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Citizens who will help the government identify hoarders will be rewarded 10% of the confiscated goods, Special Assistant to Prime Minister on Information and Broadcasting Dr Firdous Ashiq Awan has said.

She took to Twitter to urge people to help the government identify hoarders and do good to the society.

The government recently passed the COVID-19 Prevention of Hoarding Ordinance, 2020 to punish businessmen profiteering and stocking up on essential grocery items.

Under the ordinance, the violator will be sentenced to five years in prison and will have to pay an amount equivalent to 50% of the seized goods,” Dr. Awan said.

She remarked that a smooth supply of essential goods to people was the “greatest responsibility” of the government.

The ordinance is Prime Minister Imran Khan’s initiative to protect people from getting exploited at the hands of businessmen, Dr. Awan added. The ordinance was formed after incidents of hoarding increased because of the coronavirus.

After the surging fears over coronavirus in India, a woman in Andhra Pradesh refused entry to her husband in the house, till he underwent COVID-19 test.

The incident took place in Nellore district when the man stuck there since the lockdown began finally returned to his home town.

The man, working in a gold shop in Nellore, was stranded there since lockdown was enforced last month. He finally succeeded in reaching home but his wife asked him to first undergo the screening for coronavirus before entering the house.

She said this was needed for the safety of the children and society. She suggested he stay in a local healthcare center and requested volunteers to test him for the virus.

The health personnel later took the man to Nellore, where his samples were collected. The test result was negative, much to the relief of the man and his family.

“I would not have risked the lives of children and those living in the neighbourhood. That’s why I insisted that he enter the house after undergoing the test,” the woman said.

Lock down in big cities left hundreds of caged cats, dogs and rabbits dead inside pet markets, Dawn reported.

Empress Market, Karachi: Very few animals were rescued when activists appealed the authorities to access closed shops. The cries of the locked pets could be heard from outside Empress Market. Together, the market housed more than 1,000 animals.

“When we got inside, the majority of them were dead, about 70 per cent. Their bodies were lying on the ground,” said Ayesha Chundrigar, who runs ACF Animal Rescue.

“It was so horrific, I can’t tell you.”
Starving and locked in cages with no light or ventilation, the survivors sat amongst the dead, trembling.

After the desperate rescue, Chundrigar has now convinced the Karachi authorities to allow pet shop owners and her team daily access to the animals.

In Lahore, animals were found under the same circumstances. The bodies of about 20 dogs were found dumped in a sewer near Tollinton Market, a hub for pet businesses which had closed leaving animals to starve.

Kiran Maheen was able to rescue more than two dozen dogs, rabbits and cats after convincing officials at the market to let her in, but a large number had already died.
“When the police opened up the shutters, a lot of animals were already lying dead inside, many had suffocated from a lack of air.”

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A suspected patient of the new coronavirus — COVID-19 — on Tuesday passed away at Lahore’s Mayo Hospital where he was under treatment since developing symptoms following his return from Iran.

While some reports quote official sources as saying that the patient tested positive for the virus — marking the first fatality in Pakistan due to the global pandemic, others contradict the claim, saying the patient died of liver failure.

An official confirmation of the circumstances surrounding the suspected coronavirus patient’s death was tweeted by Punjab Chief Minister (CM) Usman Buzdar later in the day.

A video available with The Current showed the deceased being brought out of the hospital in a coffin by staff in hazmat suits.

WATCH VIDEO:

The individual had returned from Iran via the Taftan border crossing and spent 14 days in quarantine, reports said.

While Ministry of National Health Services had earlier reportedly confirmed the death, Punjab Health Minister Dr Yasmin Rashid said the deceased patient, who was a native of Hafizabad, had been brought to the hospital on Monday night and the results of his tests were still awaited.

She added that the deceased was not the first and only confirmed patient of the virus in Lahore, who is still in isolation at the same hospital.

The minister said that the deceased patient’s blood samples were sent for testing while he had been kept in quarantined isolation at Mayo Hospital.

The deceased had cleared screening upon arriving in the country.

