Krishna Mandir by the Islamabad Hindu Panchayat.
According to Religious Affairs Minister Pir Noorul Haq Qadri, the government will bear the construction cost, presently estimated to be Rs100,000,000.
Parliamentary Secretary on Human Rights Lal Chand Malhi had on Tuesday performed the groundbreaking ceremony for the temple.
While addressing the gathering at the ceremony, Malhi mentioned the presence of pre-1947 era temple structures in the capital and its adjoining areas, including one in Saidpur Village and at the hill point overlooking the Korang River near Rawal Lake. However, they have been abandoned and not used.
“Besides, there is no crematorium in Islamabad,” he said, adding the Hindu population in Islamabad had increased significantly in two decades, therefore, the temple was necessary.
“The Hindu community in Islamabad has been demanding a temple for a long time now. The population has also increased while many Hindu temple structures in the capital have been abandoned,” he said. “Besides, there is no crematorium in Islamabad.”
The plot on which the temple is being built was allotted to the Hindu Panchayat by the Capital Development Authority (CDA) in 2017. However, the construction work could not begin on time because of some formalities, like the site map’s approval by the CDA and other authorities.
Amid statements from other government members regarding coronavirus cracking netizens up, it has emerged that Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) lawmaker Riaz Fatyana thinks eating locusts, an infestation of which is threatening food security in Pakistan among other South Asian nations as well as in Africa, the Arabian Peninsula and South America, could end the COVID-19 pandemic.
“It is said that eating locusts can lead to the eradication of coronavirus,” reports quoted the senior PTI MNA as saying.
ٹڈیوں کےبارے میں کہا جاتا ہے کہ اس کوکھانےسےکورونا ختم ہوسکتا ہے،ریاض فتیانہ
The 2019-20 locust infestation is an outbreak of desert locusts which is the worst in 70 years in Kenya and the worst in 25 years in Pakistan, India, Ethiopia and Somalia.
The outbreak began with heavy rains in 2018 in the Arabian Peninsula in spring 2019, swarms spread from these areas, and by June 2019, the locusts spread north to Pakistan, India, Iran and south to East Africa, particularly the Horn of Africa. By the end of 2019, there were swarms also in Ethiopia, Eritrea, Somalia, Kenya, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Egypt and Oman.
By June 2020, another swam appeared in South America, affecting Paraguay and Argentina while as of April 2020, efforts to control the locusts were being hampered by ongoing restrictions in travel and shipping due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
According to reports, around 37 per cent area of Pakistan is more vulnerable to the attack. This includes 60 per cent area of Balochistan, 25 per cent area of Sindh and 15 per cent area of Punjab.
“If the desert locust is not contained, Punjab and Sindh may become summer breeding zone of the pest,” said a report submitted to the Supreme Court (SC) by Punjab government through Additional Advocate General Chaudhry Faisal Hussain earlier this month.
It said desert locust appeared in Punjab’s Cholistan area in July last year. In November last year, locust swarms started migration toward Balochistan and South Punjab.
Prime Minister (PM) Imran Khan has told his cabinet members to maintain unity within the party, a day after Federal Science and Technology Minister Fawad Chaudhry said in an interview that the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) was failing to bring promised change due to a lack of political leadership amid rifts among leaders such as Jahangir Khan Tareen, Planning Minister Asad Umar and Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi.
Addressing a presser after a meeting of the federal cabinet chaired by PM Imran, Federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting Shibli Faraz said that Fawad’s interview with the Voice of America came under discussion during the cabinet meeting.
“Fawad Chaudhry’s interview was discussed in the cabinet [meeting] and the prime minister said we should maintain unity within the party,” Faraz said.
In the interview, Fawad had said there were rifts among Tareen, Umar and Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi, which hurt the party and forced the PTI’s “political class” to part ways.
“As soon as the PTI government was formed, quarrels among Qureshi, Umar and Tareen began. Tareen used his influence to get Umar removed from the cabinet and later Umar got Tareen out,” Fawad had said.
During the cabinet meeting, the information minister said that the premier has instructed the ministers and party leaders not to talk about things that “affect” the party or the government.
Faraz also spoke about a recent interview of Climate Change Minister Zartaj Gul in which she said that Covid-19 means that the virus has 19 points that can be applied to any country based on its respective immunity levels.
Her remarks were widely shared on social media and she was criticised for not knowing that Covid-19 is actually an acronym for the coronavirus.
“It was a slip of the tongue and people make mistakes,” the information minister said, referring to Gul’s remarks. “It should not have happened and I completely agree with you.”
The information minister said that Gul is an “outstanding” minister “who is doing great work”.
