DNA

Bangkok: 14 Sep: Vijavat Isarabhakdi, Vice Minister for Foreign Affairs, presided over the handover ceremony of cash donations for flood relief in Pakistan, received by Chargé d’Affaires of Pakistan to Thailand.

The donations of 21 million baht or about 134 million PKR. consist of 7 million baht (44.7 million PKR.) from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Kingdom of Thailand and another 14 million baht (89.7 million PKR.) from Thai civil society organizations namely the Council for Humanitarian Networking of Sheikhul Islam Office, Al-Salam Institute, Fatoni University, the Thai-Pakistani Friendship Association, the Muslim for Peace Foundation Thailand, White Channel, the Foundation of Islamic Centre of Thailand and the Overseas Pakistanis Thai Association as well as Jai Ngam Foundation. H.E. Mr. Chakkrid Krachaiwong, Thai Ambassador to Pakistan, virtually participated in and witnessed the donations event. 

Recently, the Most Venerable Arayawangso Fund donated 6 million PKR while officers and staff of the Royal Thai Embassy in Islamabad also made a contribution for flood relief in Pakistan.

                DERA ISMAIL KHAN, Sep 14 (APP):The district administration is taking solid measures for reconstruction, rehabilitation of infrastructure and government buildings which were damaged by recent floods and assessment work in this regard is continuing expeditiously.

In this regard, Additional Deputy Commissioner Muhammad Iqbal Khan Wazir is regularly undertaking visits to asses damages incurred to the government infrastructures, buildings and examining reports about damages and restoration of infrastructures by the respective departments.

Similarly,  Additional Deputy Commissioner Finance and Planning Muhammad Arshad Abbas is also paying visit to flood-hit areas to inspect government school buildings to prepare a comprehensive report on damages and consequently work out a viable strategy for restoration and rehabilitation of the damaged schools, besides examining reports by the departments concerned in this regard.

Meanwhile, officials of the district education department said, that according to the preliminary assessment report, the recent heavy rains and flash floods had damaged or destroyed more than 350 school buildings, including 257 male and 87 female schools in all five tehsils of the district.

They informed that out of total 257 male schools, 177 were those where flood water entered into the area and damaged the buildings, while other 80 schools were affected with the heavy rains.

The flood affected schools include 159 primary, seven middle, eight high and three higher secondary schools across the district. He said most of the primary schools were affected in Paroa tehsil where 18 were completely damaged and 59 were partially damaged.

                ISLAMABAD, Sep 14 (APP):Minister for Commerce, Syed Naveed Qamar on Wednesday said that the government was committed to provide level playing field and reduce cost of doing business for export-oriented sectors including textiles to boost exports and reduce current account deficit.

He expressed these views while addressing a virtual session organized by South Punjab Investment Forum in collaboration with USAID, according to a press release issued here.

“I am glad to inform that textile exports during FY 2021-22 reached historical high level of US$ 19.3 billion despite the fallout of COVID-19 and severe economic challenges”, said the minister.

He said that it was time to promote the value-added products, adding “I assure you that our incentives would only be available to value added products”.

Syed Naveed Qamar highlighted steps taken by the government which included supply of energy at competitive tariffs, disbursement of around Rs 42 billion from April to June 2022 to mitigate prevailing liquidity issues due to severe economic challenges, duty free import of Cotton and reduction of custom duties on import of dyes and chemicals, adding that duty free import of textiles and apparel machinery had been continued.

Syed Naveed Qamar informed that the ministry had formulated Textiles and Apparel Policy, 2020-25  which would address matters including value addition, product diversification, skill development, productivity and ease of doing business etc.

“We need to attract investment in textiles and apparel sector to enhance our manufacturing capacities. I would also like to remind that SMEs across the world are engine of growth for any country”, the minister remarked.

He urged to encourage “Make in Pakistan” products and said that in the global textile Pakistan had less than 2% share which needed to be enhanced with practical steps.

                ISLAMABAD, Sep 14 (APP):The experts on Wednesday said the country needed rainwater harvesting solutions and technology to conserve rainwater like groundwater recharge well type cost-effective nature-based solution to revive aquifer and mitigate the risk of urban flooding through most modern technology available at the local level.

The Institute of Urbanism, International Water Management Institute (IWMI), and Pakistan Council for Research on Water Resources (PCRWR) and Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung (HBS) organised a two-day media fellowship on Harvesting Rainwater for Urban Flood Management that comprised of field visits to various rainwater harvesting sites in the federal capital and Lahore. 

