Category: Pakistan

PESHAWAR: Chief Minster Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Mahmood Khan on Thursday inaugurated Pensioners Facilitation Center including Information and Complaint Cell at the Accountant General Office here. On the occasion, a detailed briefing was given to CM about facilities being providing to pensioners. He appreciated officers of Accountant General Office for setting up Facilitation Center and Information and Complaint Cell to facilitate pensioners and resolving their problems without any delay. Mahmood Khan said that credit of initiating reforms process in the government institutions went to Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf. He said that citizen facilitation centers and service delivery centers had been setup in every district to facilitate people in government offices.

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Meteorological Department (PMD) here on Thursday forecast scattered rain spells on Eid-ul-Azha for different cities including Islamabad and Rawalpindi. Talking to media, spokesman PMD Dr Zaheer Babar said that the rain spell would start in different cities from next week and would persist for three days in upper and central Punjab,Sindh,Balochistan,Kashmir and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. He said these spells would subdue the temperature turning it into pleasant weather. He said that water level would rise in the major rivers improving the water reservoirs. He said heavy rains may trigger landsliding in the vulnerable areas of Kashmir, Gilgit-Baltistan and Upper Khyber Pakhtunkhuwa.

ISLAMABAD: Flood situation may arise in Rivers Indus, Kabul, Jhelum (upstream) and Chenab with associated Nullah of Rivers Ravi and Chenab from July 20.According to latest numerical weather prediction models fairly widespread thunderstorm/rain with heavy falls at scattered places, very heavy falls at isolated place and extremely heavy falls at one or two place is likely over the upper catchments of Rivers Indus, Kabul, Jhelum and Chenab along with Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and Northeast Punjab from July 19-21.Scattered thunderstorm/rain is also expected over the upper catchments of Rivers Ravi, Sutlej and Beas during the said period. According to Federal Flood Commission (FFC) all main rivers i. e. Indus, Jhelum, Chenab, Ravi and Sutlej are flowing with normal flows and there is no riverine flood situation in the country. At present the Combined Live Storage of Tarbela, Chashma & Mangla reservoir is 3.834 MAF (28.36% of Maximum Combined Live Storage of 13.516 MAF). Moist currents from Bay of Bengal and Arabian Sea are penetrating into lower half of the country up to 5000 feet. Yesterday”s Monsoon low-pressure area over South Chattisgarh (India) has moved Westwards and presently lies over South-Eastern parts of Maharashtra (India) while strong trough of Westerly Wave over Kashmir has moved away Eastward. Weak Seasonal Low lies over Northern Balochistan. Yesterday”s upper air circulation continues to prevail over Southern parts of Karachi in Arabian Sea. As predicted by the Flood Forecasting Division (FFD), Lahore, isolated thunderstorm/rain is expected over Punjab (Rawalpindi, Gujranwala, Sargodha, Lahore, Multan & D. G. Khan Divisions) and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (Kohat, Bannu & D. I. Khan Divisions) including upper catchments of all the main rivers during the next 24 hours. Scattered thunderstorm/rain of moderate intensity

ISLAMABAD: President Dr Arif Alvi was given a briefing on the dynamics of national security and the situation in Afghanistan during his visit to the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) Headquarters on Thursday. In view of the president’s keen interest in cyber security, he was also briefed on the subject. The president lauded the efforts of Inter-Services Intelligence for national security and expressed his satisfaction over its professional preparedness. Earlier, Director General ISI General Faiz Hamid welcomed the president on his arrival at the ISI Headquarters.

LAHORE: Punjab Chief Minister Sardar Usman Buzdar has changed the portfolio of Provincial Minister Mian Mehmood-ur-Rasheed and reassigned him as Minister for Local Government and Community Development (LG&CD) Department. A notification of reshuffle in the provincial cabinet has been issued here on Thursday. Mian Mehmood has been working as Minister for Housing, Urban Development and Public Health Engineering Department.

SARGODHA: Punjab government approved 113 new development projects worth an estimated cost of Rs 11.276 billion for the division in current financial budget, whereas Rs 2.21 billion would be spent on these projects this year, said Commissioner Sargodha Division Dr Farah Masood on Thursday. A meeting of Divisional Development Working Party (DDWP) was held here at Conference room, Commissioner Office and was attended by Director Development Shakeel Noman, SE Building Ghulam Abbas Virk, SE Public Health Engineering Anwarul Haq Toor, SE Highways Shafqat Bukhari and Director Colleges Ahmed Sial among others. The meeting was informed that these projects include 20 schemes of Sargodha district, 15 of Khushab district, 44 of Mianwali district and 34 of Bhakkar district. The cost of 20 schemes in Sargodha district would be Rs. 2.24 billion, while Rs. 40.99 million would be spent this year. The cost of 15 schemes in Khushab district would be Rs 1.39 billion ,while Rs 351 million would be spent this year. The 44 schemes in Mianwali district were estimated to cost Rs. 4.33 billion, and Rs. 757.9 million would be spent this year. Similarly, the cost of 34 new schemes in Bhakkar district would be Rs 3.60 billion while Rs 695.7 million would be spent on these schemes during the current financial year. The meeting was further informed that work on 943 schemes of various departments under the annual development program of Rs 19.24 billion worth funds was on going in all the four districts of the division and so far Rs. 5.56 billion had been spent on these schemes till June end. Commissioner Dr. Farah Masood directed the concerned departments to prepare PC-1 of 113 new schemes as early as possible.

LAHORE: After the approval of the Chief Justice, 4 Additional District and Sessions Judges were transferred.

Saeed Akhtar transferred from Lahore to Jaranwala, Wajid Minhas transferred from Lahore to Mianwali, Muhammad Omar transferred from Mianwali to Lahore and Usman Ali Awan transferred from Jaranwala to Lahore.

An African lion cub born a month and a half ago died at the Lahore Zoo. Earlier, an African lion cub died shortly after birth. A month and a half ago, a tiger at Lahore Zoo gave birth to 4 cubs. One child died at birth. The other three cubs were weak and in intensive care. The dead lion cub was one and a half months old. The lion that died was a male. The tigress gave birth to four cubs, three of which were being artificially fed.

LAHORE: Plan to make the Mall Road signal-free and preliminary work on the signal-free project has begun.

After the feasibility report of the traffic police, the concerned agencies started working on it. CTO Lahore Montazer Mehdi said four U-turns will be made on Mall Road to make it signal-free lane.

The intersections crossing the Mall Road will be completely closed while passengers will be able to take the U-turn and cross the Mall Road.

The service lane from High Court Chowk to Governor House could also be used for traffic. “Work on the Mall Road signal-free project will begin after reports from TIPA and the district administration”, sources said.