FARUKH SHEHZAD

• The total number of confirmed cases has reached 1,055,047.

The death toll has hit 18,533 with 209 fatalities recorded in the past 24 hours.

The government reported 326,521 active cases as of December 31. In total, there have been 1,153,328 reports on suspected COVID-19 since the beginning of 2020.

"In the past day, 9,699 people tested positive for the coronavirus, including 341 children and 439 healthcare workers. Some 2,704 new patients were hospitalized," Ukrainian Health Minister Maksym Stepanov wrote on Facebook on Thursday.

In total, 58,547 tests were conducted in the country in the past day. In particular, there were 38,932 PCR (polymerase chain reaction) tests run, as well as 19,615 ELISA (enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay) tests.

The highest number of new confirmed cases in the past 24 hours was registered the city of Kyiv (1,332), Kyiv region (669), and Zaporizhia region (660), Kharkiv region (570), and Odesa region (533).

Data from Russia-occupied areas – the Autonomous Republic of Crimea, the city of Sevastopol, parts of Donetsk and Luhansk regions – is not available.

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COURTESY unian.info

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KARACHI, DEC 31 - Karachi University’s Examinations Department has begun conducting the MBBS and BDS annual examinations 2019 for the students of the Karachi Medical and Dental College (KMDC) after two years delay.

The KMDC is the only medical college affiliated with KU. However, the university had not conducted MBBS and BDS exams since 2019.

Students say that they had repeatedly approached the varsity administration to resolve the issue but to no avail.

Dejected with the injustice, the students moved to the Sindh High Court (SHC) last month, sending a wake-up call to the officials of Karachi University.

Soon after the case was filed, the KU examination department agreed to conduct the annual exam for 2019 batches of MBBS and BDS students in phases. The annual exam for the first-year students (2019 batch) is being held in the first phase, with the first MBBS exam scheduled for December 31 (today.) The first paper of BDS first-year students was conducted on December 30.

The first phase of exams will continue until January 7, after which the date sheet for the second year students will be announced.

Meanwhile, KU Controller Examinations, Dr. Syed Zafar Hussain, has shifted all the blame on Pakistan Medical and Dental Council (PMDC), the old form of Pakistan Medical Commission (PMC).

Syed Zafar Hussain said that previously, KMDC followed the semester system, which was later changed to an annual system by PMDC, causing ambiguity and delayed examinations.

However, he clarified that the university was committed to making for the one year’s loss of the students in which the varsity couldn’t conduct the exams.

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COURTESY PROPAKISTANI

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KARACHI, DEC 31 - Former Chairman FBR, Shabbar Zaidi, has made some startling revelations while addressing a webinar organized by the Positive Media Communication recently.

According to the former FBR chief, Pakistani businessmen have stashed $150 billion in foreign bank accounts, a profit which they earned through local businesses.

As FBR Chief, Shabbar Zaidi visited the Karachi Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KCCI) and assured its members of easing tax-related hurdles to facilitate the businessmen in exchange for abandoning the sale of smuggled goods in Karachi.

However, President KCCI unequivocally rejected the proposal and argued that it is impossible for the businessmen to stop selling smuggled items in Karachi.

Besides the reluctance of senior FBR officials to reform the tax machinery, the Pakistani business community is also uninterested in implementing tax reforms.

Shabbar Zaidi said that except for Jehangir Tareen, none of the Pakistani politicians have listed companies because they are against documenting the undocumented sector of the economy.

He recalled that once a Pakistani businessman wanted to acquire a foreign company worth over $200 million. However, the deal fell through as the businessman had not officially declared his wealth.

Zaidi lamented that the tobacco industry remains the biggest tax-evading industry in the country, adding that he launched a track-and-trace method to curb the illicit trade of cigarettes but the court put an end to the initiative.

Among various reasons behind the tobacco industry being the largest tax-evading industry, one is that the government earns 74% of the total sales of cigarettes in the country. As a result, the industry resorts to illegal means of sale to evade such high taxes.

Tobacco, sugar, battery, white goods, motorcycles, cycles, and cement are the most smuggled products with a massive gap between production and consumption.

IT departments of income tax and customs offices mysteriously catch fire every 4 months, revealed Zaidi, adding that he tasked an intelligence agency to secure the IT system of both offices.

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COURTESY PROPAKISTANI

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ISLAMABAD, DEC 31 - Federal Education Minister, Shafqat Mahmood, has instructed the Inter Board Committee of Chairmen (IBCC) to grant provisional equivalence certificates to A-levels students.

According to details, the equivalence certificates will be issued before 19 January 2021 and will be based on previous exam results.

