A few days after Punjab Assembly passed the Tahaffuz-e-Bunyad-e-Islam Bill, Science and Technology Minister Fawad Chaudhry has said that Islam in Pakistan is not threatened either by TikTok or books. Chaudhry highlighted how he believes Pakistan is currently threatened by sectarian divisions and extremism. There is a dangerous attitude in parliament, that will promote sectarian and religious extremism, he said.
Punjab government has announced that it is imposing a ‘smart lockdown’, effective from midnight tonight till August 5, in an effort to curb spread of coronavirus during Eidul Azha. The step comes as Punjab reported zero deaths for the first time in two months. The official daily tally of confirmed Covid-19 cases in Punjab has remained below 500 over last week.
The chief of Punjab’s books and curriculum regulatory authority has denied allegations of inappropriate Twitter activity, calling it a “a social media hack”. Rai Manzoor Hussain Nasir was called out for hypocrisy over social media after he banned at least 100 books with blasphemous content, but was spotted ‘liking’ a porn video clip from his account on Twitter.
Ministry of Foreign Affairs rejected an Australian news outlet’s report alleging that a Wuhan lab has been conducting alleged covert operations in Pakistan as “politically motivated and fake”. The Klaxon report, quoting unnamed “intelligence experts”, claims China’s Wuhan Institute of Virology has “set up operations in Pakistan as part of a broader offensive against India and Western rivals”.
Meet, Shazia Parveen, from Vehari, Pakistan’s first female firefighter. Shazia joined the Rescue 1122 emergency service (Fire Wing) in 2010 and in 2016 was promoted to Lead Fire Instructor and transferred to Lahore’s Rescue department at Thokar Niaz Baig. In Lahore, she is now training the new team members on the standard operating procedures for firefighting.
Eleven-year-old Daniyal Mehsood, a martial artist from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s South Waziristan district, has registered his name in the Guinness Book of World Record for most helicopter spins in one minute. Daniyal, a grade sixth student, did 78 helicopter spins in one minute. He attempted this milestone on November 24, 2019, in Dera Ismail Khan and was informed about his record on July 23.
The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government has decided to launch the world’s longest and highest cable car project at the Kumrat valley in Upper Dir district. The 14 kilometres long proposed cable car project will connect Kumrat valley to Madaklasht valley of Lower Chitral. Through the cable car, the planners wish to attract 8.00 million foreign and local tourists to the province.
Students from a Madrassa in Talagang, Jamia Bait-ul-Salam have made it to the final round of TEKNOFEST 2020, Turkey’s biggest tech competition. TEKNOFEST will be held organized in Istanbul from September 22 to 27. Blatu, the Bait-ul-Salam team which applied for the competition, has topped the category of Technology for Humanity-Social Innovation with 87 points out 100.
Punjab Curriculum & Textbook Board (PCTB) Managing Director Rai Manzoor Hussain Nasir has banned 100 books being taught in private schools for carrying blasphemous and anti-Pakistan content. PCTB had started critical review of 10,000 books being taught by private schools across Punjab and in first phase banned 100 books of 31 publishers including Oxford and Cambridge for blasphemous, immoral and anti-Pakistan content.
The Islamabad High Court (IHC) has declared the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA’s) move to suspend Player Unknown’s Battlegrounds (PUBG) void and directed the authority to “immediately” restore the online game. The move comes in direct contrast to a Tweet posted by PTA last night, announcing that the game would remain blocked in the country.