Lahore Private Schools Protest against drone attacks

Today Students and teachers of all private schools of Lahore, protest the drone attacks and the NATO attack on Pakistan. The rally started from the DHA Lahore and ended at Chungi Amarsidhu. The Students holding the Posters and banners and also the Flags of Pakistan.

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Increased transport fare in Lahore

Carry entrepreneurs on Wednesday unilaterally greater work out up to 15 % on inter-city ways after a rise in rates of oil items.
Fares have been greater from Rs 50 to Rs 200 at lines and instructors on metropolis to metropolis ways, said All Pakistan Carry Owners Federation Chairman, Azam Khan Niazi here on Wednesday.
The improve would immediately hit hard the a large number of day-to-day individuals mostly fit in with center and bad instruction as the transporters going down beyond the management of the experts involved. Commuters informed TheNation that the administration had no management on transport entrepreneurs who were receiving travelers at wish.
They said that recurrent improves in oil rates and trains and lines rates had made their existence unpleasant and it was getting challenging for them to take a trip even by trains and lines.
However, All Pakistan Carry Owners Federation used that rates had been greater by 8 to 15pc due to latest increase in diesel-powered and the increase was declared by remember the passengers’ situation.
The Federation declared that it was not an disfavor with the individuals and the service-oriented transport market was separate to increase rates topic to improve in the rates of oil items.
According to the new work out desk, the costs from Lahore to Karachi have been greater from Rs 2,100 to Rs 2,300 and from Lahore to Islamabad the work out has been greater from Rs 650 to Rs 680. The individuals have to pay Rs 730 instead of Rs 680 to go to DG Khan from Lahore.

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Protest of nurses in Lahore

The nurses in the province are onto the streets for the last two days rather than in hospital wards to nurse the patients despite high-handed tactics being applied on them to call off their movement, including pelting of eggs and stones by PML-N-supported traders on Thursday and MSF goons on Friday, respectively.

The egg-pelting incident took place on The Mall in front of the Punjab Assembly, which is sitting on the bill meant for revision of pay for the protesters for years, while The Mall and Hall Road traders took the law in their hands to implement the Lahore High Court decision imposing a ban on holding protest rallies on the road of bustling business centres.

The LHC decision was in fact passed after the Punjab government, in violation of its own decision, held a protest rally against the federal government of the Pakistan People’s Party about a month ago from Nasir Bagh, the starting point of The Mall.

It was the same road from where the traders bodies of The Mall, Hall Road and adjacent roads brought out rallies to join the main rally at Nasir Bagh and no one including the commuters on these roads protested against them since they were already off the roads leading to Nasir Bagh knowing well that they would find no way to go if they got stuck in the procession.

According to some sources in The Mall and Hall Road Traders’ Association, the decision to pelt the protesting nurses with rotten eggs had in fact been taken after the leadership disapproved various other suggestions including beating the protesters with batons and throwing water with the help of fire brigade tankers.
The Young Nurses Association continued protest on the second consecutive day on Saturday to press for the demand of special pay package, revised service structure and regularisation of ad-hoc nurses.
Ignoring threats of show-cause notices, the nurses managed to come out of hospitals even after closure of main gates and staged a sit in outside the Chief Minister’s camp office in Model Town and outside Lahore Press Club, causing massive traffic jams on Ferozepur Road and on the arteries in the close vicinity of LPC.
Taking notice of hours long protest, Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif constituted a committee to negotiate with the protesters and submit proposal for fulfilling their legitimate demands. The committee comprising Law Minister Rana Sanaullah, Parliamentary Secretary Health Dr Saeed Elahi, Advisor to Chief Minister Begum Zakiya Shahnawaz and other parliamentarians will meet a delegation of nurses on Saturday (today) and submit report for resolving the issue.
Dr Saeed Elahi held two-hour long meeting with the protesting nurses on Friday and informed them about the development that resulted in postponement of ongoing protest. He said that the protesters have nominated 14 nurses as their representatives. He told that three important demands of nurses have come to fore in the meeting which would be presented before the committee on Saturday (today). He said that the demands included provision of special pay package, regular and timely promotion and quashing of FIR registered against nurses during the protest.
Prior to the meeting with Dr Saeed Elahi, parliamentarians from the PPP and PML-Q, Young Doctors Association, Pakistan Medical Association and various human rights organisations joined the protest to express solidarity and support demands of nurses.
Ironically, no action has so far been taken against the traders association and their activists who in their quest to implement the LHC order of a ban on protest rallies on The Mall, violated the law for the sake of their business against the hapless nurses who chose to come on streets as a last resort to secure a respectable living for them and their families.