“We should ignore the mistakes because people make mistakes,” Faraz added.
A 9-year-old boy stole a car from the Karachi’s Sea View area and drove it until it ran out of fuel. The Darakhshan police caught the boy but later released him with a warning and allowed him to go with his parents.
As per reports, the child had stolen the car from Khayaban-e-Mujahid. His act was caught on the closed-circuit television (CCTV) and footage of the incident went viral on social media.
The boy is the resident of Machar Colony. Police officials said that the minor boy liked driving and had stolen a few motorcycles in the past. They added that he would drive vehicles until the fuel ran out after which he leaves them where they stop.
According to police, the little boy’s father is a drug addict. Police noted that they have warned the boy and let him go.
William Dalrymple’s The Anarchy, which Prime Minister Imran Khan was spotted reading on his way back to Pakistan from the United Nations General Assembly, is being made into a movie.
According to a report in Hollywood publication Variety Magazine, award-winning producer Siddharth Roy Kapur has acquired the rights of the book, whose complete title is The Anarchy: The Relentless Rise of the East India Company. Roy Kapur, unarguably one of Bollywood’s biggest producers, has a plethora of hits under his belt including Dangal, The Sky is Pink, Khoobsurat and Kai Po Che!.
Siddharth Roy Kapur
Set between 1599 and 1802, The Anarchy traces the rise of The East India Company against the decline and fall of the Mughal Empire. It provides an account of how a provincial trading start-up, run by thirty people from an office in a nondescript London building, became rulers of an entire sub-continent.
While further details on the film are still under wraps, Roy Kapur Films is reportedly planning a big-budget, grand-scale series adaptation of the book with yet unnamed international co-production partners.
Dalrymple, who is also on board as a consultant for the project, while speaking about the adaption said: “I’m very excited looking at the initial treatment note, talking about the various ways to bring this book alive and to bring the characters I’ve been living with over the last 6 years onto the screen, so that everyone else can see them in flesh and blood.”
Apart from PM Khan The Anarchy was also recommended by former US President Barack Obama, who listed it among his top 10 recommended books of 2019.
As we wind down 2019, I wanted to share with you my annual list of favorites that made the last year a little brighter. We’ll start with books today — movies and music coming soon. I hope you enjoy these as much as I did. pic.twitter.com/l5qTGkAPok
The Ayesha Chundrigar Animal Rescue has filed a petition in the Sindh High Court against the mass killing of animals being conducted throughout Karachi and Sindh after their rehabilitated dogs were found dead. In an announcement, the foundation shared that the primary purpose of the petition is to ensure that Government Authorities draft a uniform policy on how to contain the population of dogs in the city.
Prior to filing a petition, Ayesha, who is the founder of the animal shelter, shared an emotional video in which she shared that people were brutally killing dogs they had rehabilitated and released back on the streets.
Explaining the rehabilitation process, Ayesha said that when strays or injured dogs come to the shelter, they are taken care of, vaccinated and neutered and when they recover completely there are released into far off areas, such as Malir, marked as safe zones. These areas have less human population and are away from the city. Ayesha explained that once they are released, members and volunteers of the shelter keep an eye on the dogs and make sure they are doing fine.
Sharing a particularly harrowing incident, Ayesha said that her team found two of their dogs dead with their legs tied up. According to her, the dogs were given poison after which their legs were tied together so that they don’t run away for help. The wounds on their bodies indicated that they were also tortured and beaten.
Ayesha added that she has no idea how to keep the remaining dogs safe. She said that this was not an isolated incident and dogs across the city are being killed and poisoned regularly. She said sometimes they are skinned and their meat taken. The activist further said that in such incidents, it is impossible to track the perpetrators and hold them accountable.
“Where is our society going,” questioned Ayesha. “It seems all these DMCs want to literally drive us to suicide. They are well aware that we are in Malir yet instead of working with us as we have asked them to countless times, they do this.”
“We can’t take it anymore. They win. We’ve fallen apart, trying like absolute fools in this lawless city of millions. Can’t do it anymore. We’re tired and hopeless and can’t keep looking for ways out,” she continued.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CBnj90MpmWK/
To know more about ACF Animal Rescue and Ayesha Chundigar, watch The Current‘s feature on the shelter.
https://youtu.be/anmqcs_IEAs
Following the incident, Feroze Khan requested his fans to be kind to animals.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CByWGyXB7vd/
Meanwhile, earlier, while hearing a case against the Marghazar Zoo, Chief Justice Islamabad High Court banned dog culling in the city.
