A junior officer of the Indian army posted in occupied Kashmir accidentally ‘slipped’ in heavy snow and landed across the border into Pakistan last week, Khaleej Times has reported. The officer, identified as Havildar Rajendra Singh Negi, was on patrol duty in the Gulmarg area of Indian occupied Kashmir (IoK) when the ‘accident’ occurred and Negi went missing.
The parliament has passed the Zainab Alert, Response, and Recovery Act, 2020, named after Zainab, a seven-year-old girl who had been abducted and murdered after rape in early 2018. The bill presented in the National Assembly eight months ago, has now been forwarded to Senate for final approval. The legislation was mandatory in the wake of increasing cases of child abuse in the country.
At least 41 people have died across Pakistan as the country experiences an extremely cold spell, with Balochistan and Azad Kashmir being the worst hit regions where extremely low temperatures due to snowfall brought life to a standstill. According to meteorologists, the “strong westerly wave” is expected to continue until at least Tuesday.
Flamboyant West Indies batting superstar Chris Gayle has termed Pakistan as “one of the safest places in the world”. He also added that they say you will get presidential security so you are in good hands. The 40-year-old, who is currently playing in the Bangladesh Premier League (BPL) for Chattogram Challengers was replying to a reporters query in Dhaka, who asked him whether Pakistan was a safe country for cricket.
Rosie Gabrielle, a solo Canadian traveller who visited Pakistan and spent time exploring the country, converts to Islam. The travel blogger praised Pakistan and its people who helped her get rid of the pain she has been going through for years and fulfill her desire to be free.
Pakistan’s squash player Hamza Khan becomes the British Junior Open 2020 champion in the Under-15 category in Birmingham. Hamza defeated England’s Yusuf Sheikh in the finals, and Yassin Shohdy of Egypt in semi-finals. While expressing joy, he mentioned his aim to compete in the Under-17 category next time. Since 2017, Hamza has achived nine gold medals including two Asian Junior Championship Gold medals.
Jazz has launched the 5G network for its customers in Pakistan, making it one of the very few countries in the world where 5G is available to the customers. The availability of the 5G network from Jazz is on trial basis and for limited areas in Islamabad only, including F-8, G-7,E-7 and Blue Area as the operator is allowed to test its 5G readiness and user-experience for a period of six months, which is extendable.
Foreign Minister for Science and Technology, Fawad Chaudhry, has invited Tesla’s owner, Elon Musk, to establish a car plant in Pakistan. Chaudhry invited Elon after the billionaire’s company shared its goal of producing half a million electric vehicles in its upcoming factory near Berlin. The minister in his attempt to convince the company’s owner mentioned some benefits regarding exports as well as customs.
Pakistan foreign exchange reserves surged to $18.01 billion from $17.595 billion with the fresh inflows of $582 million from various global agencies by the end of 2019. The foreign exchange reserves held by commercial banks stand at $6.592 billion. The exchange reserves of commercial banks are slightly reducing as Dollar’s investors are offloading their savings in the open markets.
Pakistan Air Force (PAF) has inaugurated its JF-17 Integration Facility in a bid to achieve self-reliance. Working under the Avionics Production Factory, the facility is located at Pakistan Aeronautical Complex in Kamra. With the first phase of trial tests already done in China, now Pakistan will be able to assemble, install, test and qualify advanced weapon packages and electronics subsystems at its own facilities.