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Tag: Khyber Pakhtunkhwa

  • ‘We cannot afford this anymore’: Traders in Sindh, KP, Balochistan to reopen businesses from today

    Traders across the country have said that they would resume operations from today (April 15), however, the business community in Punjab has urged the government to permit activities for a limited time.

    Prime Minister (PM) Imran Khan, in his address to the nation on Tuesday, extended the lockdown till April 30, saying that some industries such as construction would be allowed to operate from Wednesday.

    The business community in Karachi said that they would resume operations from April 15 and that the traders would follow preventive measures. “We cannot afford the imposed restrictions anymore,” said a representative of Karachi’s trader community while addressing a press conference.

    “The businessmen have paid their employees a month’s salary but we will be unable to do so if the lockdown extends,” he said, adding that they would hand over the keys to their shops to the officials at the Chief Minister (CM) House and protest outside the provincial chief executive’s office if they are kept from resuming business activities.

    Voicing the traders in Sindh, Balochistan’s business community said that they would also resume operations from April 15. They said that the traders could no longer bear the lockdown restrictions, adding that activities would be conducted and precautionary measures would be followed. “The provincial government has been informed regarding the decision to resume operations.”

    Furthermore, the traders in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) said that they could not afford the lockdown further and that they would open shops from April 15 as well.

    United Business Group President Ilyas Bilour said that small scale traders were forced into starvation due to the lockdown, and lamented that labourers were severely affected due to the closure of business centres.

  • KP doctor bathes coronavirus patient’s body, leads funeral prayers after cleric’s refusal to do so

    KP doctor bathes coronavirus patient’s body, leads funeral prayers after cleric’s refusal to do so

    A doctor in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) has won the hearts of millions over the internet after he bathed [Islamic ritual of ghusl] a deceased coronavirus patient’s body and led his funeral prayers following the refusal of a religious cleric to do the same.

    Reports quoted Dr Hafiz Sanaullah, who is treating COVID-19 patients at a government-run hospital in Besham town of KP’s Shangla district, as saying that the deceased patient belonged to a far-flung area and was in town for treatment. But he, unfortunately, lost his battle against the deadly virus.

    “We approached a local cleric to perform the patient’s last rites but he refused saying that he was scared,” the doctor said, adding that the cleric, however, advised him to do so by himself.

    Dr Sanaullah said he being a Hafiz knew how to perform the last rites so it wasn’t a problem. “I led the funeral prayers and was joined by local paramedics as well as hospital staffers,” he said, adding that all necessary measures were taken to protect the participants.

    “I once attended a UNICEF workshop wherein I was taught how the last rites of an infected person should be performed. After bathing it, I wrapped the body in a plastic sheet and placed it in the coffin.”

    “After the funeral prayers, I myself laid him to rest as well,” Dr Sanaullah said.

  • Shangla doctor comes forward for coronavirus patient’s ghusal, funeral

    Shangla doctor comes forward for coronavirus patient’s ghusal, funeral

    After a man died of the coronavirus at a government hospital in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Shangla, nobody was willing to prepare the body for burial or offer the funeral prayers until one doctor stepped up.

    Dr Hafiz Sanaullah bathed the body, offered the funeral prayers and then buried it. The hospital is located in the Basham Tehsil.

    Dr Sanaullah said that he took a UNICEF course on how to handle the burials of coronavirus patients and followed the proper protocol while burying the patient.

    He further said that other members also followed protocol and bathed the body, covered it in the funeral shroud and plastic and then put it in a coffin.

  • PICTURES: Social distancing in Pakistan

    After the outbreak of coronavirus, health experts have urged people to stay at home and practice social distancing. Social distancing involves “remaining out of mass settings, avoiding mass gatherings, and maintaining distance” whenever possible to limit the ability of the virus to spread.

    Section 144 has also been imposed in Pakistan under which more than four people cannot gather together in an area.

    Considering essential activities cannot completely be closed, here’s how Pakistanis are maintaining social distance at grocery stores, banks and police stations:


    Social distancing in Hangu, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
    A police station in Lahore
    Mithi, Sindh.

  • Coronavirus: The KP government has a message for you

    Health Minister of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Taimur Khan Jhagra, has tweeted a video made by the provincial government explaining why people need to stay at home and what measures the KP government is taking to control the spread of the virus in the province.

    RELATED: ALL CORONAVIRUS UPDATES

    Watch the video here

    There are currently 1090 confirmed cases in the country, 413 in Sindh, 323 in Punjab, 121 in KP, 131 in Balochistan, 20 in Islamabad, 82 in Gilgit Baltistan. Eight people have died.

  • KP confirms its first 15 cases of coronavirus

    KP confirms its first 15 cases of coronavirus

    The health minister of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has confirmed that 15 people out of the 19 who arrived to the province from Taftan, Iran have tested positive for coronavirus. They have been put in quarantine in DI Khan.

    READ MORE: HOURLY CORONAVIRUS UPDATES

    This recent development comes after a suspected coronavirus patient died in Peshawar this morning. The patient was awaiting results of his coronavirus test but tested negative for the virus.

    RELATED: HOW TO GET YOURSELF TESTED FOR CORONAVIRUS IN PAKISTAN

    The total tally of the cases in Pakistan has increased to 118 nationwide with 88 in Sindh, 10 in Balochistan, 1 in Punjab, 5 in Gilgit Baltistan and 2 in Islamabad.

