Ambassador of Azerbaijan to Pakistan, Ali Alizada, has said that direct flights between his country and Pakistan would start from next year, which will help strengthen the bilateral trade, economic relations and people-to-people contact. The capital of Azerbaijan, Baku is a popular holiday choice for Pakistanis.
According to Dawn, the envoy revealed the information while speaking during a meeting with the business community in Peshawer.
The ambassador said that Azerbaijan gave much importance to cementing mutual trade, economic and cultural relations with Pakistan.
Meanwhile, Sarhad Chamber of Commerce and Industry (SCCI) president Maqsood Anwar Pervaiz, who chaired the event invited the business community of Azerbaijan to make investment in hydel power generation, oil and gas, LPG, mines, mineral, gemstones, agriculture, medicine, fruits, livestock, honey and other sectors.
Alizada accepted the SCCI president’s invitation and and assured him they would issue visas to the business community on a priority basis to boost trade ties between the two countries.
So if you’re planning a vacation to Baku, hold that thought because you’ll soon be able to fly directly there. The shortest flight from Lahore to Baku currently takes a little more than eight hours. But according to Google Maps, the direct flight will cut travel time by two hours.
In case you missed it, it is national heartthrob Fawad Khan’s 38th birthday today. Though the actor has been off the screen for a while now, he is still one of the most sought-after celebrities this country has.
And we’re not the only ones who miss him. Turns out he is being missed across the border as well.
Editor of Filmfare Magazine, Jitesh Pillaai, sharing pictures and clips of Fawad from his dramas, wrote a heartwarming note for the actor saying that he misses them.
“We carry a piece of you everywhere we go. I’m sure you carry a piece of us too,” wrote Pillaai.
https://www.instagram.com/p/B5aznuinWQh/
Jitesh also shared pictures of Fawad on his Instagram stories.
Fawad’s Khoobsurat co-star Sonam Kapoor also wished the actor.
Fawad’s career in Bollywood was just taking off when a ban on Pakistani actors was announced in 2016. Following that, Fawad had several projects lined up but the Pulwama attack in early 2019 put an end to all chances. The All Indian Cine Workers Association (AICWA) announced a blanket ban on Pakistani actors and artists working in the Indian film industry and vowed to take strict action against anyone who works with them.
Violating traffic rules on the motorway will cause a bigger dent on your pocket now, after the the Ministry of Communications revised the fines for traffic violators.
Speeding will now cost you a fine of Rs1,500 if you’re on a motorcycle and Rs2,500 for a car. Public Service Vehicles, taxis, buses or even Careem and Uber, will have to pay Rs10,000 for speeding. If they drive more than 40km/h over the speed limit, the fines will be even higher.
Violating traffic signals also costs more now. Jumping a red light will result in a fine of Rs 5,000. If you drive through a flashing red light, it’ll cost you Rs2,000 and driving through a flashing yellow light will cost you Rs1,000.
If buses and coaches will have more passengers than the allowed number of people then it will be fined Rs5,000.
Here is the list of some major fines:
Rs,5000 for driving at night without proper lights.
Rs1,500 for not wearing your seatbelt while driving.
Rs500 for using your phone while driving.
Rs1,500 for overtaking where it has been prohibited.
Rs1,000 for driving out of your lane.
Rs3,000 for disobeying stop signs.
Rs5,000 for interfering with an emergency vehicle.
Rs2,500 for driving on the wrong side of the road.
Rs1,000 for following a vehicle too closely or cutting them off too sharply.
Rs750 for driving with your rear screen partially or fully covered.
Iqra Aziz threw a big birthday bash for fiancé Yasir Hussain with all their industry friends in presence. She also publicly displayed her affection by penning a short sweet note for her “Superhero” on Instagram.
https://www.instagram.com/p/B5a5k9sAfmB/
See all the pictures and videos from the event here:
Starting with the birthday boy cutting and eating his own cake.
A selfie with the boys and best buds
How many stars can you spot?
The better-halves
Selfies all around
Yasir loved the party
https://www.instagram.com/p/B5cgeusD-Ca/
A few days back, it was Iqra’s birthday and Yasir also celebrated it with a bang and a unicorn cake.
Ministers, leaders of opposition parties, journalists as well as rights activists have voiced their support for marchers as students across the country take to roads for 2019 edition of the Students’ Solidarity March and press the authorities for better educational facilities.
The marchers insist that the government must ensure the following:
Lift the ban and hold elections for student unions
Abandon privatisation of educational institutes and reverse the recent decision of school and college fee hike
The state should pledge free education for all
No more budget cuts for the Higher Education Commission (HEC) or sacking of educational staff
At least five per cent of the GDP should be allocated for education
Abolish the semester system
Lift the ban on students from participating in political activities
End the intervention of security forces in educational institutions and release all students held captive in the name of national security
Establish committees to investigate incidents of sexual harassment and ensure women are made a part of the setup
All universities should have a library, hostel and provide transport and an internet connection
Modernise education systems according to the modern scientific requirements
Set up schools and colleges in lesser developed areas and increase the quota of students coming from outside main cities
Establish research centres for a transition from fossil fuel energy to renewable energy in public sector universities
Announce April 13 as a national holiday to honour Mashal Khan
The march on Friday was held in over 50 cities across Pakistan, including Karachi, Lahore, Islamabad, Rawalpindi, Quetta, Gilgit, parts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP), Azad Jammu & Kashmir (AJK) and interior Sindh.
Students, labourers, lawyers and rights union members all joined in as thoroughfares flooded with marchers holding banners, placards and red flags. Solidarity was also expressed with members of New Delhi’s Jawaharlal Nehru University Students’ Union (JNUSU) as protests against fee hike continues across the border.