If the nurses have pelted stones on the traders and their shops, the law would have swiftly come into action, sending many of the protesters behind the bars.

There is a complete silence over the incident as nothing has happened since the victims in the case are hapless nurses. The custodian of ‘Takht-e-Lahore’ (Rulers of Punjab) has yet to issue a condemnation statement while the superior judiciary, famous for taking suo motu notice on as small a case as of Attiqa Odho’s alleged possession of bottles of liquor, has yet to take note of the matter which finds a space in headlines of all news channels and newspapers.

Talks between the Punjab government and nurses remained inconclusive as they continued their strike on the second day in public sector hospitals on Friday and held protest demonstrations, rallies and sit-ins in the City against the governmentís apathy to resolve genuine issues of a special pay package and time-scale promotions of the community.

Under the banner of the Young Nurses Association (YNA), nurses from all public sector hospitals, including DHQ and THQ hospitals of Lahore, organised demonstrations outside their hospitals and gathered to join the central sit-in at the Lahore Press Club.

Earlier, nurses from Lahore General Hospital and Childrenís Hospital gathered outside the Model Town residence of Sharifs’ family and blocked Ferozepur Road from 10am to 12noon, which badly affected the traffic flow on the busiest road of the City. Later, they marched for the main sit-in, which continued till the evening. The protesting nurses were holding banners and placards, inscribed with slogans and demands. They were also raising slogans to give loud and clear message to the government to accept their genuine demands.

The nurses in other districts of Punjab also observed a complete strike in their hospitals and showed complete solidarity with the nurse community for fulfilment of their demands. The Young Doctors Association (YDA), Rawalpindi, also supported nurses and joined their strike in hospitals. The nurses said that the government had completely ignored a vital component of healthcare as nurses were supporting the health system in hospitals in the province.

The rallies and day-long sit-in at Lahore Press Club badly disrupted traffic and massive traffic jams were witnessed on all adjacent roads and arteries causing great inconvenience to pedestrians, commuters and motorists.

Besides, the healthcare system was also badly affected in hospitals as patients could not get required treatment services in outdoor, indoor and operation theatres in the absence of nurses. “All kinds of elective surgeries were postponed in all hospitals,” hospital sources said.

The nurses asked the government to immediately announce a special pay package and time-scale promotion for senior nurses and withdrawal of an FIR against them, which was registered after Thursdayís sit-in at Faisal Chowk in front of the Punjab Assembly. They said that salary packages of doctors and nurses were not compatible even in the same grades and demanded salaries equal to doctors in the same scales.

Meanwhile, no Punjab government representative reached the spot to hold negotiations with the nurses, however, PPP Punjab President Imtiaz Safdar Warraich, Samiullah Khan, PML-Q MPA Seemal Kamran, Ayesha Ahad and civil society representatives also joined them to express solidarity with their just demands of service structure and special pay packages.

The Health Department officials held negotiations with the nursing representatives but remained inconclusive, as nurses announced their protest for the third consecutive day on Saturday (today). The nurses made it clear that the strike in hospitals, protest demonstrations, rallies and sit-ins would continue till fulfilment of their demands not just in letter but in spirit too. nurses protest
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Eighty children incarcerated parents of living in Punjab prisons

At least 80 children of incarcerated parents in Punjab are currently living in prisons, while the figure is close to 180 for prisons across the country. This was revealed by Society for the Protection of the Rights of the Child (SPARC) National Program Manager Abdullah Khoso at a consultative meeting on the issues of children of incarcerated parents in Lahore on Thursday.

Khoso revealed that around 234 children of incarcerated parents were living in prisons in 2010.

The program manager, who recently participated in a consultation by the Commission on the Rights of Child in Geneva, said that Rule 326 of Pakistan Prison Rules stated that a woman offender in Sindh, Punjab and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa can keep her child till the age of six years, while in Balochistan the provision was for up to three years.

SP Shahida, from the Police Department, said that the police should trained to ensure that no parent is arrested in front of their child and that the officials should make a personal effort in trying to ascertain whether there are any children in the house when an arrest in being made.

