In a first, a 3D zebra crossing has been unveiled on Lahore’s Mall Road, it was announced by Commissioner Zulfiqar Ahmed Ghuman, who added that 20 different roads will be getting the same.
In an official statement, the commissioner said that the latest 3D zebra crossing installation was done as part of a bigger plan by Metropolitan Corporation to introduce such crossings across Lahore.
The idea behind the project is to attract attention to the proper usage of a zebra crossing other than the aesthetic value that the project is likely to provide, according to the commissioner. The novel zebra crossing has been designed as per international standards according to the commissioner.
According to reports, 3D zebra crossings have been used worldwide in different countries, including Thailand, China, the United States (US), and the United Kingdom (UK). These crossings have proved to be very effective as they create an automatic caution among the drivers.
Zebra crossings are an integral part of traffic and its rules. However, in Pakistan, these crossings have slowly vanished from most roads.
A viral video has shown a minor kid blasting the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) led Sindh government after his rooster died allegedly due to now-contaminated rainwater flooding Tando Bago town of Badin district.
Over 20,000 families have badly been affected in Badin where recent heavy rains have wreaked havoc. While 269 millimetres rainfall has badly affected all five administrative divisions of the district, Taluka Tando Bago is the worst affected.
According to the provincial government, around 4,000 houses have been damaged in all divisions while entire crops of tomatoes, onion, cotton and others have either been completely or partially destroyed.
“My rooster has died! We will too!” the kid was heard as saying in Sindhi in the viral video, standing in rainwater flooding a field, holding his dead rooster in his hand.
“When will Bilawal come to help us? When we are already dead?” he said, adding that their houses had washed away and their animals had died due to contaminated water.
The video is drawing strong reactions from social media users, who are expressing concern over the provincial government’s inability to save the people from monsoon rains.
Earlier, protests against authorities were reported in Karachi as urban flooding spelled misery for the people of the country’s largest city owing to the lack of monsoon infrastructure.
Dozens of deaths were also reported in rain-related incidents such as roof-collapse and electrocution in Pakistan’s business hub.
All the BISEs has declared the results simultaneously at 5pm today. The results will be uploaded shortly after the announcement.
Meanwhile, Sahiwal, Bahawalpur, Faisalabad, Multan, Sargodha, Gujranwala, DG Khan and Rawalpindi boards have also announced the results of Matric annual examination 2020.
Numerous men allegedly gang-raped a woman in her husband’s presence in Kala Shah Kaku, town of Sheikhupura, on Friday.
According toreports, the couple had arrived in Lahore from Rawalpindi on September 16 to find employment. The couple was sitting outside the Minar-e-Pakistan after they ran out of money when an unknown man promised to help them and took them to his village.
The couple said that the suspect trapped them with the promise to find jobs for them and a place to stay. However, when they reached Kala Shah Kaku, they were held hostage and four to five men, according to the woman, gang-raped her in front of her husband.
Police said that a case had been registered and an investigation is underway while six suspects have been arrested.
The woman’s DNA samples have been collected by the Punjab Forensic Science Agency, said the Sheikhupura DPO.
The Islamabad High Court (IHC) has issued a scathing verdict on increasing crime, abductions and land-grabbing activities in the federal capital, saying that government ministries and state institutions are involved in “illegal real estate business”.
IHC Chief Justice (CJ) Athar Minallah issued the remarks in a five-page order pertaining to the rise in said cases in Islamabad.
It also noted that the involvement of state institutions and ministries in real estate business raised “questions of conflict of interest”.
“Land-grabbing crimes are on the rise in Islamabad,” said the IHC top judge in the verdict, adding that reports were indicating how much corruption had made its way into the system.
He warned that the system was on the “verge of collapse”.
“Islamabad’s powerful elite is directly responsible for flouting laws,” said Justice Minallah. He added that there was no harm in saying that the “state has failed” to protect the common citizens.
The verdict also said that an alarming law and order situation in Islamabad was “unacceptable”.
“Institutions set up to protect fundamental rights of citizens are directly or indirectly involved in breaking the law,” noted the court.
Punjab Chief Minister (CM) Sardar Usman Buzdar, at a recent gathering, was served food with expired masala, leading to action against the caterer, local media reported Friday.
According to reports, the incident took place in Tibba Sultanpur town of Vehari where Buzdar, as well as several others, had arrived for the inauguration of a building of Danish School.
Besides the provincial chief executive, among others served food with expired ground spices were Punjab parliamentarians, including Education Minister Murad Raas and Transport Minister Jahanzeb Khan Khichi; Multan Commissioner Javed Akhtar Mehmood, Vehari Deputy Commissioner Capt (r) Waqas Rasheed and journalists.
While the incident has raised a question mark on the efficiency of the Punjab Food Authority (PFA), action is reportedly being taken against the caterer and his restaurant without any names being revealed.
Earlier, speaking to the media, CM Buzdar had said that Danish School is a state of the art institution which has been built at a huge cost.
“With the establishment of the school, the children of Vehari and nearby districts will be able to seek quality education,” he had said, announcing the construction of new Danish Schools in Bhakkar and Taunsa as well.
He announced Honihaar Punjab Programme to encourage good performing students and said students will be encouraged to excel in academic, sports, fine arts, science and technology fields.
The law & duty bearers must always come forth to protect the women & girls of this country. The Punjab Law Minister Raja Basharat & @MashwaniAzhar played a key role in the culprits arrest pic.twitter.com/MXWY3TAfVF
Recently, Fatima shared her story of being harassed and tortured by a guy named Ibsham Zahid. The girl shared images and video clips that show how she was being forced into a ‘relationship’ by Ibsham.
