Pakistan will immunise 90 million kids against MMR

Posted on by Ali Qasim

Lahore (NUT-DESK)

Today Dr. Faisal Sultan, Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Health, launched a nationwide campaign to immunise more than 90 million children against the deadly measles and rubella diseases across Pakistan, in what is bound to become one of the biggest campaigns in the world.

More than 386,000 health professionals, including 76,000 vaccinators and more than 143,000 social mobilizers are mobilised for the two-week campaign supported by Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, UNICEF, WHO and partners. The campaign targets children aged between 9 months and 15 years; those aged up to five will also receive the oral polio vaccine.


“Measles and Rubella are contagious diseases and can have severe complications for children even death. Effective vaccine against the Measles and Rubella is available to prevent children against the two diseases. I urge both the front-line workers to work with dedication and the caregivers to express their support by vaccinating their children against the diseases,” said Dr. Faisal Sultan, Special Assistant to Prime Minister on Health
Measles and Rubella are couple of devastating diseases that cause severe sickness and can take lives,” said Dr. Muhammad Akram Shah, National Programme Manager, Expanded Programme on Immunization. In recent years cases have surged dramatically in Pakistan. “Measles cases rose alarmingly affecting thousands of children and claiming many young lives. We need to vaccinate every child”, said Dr. Shah.


The campaign will be conducted in public and private health facilities, outreach centres as well as educational facilities, for 12 days from November 15th to 27th. Nearly half of the children who are to be immunized are enrolled in schools. The MR vaccine will be available in routine immunization schedule for children at 9 months and 15 months of age.

“The Measles and Rubella campaign will move us not only one step closer to maintaining measles elimination and accelerating rubella control, but also one step closer to reducing the overall child mortality across Pakistan. Every child has the right to access life-saving healthcare, ”said Dr. Palitha Mahipala, WHO Representative in Pakistan. “WHO is partnering with the Government of Pakistan and supports to ensure that all children get vaccinated against Measles & Rubella. We appreciate the strong political commitment of the Government of Pakistan towards the measles elimination for the benefit of all children in Pakistan.”

“Today’s world is still grappling with the very contagious measles and rubella viruses, none of which have gone away despite being entirely preventable with a simple vaccine,” said Ms. Aida Girma, UNICEF Representative in Pakistan. “UNICEF is proud to support the Government to ensure that safe, effective vaccines are available and delivered nationwide. By working together, we can contribute towards the global eradication of measles and rubella, to the benefit of children in Pakistan and across the world.”

Pakistan has demonstrated unwavering commitment toward restoring and strengthening immunisation services across the country over the past years, with promising results. Targeting every child is a priority to help ensure that vaccination is equitable for every child.

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TCL becomes Peshawar Zalmi’s Official TV Partner for PSL 7 .

Posted on by Ali Qasim

Lahore (Muhammad Yasir)

TCL and Peshawar Zalmi continue their partnership for the fifth consecutive year. TCL announced as Peshawar Zalmi’s Official TV Partner for PSL 7.

TCL becomes Peshawar Zalmi’s Official TV Partner for the upcoming Pakistan Super League Season 7. Mr Nausherwan Effandi, CCO Peshawar Zalmi presented a “5 Years of Partnership” shirt on the occasion to Mr. Majid Niazi, Head of Marketing TCL Pakistan. 

Peshawar Zalmi & Zalmi Foundation Chairman, Mr. Javed Afridi expressed his pleasure on twitter announcing the 5 years of partnership milestone.

Miss Sunny Yang, GM TCL Electronics Pakistan said “We are excited about the renewal of our partnership with Peshawar Zalmi for the 5th consecutive year. We will continue to play our part in the promotion of sports in Pakistan and as a brand that is a promoter of sports and talent all around the globe, we will keep on extending our support to the team for promoting cricket and young talent”

Head of Marketing TCL Pakistan,  Mr. Majid Niazi hinted towards another successful season with Peshawar Zalmi. He quoted “Our collaboration with Peshawar Zalmi has been a very positive experience for our brand and a fantastic opportunity to explore sports marketing, its our 5th year with Peshawar Zalmi and we plan to take this partnership to much larger scale. As PSL 2022 will happen in Pakistan we are very excited about all the opportunities this will provide to both our brands to connect with our customers. “

