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  • Citizen sues govt over low gas pressure

    Citizen sues govt over low gas pressure

    A Karachi resident named Kamran Iqbal has sued the Sui Southern Gas Company (SSGC) over low gas pressure in his area.

    According to details, the SSGC failed to resolve the low gas pressure issue, which is causing problems, despite a number of complaints submitted by Iqbal over the issue.

    Also Read: Man takes shop owner to court for selling poor quality shoes to his wife

    The citizen requested the court to take action against the SSGC for its failure to provide a stable supply of gas to the citizens. In today’s hearing, a lawyer submitted his paper to represent the SSGC in the court.

    The court after summoning a detailed reply from SSGC’s counsel postponed the hearing of the case till March 4.

  • Sony faces lawsuit over alleged PS5 controller defect

    Sony faces lawsuit over alleged PS5 controller defect

    Sony’s PlayStation 5 has been very popular since its launch last fall, but not all customers who managed to buy one are satisfied.

    Recently, one such customer, namely Turner, filed a lawsuit accusing Sony of violating the warranty agreement after experiencing defects in the PS5 DualSense wireless controllers.

    The filing comes soon after a law firm, Chimicles Schwartz Kriner & Donaldson-Smith, set up a web page soliciting reports of issues with the controller.

    The class action suit alleges that the DualSense controllers released in November along with the new PS5 console suffer from a defect known as “drift”. It means that the game characters or other elements on screen move without the user actually operating the joystick.

    “This defect significantly interferes with gameplay and thus compromises the DualSense controller’s core functionality,” the complainant says.

    While Sony has not yet commented on the lawsuit, the complainant claims that he has been experiencing drift issue since the day he purchased PS5 in early February.

    Turner says he contacted customer service and followed their troubleshooting instructions.

    Given that his experience with contacting Sony did not satisfactorily addressed the issue, Turner opted to purchase another DualSense controller for $69.99.

    “If I had been aware of the defect prior to purchasing PS5, I would not have purchased it, or would have paid substantially less for it.”

    The suit also alleges that Sony has been aware of the drift issue because of “online consumer complaints, complaints made by consumers directly to it, and through its own pre-release testing”.

    One user reported the issue 10 days after receiving the PS5 console, stating that they tried every possible fix, like power-cycling the console, turning Bluetooth on and off, resetting the controller, and charging it fully overnight, but nothing worked.

    The suit alleges that customers seeking help with their devices have run into a backlog on Sony’s dedicated portal for issues with PS5 hardware, and face long wait times to speak with customer service agents.

    It claims that when consumers return the controllers for in-warranty repairs related to drift, they “have to pay for shipping the controller to a Sony repair center, and Sony does not reimburse customers for these shipping costs.”

    “Recent software and firmware updates did not ameliorate or address the defect in any way,” says the complaint.

    The lawsuit seeks to make Sony implement a recall or free replacement programme to address the issue for all class members, in addition to other relief such as damage payments to compensate consumers for out of pocket expenses to fix the alleged defect.

    Sony said earlier this month that it sold 4.5 million units of PS5 hardware between its launch and December 31.

  • Gwadar stadium hosts first cricket match, dedicated to Ali Sadpara

    Gwadar stadium hosts first cricket match, dedicated to Ali Sadpara

    It was a sight for sore eyes as the cricket stadium in Gawdar city, dubbed by many as the world’s most beautiful one, hosted its first ever cricket match on Friday.

    The picturesque stadium, surrounded by the majestic mountains and hills, is hosting a match between the Showbiz Sharks Vs the Gwadar Dolphins. Prime Minister Imran Khan dedicated the match to the unsung hero, Ali Sadpara.

    Sharing the images from the stadium, the official page of Khan wrote: “The first ever cricket match being held at Gwadar cricket stadium, the match was dedicated to Muhammad Ali Sadpara.”

    Zulfi Bukhari seconds Khan. “Dedicating the 1st ever match at Gwadar Stadium to Pakistan’s son #MuhammadAliSadpara. The match tomorrow will start with a prayer in his memory,” he tweeted.

    “This is the beauty of our land, even our loss unites us from K2 to Gwadar to Quetta,” he added.

    According to a report, the Showbiz Sharks were being led by PCB CEO Waseem Khan and will include Fakhr-e-Alam, Faysal Qureishi, Ali Zafar, Saleem Sheikh, Aijaz Aslam, Shezad Roy, Sami Khan, Kamran Jeelani, Salman Saeed, Ali Safina and Noman Habib.

    The Dolphins, on the other hand, were being led by Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Overseas Pakistanis Zulfi Bukhari and features local players and Ali Zaidi and the GOC Gwadar.

    British High Commissioner to Pakistan, Christian Turner, officiated the toss between Zulfi Bukhari and Waseem Khan.

    Cricket buffs couldn’t hold back from tweeting pictures of the stadium. Here are some of the tweets:

    The Ministry of Overseas Pakistanis decided to jump on the “Pawri Hori Hai” bandwagon.

    One Twitter account uploaded the new PSL banger playing loudly in the stadium.