As per the girl’s account, Ibsham started threatening her after she refused to get into a relationship with him. The girl shared a video in which Zahid is threatening to kill her father if she doesn’t agree to his demands.
Soon after her post went viral, people on social media started demanding strict action against the guy and #IbshamZahidBehindBars started trending on Twitter.
Senior journalist Kamal Siddiqui has poked fun at the police for “having an anti-eggary unit to save our children” by making sure that “they do not eat too many eggs”.
“So in Pakistan, we have a special police unit that saves children from eating too many eggs,” he jokingly wrote while tweeting a picture of an anti-beggary unit mobile minus the ‘B’.
“Let’s save our children” could also be seen inscribed on the Sindh police vehicle.
CRACKDOWN ON BEGGARS IN SINDH:
In line with Sindh cabinet’s ban on child beggary and directions to the social welfare department to pick up children begging at traffic intersections and in streets and rehabilitate them at welfare centres, the aim of the anti-beggary unit is to tackle beggary, especially in the port city of Karachi.
According to the findings of a committee on the issue of beggary, there are enough laws available to deal with the issue such as Section 7 of the West Pakistan Vagrancy Ordinance 1958 that prohibits beggary.
A 2018 report of the committee said that beggars have also been seen with children who they use to create empathy in the givers’ eyes. This is a violation of Section 49 of Sindh Child Act 1955.
It pointed out that in 2011, the Sindh assembly had passed the Sindh Child Protection Authority Act 2011 which called for ensuring the rights of the children in need of special measures and to provide matters ancillary thereto.
Sindh Chief Minister (CM) Murad Ali Shah, in consultation with the cabinet, had earlier decided to ban beggary all across the province. He had also directed the Social Welfare Department to launch a special drive against child beggary.
He had directed the district administration and the police to help the Social Welfare Department in the drive and round up the child beggars and send them to Sweet Home and Street Children Centre, Korangi, where they would be rehabilitated.
Malaysian auto giant Proton has collaborated with Al-Haj — the makers of FAW automobiles in Pakistan — to launch its crossover SUV X70 by December along with a sedan named Saga.
According to reports, the said cars, that are actually Chinese manufacturer Geely’s vehicles directly imported and licensed by Proton for the Malaysian market, will be offered in completely built-up (CBU) form in Pakistan.
The company will start assembling the cars locally in the year 2021.
X70 is powered by a 1.8 liter turbocharged 4-cylinder petrol engine that makes 182 horsepower, 285 newton/meters of torque, and comes mated to a 6-speed automatic or a 7-speed DCT gearbox. The vehicle will be available in both Front-Wheel Drive and All-Wheel-Drive forms.
The car is loaded with features such as an air purifier system, rear air vents, automatic dual-zone climate control, steering wheel switches, tilt, and telescopic adjustment, advanced gauge cluster with an LCD information screen, central door locking with auto-lock, a push-start button and a myriad of other modern features. Given that the X70 is a compact crossover SUV, it will go up against the Kia Sportage and the Hyundai Tucson.
— High Commission of Malaysia, Islamabad (@MYHCIslamabad) December 14, 2019
The other car, Saga, is a compact sedan that has recently entered its 4th generation. Saga features a 1.3 liter naturally aspirated 4-cylinder petrol engine that makes 94 horsepower, 120 newton/meters of torque and is mated to a 5-speed manual or a 4-speed CVT automatic transmission.
The vehicles will be launched at a relatively lower price for success in the Pakistani market.
Journalist Fereeha Idrees, who has extensively been covering the Lahore-Sialkot Motorway gang-rape case and is also reportedly in contact with the survivor, has made a shocking revelation that has added to people’s doubts regarding the alleged involvement of law enforcement in the incident.
Speaking to The Current during a live session on Monday night and separately to a private media outlet, Fereeha revealed that one of the accused left Rs1,000 on the dashboard of the survivor’s vehicle. The amount was meant for police upon their arrival at the spot after she had called the emergency helpline when her car ran out of fuel en route Gujranwala at midnight.
The journalist quoted the survivor as saying that when she reached the toll plaza, she paid toll tax and asked for the nearest petrol station. “After covering some distance, her car ran out of fuel and she called the motorway helpline. They apologised but gave her the local number.”
WATCH VIDEO:
Over the phone, a person sought her exact location via WhatsApp and then asked her to wait, she said.
Further quoting the victim, Fereeha said the woman was also asked as to how much petrol did she need, to which she requested for fuel worth Rs1,000. “She then waited for over an hour and a half before she was attacked and later raped in nearby fields off the main road.”
When the woman was found by the police and her belongings were retrieved, eyewitnesses say there was a Rs1,000 currency note on the dashboard, Fereeha said and added that it was left by the attackers.
“Apparently, the attackers wished that she would go home and not tell anyone. But is it a coincidence that she had said she needed fuel for at least Rs1,000 to reach home and that was exactly the amount the attackers left behind?”
Did one of them go back to put it there as they took her purse with them?
THE INCIDENT:
A woman, along with her three children, was driving to Gujranwala in her car when she was forced to stop at the Gujjarpura section of the motorway after running out of fuel at around 1:30 am.
She immediately called a relative and sent him her location. He asked her to also dial the Motorway Police helpline 130 but she was reportedly refused help.
In the meantime, two robbers approached the car, broke the window and took the woman and her children to nearby bushes where they raped her repeatedly in front of the children. They also snatched her purse that had cash around Rs100,000, one bracelet, car registration and three ATM cards.
The Gujjarpura police have registered a case, while Motorway Police spokesperson said they had not been able to take action as the incident did not occur in the limits of Motorway Police.
