Author: newsdesk

  • Only over our dead bodies: PIA HR chief refutes closure rumours

    Only over our dead bodies: PIA HR chief refutes closure rumours

    The Head of Human Resource (HR) at Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) dismissed media reports about the airline’s poor financial condition and potential closure. He stated, “It will happen only over our dead bodies.” 

    These comments came during a meeting with the Chairman of the Senate Standing Committee on Aviation, Hidayatullah, who had noticed a senior PIA director’s statement about possible closure within 15 days.

    Hidayatullah initiated an investigation and mandated that only the airline’s spokesperson or PR department should communicate with the media.

    A private TV channel had reported concerns about flight operations being suspended by September 15 without emergency funds.

    During the meeting, the HR chief presented an overview of PIA employees, including qualifications, experience, and positions, with a focus on Group IV and above.

    According to Dawn, the committee members stressed their preference for hiring native Pakistanis for overseas roles. The HR chief highlighted the predominance of Pakistani-origin staff in such positions. 

    Performance evaluations for UK-based employees were discussed to ensure fair assessments.

    Furthermore, the HR chief disclosed the dismissal of two employees in Saudi Arabia due to fake degrees, with another under scrutiny. He assured me that all cases were being closely monitored.

  • 127 Pakistanis attended Urs of Mujadid Alf Sani in India

    127 Pakistanis attended Urs of Mujadid Alf Sani in India

    Over a hundred Pakistani pilgrims took part in the annual Urs (death anniversary ) of Sufi saint Hazrat Mujadid Alf Sani at Sirhind Sharif in India, with the total number tallying up to 127.

    Pakistan’s Charge d’ Affaires to India, Aizaz Khan, was also present to commemorate the 410th urs of the 16th-century Islamic scholar who was deemed as a Mujaddid by his followers, meaning a “reviver” since he revised Islam through his writings.

    According to Express Tribune, Aizaz expressed his appreciation to the shrine’s caretaker, Khalifa Syed Mohammed Sadiq Raza, and the local administration for their support in facilitating the pilgrims.

    Pakistani pilgrims reportedly attend the annual Urs of Hazrat Mujadid Alf Sani every year under the framework of the 1974 India-Pakistan protocol on visits to religious shrines.

  • Did we lose the match because of Shehbaz’s tweets? X users say yes

    Did we lose the match because of Shehbaz’s tweets? X users say yes

    Former Prime Minister (PM) Shehbaz Sharif is a big sports fan and tweets about cricket and tennis quite often. His tweets full of excitement during the Asia Cup about Pakistani cricketers created quite a stir, but not for the right reasons. Twitter (now X) users are blaming Shehbaz for Pakistan’s loss. Here’s why.

    On September 2 when Pakistan played its first match against India in Asia Cup 2023,Shehbaz tweeted that the Indians “CANNOT PLAY’ Shaheen Shah Afridi.

    However, in the next match between Pakistan and India, Shaheen’s performance was so bad that even his father-in-law Shahid Afridi was not happy with his performance.

    “If we ball like Naseem Shah in initial overs, the situation could have been different. Shaheen’s line and length were not good, he gets frustrated if he doesn’t get wickets in early overs because he is known as a wicket taker in the first over,” said Shahid about Shaheen.

    Pakistan lost the match to India by 228 runs.

    Pakistan lost the crucial Super 4 match against Sri Lanka yesterday and thus couldn’t qualify for the Asia Cup final.

    Shehbaz Sharif was quick to buck up the Boys in Green.

    “That was an incredible last over, Zaman. A great game of cricket indeed.”

    X users were quick to point out that after Shehbaz praised Shaheen, he performed badly and now that he has praised Zaman Khan, his career may be over. One user told Shehbaz to “stay away from cricket”.

    Here are some tweets:

  • PIA faces flight cancellations and delays as financial crisis intensifies

    PIA faces flight cancellations and delays as financial crisis intensifies

    Pakistan International Airlines (PIA), currently grappling with severe financial challenges, has been compelled to cancel multiple domestic and international flights.

    An authoritative representative of the national flag carrier conveyed to Geo News that there’s a looming risk of suspending flight operations by September 15, today, unless urgent financial support is extended.

