Day: November 11, 2020

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(National): Punjab Assembly fails to transact agenda due to opposition’s protest

Lahore:The Punjab Assembly could not address its agenda on Wednesday due to the protest by opposition lawmakers who were agitating against the reply of Minister for Law regarding demands of farmers, observes Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) in its Daily Factsheet.

 

The House met for 39 minutes. The sitting started at 1626 hours against the scheduled time of 1400 hours. The Speaker presided over the entire sitting. The Deputy Speaker was not present. The Leaders of the House and Opposition did not attend the sitting.

 

As many as 14 (4%) MPAs were present at the outset and 107 (29%) at the adjournment of the sitting. Parliamentary leader of PPPP attended the proceedings. Four out of eight minority lawmakers attended the sitting.

 

The House neither considered six legislative proposals nor observed the question hour.

 

As many as seven lawmakers spoke on points of order for 26 minutes. The opposition lawmakers protested for eight minutes during reply of Provincial Minister for Law about the demands of farmers who recently staged sit-in Lahore. The Session was adjourned for an indefinite period.

 

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(CITY): Deal signed to register home-based workers in Sindh

KARACHI:The Home Based Women Workers Federation and the Labor and Human Resource Department of the Sindh government signed a memorandum of understanding to register the home-based workers in the province.

 

According to the HBWWF general secretary Zehra Khan, the registration drive will enable the home-based workers to avail the social security benefits, marriage and death grants as well as the right to unionize for collective bargaining.

 

To remark this day as one of the biggest milestone in the movement for the rights of the working class, a ceremony was held at the Hotel Mehran in Karachi in which the government representatives, labor and human rights activists and home-based workers were present.

 

Speaking on the occasion, Farhat Parveen, the executive director of the National Organization for Working Communities, congratulated Khan for her untiring efforts to make this happen. She said that Khan had received many offers to change her course during the HBWWF’s struggle but she turned them down and stayed committed to the cause. Parveen suggested that the government may use online technology for the registration to make the process smooth and accessible to everyone.

 

Nasir Mansoor, the general secretary of the National Trade Union Federation, said that Sindh has made a distinction for itself in the whole of South Asia by becoming the province which has provided legal cover to workers in fisheries, agriculture and home-based sectors. He said that a lot of subjective work has already been done and now the implementation should be ensured.

 

Mansoor lauded the efforts of women in the working-class struggle and commented that the work which their male counterparts could not do in 50 years, the females have done it in just 10 years which shows their importance and need in the social, political, and labor movements everywhere. He urged the government to strengthen its monitoring of labor laws in the province, saying that despite having a bundle of exemplary legislations, 95 percent of workers were yet deprived of their rights by their employers.

 

Dr Zahid Hussain, an additional secretary for labor in the province, said that the government will ensure that the home-based workers get their due rights. He said that the implementation was a continuous process and demanded immense patience and commitment. He added that they were pondering on the use of technology for the registration of the home-based workers and as and when they acquire a fool-proof mechanism they will start using it.

 

Farrukh Zaidi, joint director at the labor department in the province, said that the informal workers were the spinal cord of the country’s economy as they contributed billions of rupees in the GDP. He said that the department will start the registration process hopefully in December as currently, they were waiting to receive the remaining equipment from the UN Women needed for the drive.

 

Rafiq Baloch, president of NTUF, said that the struggle of home-based workers was a painstaking journey as the inception of it four of their founding members were killed in Balochistan. He credited Khan with the crown of this success, saying that she remained steadfast and continued to move in the forward direction, be it day or night.

 

Others who spoke on the occasion included the former executive director of Pakistan Institute of Labor Education and Research, Karamat Ali, Peoples Labor Bureau leader Habibuddin Junaidi, HBWWF’s Nageena Junejo, joint labor director Makhdoom Taufeeq and secretary Minimum Wage Board Shaheen Nisar.

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Transfer and posting

QUETTA:Aqeel Ahmed (BCS/BS-17), Assistant Commissioner, Jhal Magsi has been transferred and posted as Assistant Commissioner, Turbat vice Khurram Khalid.

 

Khurram Khalid (BCS/BS-17), Assistant Commissioner, Turbat has been transferred and directed to report to S$GAD while Muhammad Ejaz Sarwar (PAS/BS-17), Assistant Commissioner, Gandawah District Jhal Magsi has been assigned the additional charge of the post of Assistant Commissioner, Jhal Magsi vice Aqeel Ahmed till posting of regular incumbent, says a notification issued by Government of Balochistan, Services and General Administration Department.