Addressing the media, Chairman PCRWR Dr Muhammad Ashraf said water crisis was a serious issue of the country and it was soaring in its every urban city.

“The groundwater recharge solutions are the need of the entire country. Especially in the prevailing floods that occurred in an unprecedented fashion in Pakistan,” he said.

Dr Ashraf said Pakistan was facing environmental degradation as in one season it had dryness and in other there were floods.

“We have to increase water storage at every stage. We have to develop large, medium and small dams as per requirement.”

The rainwater storage solutions like artificial lakes at housing societies or artificial recharge wells would help manage rainwater, he added.

“60% agriculture use water is coming from groundwater resources. We will have to either reduce groundwater extraction or increase water table recharge,” he added.

Flashfloods, he said, was not mitigatable in the federal capital or other mega urban even in pre-encroachment scenario of nullahs.

“Watershed management is imperative for flood and drought management whereas catchment area needed to be enhanced,” he said.

The artificial recharge well’s purpose was to intercept rainwater near catchment area and inject it into groundwater well. “It will help save water from evaporation, ponding and pollution,” Dr Ashraf explained.

He informed that the Capital Development Authority (CDA) was establishing 100 recharge wells and 20 monitoring stations from its own resources in the federal capital.

In his welcome remarks, Country Director Regional Representative for Central Asia IWMI, Dr Mohsin Hafeez said the IPCC Report highlighted heatwave rise, heavy precipitation in South Asia Region due to human induced activities and both the natural phenomenon occurred in this year.

He added that the worst flood occurred combining riverine and hill torrents flood.

He said ill planned housing societies, construction on river beds and encroachments on water flows were causing mega disasters.

“Climate Change has major impact on water and there are nine of months drought and three months of rain but we have insufficient infrastructure as no dams have been constructed in past 50 years.”

He mentioned that the water recharge level in capital was 130-150 millimeters (mm) in 1990 that remained the same in 2021, but the rate pf urbanisation boom spiraled rapidly.

“4.5 mm water tabled improved at Kachnar Park artificial recharge well. We are implementing it on 100 sites in capital in collaboration with CDA and PCRWR.”

Deputy Director General Sardar Khan Zimri said the recharge wells were proposed in building bye-laws to recharge ground water by adopting the solution at household. 

He informed that there were 62 recharge wells installed in the federal capital and out of which 8 to 10 failed due to more groundwater level at the sites, whereas 50 of them were operational.

The media persons also visited the sites of recharge wells installed at PCRWR and Kachnar Park.

The IWMI Country Director told the media that I-8 Kachnar Park recharge well possessed most modern technology which was implemented after hydrological modelling of Islamabad in which seven potential sites for groundwater recharge were identified.

A PCRWR official briefed the journalists that Kachnar Park recharge well was the only site fully instrumented where water gauge was installed alongwith automatic data drivers that monitor water inflow and temperature shift.

He informed that from May to September, 78mm rainfall was recorded in the capital and 1.9 million gallons of rainwater was conserved on this site.

During the second day visit, the media delegation visited various rainwater harvesting sites in Lahore that were the first of its kind facilities to store rainwater causing flooding on the thoroughfares of Lahore that was later used for watering greenbelt plantations across the city. 

The first site was at Bagh-e-Jinnah along Lawrence Road where a 1.4 million gallons capacity underground water storage capacity was established at a cost of Rs140 million. The site comprised of a catchment area of 30 acres and a ponding area of three acres.

The Water and Sanitation Agency (WASA) Lahore developed under the vision that helped end stagnation of water in this area during 100mm rainfall.

The water tank had two water pumps of six cusecs  to pump water to the other site in case of above 100mm rainfall and storage capacity reaching it’s full volume.

There were also two more underground water tanks underway at Sheranwala Gate and Alhamra Arts Council whereas the latter was near to completion.

The underground water tanks had huge social benefits including flood free routes and connectivity during heavy rains and mitigated risk of urban flooding, whereas it gave an additional source of water to increase green cover in the city.

DNA

ISLAMABAD: 14 September, 2022: Islamabad Capital police apprehended 20 criminals including eight drug peddlers involved in illegal criminal activities and recovered drugs, cash, police revolving light and weapons with ammunition from their possession, a police public relations officer said.

He said that DIG Operations Sohail Zafar Chatha had ordered all zonal officers to curb the crime in their respective areas and arrest those involved in looting innocent people.

Following these directives, Aabpara police team arrested four accused namely William Masih, Saddam Khalid, Nadeem Shahzad and Muhammad Aqsar and recovered 1170 gram heroin, 500 gram, hashish, two 30 bore pistols, police revolving light and vehicle from their possession. Lohibher police arrested a drug peddler namely Ata Ullah and recovered 1450 gram heroin from his possession.

