The Zilhaj moon has not been sighted and Eidul Azha will fall on July 10 (Sunday), Central Ruet-i-Hilal Committee Chairman Maulana Abdul Khabeer Azad announced on Wednesday evening.

Addressing a press conference in Karachi, he said: “No testimony of the moon being sighted was received from any part of Pakistan.”

Therefore, Maulana Azad said, it was decided with a unanimous consensus that Eidul Azha would be celebrated on July 10.

“May God grant the blessings of the upcoming days to the entire Islamic world and this beloved country of mine,” he said.Azad stressed that a message of unity should be taken forward. The chairman then held prayers for peace and stability in the country.

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COURTESY DAWN NEWS

Lahore, JUN 29: Expressing grave concern over the 2.2 million out of school children, with girls being the majority, experts have stressed on the implementation of Free and Compulsory Education Act and girls right to secondary education in Punjab. 

These thoughts were expressed in the consultation session on the Implementation of Free & Compulsory Primary Education Act and Girls’ Right to Secondary Education organized by Awaz CDS and National Commission for Human Rights. The major focus of the session was to emphasize on the initiatives needed to be taken to ensure primary education of children and reducing girls drop out from secondary schools as it would contribute a lot towards ensuring educated women population, a guarantee to economic and social stability.  

Chief Executive Awaz CDS, Mohammad Zia ur Rehman, Member/Commissioner (Punjab) National Commission for Human Rights, Nadeem Ashraf, Director School Education Department, Mr. Ghulam Farid, Member Punjab Assembly, Ms. Uswa Aftab, and Ms. Ayesha Iqbal, Ms Noorish Sabah, Director Punjab Literacy Department, Ms. Baela Raza Jamil from ITA and other academics as well as  members from NGOs attended the event.

 In his opening remarks, Zia ur Rahman, Chief Executive Awaz CDS highlighted the significance of girls quality secondary education and explained the grey areas in the way of girls education in Punjab.

He urged the Punjab government to immediately notify the Punjab Free and Compulsory Education Act 2014 which was approved earlier . He stressed for increase in development budgets for school education as developments budgets are only being distributed to PEF and PEIMA rather development budgets needs to be utilized for the development of public schools especially for girls, where missing facilities and accessibility is still a major challenge. He further warned that due to fuel price hike many girls are leaving schools and more drop outs are expected after summer vacations. 

Mr. Nadeem Ashraf, Member/ Commissioner (Punjab) National commission for Human Rights welcomed the audience and discussed the bottlenecks and challenges in implementing Free and Compulsory education act and ensuring girls basic right of getting education and shift nation towards stability.

He said that according to PSLM 2019-20, In Punjab for every 100 girls enrolled at the primary level, 38 are out-of-school and for every 100 girls enrolled at the secondary level, 162 are out-of-school . 

Ms. Ayesha Iqbal, Member Punjab Assembly highlighted the recent development for enforcement of Punjab Free & Compulsory Education Amendment Act 2020 for the immediate enactment of law . She stressed that Governor Punjab Mr. Baligh-ur-Rehman should take steps to get this education Act notified without any delay as education is priority for all parties. 

Member Punjab Assembly, Ms. Uswa Aftab on behalf of School  Education Standing Committee stressed on the importance of notification of Punjab Free & Compulsory Education Act 2014 to ensure every child is getting basic education and country is progressing towards achieving SDGs on education. 

She said that her department is constantly working on this sector and said they would make extra efforts to sensitize more and more people on girls education in order to minimize girls secondary school drop out ratio. 

The floor was then opened for Answer questions followed by insightful discussion on making primary education compulsory in the province and ensuring girls are getting secondary education and thus contributing towards stability and national goals of educated Pakistan.

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Lahore, JUN 29: A certificate award ceremony for Master Trainers in Entrepreneurial Skills trained at the Professional Development Center of National University of Science & Technology (NUST) Islamabad under the Clean Power Purchasing Development project. The project is being implemented by Deutsche Gesellschaft fur Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) as part of the DeveloPPP.de Programme of German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation & Development (BMZ). 

Chief Operating Officer TEVTA Punjab, Mr. Zaheer Abbas was the chief guest at the occasion who distributed the certificates to the master trainers along with Ms. Iris Cordelia Rotzoll, Head of Programme TVET Sector Support Programme GIZ, Mr. Muhammad Ishaq Bhatti, Chairperson Solar Quality Foundation (SQF), Mr. Faisal Mahmood, Regional Coordinator (Punjab) and DV Clean Power Purchasing Development Project, and Mr. Haseeb Saadat CEO Allied Solar Private Limited & local partner of Power One for One Germany.  Other senior officials and heads of institutes from Punjab TEVTA were also present at the occasion.