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Pneumonia biggest infectious killer: Experts

KARACHI:Health experts believe that Pneumonia is a huge burden on Pakistan’s healthcare system as it is the single biggest infectious killer of adults and children. Lack of awareness, in society and among caregivers, is contributing towards the hike in fatalities.

 

President Pakistan Chest Society, Dr Nisar Rao, said in his statement issued in connection of World Pneumonia Day, held each year on 12 November. He said that Pneumonia is an infection of the lungs and is one of the world’s leading causes of death. In 2019 alone, it claimed 2.5 million lives.

 

He said, “The COVID-19 pandemic is dramatically increasing pneumonia deaths as COVID-19 could add 1.9 million to the death toll this year. This could increase ‘all-cause’ pneumonia deaths by more than 75%. No other infection causes this burden of death,” he reasoned.

 

In his remarks, Prof Syed Ali Arsalan, Head of Chest Department, Liaquat National Hospital said, “The first 48 hours after contracting Pneumonia are extremely critical and antibiotics should be provided to the patient within that time because it reduces the risk of fatality,” he added.

 

However, he added, “Antibiotics should not be taken without doctor’s prescription as misuse of antibiotics is resulting in antibiotic resistance which will make the infections of future resistant to available antibiotics, and therefore deadlier,” he added.

 

Prof Tanvir us Salam, Professor of Medicine, National Hospital and Medical Centre, said, “While young, healthy adults have less risk of pneumonia than those of advanced age, it is always a threat. Older people have higher risk of getting pneumonia, and are more likely to die from it if they do,” he added.

 

He said that Pneumonia is the most common cause of sepsis and septic shock, causing 50% of all episodes, while Pneumonia can develop in patients already in the hospital for other reasons.

 

“Pneumonia can be caused by lots of different types of microbes, and no single one is responsible for as many as 10% of pneumonia cases. Vaccines are available for some but not many causes of pneumonia,” he said.

 

Dr Aftab Akhtar, Head of Pulmonology and Critical Care Medicine, Shifa International Hospital, added in his statement that antibiotics can be effective for many of the bacteria that cause pneumonia though antibiotic resistance is growing amongst these bacteria.

 

“Being on a ventilator contributes to especially high risk for serious pneumonia. Our changing interactions with the microbial world mean constantly developing new pneumonia risks,” he said.

 

He added that patients with pneumonia may need to be hospitalized or even go to the intensive care unit (ICU). “While successful pneumonia treatment often leads to full recovery, it can have longer-term consequences,” he said.

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Nomination of focal persons

QUETTA:Chief Minister Balochistan, Jam Kamal Khan has directed all Administrative Secretaries of the province to nominate Additional Secretaries of their respective Departments (Development) as Focal Person for better coordination with the Departments on development initiatives and updates for development schemes/ initiative being undertaken under Federal and Provincial PSDP.

 

Jam Kamal Khan further directs that Additional Secretaries (Development) would be responsible for coordination and liaison with the Chief Minister’s Secretariat.

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Short Order: SHC bars PMC from holding MBBS entry test on 15 Nov

KARACHI:In its short judgment, the Sindh High Court (SHC) on barred Pakistan Medical Commission (PMC) from holding MBBS entry test for medical colleges on November 15 after the differences of Centre and provinces over the matter.

 

The high court announced its short verdict in the light of the completion of arguments from the counsels representing the petitioners. The court ordered the PMC to cancel the entry test schedule for medical colleges for November 15 and directed it to establish an academic board and authority within 15 days.

 

A two-member bench of the SHC, headed by Justice Muhammad Ali Mazhar and comprising Justice Adnan Iqbal Chaudhry, heard the joint petitions. The first petition was filed by Peoples University of Medical and Health Sciences for Women and four other public and medical universities of the province against the Pakistan Medical Commission (PMC) and sought permission to allow the Medical and Dental College Admission Test (MDCAT) to conduct test, while another petition was moved by Ramsha Haider and other pre-medical students through their counsel Muhammad Jibran Nasir against the admission test scheduled to be held on 18th October, which was postponed later on the court orders, and sought a restraining order against it.

 

In its short judgment, the court said despite claiming a common syllabus to all provinces, the PMC had made some announcements which created uncertainty and confusion in the minds of all applicants. The court said now the question paper of the MDCAT would be subject to a process of objection and review, which ironically compromises its very structure and standard and is sure to open a flood-gate of challenges subsequent to the MDCAT throughout the country.

