Addressing a meeting of the National Task Force on Polio Eradication in Islamabad on Wednesday, Prime Minister (PM) Shehbaz Sharif urged for a concerted effort to eradicate polio in Pakistan. The meeting was informed that three polio cases were reported in North Waziristan during the months of April and May this year but no polio case was reported in the period between February 2021 and March 2022. PM Shehbaz expressed his concern about recent polio cases in the country and stated that the federal government will provide all available assistance and cooperation in the fight against the illness.
He said that all parties, including federal departments, provincial governments, and international organisations, had contributed significantly to the country’s polio eradication campaign. PM kickstarted a polio campaign today (May 18).
Pakistan and Afghanistan are the only two countries where polio has not yet been eradicated. To formally eradicate the disease, a nation must be polio-free for three consecutive years. Nigeria was declared free from wild polio in August 2020.
The Parks and Horticulture Authority (PHA) on May 17 planted around 400 fruit trees alongside the canal road Lahore which were provided by the civil society.
The Director-General (DG) PHA Zeeshan Javed applauded the efforts of PHA for the beautification of the provincial capital.
He also praised the PHA workers for performing their responsibilities outside in such heat and insisted that PHA is dedicated to beautifying the city by implementing various beautification programmes.
Last week, Commissioner Lahore Captain (retd) Muhammad Usman presided over a meeting at the PHA office to examine the city’s beautification efforts. The DG PHA Zeeshan Javed briefed the Commissioner on clean and green Lahore, tree planting, and ongoing and finished projects in the city during the meeting.
Holger Ziegeler, a German diplomat in Karachi, has been accused of sexually harassing attendees and groping a woman at an event in Karachi. The event took place on November 13 last year and was co-funded by the German Consulate.
“At the 2nd ScrapFest Pakistan event on November 13th/ 2021 at a privately hired venue; a woman attending was sexually harassed by one of the senior staff members from the German Consulate in Karachi,” wrote Urvah Khan in an Instagram post. She was the main organiser of the event.
“Since my last post on this incident, the German Federal Foreign Office’s unit responsible for investigating all allegations of sexual misconduct has directly contacted me. I have provided them with the video and text evidence I mentioned was in my possession,” wrote Urvah in a separate Instagram post.
Talking exclusively to The Current, Urvah Khan said that she organised the event ScrapFest, which promotes women and people from the LGBT community. The second event was co-funded by the German Consulate and Holger Ziegeler was German Consul General in Karachi.
The event took place on November 13, 2021, and Urvah officially issued a statement on April 22, 2022. Three days after issuing a statement, she contacted the German Foreign Office.
“It took a bit of time to make the statement because I needed time to speak to a victim and to convince the witnesses to come forward. We had a text message. After we found the video evidence and had collected the statements of the victims, I knew we had everything we needed.”
Regarding the status of the investigation, she said the German Foreign Office in Berlin is investigating the matter. “They are interviewing the witnesses and the victim. We are waiting to find out what is going to happen.”
Urvah further added that the woman who was groped by Holger Ziegeler reached out to her with the allegations the same night, and recorded her statement the next morning. “I brought it up with Holger. At first he was willing to apologise. The victim asked for a written apology as she was traumatised and did not want to see his face. He later retracted his apology and said that he did not harass her and this was a terrorist attack on his legacy.”
He also pressurised Urvah to get rid of the evidence.
Urvah said that when the German Consulate in Karachi was informed, they messaged her to take her Instagram posts down.
“They did not support me or try to investigate, which is one of the reasons I reached out to the German Foreign Office in Berlin.”
“A woman came by the stage where he groped her buttocks, then grabbed her hand.”
Urvah added that apart from the victim who was groped, Holger’s behaviour throughout the night was unacceptable and disrespectful towards many of the attendees. Many of them came forward as witnesses about how uncomfortable they felt.
“In terms of other attendees, he would try to go closer to them. A few of the witnesses said that they saw him trying to touch women on their body parts, on their stomachs, on their backs.”
“There was another witness who said that he was standing in front of him while he kept touching his friend’s back. She kept putting his hand back to where it was supposed to be,” added Urvah.
Asked why she chose to speak to an international publication, VICE, instead of a local one regarding the case, Urvah said, “Because he is a foreign diplomat, he had diplomatic immunity so that is why I was worried about PEMRA coming after an article or news item like this, and shutting it down. This is why I wanted the first article to be published in an international publication so PEMRA could not touch it.”