Mr. Nausherwan Effandi, CCO Peshawar Zalmi presented the “5 Years of Partnership” shirt to Mr. Majid Niazi on the ocassion of agreement of partnership renewal with TCL.  Mr. Nausherwan added “ TCL are great partners to work with and the fans are also looking forward to our partnership and what we achieve this year. We have already launched Zalmi TV together and worked on a VR App with Peshawar Zalmi players simulations for fan engagement. We are entering into the fifth year of partnership going into PSL 7 which reflects the level of comfort and trust both brands have built over the years. ”

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Befiler to Introduce a Digital Solution for Tax Filing with Karandaaz Support

Posted on by Ali Qasim

Lahore (Muhammad Yasir)

Befiler recently won a grant for a digital experiment from Karandaaz Pakistan, a not-for-profit funded by the UK’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF). Befiler participated in the recent round of Karandaaz’s Digital Experiment Program, and won the grant through a competitive application process. The grant will support Befiler’s vision of promoting tax compliance in Pakistan through digitalization of tax filing process; specifically encouraging women’s participation in financial and tax matters.

The grant will be specifically utilized for promoting tax filing among working women so that they could digitally file their tax returns and handle other business thereby. This will decrease women’s reliance on male family members for in-person meetings with consultants for legal and tax matters.

For Pakistan, embracing digital financial services remains a challenge. The gap is especially wide as only 7% of women in Pakistan are financially included compared to 20% of men. However, Befiler’s user stats reveal that although female users are only 5% of total users, their conversion rate from sign up on Befiler to successful tax filing is more than double compared to male counterparts. This demonstrates that women are more serious about financial and tax matters in comparison to males. Through this grant, Befiler plans to test out interventions specially designed to encourage more women to become active tax filers through Befiler’s user friendly mobile app and outcomes of communication using A/B testing. The lessons learned through the experiment will be widely disseminated for diffusion and uptake to push the entire ecosystem forward.

Akbar Tejani, CEO Befiler Pakistan expressed, “Befiler aims to directly target women for tax filing in hopes to have a higher involvement from them in finance and tax matters. Through this exercise, we hope to give rise to opportunities to women to experience focused and directed marketing encouraging them to engage in tax filing process. This will help in moving past the stereotype that the financial and tax matters are to be led by men in their families. Our alliance with Karandaaz Pakistan is directed towards the execution of strategies to support women empowerment through focused targeting, and facilitation.”

Waqas ul Hasan, CEO Karandaaz Pakistan said, “Karandaaz is pleased to join hands with Befiler, the pioneer of the digital tax filing platform in Pakistan focusing on introducing women to the use of technology for the tax filing process. Through the Digital Experiments Program, Karandaaz is supporting businesses to research on and understand the gaps in the market with respect to uptake and usage of digital financial services. The objective of the program is to support digital financial service providers test out different hypotheses on a real consumer base and compare results of different versions to identify the sweet spot for successful interventions. We hope that the experiment by Befiler will help in determining possibilities for increasing tax filing among women leading to further self-sufficiency and empowerment. We are grateful to our sponsors UK’s FCDO and BMGF whose funding is helping us support such initiatives that make digitalization a common norm, providing footmarks for future ideas.”

The economy of Pakistan is undergoing a change in terms of increased women owned businesses and the need for women-specific tax training products is becoming imperative. The digital experiment of Befiler will start by creating user samples and as part of the first phase of the experiment, Befiler will roll out a new app interface to specifically engage women through in-app content and communication. In the second phase efficiency of incentive versus fear based communication will be tested. Through this experiment, Befiler looks forward to set a new way ahead for women to be addressed as a target group for tax and financial products.

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Pakistan announces massive vaccination programme to counter Omicron threat

Posted on by Ali Qasim

Lahore (NUT-DESK)

Federal Minister of Planning, Development and Special Initiatives Asad Umar said that vaccination is the most effective way of protection against the new coronavirus variant, Omicron, Monday.

Umar, who is also the chief of National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC), while addressing a joint press conference flanked by Adviser to the Prime Minister on Health Dr Faisal Sultan in Islamabad, warned that the Omicron variant will inevitably come to Pakistan.

The minister announced that the NCOC has made some decisions regarding the highly contagious new variant which is spreading fast across the globe.

He said that the country has only a few weeks to contain the Omicron threat.

