The Department of Excise and Taxation has established an online system that will allow people to pay token taxes for vehicles registered with the Excise and Taxation Office (ETO) in Islamabad. Now, people will not have to visit the Excise office physically and can pay tax online which will be received by all branches of the National Bank of Pakistan.
National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA) has launched the online registration facility for ID cards. The new initiative from NADRA will let people register themselves in the country’s database from the comfort of their homes by filling in a few details on NADRA website.. The fee of online registration for an Identity card is PKR 560 for normal card and PKR 750 for the smart card.
A case has been registered against a woman who misbehaved with a traffic policeman after she was pulled over for violating a traffic signal in Karachi’s upscale Defence Housing Authority (DHA) area. The development came about after the video went viral on social media, in which the female motorist can be seen resorting to uncouth language as well as threatening the cop.
According to the World Economic Forum’s Global Competitiveness Index 2019, Pakistan has been ranked at a poor 116th place out of 140 countries in the freedom of press rankings. While the European countries are expectedly included in the top 10, countries like Jamaica, Costa Rica, and New Zealand are also rated highly. China, Vietnam, Saudi Arabia, and Iran are all listed at the bottom.
Government officials have been advised by federal Ministry of Information Technology to discard Whatsapp for official correspondence after an Israeli spyware infected millions of users. The spyware, Pegasus, gives access to “hostile intelligence” agencies of users’ activities and sensitive data. According to experts, Pakistani mobile users could be in double jeopardy as Indian government is also reportedly using Pegasus to steal data.
Pensioners who receive money through Pakistan Post will no longer have to stand in the long queues outside the banks to collect their dues as the national postal service is introducing a debit card facility for them which will enable them to collect their pensions from any nearby ATM. According to a key official of the postal service, the decision was taken after many complaints from the pensioners.
The Punjab government has decided to reinforce a complete ban on sheesha, imposing hefty fines on its provision on public places. The decision has come in the backdrop of the videos circulating on social media, suggesting that a few cafes are still serving the hazardous flavored smoke. The government has directed the administration and divisional police chiefs to effectively implement the ban.
Recently, the government launched the country’s first-ever electric vehicle policy which aims to slash the import bill, curb greenhouse gas emissions and convert 30% of all cars to Electric Vehicles (EVs). The comprehensive policy has multiple incentives to boost the growth of EVs in the country including free registration, tax exemption and others. Under the proposed policy, Foreign Exchange Remittance Cardholders, who remit $100,000 over a period of two years, will be allowed to import one hybrid car duty-free.
The government has involved a security agency to conduct a comprehensive cyber-security audit and vulnerability assessment of the foreign developed Sandvine Inc Web Monitoring System (WMS).Some concerns were raised about possible security vulnerabilities of the foreign-made system. Therefore necessary written guarantees were acquired from the selected vendor and the OEM ensuring that there are no backdoors or cyber-security risks in the system
Pakistan Army’s Major Samia Rehman has made the country proud by winning this year’s United Nations Special Representative for Secretary-General (SRSG) Certificate of the Year. MONUSCO Force Acting Commander, General Thierry Lion, presented Samia with the certificate on behalf of SRSG for her exceptional performance in Mission Level Studies, Analysis, and valuable contributions.