Day: February 12, 2021

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UNAIDS welcomes US decision to support women’s rights

ISLAMABAD:UNAIDS warmly welcomes the announcement by the President of the United States of America, Joe Biden, that he has rescinded the Protecting Life in Global Health Assistance Policy (PLGHA, previously known as the Mexico City Policy).

According to a statement issued by UN Information Centre Islamabad, the policy required foreign nongovernmental organizations to certify that they would not perform or actively promote abortion using funds from any source (including non-United States funds) as a condition of receiving United States Government funding.

“Rescinding the PLGHA is a strong demonstration of the new United States Administration’s commitment to supporting women to claim their rights and to access sexual and reproductive health and rights information and services,” said Winnie Byanyima, UNAIDS Executive Director. “We look forward to working closely with the new United States Administration to ensure that all women and girls can exercise their human rights and get the sexual and reproductive health information and services they want and need.”

The former United States Administration took previous restrictions established by the Mexico City Policy to a new level by applying the policy to global health assistance provided by all executive departments and agencies. This severely limited access to critical sexual and reproductive health-care services and stifled local advocacy efforts, in turn undermining human rights in general and sexual and reproductive health and rights in particular worldwide.

UNAIDS welcomes the White House’s call to waive conditions related to the PLGHA in any current grants with immediate effect, to notify current grantees, as soon as possible, that these conditions have been waived and to cease imposing these conditions in any future assistance awards.

“Women and girls having full access to their sexual and reproductive health and rights is closely connected to their overall safety, health and well-being. We hope that this will inform the passage of the Global Health, Empowerment and Rights Act – legislation designed to permanently repeal the PLGHA,” added Ms Byanyima.

UNAIDS also warmly welcomes the announcement by the President that the United States will restore funding to the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), a key UNAIDS cosponsoring organization working around the world to provide reproductive health care for women and young people. UNAIDS appreciates the commitment by the United States Secretary of State, Anthony Blinken, to appropriate US$ 32.5 million in support for UNFPA this year.

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Coca-Cola highlights contribution to national economy

ISLAMABAD:Coca-Cola Beverages Pakistan Limited (CCI Pakistan) revealed its latest socio-economic impact report at an event held in Islamabad on Thursday, February 11, 2021. The report highlighted CCI Pakistan’s contribution to the national economy as well as the impact of its domestic social investments.

The event was graced by the presence of Chief Guest Mr. Abdul Razzaq Dawood, Advisor to the PM for Commerce, along with the Turkish Ambassador to Pakistan, H.E. Ihsan Mustafa Yurdakul. Other notable guests included officials from the Ministry of Commerce, Ministry of Industries, Board of Investment, Additional Attorney General of Pakistan and representatives of Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS), WWF Pakistan and senior management from CCI Pakistan.

This detailed study was conducted by Mr. Kashif Malik, Professor Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS). The study provides a detailed review of CCI Pakistan’s contributions made towards the prosperity of Pakistan over the years.

Some of the key highlights of the study revealed that the brand’s value chain had generated a percentage share of 1.95% of GDP, an injection of 1.74 million in the economy for every 1 million spent by CCI Pakistan, an annual tax contribution of Rs.30 billion, additional Rs.210,000 paid by the brand’s suppliers and vendors for every 1 million paid in taxes. Further, the report also underlined massive employment opportunities generated by CCI Pakistan to engage the local workforce through 2500 direct and over 10,000 indirect employments.

Through its flagship CSR project ‘PAANI’, CCI Pakistan is providing clean drinking water to over a million beneficiaries a day by means of its 28 water filtration plants installed nationwide, while TABEER has been making waves through its women empowerment initiative, in addition to other areas of socio-economic impact as highlighted in the report.

The report findings reaffirm CCI Pakistan’s commitment as a responsible corporate citizen contributing towards the prosperity of the country. Moving forward, the company will continue to explore new avenues beneficial for the people of Pakistan as well as for the country.

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Info Minister presents compensation cheques to 24 affected families

KARACHI:Sindh Minister for Information Syed Nasir Hussain Shah distributed compensation cheques among 24 affected families of Al Ramzan Center Building incident at a simple ceremony organized at Timber Market in Karachi on Friday.

