As cases reach new high is Pakistan, the government of Punjab has decided to completely lockdown several areas of Lahore for two weeks. Speaking at a press conference, Punjab Health Minister Yasmin Rashid said that the areas will be under lockdown from midnight Monday. Food stores and pharmacies are to remain open in these areas. The areas to be locked
Over 100 shops were sealed in Lahore, Rawalpindi and Islamabad for violating the standard operating procedures (SOPs) issued by the Punjab government. In addition to shops, two commercial centres, 22 industrial units were also sealed in the twin cities. Administration officials state that severity and frequency of raids would increase with each coming day in order to stop the spread of Coronavirus.
Multiple shops and markets were sealed in Lahore on Thursday for not following the government SOPs. The government had issued these SOPs to shopkeepers to follow to prevent the further spread of the coronavirus. They include practices such as making hand sanitiser available within stores and ensuring social distancing is maintained. Forty-five shops in Shah Alam Market were sealed and seven in Chongi Amar Sidhu.
The Anjuman-e-Tajran Lahore has said that they will open their markets on May 10. The Centre has put the lockdown in place till May 9. A decision on its extension has yet to be made. Pakistan has reported at least 21,500 known cases of the novel virus so far. Lahore traders said they’ll “break” the lockdown if the government doesn’t lift it after May 9 as they want to resume their businesses.
An anti-narcotics court in Lahore exempted PML-N leader Rana Sanaullah from appearing before it in a drug possession case on Saturday. A petition for exemption was submitted by Sanaullah’s lawyers. It said that the PML-N leader can’t attend court hearing in person because of the threat of the coronavirus. He said that it is unsafe for travel without security and he can’t travel with his security guard.
A total of 13 areas in Lahore have been sealed because they have reported a higher number of coronavirus cases. Raiwind had already been sealed and 12 other areas were sealed Saturday. These are Sikandria Colony, Bhatta Chowk, Bedian Road, China Scheme, Mughalpura, Samnabad, Shahdara, Small Industries, Bahria Town and some areas in Saddar, Gulshan-e-Ravi and Rustam Park.
In a bid to help facilitate the people of Sialkot and Lahore as well as boost the economy, the 91.47-Km long motorway between these two cities is set to open for public on 30th March. As per sources, a total of Rs. 44 billion was spent on the motorway and it will help slash the travel time between the two cities to just 41 minutes.
Pakistan Railways is currently working on launching a new shuttle train between Lahore and Gujranwala, according to a statement from the department’s spokesperson. Quoting the federal minister for Railways, Sheikh Rasheed Ahmed, the statement said that the department is going to launch the facility soon. It mentioned that initially, the fare of this train service will be Rs. 100 per trip.
There is a little town called Lahore in the Orange County, Virginia, U.S. In 2007, Noor Naghmi, the son of Abul Hasan Naghmi, a Pakistani broadcaster, brought the town to the news, before that no one knew about it. The town has existed since the 1850s and as the story goes, it was named by a couple who visited the Lahore in Punjab when there was no Pakistan.
According to the latest survey by Numbeo, Lahore has improved its ranking by 56 points, to become safer than Paris, New York, Berlin and Chicago on the World Crime Index (WCI). Lahore was ranked 230th out of a total 374 cities of the world in the Numbeo’s survey for Jan 2020. An increase in a city’s ranking means a drop in its crime rate.