In a tweet, the Progressive Students’ Collective (PSC) shared the final locations for the march.
Rawlakot A) Degree college to Zaheer Chowk 10.30 am B) Poonch University to Main Road 11.00 am
— Progressive Students’ Collective (@PSCollective_) November 29, 2019
Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) chief Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari also lent his support to the marchers.
“The PPP has always supported student unions. The restoration of student unions by SMBB [late former prime minister Benazir Bhutto] was purposely undone to depoliticise society,” he tweeted.
end to privatization of public universities, implementation of sexual harassment legislation, right to student housing & the demilitarization of campuses. The spirit of activism and yearning for peaceful democratic process from a new generation of students is truly inspiring. 2/2
“Today students are marching in the #StudentSolidarityMarch for the restoration of unions, implementation of right to education, end to privatisation of public universities, implementation of sexual harassment legislation, right to student housing & the demilitarisation of campuses. The spirit of activism and yearning for a peaceful democratic process from a new generation of students is truly inspiring [sic].”
Earlier in the day, Federal Minister for Science and Technology Fawad Chaudhary also came out in support of the restoration of student unions and termed the ban “undemocratic”.
I fully support Restoration of students unions, ban on students unions is anti democratic,we can always ensure that students politics must remain violence free and regulations may be introduced for smooth functioning but ban on students politics amounts to limit future politics
Federal Minister for Human Rights Shireen Mazari wrote:
Causing polarisation. What is needed is not a ban on Student Unions but clear rules – which Unis shd enforce – so that student unions function effectively as they do in other parts of the world – learning tolerance & accommodation of the other.
Among others who expressed support for student marchers were politicians including PPP’s Farhatullah Babar, former Awami National Party (ANP) parliamentarian Bushra Gohar and journalists, including Mazhar Abbas.
We stand by and with #StudentSolidarityMarch. Ban on unions unacceptable, intimidating presence of uniform on campuses unacceptable, forced occupation of students space by uniform unacceptable, shrinking space for intellectual infrastructure in name of 5G war unacceptable https://t.co/0lovJs2aIO
Earlier, the PSC and other organisations from all over Pakistan had formed the committee (SAC) at a national level to demand the revival of student unions and other issues. Representatives of student organisations from Sindh, Balochistan, Gilgit Baltistan, KP, AJK and Punjab are part of the SAC.
According to Dawn, over the past three weeks, SAC office bearers have conducted corner meetings in public and private educational institutions to hold the march in their respective areas. They said the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government had left students dejected and directionless and reduced the higher education budget to almost half, bringing Pakistan into the list of countries that spend very less on education.
Ahead of the march, scores of Pakistani student leaders studying at international universities have also voiced their support for the march.
In an open letter addressed to the government, students have come together under the banner of the Pakistan International Students Alliance (PISA) and registered opposition to the ban on student unions.
In yet another faux pas, Google now says that ‘Lahore’ is the capital of Khalistan — a seperate country that Indian Sikhs seek as their homeland in the Punjab region of eastern Pakistan and western India.
An Indian Twitter user attached the screenshot of the Google search declaring Lahore as the capital of Khalistan state with a blue-saffron flag and a ‘Khanda’ insignia of Sikhism on it.
Indian media went into haywire following the circulation of the images, saying that Google search had “substantiated its accusations on Pakistan for fanning and supporting the separatist movement”.
“The new state created would be called Khalistan in the modern territories of Eastern Pakistan and Western India. Its stated capital would be Lahore, a city where the Sikh empire was commenced by Maharaja Ranjit Singh and ruled for centuries by his descendants,” one of the search results read.
Former chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee (CJCSC) General Zubair Mahmood Hayat, who retired on November 27, is tossed high into the air by colleagues on the tunes of “For He’s a Jolly Good Fellow”.
Facebook will pay $600 to users sharing opinions on its new application “Viewpoint” that will be introduced to facilitate its market research purpose.
Viewpoint will give back users a voluntarily control to participate in market research, surveys and different programme, for which Facebook has announced to pay $600 a year.
The purpose of the application is to collect information directly from the users to improve the performance of its products like Facebook, Whatsapp, Instagram, Oculus, Portal and others.
“Today, we’re introducing Facebook Viewpoints, a new market research app that rewards people for participating in surveys, tasks, and research. We believe the best way to make products better is to get insights directly from people who use them. We’ll use these insights to improve products like Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, Portal and Oculus, and to benefit the broader community,” Facebook Product Manager Erez Naveh said.
The participants will be paid through PayPal after scoring a set number of points in the programme. The users will also be asked to carry out various tasks to acquire feedback to improve the product or service, such as assisting the company’s artificial intelligence technology.
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Chief Minister Mahmood Khan has introduced a smartphone application, “Mera Bacha Alert” to help citizens and concerned departments in the recovery of missing children in the province.
According to reports, the launch event of the application took place at the Chief Minister’s Secretariat where CM Mahmood appreciated the efforts of the Performance Management and Reforms Unit of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. He said that the app would not only help in recovering the missing children but would also discourage dreadful incidents regarding innocent children in the province.
The mobile app is available in the KP citizen’s portal and soon will be added to the Pakistan citizen’s portal.
This application will allow parents to register a report if their child goes missing. They will be able to upload a picture along with the necessary attributes.
The application will auto-generate alerts and SMS
will be sent to the District Police Officer (DPO), Regional Police Officer
(RPO), Inspector General of Police (IGP) and the chief secretary.
Moreover, the details including registration of FIR,
starting of investigation, dispatching of the team, evidence collection and
completion of investigation would also be added to the dashboard of District
Police Officer (DPO)
This application will also help in developing a
directory of all the cases of missing children at the provincial level and can
be monitored by the Chief Minister and Chief Secretary as well.