Addressing the ceremony, Shah stated that it was the responsibility of Sindh government to rehabilitate the affected families and they had done their duty by providing financial assistance to the affectees. He added that Sindh government had identified land for shifting of timber market from the city after a report prepared by Senator Taj Haider on the Timber Market issue that was presented to PPP chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari and Chief Minister Sindh Syed Murad Ali Shah.

He added that consultation meeting would soon be held with Timer Market Association and various options of identified land would be present to them and final decision would be taken with the consent of trader’s community of timber market.

The minister said that Sindh government has conceived a plan to demolish dilapidated buildings in old city area which were unsafe and added that hundreds of lives were in danger and unwanted incident could happen any time. He said that as per plan affected families of demolished building would be provided alternate residences or monthly rent. He said that one window facilities would be established for facilitating the affected families.

Shah said that Sindh government had always resolved the issue of traders community on priority and added that they were standing with the business community. He said that Sindh government was well aware of the difficulties of business community faced during Covid 19 and wanted that the condition of business community should be improved. He assured that Sindh government would take all measures in this regard.

He recalled that Sindh government had fulfilled its responsibly in rehabilitating timber market fire incident affectees and huge amount was provided to affectees. He said that a committee was constituted headed by late Siraj Qasim Teli comprising the members of local business community. He appreciated the role of Sharjeel Goplani in rehabilitating the Al Ramzan Center affectees and added that he (Sharjeel) has maintained the continuity of late Siraj Qasim Teli.

Addressing the ceremony, Chairman Timber Traders Association Sharjeel Goplani thanked Sindh government for rehabilitation of affectees and presented issues of timber market traders. Sajid Soomro, former president KATI Umar Shaikh and others also addressed the ceremony. Deputy Commissioner South Irshahd Ali Sodhar, PPP General Secretary South Khalil Hot and Advisor local Government Minister Karamullah Waqasi and timber market traders were also present.

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PPP govt believes in witch-hunt of political opponents: Adil

KARACHI:Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Vice President and the leader of opposition in Sindh Assembly Haleem Adil Sheikh said here on Friday that the sitting provincial PPP government believed in witch-hunt and victimization of its political opponents, but they were law-abiding people and fully believed in law and justice and hoped that courts would dole out justice to them.

Talking to media outside the Sindh High Court (SHC), Adil said that they believed in law and had always presented them before the courts. He was flanked by MPA Raja Azhar and his lawyers team. He said since last 13 years, Sindh had become a police state. He said the provincial government was busy in a political vendetta against them.

He said millions of acres of government lands in Sindh were under illegal occupation of the PPP people and they would soon hold a detailed press conference to tell the people of Sindh who had occupied how much government land in Sindh. He said journalists and lawyers fully knew that he had always raised a strong voice for the rights of the people of Sindh and challenged the corrupt ruling junta of this province. He claimed that now Sindh chief minister was afraid of him and he experienced nightmares when he thought about him.

He said the chief minister wanted to harm him to silence his voice. He said: “For this purpose, they razed our farmhouses on February 6. They also razed structures on my 4-acre land besides lands of my brother Azeem Adil and my cousin Tariq Qureshi.”

He said he had led a protest rally against sugar mills mafia on January 3, 2018 and since then, the PPP leadership was trying to punish him. He said when he raised voice against corruption of PPP rulers in Sindh assembly and asked them to be answerable for their corruption of last 13 years, they tried to target him with ‘aunty corruption’.

He said: “The aunty corruption cannot find any evidence against him as he has possessed documents for every inch of his lands.” He said there was a stay order from court and on February 6 the court again issued a fresh stay order and issued contempt of court notices against officers involved in illegal razing of farmhouses and summoned them on February 23. He said; however, previous day they again tried to take action against ‘our farmhouse’.

He said from the day he became the opposition leader, the Sindh chief minister was worried about his seat. He said he had already demanded to make a judicial commission to probe illegal occupation of government lands so that those lands could be retrieved.

He said the ministers of PPP government in Sindh were occupying government lands with help of fake back-dated orders. He said papers of many occupied lands had already been cancelled but those lands were still in illegal occupation.