    This predicament initially materialised on August 12, when numerous domestic flights, both departing from and arriving in Karachi, had to be abruptly canceled. This unfortunate situation was attributed to a combination of financial constraints and the inability to settle outstanding dues owed to Pakistan State Oil (PSO) for fuel supply.

    An examination of today’s schedule at Jinnah International Airport reveals a series of disruptions in PIA’s services. Notably, flights from Karachi to Bahawalpur (PK588 and PK589) and Karachi to Lahore (PK302 and PK303) have been canceled.

    Furthermore, the Karachi to Islamabad flight (PK368) faces a three-hour delay, while the Karachi to Lahore flight (PK304) encounters an extensive delay of eight and a half hours.

    Additional disruptions include the cancellation of PIA flights between Karachi and Rahim Yar Khan (PK582 and PK583), along with delays for Karachi to Multan (PK330) and Dubai (PK213), both postponed by two hours.

    Moreover, the Islamabad to Karachi flight (PK301) has been cancelled; Islamabad to Riyadh (PK753) is running three hours behind schedule; and Lahore to Karachi (PK305) faces a delay of two and a half hours.

    PIA’s financial struggles have been escalating, with the airline revealing on September 7 that it had grounded five of its 13 leased aircraft, potentially grounding an additional four due to the ongoing financial strain. 

    A plea for an urgent bailout of Rs22.9 billion was met with rejection by the Economic Coordination Committee (ECC). The ECC also declined the request to defer payments, including Rs1.3 billion per month to the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) for Federal Excise Duty (FED) and Rs0.7 billion per month to the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) for embarking charges.

    Adding to the airline’s woes, PIA cautioned of possible suspensions in the supply of spare parts by Boeing and Airbus come mid-September. In the previous month, the Federal Board of Revenue of Pakistan (FBR) took the drastic step of freezing 13 PIA bank accounts due to non-payment of Rs8 billion in FED.

  • Child dies in crossfire in Karachi

    Child dies in crossfire in Karachi

    Maryam, a seven-year-old girl, got shot on Friday while she was on her way to school near Nagan Chowrangi.

    The girl was seated in a car being driven by her father when a security guard and robbers exchanged fire.

    Dawn spoke with Taimuria police officer Ghulam Murtaza who said that the father recalled that the two were near a shopping centre around 7:12am when the car slowed down at a speed breaker. At that point he heard Maryam cry out “Baba”. She was bleeding so he rushed her to a hospital nearby and then to Ziauddin Hospital where doctors pronounced her dead on arrival.

    According to Police Surgeon Summaiya Syed, the family took Maryam’s body home without a post-mortem examination but then the police brought it back to conduct a post-mortem which concluded that she was shot in the head.

    The police reported that the shootout was between a security guard and robbers.

    Maryam’s father did not lodge an FIR, however, police have registered a case against the detained guard on behalf of the state under Section 319 (manslaughter) of the Pakistan Penal Code and initiated an investigation.

    Security guard Ali Raza was then taken into custody.

    Initially, two spent bullet casings fired from separate pistols had been recovered from the spot, and later, as per a police spokesperson, a forensic report confirmed that the bullet that killed Maryam was fired by the security guard.

    The guard, employed at a restaurant, opened fire on two robbers as they escaped the scene, when one of the bullets hit Maryam on the opposite side of the road near Haroon Shopping Centre within the jurisdiction of the Taimuria police station.

    A four-member committee has been formed which will be led by Gulberg SP to probe into the case.

    Sindh Governor Kamran Tessori has also taken notice of the incident and sought a detailed report from the Additional IGP of Karachi.

  • Pakistani rupee surges 0.43% versus US dollar in inter-bank trading

    Pakistani rupee surges 0.43% versus US dollar in inter-bank trading

    The Pakistani rupee displayed resilience against the US dollar, registering a noteworthy 0.43 per cent appreciation in the early hours of trading within the inter-bank market on Friday.

    By 11:15 am, the rupee had reached a level of 296.68, marking a substantial increase of Rs1.28 in the inter-bank market.

    In contrast, on the previous Wednesday, the rupee had demonstrated a 0.29 per cent appreciation, ultimately settling at 297.96.

    Concurrently, the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) of the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) opted to maintain the key policy rate at 22 per cent, anticipating a future decline in inflation.

    This decision mirrors the MPC’s stance during the preceding meeting, indicating a consistent status quo in the policy rate despite market expectations of a potential rate hike.