This was a developing story

Bill Gates has left Microsoft’s board of directors to devote more time to his philanthropy projects, DAWN reported.

The 64-year-old stopped being involved in day-to-day operations at the firm more than a decade ago, turning his attention to the foundation he launched with his wife, Melinda.

Gates served as chairman of Microsoft’s board of directors until early 2014 and has now stepped away entirely.

“It’s been a tremendous honour and privilege to have worked with and learned from Bill over the years,” Microsoft chief executive and company veteran Satya Nadella said in a press release.

“Bill founded our company with a belief in the democratising force of software and a passion to solve society’s most pressing challenges, and Microsoft and the world are better for it.”

Nadella said Microsoft would continue to benefit from Gates’ “technical passion and advice” in his continuing role as a technical advisor.

“I am grateful for Bill’s friendship and look forward to continuing to work alongside him,” he further added.

Saudi Arabia said Saturday it would suspend international flights for two weeks in response to the coronavirus outbreak, Samaa reported

“The Kingdom’s government decided to suspend international flights for two weeks (Starting from Sunday March 15) as part of its efforts to prevent the spread of #CoronaVirus,” the foreign ministry tweeted.

Saudi Arabia has recorded 86 cases of the virus so far, but no deaths, according to the health ministry.

The kingdom had already halted flights to some countries and closed schools and universities as part of measures to contain the disease.

Authorities have also suspended Umrah pilgrimage to the Muslim holy cities of Mecca and Medina for fear of the virus spreading.

Pakistani media mogul, philanthropist and Jang/Geo Group owner Mir Shakilur Rehman on Thursday was arrested by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) Lahore in what sources said was a case pertaining to the purchase of a 54-kanal land.

Rehman is accused of leasing the said land from former prime minister (PM) Nawaz Sharif in Lahore in 1986, which he was not eligible for.

The anti-graft watchdog will produce Rehman in front of an accountability court on Friday for his physical remand, NAB spokesperson Nawazish Ali has said.

The arrest comes a week after the Jang Group of Newspapers editor-in-chief appeared before NAB Lahore and informed anti-graft officials that he had purchased the 54 kanals from a private owner and possessed evidence of the same.

He also asked the anti-graft watchdog to let him know in writing the information they required of him.

“The NAB has honest officers as well,” Rehman had said while speaking to journalists outside the NAB office. The media mogul had added he was hopeful that the watchdog and the courts would decide the case fairly.

In response to a question, he had said everyone was fully aware of the curbs on Pakistani media, and noted that similar accusations were levelled against him in the past as well but were proven to be false.

Punjab government’s first-ever payment aggregator — a service provider that allows merchants to process mobile or e-commerce payments — called ePay and launched for citizen facilitation and ease of business, has collected over Rs1 billion in tax revenue, The Express Tribune reported.

ePay was launched on October 4 last year in a collaborative effort between the provincial finance department and Punjab Information Technology Board (PITB).

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This application provides the public with a stress-free and efficient method of paying taxes and making payments to the government through contemporary banking channels, without going through the ages-old exhausting process.

Moreover, multiple new payment channels like debit/credit card, mobile wallets, TELCO agent networks and direct debit from the account are being added to further increase the payment options available to the citizens and businesses in the app.

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Additionally, it is also planned to include Government to Public (G2P) and Government to Business (G2B) payment models in future to broaden the horizon of the programme and also add tax/non-tax receipts like online admission fee for colleges/schools, driving license fee, e-challan, character certificate, domicile, fitness certificate (commercial vehicles) and agriculture income tax.

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The initiative has proved to be a game-changer in the local fintech industry by playing a pivotal role in increasing tax revenue collection of the province and improving financial inclusion. In its first phase, 13 taxes/levies of five departments have been made part of the system.

Excise & Taxation, Board of Revenue (BoR), Punjab Revenue Authority (PRA), Industries and Transport are the departments liaised with the system through which citizens can pay token tax, motor vehicle registration, transfer of motor vehicle, property tax, professional tax, cotton fee, e-stamping, mutation fee, fard fee and sales tax among others.