Students returning from Wuhan on June 5 to get discounted tickets
He also acknowledged the students’ perseverance during their stay in Wuhan amid the coronavirus pandemic. As many as 280 students would be repatriated from Wuhan city of China through a special flight, said an official from Overseas Pakistanis and Human Resources Development ministry. Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) has decided to send a special flight for the repatriation of students from China on June 5. It is pertinent to mention that the students have been stranded in Wuhan for the past five months due to coronavirus and restrictions on international travel world-wide. Over 250 Pakistani students were evacuated last month from China through a special flight of Pakistan International Airlines with the government deciding to offer subsidised tickets to the students.
Source:Pakistan Today
June 03, 2020 12:45 UTC
Stocks fall flat amid lacklustre trade
KARACHI: The Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) moved in a narrow range on Wednesday, with the benchmark KSE-100 Index retreating all gains accumulated in early trade and closing the session flat. On the other hand, the fertilizer sector fell back on the government’s decision of ‘no subsidy’ on fertilizer products,” said Arif Habib Ltd’s daily market report. TRG Pakistan Limited (TRG +0.43pc), Pak Elektron Limited (PAEL +0.79pc) and Pak Petroleum Limited (PPL +0.60pc) led the volume chart, exchanging 7.76 million, 7.39 million and 6.96 million shares, respectively. Sectors that dragged the index in the red included fertilizer (-30.81 points), cement (-17.73 points) and pharmaceutical (-16.57 points). Among the companies, Engro Corporation Limited (ENGRO -20.38 points), Habib Bank Limited (HBL -18.21 points) and Dawood Hercules Corporation Limited (DAWH -12.76 points) dented the index the most.
Source:Pakistan Today
June 03, 2020 12:33 UTC
Families of PIA plane crash victims receive Rs1m each
KARACHI: The Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) on Wednesday said it has started to pay compensation to the families of the Karachi plane crash victims. According to a spokesperson of the national flag bearer, families of 82 victims of the ill-fated flight have been given Rs1 million each while the two girls who were injured in the plane crash have been handed Rs500,000 each. PIA flight PK-8303 suffered a tragic air crash in Karachi last month, killing 97 people on board while two passengers survived miraculously. The Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) in a report issued on Tuesday had alleged the pilot of the PIA plane had violated landing protocols. According to the report, the pilot disregarded air traffic control’s (ATC) direction to lower the altitude.
Source:Pakistan Today
June 03, 2020 10:41 UTC
Covid-19 claims lives of two more lawmakers
He was on a ventilator after having tested positive for the novel coronavirus last week. The ANP confirmed that Faisal Zeb Khan and Salahuddin Khan had tested positive. KP Director General Health Services Dr Tahir Nadeem went into quarantine after testing positive for the coronavirus a day earlier. The 55-year-old senior member of the PPP, who was elected member of the Sindh Assembly from the party’s stronghold of PS-88 (Malir), tested positive for Covid-19 on May 14. Some half a dozen members of the Sindh Assembly belonging to both the opposition and ruling parties have tested positive for Covid-19 during the last one month.
Source:Pakistan Today
June 03, 2020 09:56 UTC
Minor girl tortured to death by employers for accidentally freeing exotic parrots
RAWALPINDI: The murder of an eight-year-old domestic help has sparked outrage on social media with people demanding justice for the minor girl who was allegedly tortured to death by her employers for accidentally setting their exotic parrots free. Zahra, a domestic worker at a household in Rawalpindi, was brought to the Begum Akhtar Rukhsana Memorial Hospital on Sunday in an injured state by her employer. According to the police, the suspect admitted that he and his wife had beaten Zahra after she let his “expensive pet parrots escape from their cage”. Zahra succumbed to her injuries soon after she was brought to the hospital and both her employers were arrested the same day. The incident has reignited a discussion over the exploitation of minors and child labour laws in Pakistan.
Source:Pakistan Today
June 03, 2020 09:56 UTC
Covid-19 and our insensitive mentality
The haut monde of today is worried about its health and safety and is not hesitating in adopting all safety practices prescribed by authorities. The collapse of education, health and other sectors keeps them awake at night as most members of this estate belong to the working class. With decreased demand of commodities and services, the members of this class await opportunities that could feed their stomachs. Its members may belong to any of the three estates but are united in their approach to life and self-centredness. A situation wherein it is actually required for us to act responsibly, these individuals want their freedom.
Source:The Express Tribune
June 03, 2020 05:15 UTC
Sherry Raza: The incredible journey of Pakistan's finest frontman
Singer Sherry Raza is one such anomaly. The kind of intersection Sherry manages to cater to just by the virtue of his vocal range and audience awareness makes him if not the finest, but clearly the most successful frontman in Pakistan’s contemporary live performance scene. I have identified as a Sufi singer. It is quite common for a Sufi singer to recite Naat and Hamds. Soon enough the then Pakistan’s most famous televangelist, Dr Aamir Liaquat Hussain discovered Sherry and made him the voice of Pakistan’s devotional programming.
Source:The Express Tribune
June 03, 2020 05:03 UTC
Govt overcomes gas crisis at a price
At present, the Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (Ogra) notifies the re-gasified liquefied natural gas (RLNG) sale price for SNGPL on a monthly basis whereas natural gas prices for domestic consumers are revised after every six months. Moreover, there is no mechanism in place at present to recover RLNG price from the domestic consumers. Officials say the best mechanism will be to introduce a weightage average price of RLNG and locally produced gas to enhance supply. Experts are of the view that the government should immediately ban new gas supply schemes and focus on liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) consumption by domestic consumers. It should subsidise LPG for domestic consumers and locally produced gas should be diverted to power plants, which would help reduce power tariffs.