To all A level students. I have asked IBCC to issue provisional equivalence certificates based on previous exam results before Jan 19 so that they can apply for admission to medical and professional colleges. Applications can be made through TCS or personally to IBCC offices

— Shafqat Mahmood (@Shafqat_Mahmood) December 30, 2020

The step is aimed to enable A-levels students to apply to Pakistani educational institutions.

Students can submit applications for provisional equivalence certificates to IBCC through courier as well as in person.

Note that IBCC, last month, had partnered with a courier company to collect and return the applications for equivalence certificates at the doorsteps of the students.

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COURTESY PROPAKISTANI

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ISLAMABAD, DEC 31 - The National University of Modern Languages (NUML), Islamabad is going to offer Political Science and History programs soon.

The Rector NUML, Major General (retired) Muhammad Jaffar, announced this while presiding over the academic, literary, and cultural forum ‘Mehfil’ on Tuesday.

Renowned scholar, Professor Fateh Muhammad Malik, graced the event as the chief guest and gave an online lecture on ‘Quaid-e-Azam, Pakistan, and Youth’ in which he highlighted the historic and constitutional roles of the Quaid in the making of Pakistan.

During the lecture, Professor Malik remarked that the youth is not knowledgeable about history because subjects like Political Science and History are not adequately taught in Pakistan.

He then requested Maj-Gen (retd.) Muhammad Jaffar to introduce these programs at NUML to educate students about the true picture of the Pakistan Movement.

The Rector thanked Professor Malik and promised that NUML would incorporate the programs soon. He added that the university would stay in touch with the Professor in this regard.

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COURTESY PROPAKISTANI

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ISLAMABAD, DEC 31 - Starting tomorrow, WhatsApp will no longer work on a lot of Android and iPhones. 

WhatsApp has announced it is withdrawing support for some old devices which are currently compatible with the application. While some users with old devices will be able to keep on using WhatsApp by updating its software, others won't be so lucky.

Dropping support for old phones is not something new for WhatsApp. This time, the messaging platform is dropping support for any iPhone running on software older than iOS9.

This means that the iPhone 4 and other models won't be able to access WhatsApp from January 1, 2021. iPhone 4S, 5, 5S, 5C, 6 and 6S can all be updated to iOS9, hence they will be able to support WhatsApp once updated.

There's bad news for Android users as well. WhatsApp will no longer work on devices running Android 4.0.3 or older versions of the operating system.

What can users do?

Which operating system is your phone using?

First and foremost, you should find out which operating system your phone is using.

In order to find out what operating system your phone is running on, iPhone users can go to Settings > General > Information, where you will find information about the software version on your iPhone.

On the other hand, Android users can go to Settings > About Phone to see which Android version their smartphone is running on.

One of the main problems that users will face when their WhatsApp no longer remains accessible is no access to their chats. Hence, it is important for people with any such phones mentioned above to back up their chats before January 1, 2021 if they want to retain them.

They can do so by going to 'Chat backup' option under Chats section in Settings. Aside from backing up their chats, users of old devices should also start looking for smartphones that are compatible with WhatsApp if they want to use the messaging app in the future.

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COURTESY THE NEWS

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ISLAMABAD, DEC 31 - The government has reportedly increased the price of Liquified Petroleum Gas (LPG) by Rs. 15 per kg.

According to a statement issued by the LPG Association, from January 2021 onwards, the price of LPG will be Rs. 147 per kg instead of Rs. 132 per kg. Similarly, the price of a domestic-use gas cylinder has been increased by Rs. 180 and will now be available for Rs. 1,733 instead of Rs. 1,553.

The price of a commercial-use gas cylinder has also been increased by Rs. 692 and will now be sold for Rs. 6,667 instead of Rs 5,975.

The Chairman of All Pakistan LPG Association said that the price of LPG had risen by $79 per metric ton in the international market, after which its price had escalated from $457 to $536.

Following the issuance of a notification by the Oil and Gas Regularity Authority (OGRA), the new prices will be applicable from 1 January 2021.

The chairman threatened to have the gas supply from Khyber to Karachi stopped from 15 January 2021 if all the taxes including the levy on LPG are not waived.

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COURTESY PROPAKISTANI

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KARACHI, DEC 31 - The Karachi commissioner has directed officials to ensure that all businesses and restaurants in the city are closed down by 8pm on New Year's Eve (today).

In a notification dated Oct 30 and addressed to all the deputy commissioners, the office of the Karachi commissioner said that "owing to security reasons and on the request of the police department [...] please ensure the closure of all restaurants and business places at 8pm on the eve of New Year 2021".