The DV Clean Power Purchasing Development Project, Mr. Faisal Mahmood presented the programme achievements over the last three years. The project has trained 37 Master Trainers on technical skills related to design, installation, O&M of solar PV plants, 30 Assessors in CBT&A to support implementation of National Vocational Qualification in Solar PV, and 40 TVET Professionals from TEVTA Punjab and PVTC on Entrepreneurial Skills to promote entrepreneurship in the Solar PV sector. A 10-kW grid-connected pilot solar PV plant was installed with the support of project partner Power One for One at TEVTA Government Technical Training Institute, Gulberg Lahore for education purpose. 

Addressing to the participants, the Head of TVET Sector Support Programme GIZ, Ms. Iris Cordelia Rotzoll, stated that all these efforts not only lead to a new beginning and small steps toward sustainable energy generation and management, but also open avenues to promote the trend of green skills in Pakistan. The master trainers, trainers and assessors trained in Solar PV technology will create a pathway for internal and external buy-in among more and more TVET trainers and managers.

Speaking at the ceremony Mr. Zaheer Abbas appreciated the role of German cooperation for promotion of clean energy in Pakistan through DeveloPPP Programme. He highlighted the fact that promotion of green skills is inevitable to fight the global climate change and save the environment while also conserving the natural resources. He expressed his resolve that master trainers trained under the project will be utilized to support implementation of solar PV training courses in Punjab and increase the quality & access to trained human resource for solar companies.

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ISLAMABAD, JUN 29: The Huawei ICT Competition 2021-2022 Global Final in Shenzhen drew to a close on June 25. This year marks the sixth Huawei ICT Competition, which included three competitions – Practice, Innovation and Industry – attracted 150,000 students from more than 2000 universities in 85 countries and regions around the world. After making it through the national and regional competitions, 130 teams from 43 countries and regions faced off in the global final, making this year's finals the largest yet. This year's participants were also the first to compete for a new series of Women in Tech Awards which have been designed to honor the outstanding talent displayed by the young women contestants in the Competition. A TECH4ALL Digital Inclusion Award was also presented during the awards ceremony, as part of Huawei's TECH4ALL Digital Inclusion Initiative.

2021-2022 Regional finals winners, Pakistan’s team one; Sateesh Kumar, Iqra Fatima, and Bhagchand Meghwar along with their instructor Dr. Faheem Khuhawar and team two; Hafiz Rizwan, Adnan Ali, and Mukhtar Memon along with their instructor participated in the practice competition. These students hail from Mehran University of Engineering & Technology, Islamiya University Bahawalpur and UET Lahore.In the Innovation Competition, two further teams from Pakistan were nominated this year. Osman Ahsan Sheikh, Muhammad Abdullah Ahsan Sheikh, Aqsa Amir and their instructor Merai Syed represented team ‘Homevism’, comprised of students fromNUST. The second team, ‘Boltay Haroof’, from LUMS consisted of Umer Farooq, Tabish Rafiq, Areej Ahmed and their instructor Muhammad Saeed. After a hotly contested competition, in the Network category of the Practice competition, Pakistan Team One clinched the 1st prize, while Pakistan Team Two grabbed the 3rd prize. In the Innovation competition, Team Boltay Haroof won the 2nd prize, while Team Homevism were awarded the 3rd prize.

Huawei Enterprise's President of Global Partner Development and Sales Xiao Haijun spoke at the event about how indispensable ICT has become to our work and lives. As one of Huawei's key initiatives in talent cultivation, the Huawei ICT Competition is designed to help build an ecosystem that students around the world can use to bridge digital divides and accelerate global digital transformation by improving their ICT knowledge, skills, and innovation capabilities.

CEO Huawei Pakistan, Mr. Mark Meng stated, “Despite the lingering pandemic, this Huawei ICT Competition attracted more participants than before. The achievements and milestones Pakistan students and teachers have achieved reflects on the great vision and determination of Pakistan government towards ICT talent nurturing, innovation and technology adaptation.”

Dr. Faheem, proud mentor of Pakistan’s Team One stated, “This is nothing short of a privilege and honor for Pakistan, we highly appreciate and are thankful to Huawei for the continuous support throughout this journey that led to achieving this level of success. Their cooperative nature and professionalism to resolve issues that ICT academy instructors and students face from all over Pakistan are extremely noteworthy.”

