The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) has issued notices to Google Inc. and Wikipedia for spreading blasphemous content through their platforms. The PTA after receiving several complaints regarding “misleading search results associated with Present Khalifa of Islam and unauthentic version of Holy Quran on the Google Play Store”, has approached the authorities “to immediately remove the unlawful content.”
Five months after sensationally reporting that Pakistan was the origin of and responsible for half of Britain’s imported coronavirus cases, two influential UK newspapers have accepted that they published misleading and false headlines. A story was first published on July 26 by The Telegraph newspaper with the headlines: “Exclusive: Half of Britain’s imported conronavrius cases originate from Pakistan”.
The Capital Development Authority has granted Hindus in Islamabad permission to build a cremation ground and community centre in the city. The Islamic Ideology Council has endorsed the decision. The centre, which will have the cremation ground inside it, will be built in Sector H/9 while the Saidpur Temple and other prayer places will be handed back to Hindus as well.
Stephen Sackur, host of the BBC’s Hardtalk, has said that he enjoyed the “pretty intense” conversation with former finance minister Ishaq Dar. Earlier this month, Sackur had asked some gruelling questions on the show, leaving Dar, at times, at a loss for words. Dar faced grilling in a BBC show in which he sought to dispel the impression that he was evading law.
Pakistan has decided to close its borders to Britain, joining several other countries, over fears of a highly infectious new coronavirus strain. A meeting of the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) placed a temporary restriction on inbound travellers from the UK (direct or indirect) to Pakistan that will come into effect on the midnight of December 22 (i.e. 00:00 hours Dec 23) and last until the midnight of Dec 29.
Pakistan will be launching the nation’s first job portal, Prime Minister Imran Khan said, talking about one part of the Digital Governance Programme. “In the first phase, NADRA, Ehsaas Programme, police investigation and the investment board will be digitised,” he said in Islamabad. A roadmap for the digital transformation of government institutions has been drafted.
First Pakistani space scientist at the University of Cambridge, Dr Yarjan Abdul Samad has won the Young Leaders Award for 2020 by the Young Professionals Society (YPS). Dr. Yarjan, a senior research associate and a teaching fellow at Cambridge Graphene Centre, is currently working on a research project on loop heat pipes for use in space applications.
Pakistan-origin American, Ali Zaidi, has been named as the Deputy Adviser on US’s Domestic Climate Change Policy by the US President-elect, Joe Biden. Ali Zaidi, a Harvard graduate, has been serving as Deputy Secretary of Climate Policy to the Governor of New York, Andrew Cuomo. He is also the Chairman of Climate Policy and Finance for New York.
Waleed Khan, a student of Army Public School Peshawar, who received eight bullets and underwent 12 surgeries subsequently, has been elected the member of Youth Parliament in the United Kingdom. Waleed had been hit on face by six bullets, disfiguring him beyond recognition. Khan was sent to UK for plastic surgeries where he underwent six major face surgeries and another six other surgeries.
The provincial government has decided to purchase the two houses belonging to renowned Indian film artists, Raj Kapoor and Dilip Kumar. The decision came after the owners started demolishing the two buildings, declared as heritage sites in 2016. It caused uproar across the subcontinent and finally prompted the provincial archaeology department to step in and halt the process.