Renowned author, thought leader and columnist Arif Anis has won the “Brain of the Year 2020” award by Britain’s Brain Trust. Arif Anis has been awarded for co-founding the ‘One Million Meals’ initiative in April this year to feed National Health Services (NHS) doctors, nurses, paramedics and key workers on the frontlines of the Covid-19 pandemic.
The Institute of Business Administration (IBA) Karachi has cancelled a scheduled online seminar that was to feature celebrated economist Dr Atif Mian, allegedly due to pressure by “extremists”. Dr Atif R. Mian’s lecture scheduled on November 5, 2020, was cancelled after he university administration was facing from extremists. Atif Mian is a Princeton University economist, but rejected by Pakistan due to his Ahmadi faith.
Government ministers have called Twitter to take notice of the absurdity of Indian media’s claims — being shared via their Twitter accounts — that a “civil war” had broken out in Karachi. On Wednesday, several Indian news outlets reported a “civil war-like situation”, a day after an inquiry was ordered by COAS General Qamar Javed Bajwa regarding the arrest of Mohammad Safdar in Karachi.
Lowy Institute, an Australian think tank, has placed Pakistan as the 15th most powerful country in Asia after it made significant diplomatic gains last year. According to the Asia Power Index 2020, Pakistan, under the leadership of Prime Minister Imran Khan, has taken numerous initiatives to improve diplomatic ties with other nations. Overall, Pakistan scored 15.2 out of 100 in the Index.
Sindh IGP Mushtaq Mahar has decided to defer his own leave and ordered his officers to set aside their leave applications for ten days. Sindh police shared the news late Tuesday night, adding that the decision was taken “in the larger national interest” and pending the conclusion of the inquiry into how the arrest of PML-N leader Mohammad Safdar unfolded.
Karishma Ali, the first-ever girl from Chitral to play football on the national as well as international level, has been making the country proud with her unwavering efforts to provide equal opportunities for women in her region. The 21-year-old, Karishma, even made it to the prestigious Forbes ’30 Under 30′ list and is the founder of the Chitral Women’s Sports Club.
The Federal Investigation Authority (FIA) has discovered an international gang operating a “porn app” from Karachi, owned by female residing in Karachi. The FIA on Saturday arrested one suspect and registered a case against the female owner, Ramsha and her partners, who forcefully engaged women for pornographic acts. Qadir, her partner, published job advertisements in different newspapers to hire female workers.
The Punjab government has imposed restrictions, including a ban on burning crops and barring vehicles from the road that emit visible smoke in order to counter smog as winters approach. There is recorded evidence of persistent deterioration in the Air Quality Index in Punjab. The level has gone down from a satisfactory one to moderately and poorly polluted levels.
The Italian government has included Pakistan in work visa category called ‘Decreto-Flussi’, which will allow its nationals to avail seasonal and non-seasonal work visas for the year 2020-21 More than 30,000 work visas would be issued by the Italian authorities to the nationals from a few non-EU countries, including Pakistan. Pakistani workers in agriculture, tourism, construction and freight forwarding sectors can avail this opportunity.
Pakistan has been re-elected to the United Nations Human Rights Council (HRC) with an overwhelming majority securing 169 votes in the 193-member UN General Assembly. In the elections held in New York on Tuesday, Pakistan secured the highest number of votes among the five candidates from the Asia-Pacific region vying for four seats.