“Measures to control the [spread of] new variant in Pakistan are underway but vaccination is the only effective way of protection against Omicron,” said Umar.

Informing the media about the NCOC decisions, Umar said that the government would launch a massive vaccination campaign across the country within two to three days.

“We cannot stop Omicron but can reduce its effects by adopting preventive measures,” he added.

Talking about the government’s preventive measures, the minister said that they were tightening restrictions for the passengers coming from abroad and increasing testing capacity in high-risk areas.

He urged the masses to get themselves fully vaccinated against the coronavirus. 

The minister further stated that the individual at high-risk of contracting the virus will be given a booster jab.

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Dr. Asaf Riyaz Qadeer crowned with the award of Most Popular Overseas Pakistani

Posted on by Ali Qasim

Lahore (Muhammad YASIR)

Renowned intellectual writer and poet Dr. Asaf Riyaz Qadeer has been given the award of Most Popular Overseas Pakistani in a ceremony held at Governor House. Writer Dr. Asaf, a writer from a Pakistani literary and social family, has lived in Houston, USA for the past 40 years.

He is also an important leader and as a poet he authored ten books including Riaz Sokhan, Rare and Unique, Selected Humorous Poetry, World Fiction, Sanjhan Aarte Par Diyan, My Favorite Fiction, Humorous Parade, and Modern Mention of Punjabi Poetry. Talking to the media, the poet Dr. Asaf Riyaz Qadeer said that as a surgeon, the writer has been trying to play his full role for the betterment of humanity.

 

Love He said that he was very grateful to the government of Pakistan for giving national awards to other Pakistanis for their services and encouraged them at the national level. He said that he has organized many events in Diyarbakir where Allama Iqbal, the poet of the East, Sofia Ikram and famous literary personalities have been celebrated.

Everyone should play their role for the development of the society whether it is Prime Minister Imran Khan as a physician or other sports showbiz literary personalities who have offered their services for him as a therapist. He said that after the publication of ten books on one more book My work is in progress and will be published after completion.

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Iqra Aziz gushes over hubby Yasir Hussain in adorable birthday wish

Posted on by Ali Qasim

Lahore (NUT-DESK)

Iqra Aziz and Yasir Hussain make an adorable couple often leaving fans swooning over their perfect chemistry but what left fans awe-struck this time was Aziz’s moving birthday wish for her hubby.

The famed actor might be making waves in drama industry with her powerful performance in Feroze Khan starrer Khuda Aur Muhabbat but she seemed too soft for her other-half on his special day.

Taking to her Instagram account, the 24-year-old actor dropped a small video that shared a glimpse into the couple’s gorgeous moments.

https://www.instagram.com/tv/CW1KGzhDSqN/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link

The mother of one captioned the post, “Happy Birthday to the most beautiful human in the world. May you live thousands of years and may you spend all those years with me (Translated into English).”

Hussain commented on the post, “This is the sweetest thing I’ve ever seen.. love.”

Meanwhile, the Suno Chanda star has been living a busy the life of a new parent. She recently gave her fans a sneak peek into her every day journey of a mom in a 10-minute-long YouTube Vlog.

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Shaheen Afridi becomes Test cricket’s highest wicket-taker this year

Posted on by Ali Qasim

Lahore (NUT-DESK)

Pak Fast bowler Shaheen Afridi added another feather to his cap Sunday when he became the leading wicket-taker in Test matches this year. Shaheen Afridi currently has 44 Test wickets this year from only eight Test matches, the most by far by any other bowler in 2021.

The lanky left-arm pacer expressed happiness at the decision, saying that he always tries to get Pakistan to win matches through his bowling. He spoke about hunting batters with bowling partner Hasan Ali, who is also in spectacular form these days.

“I enjoy bowling with the new ball. We [Shaheen and Hasan] back each other and try to get wickets while bowling in tandem. Even in the second innings, we kept the pressure from both ends,” he said.

Shaheen Afridi said the Pakistani bowlers will do their utmost to ensure Bangladesh are dismissed for a low score Monday on a pitch that has more to offer to bowlers than batters.

“We hope to take early wickets Monday morning and restrict the hosts to a low total in the second innings on a track where batting is not all that easy,” he said.

He added that the ball has already started turning. “Spinners are getting help from the wicket which is keeping low also.”

