NEW YORK, Mar 24 : A number of Pakistani-American community members and activists participated in a virtual celebration organized on Tuesday evening by the Pakistan Consulate General in New York to celebrate the 81st anniversary of Lahore resolution that led to the establishment of Pakistan.

In brief remarks, Consul General Ayesha Ali welcomed his compatriots gathered online and congratulated them on the auspicious occasion, saying Pakistan was on the road to progress despite many challenges.

She paid glowing tributes to Quaid-i-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah and the sacrifices made by the Muslims of the sub-continent for the creation of Pakistan.

The government, the consul general  said, was making every effort to realize the Quaid’s vision of a modern, democratic and prosperous Pakistan.

She expressed the hope that the people of Jammu and Kashmir would also be able to soon enjoy their fundamental right to self-determination, as promised to them by UN Security Council resolutions.

Ayesha Ali also briefed the community members of the initiatives taken by the government to facilitate the overseas Pakistanis, saying more measures were on the anvil.

She thanked Pakistani activists for the services they provided to the needy during the coronavirus pandemic. Their humanitarian work, she said, was crucial in the crisis that adversely affected many community members.

Ambassador Shaukat Fareed, a former Pakistani diplomat and an ex-senior UN official, congratulated his compatriots on the occasion of Pakistan Day and urged them to stand together.

Fareed led the tributes to Consul General Ayesha Ali for her hard work in streamlining the services at the consulate for the benefit of community members and in reaching out to them during the pandemic, a compliment which was shared by all participants.

Shahid Ahmed Khan, a Pakistani-American activist in Massachusetts and honourary Consul General, said he expected US-Pakistan relations to improve under the Biden administration.

Among others who spoke on the occasion were Sajjad Ashraf, a former Pakistani ambassador, Perwaiz Siddiqui from APPNA, and Capt. Adeel Rana from New York Police Department as well as activists like Akbar Khan, Zaheer Sharaf, Nasir Qureshi, Amjad Nawaz, Jan Mohammad, Raza Razzaq, Siraj Khan, Ms Attiya, Imtiaz, Babar Riaz, Rafiq Chaudhry, Sarwar and Youth leader Ali Rashid.  Barry Hoffman, honorary Pakistani Consul General in Boston, also participated.

The meeting began with recitation from Holy Quran followed by the National Anthem. It was rounded off with the popular patriotic songs.

Washington, March 24 : NASA is targeting early April for the Ingenuity Mars Helicopter to make the first attempt at powered, controlled flight on another planet.

Right now, the ultra-light aircraft remains fixed to the belly of the Perseverance rover, which touched down on the Red Planet on February 18.

On Sunday, Perseverance dropped the debris shield that had protected Ingenuity during landing, and is currently making its way to the “airfield” where Ingenuity will attempt its flights.

Once there, it will have 30 Martian sols — equal to 31 Earth days — to carry out its mission.

“The best guess we have right now is April 8,” for the first flight, said Bob Balaram, Mars Helicopter chief engineer at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, though he added it could be sooner or later by a few days.

Balaram revealed for the first time that Ingenuity is carrying a small piece of cloth that covered one of the wings of the Wright brothers’ first aircraft that achieved the first powered flight on Earth at Kitty Hawk in 1903, to pay tribute to the milestone.

Ingenuity will be attempting to fly in an atmosphere that is one percent the density of Earth’s, which makes achieving lift harder — but will be assisted by a gravity that is one-third our planet’s.

The first flight will involve climbing at a rate of about three feet (one meter) per second to a height of 10 feet (three meters), hovering there for 30 seconds, then descending back to the surface.

Ingenuity will be taking high resolution photography as it flies.

Before any of this happens, however, Ingenuity needs to be placed at its launching site, and set upright, a process that will take a few more days.

Once Perseverance drops off the helicopter, it needs to drive away about five meters within 25 hours so it doesn’t cast a shadow on Ingenuity.

That’s the amount of time Ingenuity’s batteries will be able to run a heater without needing to recharge via its solar panels.

This part is critical to surviving the night time temperatures which can plunge as low as minus 130 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 90 degrees Celsius).

If left unheated, the helicopter’s unshielded electrical components will freeze and crack, killing the mission before it even begins.

If things however go to plan, Perseverance will take up a position at a distance to record Ingenuity’s exploits with its own cameras.

Up to five flights of gradual difficulty are planned over the course of the month.

The four-pound (1.8-kilogram) rotorcraft cost NASA around $85 million to develop, and is considered a proof of concept that could revolutionize space exploration.

Future aircraft could cover ground much more quickly than rovers, and explore more rugged terrain.

The next one planned is Dragonfly, a rotorcraft-lander that will launch in 2026 and arrive at Saturn’s icy moon Titan in 2034.

UNITED NATIONS, Mar 24 : Pakistan has welcomed the recent efforts to re-energize the process aimed at ending the war in Afghanistan, but warned against spoilers’ attempts to subvert the peace negotiations and prevent a political settlement in the strife-torn country.

In a statement submitted to the UN Security Council, Ambassador Munir Akram called on all sides to work towards reduction of violence leading to a ceasefire, a natural expectation from the peace process.

The Pakistani envoy’s statement followed a briefing, via video-link from Kabul, by Deborah Lyons, the Special Representative for Afghanistan, about the situation in that country during which she sounded alarm about soaring rates of violence that continue to hamper humanitarian efforts and erode public confidence more broadly.

“Continuation of violence will strengthen the hands of ‘spoilers’, both within and outside Afghanistan, to subvert the peace negotiations and prevent a comprehensive political settlement in Afghanistan,” Ambassador Akram said in his remarks.

“We must guard against those who desire to frustrate a peaceful settlement on the pretext of safeguarding democracy and human rights and to continue to use Afghan territory against its neighbours.”

“Terrorism has had a devastating impact on Afghanistan and its neighbouring countries,” the Pakistan envoy said.

Pakistan, he said, shares the international community’s determination not to allow Afghan soil to be used by Al-Qaeda, ISIL/Da’esh or other groups to threaten or attack any country.

“Some who have waxed eloquent about terrorism today are the very ones who wish to continue to foment terrorism from Afghanistan’s ungoverned spaces to conduct their war of terrorism against my country,” Ambassador Akram said with obviously India in mind.

He regretted that the Security Council has been prevented from considering the evidence of their sponsorship of terrorism.

He hoped that despite multiple challenges, and possible periodic setbacks, all Afghan parties will persevere in the pursuit of a political settlement.

Efforts must be made to ensure that such efforts complement, not subvert, the peace process, the Pakistani envoy said,  adding, “Bringing in ‘spoilers’ to the table will retard the prospects of an early settlement.

Pakistan, he said, facilitated the commencement and the conclusion of last year’s  US-Taliban Peace Agreement and the subsequent Intra-Afghan Negotiations.

In this regard, Ambassador Akram said Pakistan will support the consensus between Afghan leaders and the Taliban on any inclusive political settlement in Afghanistan.

“It is the Afghans who must be the masters of their destiny and decide their own future, without outside influence or interference,” he added