Tag: December

  • ECP to announce election schedule on December 17

    ECP to announce election schedule on December 17

    The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) will announce election schedule on December 17, allowing candidates to submit their nomination papers the next day, The News has reported on Thursday.

    ECP will take 54 days to complete the process of conducting polls in the country on February 8, next year.

    Article 220 of the constitution says that once the election schedule is announced, the caretaker government is bound to support the ECP to conduct free and fair elections in the country.

    On the other hand, ECP has halted the training of district returning officers (DROs) and returning officers (ROs) designated for the forthcoming general elections set to take place on February 8 next year.

    The ECP spokesperson issued a notification saying that the Lahore High Court (LHC) had ordered the training of DROs and ROs to stop.

    Election commissioners of Punjab, Sindh, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and Balochistan have been notified. The training of DROs and ROs is currently in progress in Karachi, Lahore, Peshawar, and Quetta.

    Previously, the high court declined the order of the ECP appointing ROs from the bureaucracy for the upcoming general election on February 8, 2024.

  • Holidays are around the corner in Sindh

    The Sindh Department of Education has officially announced the winter vacation schedule for all educational institutions.

    Holidays will commence on December 22 and end on December 31.

    All private and government educational institutions, including universities, colleges, and schools in the province will reopen on January 1, 2024.

    The winter vacation 2023 in Sindh notification was issued on November 30.

    The holidays are being observed in accordance with the decision of the department’s annual steering committee, said the secretary of education.

  • Who is Haris Rauf reportedly marrying on December 26?

    Who is Haris Rauf reportedly marrying on December 26?

    Pakistani pacer Harif Rauf will tie the knot on December 26, GEO Super has reported.

    As per the details, he will get married to a former classmate. The wedding will take place in Islamabad.

    The news report says that the pacer has joined his family in the capital for the preparation of wedding festivities.

    In 2020, he played his first T20I against Bangladesh in Lahore. Haris made his Test debut at Rawalpindi during the ongoing home Test series against England.

    The wedding will cap off what has been a stellar year for the bowler as he claimed his first Test wicket on debut against England this year.
    In the 57 T20 international matches since making his international debut two years back, Haris has picked 72 wickets while in 15 ODIs, he has succeeded in claiming 29 wickets.

  • Six Muslim students wearing hijab banned from Indian college, forced to sign false statements

    Six Muslim students wearing hijab banned from Indian college, forced to sign false statements

    A group of muslim students at a college in the southern Indian state of Karnataka were stopped from attending classes for weeks after the principal refused to allow them to wear headscarves in the classroom.

    “When we arrived at the door of the classroom, the teacher said we cannot enter with the hijab,” one of the students told Al Jazeera. 

    “She asked us to remove it.”

    The college is a government-run women’s college in Udupi district of India’s Karnataka state in the south. The students were forced to sit outside the classroom because the college administration alleges they are “defying the rules” since hijab is not part of the uniform.

    The girls told Al Jazeera the hijab is “part of their faith” and wearing it is “their right guaranteed under the law”.

     The girls have been marked as absent since December 31 despite visiting the college daily.

    “We are not going to budge, no way,” Aliya Assadi, who is a part of the group, told Al Jazeera.

    A photo has gone viral on social media of the students clad in hijab and college dresses sitting on the steps outside their classroom.

    “It is because of this photo that our issue got highlighted in the media,” said Assadi.

    Their protest has riled up the college administration which, according to the group, forced them to write a letter accepting they missed the classes by staying home on their own.

    “We tried to refuse but the principal and the teachers threatened us that they would ruin our careers,” Muskan Zainab, another student, told Al Jazeera.

  • PIA to fly to European countries once again as EU decides to lift ban

    PIA to fly to European countries once again as EU decides to lift ban

    The ban imposed by the European Union (EU) on Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) flight operations is expected to be lifted soon, local media reported quoting the country’s Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) official.

    The ban had been imposed following the crash of a PIA aircraft in May last year, which resulted in the deaths of 97 passengers and crew.

    An International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) audit team that had visited to undertake a safety audit of the aviation authority completed the process on December 10. Its final report will be released in a few weeks and shared publicly, The News reported.

    According to The News, the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) had extended travel restrictions imposed on PIA in April for an indefinite period and directed the Pakistan Civil Aviation Authority (PCAA) to get its safety audit done by ICAO scheduled in July.

    In its January 4 letter to DG CAA Khaqan Murtaza, ICAO’s Deputy Director Denis Guindon wrote that the committee conducted the audit in December 2021 and “determined that the actions taken by Pakistan had successfully resolved SSC (Significant Safety Concern).”

    “I wish to refer to the Significant Safety Concern (SSC/PEL-01/09-2020/PAK refers) that was issued to Pakistan on September 18, 2020, as well as the Universal Safety Oversight Audit Programme (USOAP) Continuous Monitoring Approach (CMA) audit that was conducted by an ICAO team in Pakistan from 29 November to 10 December 2021.”

    He further said that until the CAA received the approval, PIA would not be able to resume flight operations to the EU.

    “In accordance with the USOAP SSC process, […] the ICAO SSC Validation Committee reviewed the actions and relevant evidence validated in Pakistan. The Committee determined that the actions taken by Pakistan had successfully resolved SSC,” the letter stated.