    Internationally, the US dollar maintained relative stability in the Asian market on Friday, slightly retreating from its recent gains against other currencies. This shift coincided with the strengthening of the yuan, driven by positive economic data from China.

    The US dollar’s surge was driven by an unexpected increase of 0.6 per cent in August retail sales, surpassing the estimated 0.2 per cent rise. Additionally, market participants reacted to the European Central Bank’s 25-basis-point hike.

    While the US dollar index currently stands at 105.32, marginally lower than Thursday’s six-month peak of 105.43, it still maintains its overall strength.

    Furthermore, oil prices experienced an uptick on Friday, marking their third consecutive weekly gain. This rise was influenced by better-than-expected Chinese economic data and reports indicating record oil consumption, reinforcing the belief in continued high demand from the world’s second-largest crude consumer.

  • Do aliens exist? NASA answers in its new report

    Do aliens exist? NASA answers in its new report

    NASA has investigated hundreds of UFO sightings, concluding that there is no evidence of aliens being behind the mysterious occurrences, however, it has said that the possibility cannot be completely discarded.

    While there is no irrefutable evidence, NASA will, nonetheless, investigate UAPs (Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena) with improved technology and artificial intelligence.

    According to the report, “there is no reason to conclude” that extra-terrestrial activity is at the back of UAP sightings, “However… those objects must have travelled through our solar system to get here,” the report added, and that there is no denying the possibility of “potential unknown alien technology operating in Earth’s atmosphere.”

    The latest report, 36 pages long, explores technical and scientific observations.

    Nicola Fox, associate administrator for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate, stated that due to dearth of high quality data “UAP are one of our planet’s greatest mysteries”.

    Which is why, even though a number of UAP have been sighted, the data is not enough to make “definitive scientific conclusions about the nature and origin of UAP”, added Fox.

    NASA has appointed a new UAP research director to “establish a robust database for the evaluation of future data”.

    BBC spoke with the space agency’s panel about the photos of aliens presented before the Mexican Senate this week by Jaime Maussan.

    Maussan claimed that the remains were more than 1,000 years old, Maussan said they belonged to “non-human beings that are not part of our terrestrial evolution”.

    However, as per experts, the legitimacy of the evidence is perceived with skepticism.

    After all, previous claims by Maussan about mummies found in Nazca, Peru, in 2017, turned out to be false.

    Nasa scientist Dr David Spergel told the BBC: “Make samples available to the world scientific community and we’ll see what’s there.”

  • Sara Sharif’s father, stepmother charged with her murder

    Sara Sharif’s father, stepmother charged with her murder

    The UK police have charged 10-year-old Sara Sharif’s father Irfan Sharif, stepmother Beinash Batool and uncle Faisal with murder.

    The trio were arrested on their return from Pakistan yesterday and have been charged with the murder of Sara Sharif.

    According to authorities, the three were arrested at Gatwick Airport.

    Two days back, all three of them flew back to the UK as law enforcing agencies in Pakistan kept pursuing them.
    Raja Haq Nawaz, a lawyer for Urfan Sharif’s father Muhammad Sharif, told DAWN that the suspects were not arrested and that their flight left from Sialkot, Punjab.

    Previously, Jhelum police shifted Urfan Sharif’s five children to the Child Protection Bureau after a local court granted permission to the police to do so. The children were to be in the Bureau’s custody till the parents were found and arrested.

    While they were in Pakistan, the couple also released a video in which Batool touched upon media reporting of Sara’s death, claiming that they both will cooperate with UK authorities, and that they were on the run in Pakistan because the family feared that the Pakistan police will torture and kill them.

    The Case

    On August 10, 10-year-old Sara Sharif was found dead in her home in Woking, England, when her father, Urfan Sharif, called 999 from Pakistan.

    Nadeem Riaz, shop owner and a travelling agent, has known Sharif for 11 years.

    During an interview with The Times, he recalled that on August 8, he booked a one-way tickets to Pakistan on urgent basis, claiming that his cousin died.

    On August 9, Sharif, his wife Beinash Batool, their five children and Sharif’s brother Faisal Malik left for Islamabad from the UK on a British Airways flight.