He said the chief secretary Sindh and IGP Sindh were busy in slavery of the PPP rulers. He said attorney general was appointed by Murtaza Wahab. He said Murtaza Wahab told lies that the court stay order was wrong. He thanked the court for doling out him justice. He said the court had ordered government officers not to take further action and record their statements before the court on February 23. He said he fully believed in the court.

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Cantt Station stalls auctioned at Rs14.31m

KARACHI:A three-member auction committee chaired by the Divisional Commercial Officer, DCO, Karachi Division Nasir Nazir auctioned various stalls at Cantonment station Karachi for a period of two years.

The auction period is extendable for one year under certain terms and conditions. An amount of Rs 14.31 million earned from the auction of stalls has been deposited in the railways’ head of federal treasury.

“While conducting the entire process by initiating the publication of tender till concluding the auction process today, all the relevant rules and procedures have been implemented in letter and spirit,” remarked the DCO.

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SSUET establishes National Ideas Bank

KARACHI:Sir Syed University of Engineering and Technology (SSUET) as a major partner of IdeaGist in collaboration with IT Ministry has established National Ideas Bank that has recently been launched by the President of Pakistan, Dr Arif Alvi.

The event was attended by the Chancellor SSUET, Jawaid Anwar, Registrar Syed Sarfraz Ali, Director ORIC Rabia Noor and other dignitaries and technocrats. National Idea Bank is an entry point for big and small ideas to be investigated by the universities and Sir Syed University will provide a platform through National Ideas Bank for collecting ideas, developing a sustainable business model for it.

The vision of Sir Syed University is to meet the demands of challenging times as envisioned by Sir Syed Ahmed Khan by transforming Pakistan into a knowledge-based society through some impact projects and innovation in education, research, and creativity.

The Sir Syed University is playing a leading role in national socio-economic development by meeting the challenges of modern time through creating alliances and partnerships between academia and industry. The university’s focus is on innovation, research, and commercialization with a deep sense of social and moral responsibility imbued with the Aligarh Spirit.

Appreciating the efforts of Sir Syed University, IT Ministry and IdeaGist for establishing National Ideas Bank to accept ideas by the people on a regular pitch schedule, President Dr. Arif Alvi said that the fastest way for Pakistan to emerge as a strong knowledge economy was through promotion of innovative entrepreneurship based on information technology. Innovation and emerging technologies together can open up new vistas of development and prosperity for Pakistan.

Federal Minister for Information Technology and Telecommunication, Syed Amin ul Haq has already said that every other moment there is a new technology or a novel idea and we need to keep pace with the rapid change of the world.

In fact, Pakistan is full of brains brimming with scientific ideas, but schools, society and social attitudes tend to kill those scientists before they could invent something. They hardly get any avenue to materialize their dreams. There are many challenges for idea makers to overcome in order to convert their ideas into a successful business. So, the national ideas bank is the need of time.

IdeaGist is the world’s largest virtual incubator for startup ideas, currently supporting 2,000+ ideas from more than 300 communities from all over the world. It offers a simple to follow process, templates, tools, and 100s of free resources to people with early stage ideas. IdeaGist is also a collaboration platform for people with ideas and those who are interested in new ideas. It is a place for people, communities, and companies to work together towards a better future.

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Federal Secretary MoST visits ICCBS-University of Karachi

KARACHI:The Federal Secretary, Ministry of Science and Technology (MoST), Dr Arshad Mahmood visited the International Center for Chemical and Biological Sciences, University of Karachi (UoK) today.

Prof Atta-ur-Rahman, ICCBS Patron-in-Chief and Chairman of Prime Minister’s Task Force on Science and Technology, and Prof Dr Iqbal Choudhary, Director of the International Center for Chemical and Biological Sciences welcomed the federal secretary at the ICCBS.

The spokesman of the ICCBS – University of Karachi said on Friday that Dr Arshad Mahmood had arrived here on Thursday on an official two-day visit during which he also had a meeting with Prof Atta-ur-Rahman and Prof Dr Iqbal Choudhary.

In the meeting, Prof Iqbal Choudhary, who is also serving COMSTECH as Coordinator General, gave a detailed presentation about the massive activities related to science and research being carried out at the international center. The Secretary MoST assured of the full support from his ministry to this premier research institution of Pakistan. He also praised the industrial support and national services of the center.