Tag: Lahore

  • LHC extends winter vacations for Lahore’s schools and colleges due to smog

    LHC extends winter vacations for Lahore’s schools and colleges due to smog

    Due to rising smog, the Lahore High Court (LHC) on Tuesday ordered the government to extend the winter break for all schools and colleges in the capital of Punjab by one week.

    The order was given by the high court as it heard a petition calling for action to reduce smog in the city. It stated that the government was in charge of implementing preventative measures after the smog.

    The Provincial Disaster Management Authority’s (PDMA) director general has also been called before the LHC for the next hearing.

    The change occurs while Lahore consistently ranks first among the top 10 most polluted cities in the world.

    All public and private schools in the province will be closed from December 24 to December 31 due to the earlier announcement made by the Punjab School Education Department. The reopening day for the schools was January 2, 2023. Now, on January 9, schools and universities will reopen.

    As low-grade diesel emissions, smoke from seasonal agricultural burnoff, and colder winter temperatures combine to form stagnant clouds of smog, air pollution has gotten worse in Pakistan recently.

  • Lahore Traffic Police launches crackdown on drugged drivers, wardens to use alcohol detectors

    Lahore Traffic Police launches crackdown on drugged drivers, wardens to use alcohol detectors

    Lahore Traffic Police has initiated a crackdown on drug-impaired drivers. The operation is currently underway on major roads in Lahore, including Mall Road, Jail Road, and Canal Road.

    According to reports, traffic officers have been issued digital alcohol testers, which will be used on drivers to assess if they are drunk or high on narcotics.

    Anyone caught driving under the influence of drugs will face severe penalties under the motor vehicle ordinance.

    Lahore Traffic Police has also instructed motorists to drive at a speed of 40–60 km/h on the stated roads and to maintain a safe distance, especially during fog. It advised motorists to drive with low beams and avoid switching lanes frequently.

    Owing to dense fog and low visibility, traffic police prohibited entry on the Lahore Ring Road Eastern Bypass to the Sialkot Motorway on Sunday night.

  • Govt to buy more than 500 hybrid buses for Lahore

    Govt to buy more than 500 hybrid buses for Lahore

    According to Chief Minister Chaudhry Parvez Elahi, 300 hybrid buses would be bought for Lahore in the first phase of the government’s plan to run environment-friendly hybrid buses in the city.

    About 200 new bus stops would be set up to facilitate the citizens, according to the chief minister. The 20th meeting of the Punjab Masstransit Authority (PMA), which was presided over by Parvez Elahi, decided to purchase hybrid buses that are environmentally friendly.

    Parvez Elahi informed the participants that a total of 513 hybrid buses would be operating in the city and that the Punjab Masstransit Authority would use private companies to run new hybrid buses.

    The chief minister mandated that seats be set aside in the new buses for women, special individuals with disabilities, and people who are blind or visually impaired, adding that these seats should be positioned close to the bus door. The chief minister gave the go-ahead to build new bus stops in Lahore and added that the routes of the new buses should be planned with women’s educational institutions’ schedules in mind.

    Parvez Elahi criticised the fact that previous attempts at creating a government-level transportation system spectacularly failed due to egregious incompetence in the creation of a long-lasting transportation system in the province.

    The chief minister gave his approval for the Punjab Masstransit Authority to open offices in Dera Gujran and for the authority to conduct auctions. Iftikhar Gondal, Khadija Umar, Shamim Aftab, Muhammad Khan Bhatti’s principal secretary, the secretaries of finance and transportation, along with other members of the Punjab Assembly, attended the meeting.

  • Dissolution of assemblies: CM Elahi goes to Rawalpindi ahead of Imran’s date announcement

    Dissolution of assemblies: CM Elahi goes to Rawalpindi ahead of Imran’s date announcement

    Punjab Chief Minister (CM) Pervaiz Elahi on Friday air-dashed to Rawalpindi and returned to Lahore after a brief meeting with an “important personality”.

    CM Elahi traveled to Rawalpindi on Friday evening where he held an important meeting. After returning to Lahore at night, he held consultations with his party leaders and also took Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain into confidence, reports Geo News.

    It is pertinent to mention that the development comes just hours before the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan’s announcement of the date for the dissolution of Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) today.

    According to the media outlet, after the meeting in Rawalpindi, Elahi opposed dissolving the assembly and suggested to Imran Khan not to take the decision in haste.

    Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid (PML-Q) leader Moonis Elahi also met Imran Khan before “the Rawalpindi meeting”. He told the PTI leader that the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM)-led government can victimise the PTI and PML-Q leadership if the assemblies are dissolved.

    If Elahi doesn’t dissolve the Punjab Assembly, the PTI chief Imran Khan would be left with the option of his party’s lawmakers resigning from the assembly.

    On the other hand, Dawn reports that PML-Q said it would remain PTI’s political ally in the next general election, but demanded 25 to 30 seats across the Gujrat division, parts of south Punjab and Sialkot district.

    Khan will announce the dissolution of both provincial assemblies in the much-awaited video-link address at Liberty Roundabout in Lahore today. CM Elahi and KP CM Mahmood Khan would be personally present in the public congregations.

  • Unusual date: Man wears burqa to meet his love, arrested by police in Lahore

    Unusual date: Man wears burqa to meet his love, arrested by police in Lahore

    A man in Lahore was arrested by police for wearing a burqa and pretending to be a woman, 24 News has reported.

    The incident took place in Lahore’s greater Iqbal Park, where the burqa-clad man was waiting to meet his lover.

    The park’s gardeners became suspicious of the burqa-clad man’s gait and gestures, informing the police of their suspicions. The man was then promptly apprehended by police officers.