Bhangchand Meghwar, who was born in Tharparkar, Sindh, exclaimed, “I come from a village where there aren’t a lot of resources on hand, being able to represent and win for Pakistan on such a prestigious platform has been nothing short of a dream come true.”

In the future, Huawei plans to continue building education, industry, and public talent ecosystems by establishing talent alliances, integrating talent standards, improving talent capabilities, and demonstrating talent value. Huawei has also announced plans to nurture 1 million certified ICT professionals by 2024 to improve the digital skills of society as a whole. This is intended to promote scientific and technological progress, industry development, and sustainable social and economic development.

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ISLAMABAD, JUN 29: Paymob, the leading omni-channel financial services platform in the MENAP region, signed an agreement with National Institutional Facilitation Technologies (NIFT) to facilitate digital payments in Pakistan and to secure payment transfers. Under the agreement, Paymob will enable digital payments for their merchants using the NIFT ePay payment platform which supports account, wallet, and card-based payments.

Paymob’s payment infrastructure enables SMEs to accept digital payments online and in-store whilst providing them better access to financial services. As an API integrator, Paymob’s gateway  sits on merchants’ websites to facilitate payment capture. In addition to conventional bank cards, Paymob merchants will have access to mobile wallets, QR payments, bank card installment plans, and Buy-Now Pay-Later (BNPL) options all of which serve to drive an increased volume of transactions and revenue.

Paymob plans to extend its Tap-on-Phone payment acceptance service to the Pakistan market. The company will also launch cards to enable B2B transactions for its merchants and build tools for merchants to better manage and grow their business.

NIFT was established in 1995 as a joint venture between six major Pakistani banks and entrepreneurs from the private sector. It is the leading Payment System Operator (PSO) in Pakistan for cheque clearing and is the country’s foremost Digital Payment Gateway, providing an electronic platform for clearing, processing, and switching electronic transactions in Pakistan under the brand name NIFT ePay.

Haidar Wahab, CEO of NIFT commented, “NIFT continues to play an important and proactive role in streamlining Pakistan’s payment system. As promoters of financial technology, NIFT is committed to delivering an efficient, secured, and convenient digital payment system in which our economic growth can further thrive. This new partnership with Paymob opens a range of exciting new possibilities for Pakistan’s payment infrastructure and puts it at the cutting edge of innovation in this space.”

Fawad Abdul Kader, Country Manager of Paymob in Pakistan mentioned, “We are proud to partner with NIFT ePay which will serve to drive ecommerce by making a variety of payment options available to merchants all across Pakistan. SMEs are the engines of growth in any economy and this partnership with NIFT ePay will serve to fuel that growth and drive revenue in today’s digital economy.”

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Islamabad, JUN 28: The Government of Japan today announced grant aid worth 313 million Japanese Yen (around 2.4 million USD) for the Human Resource Development Scholarship (JDS) program in the Islamic Republic of Pakistan.

Mr. ISHII Kensuke, Charge d’ Affaires ad interim of Japan to the Islamic Republic of Pakistan and Mr. Mian Asad Hayaud Din, Secretary of Ministry of Economic Affairs, have signed the Exchange of Notes (E/N) on this program. The Grant Agreement (G/A) for the aforementioned program was also signed between Mr. Adil Akbar Khan, Joint Secretary of Ministry of Economic Affairs and Mr. KINOSHITA Yasumitsu, Chief Representative of Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) Pakistan Office.

JDS is designed to support social and economic development of the country by providing government officials to obtain Master’s or Doctoral degree in Japan in order to strengthen the administrative capacity of officials. The participants of JDS program who are involved in formulation and implementation of policies are expected to learn in partner universities in Japan and acquire knowledge of their specialties as well as the know-hows of how Japan became a country as it is today.

As JDS in Pakistan started from 2018 and has four batches in four consecutive years, the first phase concluded this year. This occasion celebrates the signing of the very first batch of the second phase of this program. For this batch, the maximum number of the slots for JDS participants in Pakistan is 17 seats for the Master’s degree and one seat for the Doctoral degree.

Mr. KINOSHITA while speaking at the event said "It is worth stating that Japan and Pakistan are celebrating 70 years of anniversary this year. We hope that JDS fellows as well as those 7,000 JICA training participants supported under Technical Cooperation Program will build broader human networks that will benefit both Pakistan and Japan in the long run. "

Mr. ISHII highlighted that "JDS scholarship is expected to contribute to strengthening the administrative capacities of government of Pakistan by providing the talented government officials with the opportunity to obtain the Master and Doctor of Philosophy degree, so that they can effectively lead the social and economic development of Pakistan. I hope this project would further contribute to strengthening the friendship between the two countries."