    Zulfi Bukhari’s ministry tweeted a few pictures of the Dolphins’ captain on the field.

    Christian Turner himself was pretty excited to be at the venue.

    Before the game commenced, prayers for Pakistani mountaineer Ali Sadpara and the other two foreign climbers were held who went missing with him on their adventurous expedition to K2.

    Sadpara was recently declared dead by his family.

    The stadium was first highlighted by singer, actor and TV personality Fakhar-e-Alam, who tweeted pictures and videos from the stadium.

    Soon, the International Cricket Council (ICC) caught wind of it and shared pictures of the stadium, upsetting some Indian cricket fans in the process.

    Meanwhile, sharing a video of the stadium, Aijaz Aslam wrote: “World’s most beautiful cricket stadium Gwadar.”

    Earlier Faysal Qureshi and wife, Sana faysal also shared pictures and video of their visit to Gawadar.

  • Owning Bitcoin slightly better than holding cash, says Musk

    Tesla Inc. Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Elon Musk on Thursday said that owning bitcoin was only a little better than holding conventional cash, but that slight difference made it a better asset to hold or invest.

    He said, “When state-regulated money has a negative real interest, only a fool wouldn’t look elsewhere. Bitcoin is almost like fiat money. The keyword is ‘almost’.”

    He also defended Tesla’s investment interests in bitcoin, saying that the difference with cash made it “adventurous enough” for the standard & poor (S&P), top 500 United States (US), publicly trading companies to hold the cryptocurrency.

    Tesla bought $1.5 billion worth bitcoin, and set the cryptocurrency soaring toward this week’s record peak above $50,000.

    Musk’s recent promotion of dogecoin on Twitter also lifted the value of that cryptocurrency.

    In the world of financial investments, a new, rather upsetting trend has emerged.

    Whenever Elon Musk prises a company on Twitter, the shares of the company starts sky rocketing in the stock market.

    Canadian e-commerce firm Shopify (SHOP) stocks rose after Musk called it “great” and said SpaceX use it.

    Etsy (ETSY) moved higher after Musk wrote about buying something for his dog on the site.

    Speaking of canines, the price of cryptocurrency dogecoin spiked following positive Musk’s tweets.

  • Khyber Pakhtunkhwa: Rape victims will have to pay Rs25,000 for medical examination?

    Sexual assault victims in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) will have to pay Rs25,000 for medical examination as the forensic department of Khyber Medical College University (KMCU) has proposed new charges for its services, The Express Tribune reported.

    According to reports, besides the medical examination of rape victims fee, an autopsy will now cost Rs5,000 for Peshawar residents and Rs25,000 for those from other districts, keeping dead bodies in the morgue will cost Rs1,500 for a single day while a fee of Rs18,000 has been suggested for DNA testing.

    Officials said the 17 new charges were proposed in a February 14 meeting of the Management Committee, and have been introduced to meet the operational expenditures of the department.

    Among other proposed charges are Rs2,000 for urine test and alcohol analysis, and Rs4,000 for poison detection test.

    KMCU Dean Dr Aurangzeb has said that the new charges for services were just a proposal discussed in the meeting. “The profits generated from these charges will go to the public exchequer, which will help in the betterment of services.”

  • Pakistan to export pants made of ‘bhang’

    Pakistan to export pants made of ‘bhang’

    A group of scientists working at the University of Agriculture, Faisalabad, has successfully extracted hemp thread from indigenous cannabis and processed it with cotton to make ‘hemp jeans’.

    Department of Fibre and Textile Technology Chairperson Dr Asad Farooq told a private media outlet that hemp fabric is a sustainable material. It is made of fibres of a very high-yielding crop in the cannabis sativa plant family, he added.

    “We have signed an MoU with a US-based company and will soon begin mass production,” said Dr Farooq in conversation with Samaa. According to the chairperson, the cannabis pants will be exported to the US and Europe because these markets are replacing cotton with sustainable fibre.

    The fibres are extracted from the plant by a process called retting. In the next stage, impurities are removed and then it is converted into yarn through chemical treatment.

    The treated soft fabric is then blended with cotton. We used a ratio of 20:80 of hemp and cotton, said Dr Farooq, adding that at present, hemp costs more than cotton but the price will gradually decrease with an increase in production.

  • Farhat Shahzadi, first lady’s friend, allegedly owns assets worth Rs700m, claims journalist

    Farhat Shahzadi, first lady’s friend, allegedly owns assets worth Rs700m, claims journalist

    After backlash, Farhat Shahzadi, a close friend of First Lady Bushra Bibi, has withdrawn her nomination papers for a Senate seat amid claims that she allegedly owns assets worth Rs70 crore, including a flat in Dubai.

    According to journalist Rauf Klasra, the properties allegedly owned by Shahzadi must be investigated, calling them a “tip of the iceberg”. He claimed that Shahzadi could be the “frontperson” of the first lady while demanding a probe into her assets.

    Shahzadi had submitted the details of her assets to the Election Commission of Pakistan at the time of the submission of her papers. According to these details, the value of her assets increased by Rs9.5 million in one year.