    Read more- Sindh gang trap Lahori boys through ‘love calls’ by woman, kidnaps them

    In another story of romance gone wrong, a Sindh based gang has honey trapped Lahori men through phone calls, lured them to Sindh before kidnapping them and asking ransom from their families.

  • It will be easy to take legal action against IK if he dissolves assemblies: PML-N’s Ahsan Iqbal

    It will be easy to take legal action against IK if he dissolves assemblies: PML-N’s Ahsan Iqbal

    Federal Minister for Planning and Development, Ahsan Iqbal, has said that if Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan dissolves provincial assemblies in Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) it will be easy for law enforcement agencies to take action against him if they want to.

    Talking to Geo News’ programme ‘Aaj Shahzeb Khanzada Kay Sath‘, the minister warned the PTI chief, accusing him of using the provincial assemblies as his “shield”.

    Iqbal said, “Imran Khan has made these provincial governments his shield, when he is afraid of arrest, he either runs to Peshawar or Lahore.”

    “But if Khan dissolves these assemblies and the law wants to take him in its hand, it will be easy to do so,” he stated.

    Commenting on Khan’s announcement on the matter of PTI’s Members of the National Assembly (MNAs) resignations, the federal minister said that even if they are saying it, they are still living in parliamentary lodges.

    On Wednesday, Khan announced that he would give the date for the dissolution of Punjab and KP assemblies on December 17 (tomorrow) at Lahore’s Liberty Chowk.

  • Back to 2020? Markets, restaurants to be closed by 10pm

    Back to 2020? Markets, restaurants to be closed by 10pm

    The Lahore High Court (LHC) has issued orders to close markets and restaurants in Lahore by 10pm in order to control the worsening smog in the city.

    The court gave out its ruling after a hearing on a petition seeking the court’s intervention to curb smog. According to the orders, the closure of markets and restaurants by 10pm will be enforced on weekdays.

    On weekends, however, restaurants will be allowed to close at 11pm. Although it has been suggested that markets should remain closed on Sundays but the suggestion has been put off for now.

    Regarding schools, the court said that schools that remained open on Fridays will be sealed and directed the education department to strictly implement its orders.

    Last week, the Punjab Government ordered closure of schools in the provincial capital for three days a week— Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

    Pakistan’s biggest cities have ranked among the most polluted in the world for the past few weeks, with Lahore, the capital of Punjab, having topped the list the metropolises with the most polluted air several times in the last month.

  • India behind Johar Town bomb blast in Lahore: Rana Sanaullah

    India behind Johar Town bomb blast in Lahore: Rana Sanaullah

    Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah has revealed that India was behind the Johar Town blast in Lahore— a powerful blast in 2021 near the residence of Jamaatud Dawa (JuD) chief Hafiz Saeed, which resulted in three deaths.

    He held a joint press conference on Tuesday with Punjab Counter Terrorism Department (CTD) Additional Inspector General Imran Mehmood, during which he said that there is “clear evidence” of India carrying out terrorist activities in Pakistan.

    The minister further added that India’s footprints are seen in all terror activities carried out in Pakistan and New Delhi’s activities have gone “beyond that of an enemy state” just to hide its atrocities in Indian-Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK).

    He said that Pakistan will raise this matter before the world. The minister also mentioned that the banned Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) had support from the foreign intelligence agency of India, Research and Analysis Wing (RAW), to carry out terrorist activities in Pakistan.

    Mehmood also briefly explained who were the culprits behind the Johar Town blast.

    He said that in the initial 24 hours, CTD arrested three terrorists. However, Sami ul Haq — the main handler of RAW-sponsored terror activities in Pakistan — was arrested a year later in April when he was trying to enter Pakistan via Balochistan

    According to Mehmood, his Red Warrants were issued through Interpol. Mehmood added that his brother-in-law, Uzair Akbar, assisted Sami in terror activities and his Red Warrants were issued as well. CTD also got information about Naveed Akhtar — who did the surveillance and selected the target.

    “We also found out that close to a million dollars of terror financing was done through India to spread terrorism in Pakistan through different channels,” he revealed, adding that all the arrested persons have been sentenced to death three times by the court.

    Prior to this, days after the incident, the then information minister Fawad Chaudhry and National Security Adviser Dr Moeed Yusuf said that the mastermind of the attack was “an Indian citizen and he is associated with RAW”.

  • Lahore police arrests three people involved in online gambling

    Lahore police arrests three people involved in online gambling

    Lahore police arrested three people for engaging in online (digital) gambling and recovered Rs1 lakh cash and three cell phones from their possession.

    According to The News, the accused were named as Shoaib, Salim, and the ringleader, Faizan.

    The accused Faizan developed the betting app, in which more than 100 people were involved. The accused used to bet on all sporting events, including football, hockey, tennis, and cricket, through the app.

    Besides this, there are still a number of gambling applications available on the Apple App Store and Google Play Store that anybody can download and use for betting purposes.

    Numerous websites provide advice on how to gamble, such as by changing a few personal details or signing up to bet using a random name.

  • Lahore gets its first transgender school, will provide free education

    Lahore gets its first transgender school, will provide free education

    The Punjab School Education Department (SED) has opened the first school exclusively for transgender people in Lahore on Wednesday. The school was inaugurated in New Garden Town near Barkat Market by
    Provincial Education Minister Punjab Murad Raas.

    The school, which was opened on Wednesday, will work in two shifts where the first half will be dedicated to imparting mainstream education while the second half will focus on teaching technical skills. Students will be provided with free books, uniforms, school bags, and pick and drop service.

    Three transgender schools in the province are already being run in Multan, Bahawalpur and Dera Ghazi Khan.