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LAHORE, JUN 26: Fly Jinnah - another low-cost carrier joins Pakistan’s aviation industry. The airline is a joint venture between Air Arabia and Lakson Group. Fly Jinnah got the license from the Pakistan Civil Aviation Authority last year and will now soon start their operations in June 2022.

Sastaticket.pk welcomes Fly Jinnah and look forward to great times ahead.

Fly Jinnah is the fourth airline in Pakistan's aviation sector and will be operating with three leased A320s aircraft. With time, it has plans to expand its wings in the industry and touch new heights in the international market. 

Currently, AirSial, Airblue, and PIA are successfully operating in the market. With the launch of another domestic carrier, we expect competitive airfares where customers will enjoy low prices and best services. 

The airline has worked intensively on its cabin crew training and is focusing on customer service as their prime objective.This is the perfect time to make its mark in the industry as travel restrictions have now been lifted and people have started to travel more.

In addition, it will be a sigh of relief for the customers as a new entrant will provide more options and convenience in terms of time and monetary resources when it comes to domestic travel.

Sastaticket.pk welcomes the arrival of Fly Jinnah and expects that the airline will perform well in the near future and mark its name in the industry.

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KARACHI, JUN 24: Pakistan’s financial capital, Karachi, has been ranked among the world’s most unlivable cities, according to an annual index released by The Economist Intelligence Unit.

The unit’s global livability index for the year 2022 ranks Karachi 168th in terms of livability among a total of 172 countries.

Every city is assigned a rating for relative comfort for over 30 qualitative and quantitative factors across five broad categories: stability, healthcare, culture and environment, education and infrastructure. Scores are compiled and weighted to provide a score in the range 1-100, where 1 is considered intolerable and 100 is considered ideal.

Karachi has an overall score of 37.5, significantly lower than ideal. It has performed most poorly on the stability indicator, with a score of 20. The city has scored 33.3 on the healthcare indicator, 35.2 on culture and environment, 66.7 on education and 51.8 on infrastructure.

“Damascus (Syria) and Tripoli (Libya) continue to languish at the bottom of the list — along with Lagos (Nigeria) — as they face social unrest, terrorism and conflict,” the report said.

Karachi has been ranked among the least livable cities in previous years too. Last year, it ranked 134 of 140 cities in the index. In 2019 it ranked 136 out of 140. The 2020 report was not published.

Most of the top-ranked cities on the index are from western Europe and Canada, with the Austrian capital Vienna topping the list. The city has a perfect score of 100 on four out of five indicators, namely stability, healthcare, education and infrastructure. On the one remaining indicator of culture and environment, the city has a score of 96.3. Its overall score is 99.1.

The Ukrainian capital of Kyiv was excluded from the list due to Russia’s invasion. The conflict influenced rankings for the Russian cities of Moscow and St Petersburg. Both recorded a fall in scores owing to increased instability, censorship, imposition of Western sanctions and corporates withdrawing their operations from the country.

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Courtesy Dawn News

ISLAMABAD, JUN 24: Globally, Pakistan is at the 29th position on the basis of natural gas reserves. The total extractable potential is reported around 24 TCFT, however, 4 billion cubic feet (BCFT) is the daily gas production. Sindh has 124 gas fields and accounts for 63%. 

The biggest field of natural gas is in the Sui region of Balochistan accounting for 6%. Country has proven reserves equivalent to 12.0 times its annual consumption. 

This means it has about 12 years of gas left. As Pakistan is facing severe natural gas shortage for the last couple of years, it has started relying heavily on Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG), however, the government needs to explore other energy sources to save the environment as well as financial spending on the LNG import. 

It was revealed during the findings of a gas monitor report presented by Dr. Amanullah Mahar, Director, and Center for Environmental Sciences, University of Sindh, Jamshoro.

The alarming situation for the country is that the supply of natural gas is declining day by day from domestic sources as the consumer need is continuously increasing. Since last decade the consumption of natural gas has increased resulting in the import of LNG. The biggest consumer of natural gas is the power sector followed by residential. 

There are some gas losses between 11% - 14% due to illegal theft and other reasons. Initially, LNG was introduced to meet the supply gap but now it has a share of 25% of gas supply for LNG power plants in Pakistan. The spot prices have affected the purchasing strategy of LNG which is left up to 40% of supply, said by Dr Mahar while presenting his findings of the report.