Source:The Express Tribune
June 03, 2020 04:30 UTC
Govt cuts profit rates on saving schemes
The rate of profit on saving schemes is indirectly associated with the benchmark interest rate. The investors, whose investments were affected due to a drop-in rate of profit, may relocate the capital from saving schemes to the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX). Saving rate on the declineThe low rate of return on investment in such saving schemes has continued to discourage the general public to save a portion of their income. The government utilises investment in saving schemes to bridge the budget deficit. Absolute savingThe government has set a target of raising Rs275.63 billion through national saving schemes in the current fiscal year ending June 30, 2020, according to the annual budget documents FY20.
Source:The Express Tribune
June 03, 2020 04:18 UTC
Oil dealers demand probe into fuel shortage
Allege oil firms delayed import of petroleum products, violated rulesISLAMABAD: Petroleum retailers have demanded that the government conduct a comprehensive probe into the nationwide fuel shortage and have urged authorities to fix responsibility. Paracha added that the shortage of petroleum products could hurt the transport sector and lead to a hike in fares of public transport. He stressed that petroleum products should be imported immediately and companies should be forced to abide by rules and regulations. Petroleum dealers had suffered immensely during the lockdown and now fuel scarcity was denting their business, he remarked. “Issues of owners of filling stations should be addressed and a new pricing formula for refineries, oil marketing companies and dealers should be introduced,” Paracha emphasised.
Source:The Express Tribune
June 03, 2020 04:18 UTC
Zoom profits as video conferencing becomes pandemic norm
Zoom said it made a profit of $27 million on revenue that leaped 169 percent to slightly more than $328 million in the fiscal quarter that ended April 30. In the same quarter a year earlier, Zoom reported zero dollars per share in net income for stockholders. “The Covid-19 crisis has driven higher demand for distributed, face-to-face interactions and collaboration using Zoom,” founder and chief executive Eric Yuan said in a release. – ‘Hard lesson’ –The earnings come with Zoom under pressure to deal with security and privacy as the platform faces scrutiny from rising usage. Twitter changes display pic, bio to #BlackLivesMatter to protest George Floyd’s killing“As CEO, I should have done a better job,” Yuan said on an earnings video call with analysts.
Source:The Express Tribune
June 03, 2020 00:22 UTC
Death toll from Covid-19 surpasses 30,000 in Brazil
Sao Paulo now has a total of nearly 120,000 cases with almost 8,000 deathsRIO DE JANEIRO: Brazil surpassed 30,000 deaths from the coronavirus outbreak on Tuesday as the disease continued to rip through South America’s worst-hit country. The overall number of confirmed cases — 555,383 — makes Brazil the second most affected country after the United States. The official Covid-19 death toll of 31,199 released Tuesday is the fourth-highest in the world, after the US, Britain and Italy. Sao Paulo now has a total of nearly 120,000 cases with almost 8,000 deaths. In Sao Paulo itself, Mayor Bruno Covas has put back reopening non-essential businesses until after June 15.
Source:The Express Tribune
June 02, 2020 23:37 UTC
CAA blames pilot for Karachi plane crash
The Civil Aviation Authority on Tuesday said the pilot paid no heed to the instructions of the air traffic controller (ATC), resulting in the plane crash near Karachi airport in which 97 people were killed. CAA additional director operation sent a letter to the safety department of the Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) that claimed the pilot of the Airbus 320 aircraft did not follow the instruction of the ATC. It stated that the altitude of the plane was high at the approach point and the air traffic controller had warned the captain of PK-8303 regarding it. The altitude of the plane was 5,200 feet at the seven nautical miles that’s considered high from the approach profile. The ATC had warned the captain twice and instructed to turn the plane to 180 degrees besides maintaining the required altitude; however, the instructions were completely neglected by the pilot, said the report.
Source:Pakistan Today
June 02, 2020 18:33 UTC
Pandemic preparedness
We must prepare for future pandemicsBy: Dr Jawad MushtaqIn 2015 Bill Gates warned us that the world was not ready for the next pandemic, but viruses were out there mutating waiting for an outbreak. If this pandemic has taught us one thing, it is to always be ready for the outbreak of a virus, whether once in a 50 years or six times in just 20. Pandemic preparedness should be made a part of strategic doctrine from now on. But what happens to this efficient global supply chain in a pandemic? This problem has only spread since, as more and more countries hoard whatever medical supplies they can get, banning export of medical equipment at the same time.
Source:Pakistan Today
June 02, 2020 18:33 UTC
Sindh minister Ghulam Murtaza Baloch dies of coronavirus
–JUI-F MNA Munir Khan Orakzai passes away after recovering from Covid-19KARACHI/ISLAMABAD: Sindh Minister for Human Settlement Haji Ghulam Murtaza Baloch passed away on Tuesday after battling coronavirus. The Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) leader was a member of the Sindh Assembly from PS-88 Malir-II since July 2018. The news of his death was confirmed by Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah, who expressed grief over the loss of his colleague. It will be a difficult task to replace him.”PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari also expressed grief on the death of the party’s Malir district president. KP Chief Minister Mahmood Khan also expressed grief on Munir’s death and offered his condolences to the deceased’s family.
Source:Pakistan Today
June 02, 2020 18:01 UTC