Pictures of a nine-year-old Balochi girl surfing the waves are doing the rounds on social media and people cannot stop praising her for her talent. The girl’s name has not yet been identified.
A few Twitter users also wished her to represent Pakistan at an international level.
Seven soldiers have been martyred in two separate terror incidents in Balochistan, the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) said on Tuesday.
According to the ISPR statement, terrorists targeted a vehicle of the Frontier Corps (FC) in Mach using improvised explosive devices (IEDs), claiming the lives of six Pakistan Army soldiers.
The martyred soldiers were identified as Naib Subedar Ihsan Ullah Khan, Naik Zubair Khan, Naik Ijaz Ahmed, Naik Maula Bux, Naik Noor Muhammad and Abdul Jabbar.
In a separate incident at Kech, another soldier, Sipahi Imdad Ali was martyred in an exchange of fire with militants.
Just a day ago, another soldier was martyred and three others wounded when an explosive device ripped through a crowded bazaar near Mirali in North Waziristan tribal district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP).
On May 9, at least six soldiers, including an Army major, were martyred after a roadside bomb struck a vehicle of the FC in Balochistan, close to the border with Iran. The attack was later claimed by the Balochistan Liberation Army, a Baloch separatist group.
Balochistan, which shares its border with neighbouring Afghanistan and Iran, is the largest of the country’s four provinces with a population of roughly seven million.
The Balochistan government has declared wearing a mask mandatory for the citizens to control the spread of coronavirus.
According to the Balochistan government’s spokesperson, Liaquat Shahwani, the citizens have been advised to wear mask or to cover their faces with any cloth in the wake of COVID-19 outbreak.
“This will help the government in controlling over the pandemic”, Shahwani said and added that strict action would be taken against the violators of the government orders.
The the latest tally of coronavirus cases of the province up to 351.
Pakistani human rights activist and lawyer Jalila Haider is being honoured by the United States Department of State with the International Women of Courage Award for the year 2020. Jalila is among the 12 women from across the world who will be receiving the honour.
According to a statement posted on their official website, the award recognises women around the globe who have “demonstrated exceptional courage and leadership in advocating for peace, justice, human rights, gender equality, and women’s empowerment at great personal risk.”
The department stated that Haider was the “Iron Lady” of Balochistan, who had initiated a non-profit to support local communities by strengthening opportunities for vulnerable women and children.
The statement further read: “She has fought against violence against women in public spaces. She specializes in defending women’s rights and provides free counseling and legal services to poverty-affected women. The first female attorney of her Hazara community, Haider led a peaceful hunger strike to recognise the right to life for the Hazaras.”
Other women on the list include Zarifa Ghafari (Afghanistan), Lucy Kocharyan (Armenia), Shahla Humbatova (Azerbaijan), Ximena Galarza (Bolivia), Claire Ouedraogo (Burkina Faso), Sayragul Sauytbay (China), Susanna Liew (Malaysia), and Amaya Coppens (Nicaragua).
Haider is a rights lawyer giving free legal services to women in poverty. In October last year, Haider was named one of the 100 most influential women of 2019 by the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC).
Besides being a vocal activist for the rights of women, she is also the founder of We the Humans, a non-profit organisation working with local communities to provide opportunities for vulnerable women.
All public and private educational institutes are closed in Balochistan until March 15 to protect children from the spread of Coronavirus. After two cases were confirmed in Pakistan on Wednesday, one in Karachi and one in Islamabad, governments are taking precautionary measures.
The notification states that all public and private educational institutes, as well as madrassas, will be closed for more than two weeks.
“The ongoing examinations of Grade 9 and Matriculation are also suspended,” the education minister said in a video message, “We want to keep our children safe’. He also said that it was a safety measure and no one needed to panic.
RELATED: Two coronavirus cases confirmed in Pakistan
Sindh Education Minister Saeed Ghani also announced that the schools in the province would remain closed on Thursday and Friday, after the confirmation of a case in Karachi on Wednesday night.
The State Minister for Health Dr. Zafar Mirza tweeted last night, confirming the two cases.
He said that everything was under control and also tweeted a helpline number.