He added that, “LNG, Fossil gas is a very high carbon intensive fuel and cannot be called “transition” fuel source to a cleaner energy system. Fossil gas (methane) can be leaked from the regasification, transport, and consumption and processing of it. After carbon dioxide (CO2), methane is the second most abundant anthropogenic greenhouse gas and responsible for 20% of worldwide atmospheric emissions. 

The methane is 25 times more potent than CO2 at absorbing atmospheric heat. In addition, installation of gas pipelines and during the construction of gas infrastructure may leak methane gas into water supplies and the environment.

While presenting findings of another report on “Tabeer LNG Terminal: Socio-Economic & Environmental Analysis”, an independent environmental researcher Ms. Fatima Fasih presented her findings:

It has been almost 4 years since the ESIA of the Project was conducted, but in recent years, several environmental, social and economic conditions of the area have changed and the results of this report can no longer be considered relevant to the current time. 

She added, “To continue with its current plans for establishing an end-to-end LNG Terminal, Tabeer Energy (Private) Limited must prepare an updated ESIA to take in consideration the changes in the environmental, social and economic conditions of the area. 

This updated ESIA should include an estimate of the expected GHG emissions (Scope 1, Scope 2, and Scope 3) for the company to accurately evaluate its carbon footprint and environmental impact.”

Ms. Fatima Fasih also added that: “Keeping the global LNG markets and their volatility in consideration, it is clear that LNG is no longer a financially-viable source of fuel. 

Instead of focusing on short-term monetary gains and quick gains in energy for the economy, public and private institutions should focus on building stronger energy security within Pakistan and developing a greener economy through a just and equitable energy transition towards renewable energy.”

She added that “At present, solar and wind power have shown remarkable success in Pakistan from an economic perspective and should be invested in, to increase their ratios within the country’s energy mix and help the country transition towards a just and sustainable energy transition. 

Thus far, the low contribution of renewables to Pakistan’s energy mix is due to a chronic lack of investment over time and policy-wise emphasis on developing coal and gas infrastructure from both public and private finance. The current energy crisis proves that this should change. 

The Mitsubishi Corporation can invest in renewables, instead of pushing forward on LNG, which is no longer economically viable as a supplier and buyer.”

Mr. Iqbal Hyder Board, member of Indus Consortium and Executive Director Laar Humanitarian Development Program (LHDP), shared his concluding remarks saying: “Considering the current socio-economic status of the coastal communities that directly depend on the mangrove forests and the coastal region for their livelihoods and wellbeing, it is imperative to recognize that any additional construction and industrial operations is going to exacerbate the declining socio-economic conditions of the local communities. 

The valuable indigenous knowledge for local fishing should also be recognized to rejuvenate the current worsening fishing populations. These coastal communities are a valuable economic asset, and must be given the right recognition, as well as the support to succeed and provide good living conditions for their generations to come.”

The report launch was organized by Indus Consortium, An Environmental Organization working on Environment, Climate Change and Just Energy Transition in Pakistan which was attended by representatives of academic institutions, member of GROW Green Network, which is an umbrella of environmental organizations of Pakistan working for the promotion of renewable energy, independent researchers, member of Renewable Energy coalition Pakistan and alliance for climate Justice and Clean energy.

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Lahore, JUN 23: Huawei and its Tier-1 partner CMC achieved a notable milestone after building a Tier-3 Data Center facility in Evacuee Trust Property Board, Government of Pakistan. This state-of-the-art Data Center has been up and running after the formal inauguration held on Sunday by Mufti Abdul Shakoor, Federal Minister for Religious Affairs and Interfaith Harmony. 

Chairman Evacuee Trust Board, Habib ur Rehman Gillani along with other Government dignitaries, Mr. Robin, MD Digital Power Huawei Pakistan, along with other members from the Huawei and CMC Team who were also present at the event.

This Data Center will be able to provide automation inside the board and give access to the properties that come under the supervision of the board to help monitor, safeguard, maintain and earn revenue in the times to come.

While talking to the media, the Federal Minister stated, “The newly-established data center will maintain all the ETPB properties and lands, record of leased land, and profits calculations.” He further noted that the Ministry for Religious Affairs aims to reduce hardships endured by the minorities through strict monitoring of evacuee lands with digitalization. 

He held the opinion that in today’s world, digitalization is a must for speedy development. He lauded Huawei and the ETPB for establishing the data center, asserting that the entire department is being shifted to modern technology through digitalization.

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