“The big issue is that he thought because he co-funded the event through the German Consulate, he could behave in this manner and could get away with it,” said Urvah. “I think it’s important if we all talk about what he did and I think it’s important to have a conversation.”
Talking exclusively to The Current, Dr Mehrub Moiz Awan, said, “I was hosting this event for a fee as requested by Urvah and a lot of my fans came specially for me.”
While narrating what happened at the event, Mehrub said, “The white man was visibly drunk or at least tipsy and interrupted me a few times during my jokes as well. I had especially made a point to crack jokes at white people and white privilege and our own audience was loving them. He tried to be a little handsy with me as well but as I’m a Pakistani transwoman, I know how to handle such guys very well.”
“Later I found out that a female left very upset because she was groped by the same guy. The dude actually sent Urvah a text as well that I saw with my own eyes. It said something like who’s this girl, she’s good. I want her number,” added Mehrub.
Disclaimer: The Current is not responsible for the statements mentioned in the story.
In an attempt to combat traffic rule infractions in Lahore, Punjab police have ordered a significant hike in fines. The department announced on social media that instead of a few hundred rupees, violators will now be slapped with at least Rs5,000 fine for four-wheelers and Rs2,000 for two-wheelers.
Muntazir Mehdi, the Chief Traffic Officer (CTO) of Lahore, shared his recommendations with the Deputy Inspector General (DIG) Traffic Police. The department also released information on the provincial capital’s increased fine rates.
As per a recent tweet, Improper parking of motorbikes would incur a penalty of Rs2,000 and improper parking of vehicles will incur a fine of Rs5,000. Moreover, riding a motorcycle without a license will cost the violator Rs2,000, while driving a car will now cost Rs5,000 without a license.
Motorcycles without number plates or with fancy number plates will be fined Rs2,000, while car drivers would be fined Rs5,000.
Punjab’s Chief Minister (CM) Hamza Shehbaz Sharif in the last week ordered the creation of an emergency traffic plan to alleviate traffic congestion on important roads in Lahore. He directed the Inspector General (IG) to provide a comprehensive plan, including the promotion and relocation of traffic wardens, as well as its proper implementation.
An Indian state Chhattisgarh High Court bench granted a decree of divorce on grounds of mental cruelty to the husband.
The court declared that if a wife insists that her husband to get separated from his parents and threatens to implicate him in a false dowry demand case, it would be counted as mental cruelty.
Justices Goutam Bhaduri and NK Chandravanshi heard a petition filed by a husband challenging the order passed by a Family Court in 2017 by which his plea seeking divorce on the ground of cruelty was rejected.
The judges noted that the marriage of the couple hardly worked for two months. The wife often left her matrimonial house as she wanted to live alone with her husband who made several attempts to reconcile but in vain.
“In such a lower middle-class family, it is the responsibility of the eldest son to take care of his elderly parents, as he has deposed also in his statement. In such a situation, if the wife persistently creates constraints upon the husband to get separated from his family and to live with her at her parental house and also threatened him that, otherwise she will implicate him in the dowry case, it, itself amounts to mental cruelty on the husband,” the high court remarked.
The Family Court was unjustified in making such an observation, the court said.
According to the United Nations ‘Global Land Outlook’ report, Pakistan is one of 23 nations that have experienced drought in the last two years (2020-2022).
The report, released by the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) ahead of World Drought Day (June 17), lists the highest total number of people affected by drought over the last century.
The 23 countries listed by the report include Afghanistan, Angola, Brazil, Burkina Faso, Chile, Ethiopia, Iran, Iraq, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Lesotho, Mali, Mauritania, Madagascar, Malawi, Mozambique, Niger, Somalia, South Sudan, Syria, Pakistan, the United States and Zambia.
The report warns that humanity has never confronted such a diverse range of known and unknown risks and hazards while interacting in a hyper-connected and fast-changing environment.
By 2050, an additional 4 million square kilometres of natural areas, equivalent to the size of India and Pakistan, would require drought restoration measures, the report said.
The report warned that up to 40 per cent of the planet’s land is degraded, which affects half of humanity and threatens roughly 50 per cent of the global GDP worth USD 44 trillion.
5. We need to set up a Climate Communication strategy for different levels of lifestyle changes,conservation messaging, urgency of multiple crises facing Pakistan. No country can lower its carbon footprint without active public buy-in. Must move forward with this ASAP
— SenatorSherryRehman (@sherryrehman) May 16, 2022
Two people were arrested in India for allegedly attempting to disrupt national integrity by playing pro-Pakistani music on their mobile phones. An FIR was also registered against Naeem and Mustikm, Indian media has reported.
