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Thursday, April 29, 2021

Three more PIA aircraft leave for China for Covid-19 vaccines

Three more aircraft of Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) left for China late Wednesday to fly in a shipment of one million Covid-19 vaccine doses. “Three Boeing 777s were dispatched to China on Wednesday night. The planes will reach Islamabad with one million vaccine doses,” said PIA spokesperson Abdullah Khan. According to reports, the first aircraft was to arrive back in Pakistan at 8:30 am today (Thursday) whereas the second at 12:30 pm and the third at 12 midnight. According to the spokesperson, the PIA aircraft are carrying out their duties at the behest of the government of Pakistan and the Ministry of Health. On April 25, it was reported that three planes of the Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) carrying a consignment of one million doses of Covid-19 vaccine left China for Pakistan on Sunday amidst a sharp rise in new coronavirus cases in the country. Read more: Sindh orders 2m vaccine doses According to PIA Country Manager for China Qadir Bux Sangi, an additional two million doses of Covid-19 vaccine will also be transported from China by the national flag carrier on April 29. He said two special planes and a PIA regular flight was used to airlift the coronavirus vaccine doses from China. Previously, a total of 2.56 million vaccine doses had arrived in Pakistan from China and 1.5 million doses of the Sinopharm vaccine were donated to the country. The vaccination of people in the age group 50 to 59 also began on April 21. The National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) started registering citizens above 50 years of age for Covid-19 vaccination from March 30. Pakistan began its vaccination more than a month ago with over a million doses of Sinopharm vaccines donated by China after Islamabad received its first Covid-19 vaccine consignment after a military aircraft airlifted it from Beijing in February 1, this year.

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Court summons Asif Ali Zardari in Rs8.3bn transaction reference

ISLAMABAD: An accountability court on Thursday has summoned former president Asif Ali Zardari in a reference related to a transaction of over Rs8.3billion through fake bank accounts, ARY News reported.

Accountability court judge Asghar Ali has asked the Pakistan People’s Party co-chairman to appear before the court on May 20 along with stenographer Mushtaq Ahmed.

Asif Ali Zardari along with a former employee of the President House, Mushtaq Ahmed had been named accused in the reference filed before an accountability court by the NAB.

According to the reference, an illegal transaction of Rs8.3 took place between Mushtaq Ahmed and a private housing society. The amount was used to purchase properties in a posh locality of Karachi, it said. Zardari owns these properties.

Ahmed remained an employee of the President’s House from 2009 till 2013. He was recruited as a stenotypist at the request of Senator Rukhsana Bangash.

Former president Zardari faces a number of graft references stemming from the fake bank accounts scam. He is currently out on bail in all these cases.

The post Court summons Asif Ali Zardari in Rs8.3bn transaction reference appeared first on ARY NEWS.

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Farrukh Habib sworn in as state minister for information and broadcasting

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) MNA Farrukh Habib was sworn in as State Minister for Information and Broadcasting on Thursday.

President Dr. Arif Alvi administered him oath at a ceremony at Aiwan-e-Sadr in Islamabad.

On Wednesday, Federal Minister for Information Fawad Chaudhry, felicitating Farrukh Habib on being appointed as the state minister for information and broadcasting, confirmed that he will be taking the oath of his office today.

Earlier, on April 13, Prime Minister Imran Khan had reshuffled his cabinet, appointing Shaukat Tarin as the new finance minister and changing portfolios of several ministers.

The additional charge of the finance minister was taken back from Industries and Production Minister Hammad Azhar who replaced Omar Ayub as energy minister.

Omar Ayub was entrusted with the portfolio of the revenue affairs. Federal Minister Fawad Chaudhry replaced Shibli Faraz as information minister while Shibli Faraz was made the science and technology minister.

The post Farrukh Habib sworn in as state minister for information and broadcasting appeared first on ARY NEWS.

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Instructor suspended over harassing PIA trainee apprentice

KARACHI: An instructor at Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) Training Centre has been suspended from his job over harassing trainee apprentice, ARY News reported on Thursday.

The revelation of harassment came to light in an alleged leaked audio call, after which an investigation committee was formed to unearth the facts.

Instructor Agha Waseem has been served show-cause notice and suspended from his job with immediate effect. He has been asked to submit a reply within seven days in the harassment allegations.

It is pertinent to mention here that incidents of harassment have been reported time and again in the country with the most recent incident involving a bank official harassing his female colleague in Islamabad.

According to details, a video of the incident went viral on social media, showing a man sexually harassing a woman at a bank in the F-10 area of Islamabad.

Taking notice of the video, Inspector General of Police (IG) Islamabad Muhammad Amir Zulfiqar Khan directed the concerned officials to take action against the harasser.

The post Instructor suspended over harassing PIA trainee apprentice appeared first on ARY NEWS.

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Oman provides 10,000 jobs in first three months of 2021

MUSCAT: Oman provided almost 10,000 jobs during the first quarter of the current year.