 

The court said this is quite a unique idea that every applicant will be provided an objection form at the time of entering into the examination hall, so first he should be obliged to do an audit exercise as to how many questions are out of his syllabus.

 

The court said much time of the candidate would be lapsed and consumed to go through the entire question paper as an examiner and then filling the objection forms. No further mechanism has been provided in the announcements as to how and when the students appearing in the MDCAT will come to know whether objections raised by them were considered and the question considered by them to be outside the identified syllabus have been removed from scoring or not.

 

“Such unreasonable and nonstandard conditions amount to create hardship, distress and uncertainty amongst the candidates and their future is also on stake unless the proper syllabus is made out by the competent authority with due deliberation and examination of FSC syllabus of country to make out a common syllabus without any doubts so that the candidates should not be asked to fill objection forms in the examination hall,’’ the court order said

 

It further said: “In the absence of a validly constituted National Medical Authority and not constituting the National Medical and Dental Academic Board, the Pakistan Medical Commission is restrained from holding the MDCAT scheduled to be conducted on 15-11-2020.”

 

However, the competent authority under Sections 10 and 15 of the PMC Act, 2020 shall within 15 days establish the National Medical and Dental Academic Board and the National Medical Authority in line with the said provisions; thereafter, within 10 days, the National Medical and Dental Academic Board shall review the formulation of the examination structure and standards for the MDCAT and announce common syllabus thereafter MDCAT shall be conducted through National Medical Authority on a date to be fixed and announced afresh at the earliest. All applicants who had applied to the PMC and their application forms were accepted before the cut-off date shall be allowed to attend the MDCAT with their same registration and admit cards if any issued to them.

 

The court said Section 18 (3) of the PMC Act, 2020 and Regulation 16 of the PMC Admission Regulations 2020-2021 permit the Provincial Governments to make policy to cater the domicile condition for admission to public and private medical institutions not inconsistent with the PMC Act, 2020. The Medical and Dental Council shall make Regulation to set criteria for admission priority in the scenario where marks/score of applicants are the same/equal.

 

Previously on October 16, the SHC restrained the authorities concerned from conducting entry tests for medical and dental colleges on October 18.

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Not selected Amir, Shoaib to give chance to emerging players: Misbah

KARACHI:Pakistan head coach and chief selector Misbah-ul-Haq says that Shoaib Malik and Mohammad Amir have not been picked for New Zealand tour in order to invest, develop and focus on the promising and emerging players.

 

“Shoaib Malik and Mohammad Amir are not part of the white-ball matches as for this tour we have opted to invest, develop and focus on the promising and emerging players who are likely to be available to Pakistan for all formats,” Misbah said.

 

“Asad Shafiq has also been left out due to lack of form after he managed 510 runs in his last 15 innings, including a total of 67 runs in England. Asad is an experienced batsman and I am sure he will utilize this time to work harder on his game in the domestic first-class matches so that he, like Sarfaraz Ahmed, can reclaim his form and be back in contention for the upcoming Tests against South Africa and Zimbabwe.”

 

“The matches in New Zealand are critical for us as we aim to improve our T20I rankings and also gain valuable points in the ICC World Test Championship. In this background and taking into consideration recent player performances, we have selected the best available players.

 

“I want to congratulate uncapped Amad Butt, Danish Aziz, Imran Butt and Rohail Nazir who have impressed the selectors with their form, technique, temperament and ability to secure places in the 35-player pool. However, these four players are amongst some other players who have been selected specifically for Shaheens as part of our strategy to build our bench strength.

 

“We have kept faith in Mohammad Hafeez and Wahab Riaz purely on the basis of their outstanding and consistent performances as well as the value they bring to the T20I squad” Misbah said.

 

“The ongoing domestic season has produced three highly impressive and consistent spinners in Nauman Ali, Sajid Khan and Zahid Mahmood. Unfortunately, due to New Zealand government regulations as part of their Covid-19 travel requirements, we had to provide a provisional list of 45 players to New Zealand Cricket by 12 October and, as such, these players missed out because at that time, the National T20 Cup was ongoing while the Quaid-e-Azam Trophy had not commenced.

 

“However, the positive side is we are now developing a strong pool of top-quality spinners who will challenge each other for places in the national sides that, in turn, will help in the overall performances in the sides.”