In an earlier notification from the same day, the office of the Karachi commissioner had said all shops and restaurants will be close by 5pm on New Year's Eve, however, later the time for closure was extended by three hours.

During a meeting of all deputy commissioners and senior police and government officials yesterday, it was decided that standard operating procedures (SOPs) for curbing the spread of the coronavirus would be "implemented in letter and spirit".

"Police and other agencies shall be deployed at sensitive points to control the mob that might come up to celebrate the event at Seaview," the notification said.

"Ambulances and fire brigades shall be stationed at police camps that will be established at sensitive points by the police to control the law and order situation and to manage the crowd," it added.

The participants of the meeting also decided to declare an emergency at all hospitals and to make all CCTV cameras at Seaview functional to "monitor the activities".

In another notification, Karachi Commissioner Navid Ahmed Shaikh also imposed a complete ban on aerial firing on New Year's Eve.

"The deputy commissioners and assistant commissioners of Karachi division are hereby authorised to take action against violators with the concerned SSPs and get them booked under Section 188 of the Code of Criminal Procedure [...] for violating Section 144 of the CrPc," the notification reads.

Last week, the city police chief had said that people resorting to jubilant/aerial firing on New Year’s Eve would be booked under charges of attempted murder.

“If any person [is] hurt due to the firing, it would be construed that it was not aerial firing but the person was directly involved in injuring the victim,” Karachi police chief Ghulam Nabi Memon had said.

According to police data, one person was killed while several others were hurt in aerial firing on New Year’s Eve 2017 while 19 persons including women suffered bullet wounds in 2018.

Similarly, 19 persons including women and children received bullet injuries in 2019 while in 2020, 14 persons suffered injuries.

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COURTESY DAWN NEWS

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ISLAMABAD, DEC 30 - The Pakistan Medical Commission (PMC) has begun issuing the Medical and Dental College Admission Test’s (MDCAT) recounted results, it announced the news on Twitter.

The recounted results are available on the PMC’s official website. Students can access their results by entering their roll number in the search bar on the website.

The notice on the website reads: “Issuance of Recounting Results has started. Please check your recounted result online. Recounting requests will be completed in the next few days”.

The MDCAT 2020 had been conducted across the country on 29 November, followed by a special test for COVID-19 positive candidates on 13 December. The results of both the tests had been released together on 16 December.

However, the results had been riddled with inaccuracies and many candidates had demanded a recount.

After heeding the complaints, the PMC had withdrawn the results uploaded on its website and gave students the option to obtain recounted results by filling an online form.

The notification said that if a candidate’s identity information did not match their CNIC details, they could notify the PMC for rectification.

“This correction will also be done free of cost after verifying the student’s CNIC record,” the PMC had said in a statement.

The PMC had reissued amended results on 17 December. However, a number of candidates believe that many of the results were inaccurate, which had prompted the PMC to issue recounted results.

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COURTESY PRO PAKISTANI

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LONDON, DEC 30 - A new variant of the novel coronavirus does not appear to cause more severe illness than other variants, according to a matched study by Public Health England.

Scientists say the new variant can spread more rapidly. It was found in England in mid-December and led to other countries imposing travel restrictions to the United Kingdom. Several other countries have reported variants, including Pakistan, where the three cases were confirmed on Tuesday.

Under the study, researchers compared 1,769 people infected with the new variant with 1,769 who had what they described as “wild-type” virus. The two groups were matched 1:1 on the basis of age, sex, area of residence and time of testing.

Of the 42 people who were admitted to hospital, 16 were infected with the new variant while 26 cases had wild-type infection, according to the study. In terms of fatality, there were 12 deaths in variant cases compared to 10 deaths in wild-type cases.

“Preliminary results from the cohort study found no statistically significant difference in hospitalisation and 28-day case fatality between cases with the variant and wild-type comparator cases,” the study said.

There was no significant difference in the likelihood of reinfection with the new variant as compared with the other variants, it said.

The study, however, added that the “secondary attack rate”, or the proportion of contacts of confirmed cases that develop disease themselves, was higher in people infected with the new variant.

Earlier on Tuesday a leading epidemiologist who advises the UK government, Andrew Hayward, warned that Britain was heading for “catastrophe” over the coming weeks if it did not take tougher action against the more infectious variant of the disease.

Britain reported 53,135 new cases of Covid-19 on Tuesday, the highest number since mass testing started in mid-2020. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has approved placing more parts of the country into the highest level of restrictions, known as tier four, The Times reported.

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COURTESY DAWN NEWS

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