Category: National

ISLAMABAD: In occupied Kashmir, Indian troops in their fresh act of state terrorism, martyred six youth in Baramulla district, on Monday.

They were martyred during a joint operation launched by the Indian army and Central Armed Police Force in Uri area of the district.

Meanwhile, thousands of people marched in the Kargil town of Jammu and Kashmir on Monday to protest against the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s visit to India.

The protesters, who were holding placards and Palestinian flags, raised slogans against the Israeli Prime Minister and expressed solidarity with the people of Palestine.

ISLAMABAD: The National Assembly held a discussion on foreign and defence policies of the government while leaving the legislative business unaddressed due to low attendance, observes Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) in its Daily Factsheet.

The National Assembly met for three hours and 53 minutes while the proceedings remained suspended for 33 minutes due to prayer break.

The sitting started at 1615 hours against the scheduled time of 1600 hours. The Deputy Speaker presided over the entire sitting.

The Leader of the House (Prime Minister) did not attend the sitting. The Leader of the Opposition attended the sitting for two hours and 24 minutes. As many as 41 (12%) lawmakers were present at the outset and 33 (10%) at the adjournment of the sitting. The parliamentary leaders of PkMAP, JI, APML, PML-Z, PPPP and ANP attended the sitting. Six minority members were present.

The House did not take up the COMSATS University Islamabad Bill, 2017, the Federal Employees Benevolent Fund and Group Insurance (Amendment) Bill, 2017 and the Marine Insurance Bill, 2017.

The Minister of State for Interior presented the Biannual Report of the Activities of the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) as required under Section 53 of the Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act, 2016.

The Minister for Parliamentary Affairs presented the reports on Pilot Projects of Biometric Verification Machines (BVMs) and Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) in Bye Elections of constituencies (NA-120 Lahore-III and NA-4 Peshawar-IV) as required under the Elections Act, 2017.

The House did not hold discussion on Motion under Rule 259 regarding Kasur Incident and the Motion of Thanks to the President for his address to the Parliament in June 2017.

The House took up two Calling Attention Notices (CANs) regarding bursting of tyres due to cat’s eyes/rumble strips and recent increase in the prices of petroleum products.

The House took up six out of 39 Starred Questions for answers during the Question Hour. The lawmakers asked 16 supplementary questions as well.

The Minister for Defence made 18-minute long policy statement on the issues related to the Foreign Affairs and Defence. As many as eight lawmakers also discussed these issues consuming an hour and 17 minutes of the proceedings.

As many as seven lawmakers raised Points of Order consuming 28 minutes.

ISLAMABAD: Vice Chancellor Air University AVM (retd) Faaiz Amir has said that the Belt and Road Initiative brings lots of opportunities and connectivity in the fields of healthcare and life sciences.

He was addressing to the inaugural session of two-day international conference LIFECON-2018, organized by Fazaia Media College, Air University. The Chief Guest Lt. Gen. Zahid Hameed HI (M), Surgeon General of Pakistan, Former Federal Minister, Co-chair, WHO High Level Commission on NCDs Dr Sania Nishtar, Chinese delegation led by Prof Dr Airong Qian and other prominent healthcare experts from both China and Pakistan were also present on the occasion.

Vice Chancellor AVM (r) Faaiz Amir, in his speech, proposed to formulate China-Pakistan Health Corridor along CPEC for both the nations to benefit. He emphasized that the proposed corridor will boost an effective platform to strengthen bilateral cooperation in the various fields. In this regard, he urged the need to launch various joint ventures to focus on healthcare market. “We need to harness bioengineering, information sciences, data analytics, and system engineering in order to resolve health care challenges,” he said.

The Vice Chancellor also acknowledged that China has the world’s largest mobile healthcare app operators. “In Health China 2030 Plan, Chinese government has placed healthcare as one of the top strategic priorities,” he further said.

Former Federal Minister, Co-chair, WHO High Level Commission on NCDs Dr Sania Nishtar, said that healthcare is not just limited to doctors, nurses and paramedical but its domains extend beyond. She stressed that the health challenges being faced today can be overcome by research and joint collaborations. “We need to focus on universal health system success examples likes that in China, which can easily be adopted in our setup,” she said.

Dr Sania stressed that it is the responsibility of academic institutions to develop human resource to overcome challenges of health field. On the occasion, Chinese scholars from Northwestern Polytechnical University, Xi’an also presented their research studies.

Chief Guest of the conference and Surgeon General of Pakistan, Lt. Gen. Zahid HI (M) appreciated the efforts of organizers for putting together this conference. He hoped that the LIFECON-2018 conference will provide a unique and excellent platform for witnessing the overlapping domains of health with other sciences by its rich context and content.

He also distributed souvenirs among speakers, Vice Chancellor Faaiz Amir, Principal Fazaia Medical College Maj Gen (r) Professor Salman Ali, Dr Sania Nishtar, Chair Prof Dr Rizwan Hashim and co-chair Dr Rukhsana Khan of the conference.