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Zong 4G’s Multan Dhammal offer brings enhanced experience for residents

Posted on by Ali Qasim

Lahore (NUT-DESK)

Zong 4G, Pakistan’s digital leader, has launched the ‘Multan Dhamaal Offer’ to better serve its clients in underserved areas. The offer exemplifies Zong’s proactive customer-centric attitude, which has helped it become Pakistan’s leading network.

Residents of Multan will be able to get 5 GB of Internet, 1,000 On-Net Minutes, 30 Off-Net Minutes, and 1,000 SMS for just PKR 80 per week through the Multan Dhamaal Offer.

Zong subscribers in Multan can take advantage of the deal by dialing *9900# or visiting a Zong franchise near them. The My Zong App can also be used to subscribe to the offer. Users on other networks can change their numbers to Zong by calling the helpdesk at 0314-3334455 or visiting a store or Zong franchise near them.

Zong’s official spokesperson stated, “We have led the market in introducing products and services that are based on the ever-evolving customer needs. It is our customers’ trust in us that has propelled us to the forefront of digital change in the country.”

“We proactively work for the digital enablement of Pakistanis across the country, shaping and supporting their digital lifestyles,” the spokesperson added.

Zong has also offered unique offers for Bahawalpur, Nowshera, Attock, Kamra, Hazro, and Bannu, in addition to the Multan Dhamaal Offer. In addition, the company has introduced a slew of incredible international roaming deals, allowing thousands of Pakistanis to stay in touch with their loved ones when travelling overseas.

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Sania Mirza, Shoaib Malik’s style stuns fans during Karachi trip

Posted on by Ali Qasim

Lahore (NUT-DESK)

Pakistani cricketer Shoaib Malik and his wife, Indian tennis sensation Sania Mirza, on Saturday stunned Karachi fans with their styles as they attended an event to launch their perfume brands in Pakistan.

Sania was dressed up in an elegant maroon kaftan embellished with gold motifs. The beautiful outfit was designed by the famous Pakistani designer, Hassan Sheheryar Yasin (HSY).

She tied her hair in a sleek ponytail and completed her look with a pair of gold drop earrings, a ring, and a gold watch. In terms of footwear, the star tennis player opted for a pair of nude high-heeled pumps. 

On the other hand, Shoaib Malik wore a black suit, a crisp white shirt, and a black bow tie. Taking to her Instagram account, Sania posted several pictures from the event to her fans’ delight. 

“Strong is the new black [black heart emoji]. Launching our perfumes ‘Allrounder’ and ‘Smash’,” she wrote in the caption.

Within a few hours of having been posted, the snapshot garnered close to 80,000 likes and above 260 comments in which fans and followers showered the power couple with praises and thanked Sania for visiting Pakistan.

“You both looking so beautiful, Masha Allah,” one of her fans wrote and added a heart-eyed emoji.

“You two make my favourite couple. May you stay happy and together forever, ” another user chimed in.

Meanwhile, a third admirer commented: “thank you for coming to Karachi, queen.”

Sania shared two more posts to provide her fans with a closer look at her makeup and outfit, and as expected, both the snapshots became an instant hit. 

In the caption of her up-close image, Sania also admitted that she, indeed, looked “stunning”. The picture garnered a whopping 112,000 likes and close to 800 comments within four hours of going live.

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Bakhtawar Bhutto Zardari shared adorable picture with Newborn Son.

Posted on by Ali Qasim

Lahore (NUT-DESK)

A new photo of Bakhtawar Bhutto Zardari, the eldest daughter of former president Asif Ali Zardari and former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, is out on social media and has hearts melting.

Bakhtawar can be seen holding her newborn son, Mir Hakim Mahmood Choudhry, as he sleeps, eyes tightly shut, on her shoulder. Bakhtawar is the picture of serenity with her hand on his back and her eyes closed in contentment.

The photo marks perhaps the third occasion where her followers have caught a glimpse of the baby. Earlier this month, Bakhtawar shared the first photo of her son on Instagram, where he was wrapped tightly in a white security blanket, donning a matching cap.

That followed with a picture of him in his crib, stretching his limbs with a soft toy by his side, as he turned a month old.

Bakhtawar gave birth to her son on October 10, 2021. She was married to businessman Mahmood Choudhry on January 29, 2021.

Bakhtawar is the first granddaughter of former Pakistani prime minister, Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto. She was born on January 25, 1990, in Karachi.

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