In an interview with Oman TV, Minister of Labour Dr. Mahad bin Said bin Ali Ba’owain said: “According to the directives of His Majesty Sultan Haitham bin Tarik to provide jobs for Omanis, the Ministry of Labour announced in January 2021 that 32,000 jobs would be provided to job seekers as per the implementation of the plan.”

“During the past three months, we were able to provide between 9,800 and 10,000 new jobs to Omanis.”

“About 4,000 job opportunities were given in the government sector and tests were conducted for them, and about 4,000 Omanis job seekers gained employment for the first time, while another 2,000 got other job opportunities coupled with training,” he explained.

“With this number, we have achieved in the first quarter of 2021 almost 30 per cent of the 32,000 job opportunities that were previously announced,” the minister said.

Also Read: Oman denies impending Covid-19 curfew rumour

He said there are about 1,500,000 expatriates working in the country, only 10 per cent of them are replaceable, while the rest of the jobs are low paying ones where we cannot pressure employers to replace expatriates with Omanis.

“So with this 10 per cent, we can have 140,000 to 200,000 job opportunities for which we can replace expatriates with Omanis, and the replacement process involves training, qualification and experience for some jobs, so we need time to do that and we will work hard to achieve this,” the minister added, pointing out that efficiency and sincerity at work are qualities present among Omanis, but some jobs require specific expertise and skills.

“We also put pressure on the public and private sectors to replace expatriates with Omanis, and we inform them that we are ready to provide for any qualification or training required for this replacement,” he said.

The post Oman provides 10,000 jobs in first three months of 2021 appeared first on ARY NEWS.

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Wednesday, April 28, 2021

Pakistan records 5,480 new Covid-19 cases, 151 deaths in 24 hours

Pakistan recorded 5,480 new coronavirus cases in the last 24 hours, taking the country's Covid-19 tally to 815,711. According to the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC), the country's death toll climbed to 17,680 after 151 people succumbed to the deadly disease during the last 24 hours. Most deaths occurred in Punjab followed by Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (K-P). Meanwhile, 3,699 patients recovered from the deadly disease in a day taking total recoveries to 708,193. According to NCOC, total active Covid-19 cases across the country were reported to be 89,838. The highest number of ventilators occupied in the country was found to be in Lahore with 73 per cent occupancy, followed by Multan at 73 per cent, Mardan at 73 per cent and Gujranwala at 62 per cent. Read more: Sindh sees over 1,000 new Covid-19 cases The NCOC further reported that the highest number of oxygen bed occupancy in the country was in Peshawar at 70 per cent followed by Swabi at 67 per cent, Mardan at 65 per cent and Swat at 60 per cent. About 57,013 Covid-19 tests were conducted in the last 24 hours out of which 14,716 were conducted in Sindh, 26,338 in Punjab, 8,261 in K-P, 5,651 in Islamabad, 929 in Balochistan, 241 in G-B and 877 tests were conducted in AJK. Covid-19 related death by province Out of the total 17,680 reported deaths, there had been about 4,629 deaths in Sindh, 8,327 in Punjab, 3,238 in K-P, 677 in Islamabad. About 233 deaths were reported in Balochistan, 106 deaths in G-B and 470 in AJK. The NCOC also reported that a total of 11,739,027 tests had been conducted since the outbreak of the virus. There are about 630 hospitals with Covid-19 facilities with more than 6,000 patients admitted across the country, it added.

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China launches key module of space station planned for 2022

BEIJING: China launched an unmanned module on Thursday containing living quarters for three crew on a permanent space station that it plans to complete by the end of 2022, state media reported.

The module, named “Tianhe”, or “Harmony of the Heavens”, was launched on the Long March 5B, China’s largest carrier rocket, at 11:23 a.m. (0323 GMT) from the Wenchang Space Launch Centre on the southern island of Hainan.

Tianhe is one of three main components of what would be China’s first self-developed space station, rivalling the only other station in service – the International Space Station (ISS).

The ISS is backed by major countries including the United States, Russia and Japan. China was barred from participating in the ISS by the United States.

Tianhe will form the main living quarters for three crew members in the Chinese space station, which will have a life span of at least 10 years.

The Tianhe launch was the first of 11 missions needed to complete the space station, which will orbit Earth at an altitude of 340 to 450 kilometres (211-280 miles).

In the later missions, China will launch the two other core modules, four manned spacecraft and four cargo spacecraft.

Work on the space station programme began a decade ago with the launch of a space lab Tiangong-1 in 2011, and later, Tiangong-2 in 2016.

Both helped China test the programme’s space rendezvous and docking capabilities.

China has prioritised space exploration in recent years, with the aim of becoming a major space power by 2030.

By 2045, it hopes to establish a programme operating thousands of space flights a year and carrying tens of thousands of tonnes of cargo and passengers.

The post China launches key module of space station planned for 2022 appeared first on ARY NEWS.

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