    The next day, Urfan Sharif called 999 after which the police found Sara’s body at home. Surrey Police then began an investigation along with international partners. The same day, after arriving at Islamabad, the family travelled to Jhelum. The police kept on tracking them as they left for Domeli late on August 12, and then left Domeli the very next day. This was the last location tracked.

    On August 15, Pakistan police received a request from International Criminal Police Organization (Interpol) via FIA to hunt them down.

  • Who is the first Pakistani to travel into space?

    Virgin Galactic will be flying into space on October 5, carrying three space tourists, including one Pakistani.

    Virgin Galactic is a spaceflight company that launched its first commercial space tourism flight on June 29, 2023.

    On Thursday, the company announced the launch of Galactic 04, its fourth commercial spaceflight and ninth space mission overall.

    It will host three space tourists from the US, the UK, and Pakistan. It will be the first time that a Pakistani will fly to space.

    The names of the crewmembers are yet to be released but as per our research, Namira Salim from Pakistan will be onboard.

    Salim is a Pakistani polar adventurer and artist based in Monaco and Dubai.

    Galactic 04 will take off from Spaceport America in New Mexico, carrying the passengers to suborbital space and back. In simpler words, suborbital flight is a short journey into space where a spaceship goes up but does not stay in space. It leaves the earth’s atmosphere for a brief time and comes back right after. It is a quick trip to experience weightlessness and witness space. Unlike an orbital spaceflight, it does not circle the earth.

    Space.com explains that the space tourists will be carried by Virgin’s VSS Unity space plane taken into the sky by a carrier craft named VMS Eve. Eve will drop Unity at an altitude of about 50,000 feet (15,000 meters); the space plane will then fire up its rocket motor to get to suborbital space.

    “VSS Unity passengers get to experience a few minutes of weightlessness and see Earth against the blackness of space. A ticket to ride the space plane currently costs $450,000”.

    So far, the company has launched Galactic 01, Galactic 02 and Galactic 03 on June 29, August 10 and September 8, respectively; keeping up with its goal of launching at least one commercial space flight a month.

  • PM Kakar urges rapid privatisation of PIA as flight suspensions loom

    PM Kakar urges rapid privatisation of PIA as flight suspensions loom

    Interim Prime Minister Anwaar-ul-Haq Kakar has issued a directive to accelerate the privatisation process of Pakistan International Airlines (PIA), which has been facing substantial financial losses. This move comes in response to reports suggesting that PIA’s flight operations could be halted by September 15 unless emergency funding is secured. 

    In a recent interview with Geo News, a senior PIA director revealed that the airline had reduced its operational fleet from 23 to just 16 aircraft, resulting in numerous flight cancellations. Additionally, major aircraft manufacturers, Boeing and Airbus, had suspended the supply of spare parts to PIA due to outstanding payments, causing daily losses amounting to millions of rupees.  

    The dire situation was further exacerbated when a PIA plane was detained at Dammam airport and four others were held at Dubai airport due to unpaid fuel bills. 

    The official cautioned that unless emergency funds amounting to Rs23 billion were secured, flight operations might come to a standstill by September 15. In response to these pressing concerns, Prime Minister Kakar chaired a meeting regarding PIA-related matters and assigned the caretaker Minister for Privatisation, Fawad Hasan Fawad, to oversee the privatisation process with the utmost urgency.  

    The prime minister stressed the need for a swift privatisation process to ensure reliable services for users and to bring PIA’s standards in line with global aviation standards. 

    Furthermore, the prime minister urged all relevant stakeholders to collaborate in finding immediate solutions to the challenges associated with privatization. The meeting also included a briefing on the progress of the privatisation process at PIA. 

    Read more: Islamabad Police launches campaign to catch students bunking school and college 

    According to Geo, PIA has been grappling with severe financial difficulties, including the grounding of five out of its 13 leased aircraft, with the possibility of grounding four more due to ongoing financial constraints. The airline had previously requested an emergency bailout of Rs22.9 billion, which was rejected by the Economic Coordination Committee (ECC).  

    Additionally, requests for deferring payments of Rs1.3 billion per month to the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) and Rs0.7 billion per month to the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) were also denied by the ECC.  

    Moreover, PIA had warned of potential disruptions in the supply of spare parts by Boeing and Airbus by mid-September. In a further blow, the FBR froze 13 of PIA’s bank accounts due to unpaid dues totaling Rs8 billion in Federal Excise Duty (FED).