Meanwhile, KP has introduced a more humane way to contain the population of stay dogs. The KP Livestock Department has set up a special centre to neuter and vaccinate stray dogs. They are offering a cash reward to whoever brings in a stray dog.
Federal Minister for Science and Technology Fawad Chaudhry has made some explosive revelations by claiming that the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) failed to bring “tabdeeli” [change] due to the in-fighting between Asad Umar, Jahangir Tareen and Shah Mahmood Qureshi after the formation of its government, which was followed by the ouster of the political class from Prime Minister (PM) Imran Khan’s core team.
“This political vacuum was then filled by new and non-elected people who did not have anything to do with politics,” the minister said in an interview with VOA Urdu.
Talking to senior journalist Suhail Warraich, Fawad revealed that Tareen was responsible for Asad Umar losing his Finance Ministry portfolio. When asked why was there so much in-fighting among PTI ranks, he said when Umar was the Finance Minister, Tareen got him fired.
“Now when Umar got back in the government, he got rid of Tareen. Qureshi and Tareen also had meetings but things didn’t work out between the two.”
He maintained that party groupings were a norm but PTI’s internal fighting between top leaders led to their replacement by bureaucrats, which compromised PM’s reform agenda.
Fawad added that the PTI government was now just another government as its agenda of carrying out police and judicial among other reforms now faced an uncertain future.
CIVILIAN SUPREMACY AND OPPOSITION:
To another question, he said that people say there should be civilian supremacy and the military’s role in politics should be curtailed, but they should also take a look at the parliament and provincial lawmakers. “How can there be civilian supremacy under such leadership?” Ultimately, this is about human resources, he added.
Criticising the opposition for having a limited vision due to dynastic politics, he also questioned why PM Imran had not developed any new and capable leadership.
“We can understand why Nawaz Sharif and Benazir Bhutto put weak people in important positions because their vision was to transfer leadership to their own children. Imran doesn’t have this problem. He should have placed the best at powerful positions but somehow, he was advised by someone to place weak people in powerful positions so that they can be dictated. This only damaged Imran. He is far bigger than what he looks like right now.”
ALL-POWERFUL TECHNOCRATS:
When asked how bureaucrats and special advisors to the PM were all-powerful without any resistance from the political class, he said that most people worked with the status quo. “If you can’t balance politics and governance, then it is a problem. PM Imran knows this… he recently warned his cabinet that we have five and a half months to improve our performance, otherwise time will run out for us.” He added that they didn’t have a political or governance-reform team.
PRESIDENTIAL FORM OF GOVT?
Fawad said that in a parliamentary form of government, experts are brought in to consult in the decision-making process but decision-making has to be done by elected politicians. “This is the basic difference between parliamentary democracy and a presidential system.”
When asked if the country was now moving towards a presidential form of government, he said that the appointment of so many advisors or special assistants, and elected people not being invited to participate in key decision-making, put a question mark on parliamentary form of government. “Imran Khan’s failure is not the failure of an individual; the entire nation’s hopes are pinned on his success. If the military and other state institutions are supporting the PM, it is because there are no other political options.”
He also said that while parliamentary form of government was not the most competent, it was still the most powerful. “Ideas cannot be implemented without a good team and human resource.”
It is not the first time Fawad Chaudhry has criticised the PTI government for favouring non-elected or weak people in key positions. Last year following a major cabinet reshuffle that led to Asad Umar losing his ministry while Fawad Chaudhry and several others were given new portfolios, Chaudhry lamented in an interview that at times, important decisions were taken “and we don’t even know”.
Federal Education Minister on Monday said the government was considering reopening of schools under the implementation of COVID-19 Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs).
Talking to the mediaafter a meeting at the minister’s office, the minister said suggestions had been taken from the private schools and Madaris of all provinces, including Azad Jammu and Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan.
Mahmood said a meeting had also been arranged with the Ministry of Health in this regard, and that the decision would be taken keeping in view the NCOC data. He said the education ministry also discussed with those countries that had opened schools under various SOPs through UNICEF.
The minister said according to the Gallup Survey, around 70% of parents were willing to send their children to school under COVID-19 SOPs.
“We want to end the uncertainty on the basic important issue like education,” he said.
The minister hinted at holding a press conference on the issue to take parents into confidence after the preparation of a road map.
While the Provincial Minister of Punjab for School Education took to Twitter and stated that there is no definite date announced for reopening of schools in the province.
There is NO definite date for opening of Schools in Punjab. FAKE NEWS is being spread around. Right now we are working on SOPs which will be required when the schools open. We are preparing now rather than later unlike previous Governments used to do (Last Minute). Safety # 1.
