ISLAMABAD : September 3, 2020

Adviser to Prime Minister on Finance and Revenue chaired a meeting here at the Finance Division with Special Assistant to Prime Minister on Social Protection and Poverty Alleviation (SP&PA) Dr. Sania Nishtar for an update on the preparations of release of second tranche of Ehsaas Cash Assistance package in response to Covid-19.

SAPM briefed the Adviser that during the first phase of the program as response to the Covid-19 pandemic, an amount of Rs.175 billion was disbursed by BISP to 14.6 million beneficiaries @ 12000 as one time assistance during 2019-20. Now under the instructions of the Prime Minister the second phase has to be started to provide additional cash relief to those who need it most urgently. The Special Assistant on SPPA briefed that there are 4.6 million regular beneficiaries of Kafalat program, and one time Emergency Cash Assistance was provided to 11.6 million beneficiaries during the pandemic to look after their cash needs.

The Special Assistant said that for the second tranche a revised list of Emergency Cash Assistance beneficiaries will soon be prepared (as the number might be reduced due to control in the spread of the disease and opening on businesses and markets) and all the necessary details will soon be shared with the Finance Division.

The Adviser appreciated the efforts of the Poverty Alleviation Division in looking after the poorest of the poor in the unexpected times and said that for the second tranche of the cash assistance program, Finance Division shall provide all possible help after the SP&PA Division works out the exact requirement of funds for the Kafalat Program, Emergency Cash Assistance and for paying bank Service charges. He also directed to provide an update to the Finance Division about the transparency standards and expenditure already made under round-1 of Ehsaas Emergency Cash Assistance Program.

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Imran will arrive in Karachi on Saturday to resolve city’s civic and infrastructure problems.

As per details, the prime minister will now visit the port city on September 5 (Saturday) where he will announce a special package for the rain-hit city.

In a tweet on Thursday, Information Minister Shibli Faraz said that Karachi’s development is a guarantee of Pakistan’s prosperity. “PM Imran Khan is committed to restore the glory of Karachi as the city of lights.”

The prime minister would announce uplift projects to transform infrastructure in the city, besides also meeting the stakeholders and coalition parties from the metropolis.

The federal government has also decided to release funds for the projects in the city and the matter would be discussed in the meeting of the coalition partners scheduled with the prime minister.

The prime minister will also chair a meeting to assess devastation from the torrential rains in the city.

Earlier on Wednesday, Federal Minister for Planning and Development Asad Umar on Wednesday said that they have agreed in principle over a package for Karachi and consultation over the funds have been completed.

Asad Umar said that projects for Karachi were under discussion for past some time, however, there was no mechanism to implement them.

KARACHI : An IATA Operational Safety Audit (IOSA) team will be arriving in Pakistan on September 5 to conduct a safety audit of the Pakistan International Airlines (PIA).

The team will assess the operational management and control systems of the national flag carrier during its stay in the country from September 7 to 12 and will also visit Karachi, Lahore, Peshawar, Multan and Islamabad airports for the purpose.

The audit is aimed at assessing the airline’s aircraft and safety standards.

It is noteworthy that the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) had in June suspended the Pakistan International Airlines’ (PIA) flight operations to and from Europe over safety concerns.

On Sept 1, a PIA spokesperson said that the national flag carrier has prepared its appeal against the decision in light of the EASA Safety Assessment of Foreign Aircraft (SAFA) programme and will file at an appropriate time.

Following the closure of Pakistan International Airlines flights to Europe, the PIA administration also decided to call back its employees deputed in Europe.

ISLAMABAD : Prime Minister Imran Khan has lamented that eight million people in India-occupied Jammu and Kashmir have been put in open prison by Indian forces since Delhi’s Aug 5 move of annexing the disputed territory.

Giving an interview to Al-Jazeera, PM Imran Khan said that when he became the country’s prime minister, he extended a hand of friendship towards India, but India took it lightly and revoked the special status of Kashmir last year in August.

“Indian is being ruled by an extremist government. It is a Hindu supremacist government inspired by the ideology of the Nazis,” he added.

He has once again warned the world of serious implications of breakout of any conflict between Pakistan and India over the disputed region of Kashmir.
In response to a question about whether he thinks Western countries abandoned Pakistan on the issue of occupied Kashmir, He said, “The reason why the world is not responding over Kashmir issue because countries worrying about their commercial interests. They look upon India as a huge market and ignoring such a huge travesty of justice in Kashmir.”

The prime minister Imran Khan further said that Pakistan raised Kashmir issue at UNSC and will not keep silent and continue raising voice for the oppressed people of Indian-occupied Kashmir who have been demanding their right to self-determination.

Covid-19

Commenting over Pakistan’s efforts in tackling coronavirus, the premier said that Pakistan made “difficult and very best decision” by not imposing complete lockdown in the country like and sealed virus hotspots under smart lockdown.

“We went for a smart lockdown to control the pandemic and protect the vulnerable segments of the society from its impacts.”