He asked people to refrain from sharing personal information of the patients saying that the patient in Karachi, as well as his family, was immediately placed in quarantine at a private hospital on the National Stadium Road while the one in Islamabad was moved to the capital’s Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS).
In a rather embarrassing development, President Dr Arif Alvi has forgotten the names of Balochistan Governor Amanullah Khan Yasinzai and Chief Minister (CM) Jam Kamal Khan, calling them Amanullah Khan Yousafzai and Jamal Khan Aliani instead.
The blunder by the president came as he greeted attendees at the inaugural ceremony of the historic Sibi Mela 2020, but went unnoticed by many until Twitterati pointed it out and said it was “just the ignorant attitude of the people of Pakistan towards the country’s southwestern region of Balochistan”.
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Earlier, addressing the inaugural ceremony, the president said that the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) would open up new avenues of progress and prosperity and change destiny of the country, especially Balochistan.
He said the construction of Gwadar deep seaport, airport, oil refinery, important corridors and economic zones would provide job opportunities to the people of Balochistan, which would end poverty and bring prosperity to them.
He said that Gwadar would emerge as a new developed part on the world’s map.
President Alvi said that Balochistan was the most-affected area in the war against terrorism where the local people suffered a lot, adding the federal government was paying special attention to the construction and development of the province to end the sense of deprivation of the local people.
He also said security forces of the country valiantly fought the war against militancy and terrorism and brought peace to the motherland, adding the terrorists would not succeed in their nefarious designs. Alvi said promotion of agriculture and livestock was need of the hour and the present government was fully concentrating on it as these two sectors were a big source of employment to the local people.
The Balochistan Food Authority has imposed a ban on gutka (chewing tobacco) consumption in the province.
Director-General BFA Ibrahim Baloch said the consumption of gutka is a health risk and people who eat it regularly are at risk of getting mouth, tongue or throat cancer.
“We won’t allow anyone to play with human lives,” said the DG.
The food authority has delivered a notification to all deputy commissioners, asking them to take action against those who produce and sell gutka, along with the customers.
Sindh has already imposed a ban on eating and selling gutka on December 19, 2019. According to the law, chewing of gutka can lead to imprisonment for six years and a fine of Rs500,000 will be imposed on violators.
The Balochistan government has taken guardianship of a street child whose video, in which he was seen carrying a shoe-polishing kit on a footpath in severely cold weather, went viral on social media.
As per reports, the provincial government’s spokesperson, Liaquat Shahwani, said the video of the child made him very upset.
“It’s heart-wrenching to watch this video. I was hurt and upset when I saw those visuals,” Shahwani shared.
“We have already fixed a budget of 50 crores for child protection authority and will work towards an effective legislation against child labour,” said the spokesman adding that the Chief Minister Balochistan Jam Kamal Khan has taken responsibility for this child himself.
The video shows the child sitting in
a corner trying to keep himself warm in this bitter cold, with a shoe-polishing
kit next to him.
While the government has been unable to locate him until now, Shahwani said that he will be taken under the government’s wing as soon as he is located.
“It was around 12:30 AM, when I went there. I’ve visited the place three times but the child was not there. I have assigned people the duty to locate the child. I will go myself once we have the address,” he said.
Balochistan National Party-Mengal (BNP-M) chief Sardar Akhtar Mengal has demanded the inclusion of Dera Ghazi (DG) Khan and Rajanpur into Balochistan, The Express Tribune reported.
According to the details, BNP-M chief while addressing a gathering held at Kalama Chowk of Taunsa tehsil in honour of the martyrs of Koh-e-Sulaiman said that Balochistan had the lowest population in Pakistan despite having an area of 43% of the country.
“Both these regions should be included in Balochistan to balance the population,” Mengal said, adding that they were part of the province at the time of partition.
While criticising the the government for launching mega projects such as metro trains under the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) in other cities of the country, he said that no welfare projects were being introduced in Balochistan.
Akhtar Mengal also accused the government of “selling” the entire country, including Balochistan province under CPEC.
Akhtar said that he is only supporting the government for the implementation of his six-point agenda.
“I am not supporting them in greed for any post,” he added, saying that he was striving for the rights of his people within the framework of the Constitution.
He further demanded of the Punjab chief minister to conduct an inquiry into the killing of two persons in DG Khan two months back in police encounter.