A video of the incident, in which a shopkeeper can be seen listening to “Pakistan Zindabad” slogans, has gone viral on the internet. A fellow resident of the village complained to the police that the pro-Pakistan music was being played.
रमज़ान का पवित्र महीना चल रहा है और बरेली में मुस्तकीम व नहीम पाकिस्तान ज़िंदाबाद के गाने बजाये जा रहे हैं ! इस देश में रह रहे हो..इस देश का खा रहे हो ..पी रहे हो..संशाधनों का उपयोग कर रहे हो और फिर भी पाकिस्तान ज़िंदाबाद
— Major Surendra Poonia ( Modi Ka Parivar ) (@MajorPoonia) April 15, 2022
The boys have been slapped with Section 153B (imputation, assertions, prejudicial to national integration), 504 (intentional insult), and 506 (criminal intimidation. The FIR states that when the complainant asked the two to stop listening to the songs, they allegedly started hurling abuses and said “bad things” about India.
On other hand, the Pakistani song Pasoori has been trending in India since its release. Many Bollywood celebrities including Shilpa Shetty Kundra and Jasmin Bhasin were seen grooving to the song.
A few days ago, the news was doing rounds on social media that gas will be supplied to consumers only at certain times in winter.
According to news shared on the Internet, Sui Northern Gas and the Ministry of Petroleum have planned to provide gas to consumers in Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa three times a day, during breakfast, lunch and dinner time.
Ministry of energy took to Twitter to clarify that the news circulating is not true.
“Misleading news is being shared on different TV channels that gas will be provided to domestic consumers only three times a day. No such decision has been taken by the Ministry of Energy. However, the ministry has directed Sui Northern officials to ensure supply of gas to domestic consumers during the meal timings,” the ministry tweeted.
مختلف چینلز پر گمراہ کن خبر چلائی جا رہی ہے کہ دن میں صرف تین وقت گھریلو صارفین کوگیس مہیا کی جائے گی۔ وزارت توانائی کیطرف سے ایسا کوئی فیصلہ نہیں کیا گیا ۔ تاہم وزارت نے سوئی نادرن کے حکام کو کھانے کے اوقات میں گھریلو صارفین کو گیس کی فراہمی یقینی بنانے کی ہدایت جاری کر رکھی ہیں
— Ministry of Energy-Power Division, Government of P (@MoWP15) November 14, 2021
During the last 24 hours, the Punjab Emergency Service Department (PESD) dealt with 1,115 accidents across the province. 11 persons died and 1,161 were injured in these car accidents.
As per the data, there were 272 road accidents in Lahore, impacting 280 people, putting the Provincial Capital at the top of the list, followed by 98 in Faisalabad, with 111 victims, and 79 in Multan, with 83 victims.
664 people were critically hurt and were taken to nearby hospitals. Rescue medical teams treated 497 minor injured people at the scene of the accident. Around 69 per cent of traffic accidents involved motorcycles.
Moreover, 561 drivers, 46 underage drivers, 113 pedestrians, and 498 passengers were among the sufferers of these road traffic collisions, according to the report.
The figures also indicated that 1,172 people were impacted in road traffic accidents, comprising 979 men and 183 women, with 256 of the deceased being under the age of 18 and 605 being between the ages of 18 and 40, and the remaining 311 being above the age of 40.
In the aforementioned road accidents, 989 motorcycles, 77 auto-rickshaws, 145 automobiles, 26 vans, 10 passenger buses, 37 trucks, and 109 other types of cars and sluggish carts were involved.
Lahore Police has planned to utilise Body Worn Cam at E-Police checkpoints on the entry and exit points of the provincial capital for the welfare of the public, according to the Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Operations Wing Lahore Captain (retd) Mustansir Feroze.
He claimed that the Lahore Police Department’s plan will not only keep the city secure but also minimize citizen-police conflicts. He added that the interaction (audio and video) between police officers and civilians would also be recorded by the Body-Worn Cam.
According to SSP Operations, this measure will aid in identifying criminals as well as eliminating terrorism. He claimed that this method would re-establish public trust in the police force, and also that citizens can lodge complaints on 1787.
Senior police officials will supervise the programme and would offer on-the-spot instructions to address the public’s complaints.
Body cameras are already being used in a number of other nations, but they have never been deployed by police in Pakistan. This idea will undoubtedly aid higher-ranking Lahore police officials in combating crime and monitoring how officers perform throughout the day and their attitude toward civilians.