    She has properties in Dubai, Bahria Town, Defence Housing Authority, and Chakri, Rawalpindi. In DHA Lahore, she owns six properties worth about Rs450m; in Islamabad, she owns a flat worth Rs90m; in Dubai, she is the owner of a flat that is worth approx Rs10m.

    The PTI leader has investments in 12 different entities, whereas she has eight bank accounts in her name with millions deposited in them.

    Meanwhile, the decision to field Shahzadi as a covering candidate on a seat reserved for women didn’t go down well with the party leadership. Subsequently, she has decided against contesting the election and took her nomination papers back.

    However, at the time, PM’s aide Shahbaz Gill defended the nomination of Shahzadi. Following criticism, PM’s aide Shahbaz Gill had defended the selection of Farhat Shahzadi, saying she is a part of the PTI and has been an active political worker for many years. She is a covering candidate and it is her right, he had added.

    Earlier this week, the PTI nominated 10 candidates: Jamshed Iqbal Cheema, Muhammad Khan Madni, Saifullah Sarwar Khan Nyazee, Robina Akhtar, Malik Zaheer Abbas Khokhar, Aon Abbas, Omar Sarfraz Cheema, Ejaz Hussain Minhas, Ejaz Ahmad Chaudhary and Neelam Irshad Sheikh.

    Senate elections will be held on March 3.

  • NASA’s Perseverance rover lands on Mars, China trails behind

    NASA’s Perseverance rover lands on Mars, China trails behind

    NASA successfully landed its fifth robotic rover, Perseverance, on the surface of Mars on Thursday after its six-month journey from Earth.

    “Touchdown confirmed. Perseverance is safely on the surface of Mars,” said Swati Mohan, an engineer on the Perseverance team.

    The rover is the most technologically advanced robot NASA has ever sent to Mars. The agency’s goal is to use it to explore the surface in nearly two years.

    NASA spent about $2.4 billion to build and launch the Perseverance mission, with another $300 million in costs expected for landing and operating the rover on the Mars surface.

    Perseverance also has a small helicopter named Ingenuity that NASA would use to try the first flight on another planet.

    The rover’s weight is about 1one ton. It is 10 feet long, nine feet wide and seven feet tall. The camera is fixed in a robotic arm that reaches about seven feet. It also has a chemical analyser and a rock drill.

    Perseverance traveled 293 million miles to reach Mars over the course of more than six months after it was launched on a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket on July 30.

    Meanwhile, China’s Tianwen-1 spacecraft has also entered into the orbit and might land on the surface later this year.

  • PTI Sindh leader kills snake in jail cell; PPP govt accused of ‘hatching conspiracies’

    Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) lawmaker and leader of opposition in Sindh Assembly, Haleem Adil Sheikh, has killed a snake that appeared in his jail cell, the MPA’s spokesperson confirmed.

    “A poisonous snake appeared in the room of Haleem Adil Sheikh, which was pinpointed by a servant who went there to deliver breakfast,” Sheikh’s spokesperson Muhammad Ali Baloch said on Thursday.

    “After seeing the snake, Sheikh killed it,” Baloch said, adding that the presence of the snake in his boss’s room puts a question mark on the performance of Sindh police.

    He went on to say that conspiracies were being hatched against Sheikh as “police have become a slave to the ruling Pakistan People’s Party (PPP)”.

    The statements were followed by Additional Inspector General of Police (AIG) Karachi Ghulam Nabi Memon seeking a report from authorities concerned regarding the appearance of the snake.

    AIG Memon telephoned DIG (CIA) Arif Hanif, ordered him to investigate the matter and submit a report at the earliest.

    Meanwhile, an anti-terrorism court (ATC) in Karachi has sent the PTI leader to jail on judicial remand till February 25.

    The ATC was hearing the case related to aerial firing and disturbance during Karachi’s PS-88 by-election on February 16, in the aftermath of which Sheikh had been placed under police custody.

  • ACE unearths mega corruption scam in excise department

    ACE unearths mega corruption scam in excise department

    According to media reports, Punjab Anti-Corruption Establishment (ACE) has unearthed multi-billion scam pertaining to vehicle registration.

    Reportedly, many vehicles were registered through a fake auction in the name of a government department in Punjab.

    In a letter to ACE, the department confirmed that it had never auctioned these vehicles and the vouchers used for auction were fake.

    A group of excise and taxation bureaucrats are responsible for registering these vehicles through fake action vouchers and caused losses of billions of rupees to the provincial economy.

    The report added that the ACE acquired the data of the bank transactions from the beneficiaries of the auctions that show money transfers worth millions of rupees.

    Earlier, in December 2020, a corruption scandal of the same nature was unearthed by ACE. Used, smuggled and stolen vehicles were auctioned on the basis of fake army action vouchers for several years by a gang, comprising officials of Punjab excise and taxation department and private person.

    The anti-graft watchdog started the investigation in 2017. They revealed that as many as 7,013 vehicles were dubious, with 4,000 of them being registered on the basis of fake vouchers. Moreover, they were unable to verify other vehicles in records. This has caused a total loss of Rs 300 billion to the exchequer directly or indirectly.