Likewise, Bani Gala police team arrested two accused Gul Zaman and Sajjad Ali and recovered one 7mm gun, one 9mm pistol along with ammunition and 1520 gram hashish from their possession. Shalimar police team arrested an accused namely Muhammad Usama and recovered 130 gram heroin and 60 gram Ice from his possession.

Similarly, Noon police arrested an accused namely Hanan Ehsan and recovered 1125 gram hashish from his possession. Golra police team arrested the accused namely Ayaz and recovered one 30 bore pistol from his possession. 

Moreover, Tarnol police team arrested two accused namely Ehsan Ullah and Fazal Khan and recovered two 30 bore pistols along with ammunition from their possession, while police arrested an accused namely Irshad involved in illegally oil selling.

Furthermore,  Sabzi Mandi police arrested an accused Tamoor Ali and recovered one dagger from his possession. Sihala police arrested accused Adnan Hussain and recovered one 30 bore pistol from his possession.   

Cases have been registered against the nabbed accused and further investigation is underway. During a special crackdown against proclaimed offenders and court absconders police teams busted five proclaimed offenders.

DIG Operations Sohail Zafar Chatha said that the safety of the lives and property of the citizens is our prime responsibility and no laxity will be tolerated in this regard.

Islamabad, 14 Sept: /DNA/ – UN Women in collaboration with the Ministry of Law & Justice and completely funded by the Bureau of International Narcotics & Law Enforcement (INL) of the US Department of State, jointly launched the initiation of a programme “Preventing and Protecting Women from Violence through Enhanced Access to Justice and Services, TAHAFFUZ”. The programme, which focuses on preventing violence against women and enhancing their access to justice will be implemented in 5 districts of Punjab and Sindh, as well as the Islamabad Capital Territory from 2022 till 2024.

UN Women Deputy Country Representative Jacqui Ketunuti welcomed the distinguished participants and introduced the TAHAFFUZ programme to the audience. She said, “Building on the successes of the previous phase of this project, UN Women will address the issue of violence against women (VAW) through a holistic approach, targeting all the key stakeholders from government institutions, justice and security sector officials, as well as civil society. Using gender and social inclusion strategies, the programme will ensure VAW is addressed from all angles and institutions that facilitate women in accessing justice are strengthened to deliver accessible, quality and gender-responsive services.”

The programme aims to tackle the issue of violence against women (VAW) in a holistic way through evidence-based legislation & policy interventions, strengthening capacity of duty bearers, enhancing coordination and increasing awareness.

While addressing the National Launch Event of the Programme, INL Director Lori Antolinez said, “the U.S. government is awarding $1.5 million to UN Women to help Pakistani women better access justice and legal services via TAHAFFUZ. This continues years of INL’s support and partnership with the Pakistani government, Pakistani citizens, and UN Women.  In 2016, INL was the sole funder for Phase One of the UN Women program, providing $3.5 million.  Gender inclusivity and women’s empowerment in law enforcement and criminal justice is a top priority for INL in Pakistan.  INL supports programs to improve women’s access to justice through improved law enforcement response to gender-based violence.  More and better trained women law enforcement professionals mean superior delivery of justice to Pakistani women.” 

During the life of the programme, TAHAFFUZ will strengthen capacity of law enforcement officials through improving knowledge and attitudes on gender, enhancing handling of cases of VAW along with improved coordination between security and justice sector stakeholders, forensic officers, and medical examiners.

In his keynote address, Federal Minister for Law and Justice Mr. Azam Nazeer Tarar highlighted the steps taken by the Government of Pakistan towards preventing and protecting women against violence. He thanked INL and UN Women for extending their support, said, “Many progressive laws have been enacted in Pakistan and a strong legislative framework exists – we need to make sure it is implemented in letter and spirit so that the citizens of our country, especially the women, are able to benefit from it. This programme will help create a safe and enabling environment for women and girls so that they may play an active role in national progress and sustainable development.”

Chairperson National Commission on the Status of Women, Ms. Nilofar Bakhtiar, MNA and Parliamentary Secretary, MOLJ Ms Mehnaz Akbar Aziz also spoke at the National Launch Event.

This year marks the 40-year anniversary of partnership between INL and Pakistan under the banner of “Justice, Security, and Prosperity,” with more than $1 billion invested over four decades by the United States government to improve public safety and enhance law enforcement, prosecutorial, and judicial capacity across Pakistan.