Day: November 21, 2020

Women’s T20 Championship begins today

KARACHI:As many as 42 women cricketers will be in action in the Rs1.7million National Triangular T20 Women’s Cricket Championship, which will be played at the Pindi Cricket Stadium, Rawalpindi, from 22 November till 1 December.

 

PCB Blasters, PCB Challengers and PCB Dynamites will face off for the national glory in the 10-day championship, which provides a chance to these cricketers to showcase their talent. The championship will be played on the double-league basis with the top two teams competing in the final on 1 December.

 

To boost the following of the women’s game and provide young girls an opportunity to get closer to the game, the PCB will live-stream all seven matches on its YouTube channel, through a nine-camera production.

 

Following a 100 per cent increase in their domestic match-fee, the women cricketers will have an added incentive to bring out the best performances as the PCB has doubled the prize money for the event from the last season.

 

The PCB Challengers, led by Muneeba Ali, the top-run getter and player of the tournament in the last edition, will be eager to defend the title with Rs1million up for grabs for the championship winners. The runner-up will pocket Rs500,000.

 

Rs50,000 will be awarded to the player of the championship, while player of the match will get Rs20,000.

 

Aliya Riaz and Ramin Shamim will captain PCB Blasters and PCB Dynamites, respectively.

 

The championship will be played under PCB’s Covid-19 protocols, which were announced at the commencement of the ongoing season.

 

As such, the squads were integrated into a bio-secure bubble after returning two negative Covid-19 tests. They had their first testing at their residences, followed by the second at the central station.

 

The championship follows a two-week-long High Performance Camp in Karachi in which 27 elite women cricketers underwent training in a bio-secure environment.

Coronavirus virus is contributing to global hunger: Expert

ISLAMABAD:Former President ICCI Shahid Rasheed Butt said in a statement on Saturday that coronavirus virus is contributing to global hunger and many countries are running the risk of famine.

 

Butt said that a major part of food was wasted in developed nations due to excess buying while it is lack of transport, storage and other facilities which contributed to the wastage of food. He said that Pakistan is facing a food crisis since two and a half years but nothing had been done to boost production or reduce the food wastage.

 

The government should invite globally known seed companies to start their business in Pakistan so that farmers could get quality seed to boost production and reduce losses.

 

Seed certification mechanism should be improved, close links should be established with international agriculture research institutes, local seed varieties should be improved and a mechanism should be evolved to combat pests and disease, he demanded.

Court moved against PML-N leaders Maryam, Safdar, others

KARACHI:Mazar-e-Quaid administrator Ghulam Akbar Saturday filed a petition against Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) vice president Maryam Nawaz, her husband Captain (retd) Muhammad Safdar and other party workers for violating the sanctity of the mausoleum.

 

The Mazar-e-Quaid administrator approached the Court of Judicial Magistrate East and submitted his statement against the PML-N leaders and workers.

 

The petitioner stated PML-N leaders violated the sanctity of the Mazar-e-Quaid by chanting political slogans during the visit on the occasion of Pakistan Democratic Movement’s power show in Karachi. He claimed that the accused party activists broke the grill of the mausoleum and also caused it damage. Assistant Attorney General Muhammad Nadeem Khan and Advocate Muhammad Ahmed appeared on behalf of the petitioner.

 

Video evidence of the incident was also submitted by the petitioner. The petitioner sought an action against Maryam Nawaz, Capt (Retd) Safdar, Maryam Aurangzeb and others.

 

It may be noted that the relevant court has recently dismissed the case of violation of Mazar-e-Quaid against PML-N leaders in light of the police challan. The court had acquitted Captain (retd) Safdar and other accused.

PSP Chief, others indicted in illegal land allotment case

KARACHI:An accountability court on Saturday framed charges against Pak Sarzameen Party (PSP) Chairman and former Karachi Mayor Syed Mustafa Kamal and others accused in illegal land allotment reference.

 

The court was hearing a reference against the PSP leader and other accused pertaining to the alleged allotment of 5,500 acres of government land near Seaview.

 

Former Director-General of the Sindh Building Control Authority (SBCA) Iftikhar Qaimkhani, Fazalur Rehman, Mumtaz Haider, Nazir Zardari, Syed Nishat Ali, Mohammad Dawood, Mohammad Rafique, Mohammad Irfan and Mohammad Yaqoob are among the co-accused in the case.

 

All accused pleaded not guilty and said in the court that they would contest the charges against them in the reference. The court issued notices to the witnesses of the reference and adjourned the hearing of the case till December 05.

 

The National Accountability Bureau (NAB), in the reference, charged Kamal and others with illegally allotting 137 plots on 5,500 acres of land near Seaview. He even gave permission to a private construction firm to construct a multi-story building in the area, the bureau said in its charge sheet.

 

The land was leased out to hawkers and shopkeepers in 1980, NAB said, adding that it was leased out in 2005 to a private firm.

Irate man kills brother near Mirpurkhas

MIRPURKHAS:An irate man killed his brother over a domestic dispute in village Deh 143 near Mirpurkhas on Saturday.

 

The man attacked his brother Papu Bheel with an axe over a domestic dispute in village Deh 143 near Mirpurkhas. As a result, he sustained severe injuries and died on the spot. The victim family said that Papu was on water rotation and as soon as he returned home, he was attacked and killed.

 

On information, police rushed to the scene, shifted the body to a local hospital for medico-legal formalities and later handed over to the heirs. The incident has created a mourning atmosphere at the village. No case could be filed till filing this report.

 

Very cold weather expected in upper hilly areas

KARACHI:Met office has said that on Saturday, mainly cold and dry weather is expected in most plain areas of the country, while very cold weather is expected in upper hilly areas.

 

On Sunday, mainly cold and dry weather is expected in most plain areas of the country, while very cold weather is expected in upper hilly areas. Fog is likely in few plain areas of Punjab during morning hours. However, rain and snowfall (with partly cloudy) weather condition is expected at isolated places in upper Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Gilgit Baltistan and Kashmir during evening/night.

 

Past 24 Hour Weather: Cold and dry weather prevailed over most parts of the country.

 

Today’s Lowest Minimum Temperature’s (°C): Leh, Kalam -12°C, Kalat -06°C, Astor, Skardu -05°C, Gupis -04°C, Bagrote, Srinagar, Pulwama, Anantnag, Shopian, Baramulla, Gilgit, Malam Jabba and Quetta -03°C.

Providing relief to the poor top priority of Govt: Sania Nishtar

Islamabad, November 21, 2020 (PPI-OT): Special Assistant to Prime Minister on Poverty Alleviation Dr. Sania Nishtar says providing relief to the poor and underprivileged people of society is the top priority of the government. Addressing newsmen in Peshawar on Saturday, she said the government has already started National Socio-economic survey across the country to register deserving families for Ehsas programmes. She said eighty thousand deserving people are being given Ehsas interest free loans every month to start their own businesses. She hoped the survey for Ehsas programmes in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa would be completed by April next year. Earlier, the Special assistant visited a household in Peshawar along with the survey team and inspected the process of survey.

For more information, contact:
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Government of Pakistan
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Tel: +92-51-9103557
Email: info@moib.gov.pk
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