Minister for Climate Change, Zartaj Gul has said that the government has decided to demolish the Monal Restaurant on the top of Margalla hills in Islamabad. The restaurant, which is famous for its picturesque views is built on Margalla National Park, which is against environmental laws of the country. Margalla Hills area is included in the National Park where cutting down trees without permission is prohibited.
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government will finalize in October the masterplan for Pakistan’s first Digital City, which it expects to serve as a hub for high technology, innovation, and create thousands of new jobs. Pakistan Digital City will be located in Haripur district of KP, a province which for years was a site of militancy and military operations and only in the recent past regained stability.
Vaccine alliance Gavi is going to supply Pakistan with COVID-19 vaccine doses to immunize for free 20 percent of its 225 million population. Gavi is a public-private partnership that helps provide vaccines to developing countries. It has signed an agreement with Pakistan to provide 90 million doses of a COVID-19 vaccine, once it is ready.
Pakistan-born astrophysicist Nergis Mavalvala has been named the new dean of Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s (MIT) School of Science. Mavalvala will be the first woman to serve as dean at MIT’s School of Science. Mavalvala has received numerous awards and honors for her research and teaching, and since 2015 has been the associate head of the department of physics at the MIT.
A new video surfacing on social media shows portions of the Islamabad International Airport’s (IIAP) ceiling crashing to the ground due to recent heavy rains. Parts of the roof fall incessantly at Islamabad airport’s departure lounge as rainwater drips in and a puddle can be seen on the ground in the video, with people being forced to walk around to avoid it.
The federal and Sindh governments have agreed to form a committee consisting representatives of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) and opposition Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) and Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P) to save Karachi from further disasters. The participants have decided on working together to resolve rain related issues, which are affecting the daily lives of the residents of the city.
PML-N supremo, Nawaz Sharif’s latest medical report submitted to Lahore High Court states that the former prime minister should avoid going outside due to coronavirus pandemic. The medical reports were submitted by his lawyer Amjad Pervez in which doctors have suggested that Sharif should avoid going outside as he could contract the coronavirus which could prove to be fatal for him.
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.