‘Pakistan put on right track’

Reaffirming the government’s stance against corruption, Imran Khan said this is the first time that the powerful are being held accountable.

“Pakistan has been put in the right direction over the last two years,” he said and added that Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government introduced economic reforms, health insurance, Sehat cards and facilitated the businesses.

Afghan peace process

When asked about the Afghan peace process, PM Imran said there is only one country India which does not want to see peace in Afghanistan.

“Pakistan tried its best to get the Taliban and the Afghan government on the table of negotiations. We have reached close to peace and political reconciliation. This is a miracle that this is happening in Afghanistan and we pray this happens.”

Prime Minister Imran Khan said that both civilian government and the military have the most harmonious relationship are on the same page.

“Pakistan Army is standing together with the government’s policies be it related to India or Afghanistan,” he concluded.

LAHORE : Punjab Chief Minister Usman Buzdar revealed on Thursday the provincial government is going to set up a price control authority to check inflation in the province.

Speaking to MNA Rukhsana Naveed who called on him in Lahore, he said the ruling PTI had served public day and night over the past two years and maintained that prices of food items are far lower in Punjab than those in other provinces, he added.

He said Punjab is the only province where a 20-kilogramme wheat bag is available at Rs860. He added he himself monitors the government’s measures aimed at providing relief to the masses.

CM Buzdar said the provincial government always gave precedence to public interest over everything else while taking decisions. He said his team has a squeaky clean image as Punjab is ahead of all provinces in terms of transparency, merit, and good governance.

Earlier today, the Lahore High Court (LHC) issued notices to the federal and the provincial governments to furnish their comments on a petition against rising prices of wheat flour and sugar in Punjab.

Justice Sajid Mahmood Sethi of the high court (LHC) directed the governments to submit comments by September 18. Advocate Azhar Siddiq stated in his petition that rising prices of wheat flour and sugar have added to the sufferings of common men who have been deprived of basic necessities of life.

ISLAMABAD : Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi has strongly denounced the publication of blasphemous caricatures by French Magazine Charlie Hebdo.

In a video statement on Thursday, the foreign minister said these caricatures have hurt the sentiments of millions of Muslims across the world.

“Pakistan has conveyed its concerns to the French government on the despicable act,” said Qureshi and added that those behind the publication of blasphemous caricatures must be taken to task.

Shah Mehmood Qureshi said that Prime Minister Imran Khan last year had raised the issue of blasphemous caricatures in the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) session. FM Qureshi expressed the confidence that the world will take immediate steps to put a stop to such acts and tendencies.

He said that Pakistan is a democratic country and believes in freedom of expression, but freedom of expression does not give license to anybody to hurt the sentiments of others.

The foreign minister noted there has been an increase in Islamophobia and Xenophobia across the world.

DNA

Islamabad:-Cosmetic procedures once used to be exclusive to Hollywood. Actresses used to get their facial features enhanced by a plastic surgeon. Plastic surgery and cosmetic procedures were once the open secret of Beverly Hills and there were many negative connotations attached to the act of going to a doctor to look beautiful. Times have changed, cosmetic procedures whether invasive or non-invasive have become a part of the beauty rituals all over the world.

According to a study published by American Society of Plastic Surgeons, 18 million Americans went under the knife for beauty purposes in 2018. As compared to 2017, there have been quarter a million more people who went under cosmetic surgery. Thus proving that these procedures have become commonplace all over the country after years of being frowned upon.

The reasons for such a huge change lie in the excessive use of social media. According to a study published in Current Psychology (2019), females show an increased desire of going under cosmetic procedures if they look at pictures of people with artificially enhanced facial features. The females who spend excessive amounts of time on social media and have followed multiple beauty related accounts are more prone to this impact. The explanation is simple, social media portrays a false picture of beauty and since everyone is an influencer nowadays and seems to have achieved that perfect standard of beauty, everyone thinks that they can get it too with money and access. Such false standards of perfection also raise unrealistic expectations of what it means to be beautiful and thus enable feelings of inadequacy and ultimately depression. As a result, with each day people especially females are becoming desperate to look a certain way and they are rushing towards dermatologists and cosmetic surgeons.

People of Pakistan have also jumped on the bandwagon and there is proof that over the past decade, Pakistanis from upper middle and elite class are getting more and more interested in cosmetic procedures for beauty purposes. A dermatology clinic has become the new beauty parlor.

According to Dr. Sania Javed who is a dermatologist in Lahore, 80% of her patients come to her for cosmetic and beauty procedures such as microneedling, PRP facials and chemical peels and only 20% of them come for medical issues related to skin and are expecting a prescription.

Not only this, a thorough research by oladoc-a digital healthcare company based on their internal and google search data shows that overall there has been an increase in interest among the Pakistani population when it comes to beauty procedures. A very popular procedure is microneedling that dermatologists all over the country are performing. Google’s historical search data shows that the searches related to microneedling first started appearing in 2014 (Pakistan region) and since then the trend has only been going upwards.