  • 13 new polio cases reported in a single day in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa

    13 new polio cases reported in a single day in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa

    In a shocking development, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has reported 13 new cases of type 2 polio cases. This is the highest number of cases to be reported in the province in one day.

    According to the provincial health department, seven of the cases were reported from Khyber tribal district, while one case each was reported from Lakki Marwat, Bannu, Mardan, Nowshera, Bajaur and Lower Dir.

    WATCH: The Current tours Pakistan’s Polio Lab

    A senior public health specialist told a leading newspaper on condition of anonymity, that several Pakistani health specialists had raised the issues over the polio programme, but “they are either sidelined or kicked out of the programme,” also adding that the reason why the virus spreading so fast is that not every child is being reached in infected areas and the government is missing a lot of children that need to be vaccinated.

    “Pakistan has this year reported 25 cVDP2 (type 2) cases, in which Khyber Pakhtunkhwa alone had a share of 24,” the report said. Type 2 polio does not cause paralysis but is debilitating. The type 2 virus was eliminated in the country in 2016 and reemerged last year.

    In 2019, Pakistan had reported 22 cases of type two polio cases, including 16 from KP. These were apart from type one polio cases in 2020, which are 29 in the country and 15 in KP.

    “It is a money-driven programme and huge salaries and incentives are being taken by the consultants at the top level. Unfortunately, some people in the programme are very influential and answerable to none and they set their agenda ignoring local needs and requirements,” he maintained, according to The News.

    Another senior official said that after working with the polio programme for many years, he realises that the elimination of polio is not a priority.

  • How to protect yourself from coronavirus at office

    How to protect yourself from coronavirus at office

    The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government’s Department of Relief, Rehabilitation & Settlement has released a list of directives for its employees to help prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus in shared workspaces.

    Here are the measures you can take to ensure a healthy environment for all employees:

    • Employees must be politely directed against hugging and shaking hands or coming into any needless physical contact with each other. This can help prevent the virus from being transferred to healthy employees from employees who may already have the virus but are not showing its symptoms.
    • Employees must wash their hands at least three to four times a day with soap or an alcohol-based sanitizer
    • All towels in toilets should be changed frequently or replaced with disposable towels that can be trashed after first use.
    • Any tissues, once used, should be disposed of immediately in a trash bin.
    • Biometric attendance to be stopped with immediate effect. This can help prevent the virus from being transferred to healthy employees from a sick individual via biometric machines.
    • Any unnecessary contact with side railings and doors should be avoided.  Healthy employees can pick up the virus by touching surfaces that a sick employee has also touched.
    • Likewise, appropriate safety precautions must be taken when coming in contact with office machinery such as telephones, fax machines and computers.
    • In case of cough and flu, the employee must seek medical attention on first priority.
    • A mask should be worn by any person showing symptoms of cough and flu. This is to prevent the virus from spreading in the environment through coughing and sneezing.
    • Face-masks should be discarded after one day of use.

  • KP govt hopes to limit grand weddings

    KP govt hopes to limit grand weddings

    Weddings in Pakistan are known to be extravagant affairs, often stretching over weeks. To limit the costs of the ceremony, the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (KP) Assembly adopted legislation almost two years ago.

    The bill titled ‘KP Marriage Functions (Prohibition of Ostentatious Displays and Wasteful Expenses)‘ was passed in February 2018 but 24 months later, the province is still trying to implement the law that puts a limit on wedding spending.

    The law imposed a ban on the decoration of houses, streets, and marriage halls across the province. It directs that the sound of the loudspeaker should be limited to indoor with many other restrictions.

    The law also tells the rules for the menu, limiting it to one dish only. Punjab already has a law which ensures one dish at marriage halls.

    Under the law, anyone who breaks or fails to obey the law shall be accountable to pay a fine of not less than Rs200,000 and an imprisonment term not exceeding two months.

    Similarly, depriving a bride of her wedding gifts could also be troublesome for the groom and his family. Violators could face a fine of Rs200,000 and a sentence of three months. The law also restricts the payment of dowry to the groom’s family.

  • Chitral man booked for spreading coronavirus rumours

    Chitral man booked for spreading coronavirus rumours

    Amid growing fears of the deadly coronavirus in Pakistan, a man in Chitral has been booked on charges of spreading misinformation on social media.

    An FIR has been registered against Irshad Mukarer, a resident of the Darosh area of Chitral district, in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa.

    According to Wali Khan, the SHO of Darosh Police Station, a Chinese citizen working on the Lawi Hydro Power Project in Chitral visited a local hospital for having pain in his stomach where doctors prescribed him some medicines.

    Irshad took his picture at the hospital and posted it on social networking websites saying the Chinese man was infected with coronavirus, medically named ‘2019-nCoV’, SHO Khan added.

    The wrong information circulated spreading fear among the locals. Authorities took serious notice of the incident and the police registered FIR against Khan, who managed to get pre-arrest bail.

    While Irshad denied sharing any post on social media. “I was visiting the hospital to meet an ailing relative where I saw the Chinese man who was in severe pain and I asked for his proper diagnosis. ”Irshad went on to add that the charges against him were baseless and that the police twisted his words and registered the FIR against him.

    The coronavirus originated in the Chinese city of Wuhan has claimed many lives and the World Health Organization (WHO) also declared a global health warning.