“What is unfortunate in police stations is the fact that entire families of the accused are brought in for questioning including children,” she said. She added that if an investigation required questioning a child, it should be conducted in the presence of social welfare officers.

Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) General Secretary IA Rehman said it was in the best interest of the child that he or she are not kept in the prison along with their parents.

Rehman added that bail should be mandatory for women who are pregnant or are mothering an infant. He stressed on the need for incorporating non-custodial methods in the judicial system, to ensure that the rights of children whose parents are imprisoned are not violated.

Punjab Law Department Deputy Secretary Abid Reza said the core issue was the violation of the rights of the child.

Reza said the Home Department and the Social Welfare Department should send their recommendations to the Law Department for policy making.

Rao Khalil from the Child Protection and Welfare Bureau said the willingness of the imprisoned mother to give up her child to alternate care was a matter of great concern which required both counseling for mothers and suitable alternate child care. He said pre-arrest and post-arrest data should also be collected.

Arshad Mehmood, Executive Director at SPARC, said despite Pakistan being the first Islamic country and the sixth in the world to have ratified the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, children were highly neglected in the country. Mehmood said currently there were almost 1,200 to 1,300 women in prisons across Pakistan, out of which almost 850 were Punjab. He added that considering the statistics in Punjab, it was unfortunate that only four female probation officers were present for women offenders.

Members of the Punjab Assembly, including Arifa Khalid and Deeba Mirza, were also present at the meeting. Khalid, while addressing the gathering, said there was a need to train politicians in order to consider the technical details of issues pertaining to children of incarcerated parents.

The participants recommended the use of the probation system for women with young children, along with bail and parole provisions, and those who are solely responsible for taking care of their children.

Other participants at the meeting included representatives from the Ministry of Human Right and various NGOs including SAHIL, Sanjog, and SOS Villages.

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Chief Minister Punjab Shahbaz Sharif ordered to reopen the pti office

Chief Minister Punjab Shahbaz Sharif took notice of the excise department sealing the main secretariat of Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI) located here at Jail Road and ordered to reopen the office.

According to excise department sources, the step was taken due to non-payment of Rs350,000 property tax amount despite multiple reminders issued to the party office. Therefore, the authorities resorted to seal the main secretariat of PTI at Jail Road.

Chief Minister Punjab Shahbaz Sharif took notice of the excise department sealing the main secretariat of Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI) located here at Jail Road and ordered to reopen the office Tuesday, Geo News reported.

According to excise department sources, the step was taken due to non-payment of Rs350,000 property tax amount despite multiple reminders issued to the party office. Therefore, the authorities resorted to seal the main secretariat of PTI at Jail Road.

The CM Punjab took notice of the step taken by the excise authorities and passed orders to reopen the office.

The team reached the location to implement the orders, however, the party workers did not allow the excise officers to open the office before the arrival of party leaders.
Chief Minister Punjab Shahbaz Sharif ordered to reopen the pti office.
PTI Chairman Imran Khan reiterated that President Asif Ali Zardari and the Sharif brothers will never reveal their true assets as they would then be “compelled to face charges of corruption on declaration.” The Punjab Government clarified that the action against PTI was taken by the Excise Department on its own, without asking from the political leadership. The department was directed to solve the issue through negotiations with the PTI officials.

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PML -N to offer Qureshi key party slot

(Pakistan Times)  Sensing an opportunity to gain significant ground in south Punjab and upper Sindh, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz President Nawaz Sharif is likely to offer former foreign minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi a “key slot” in his party when the two meet this week.

A PML-N insider told The Express Tribune on Sunday that Nawaz Sharif and other key leaders of the main opposition party were “desperate” for an opening in the remote southern parts of Punjab and upper Sindh and they believed that Qureshi was their best bet.

“Mian Sahib and the people he trusts have realised that an opportunity has come their way in the person of Qureshi … it looks like they will go to any lengths to grab it,” he said.

It is not clear what position Sharif would offer Qureshi. The PML-N is due to choose new office bearers for its Punjab chapter in a couple of weeks.

Qureshi belongs to Multan district in south Punjab, the so-called ‘Seraiki belt’ where the ruling Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) has long overshadowed the PML-N. He quit both the PPP and his National Assembly seat a week ago, citing differences he had with President Asif Zardari earlier this year.

The former foreign minister is being wooed by both the PML-N and Imran Khan’s Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI). But while Sharif is to meet directly with Qureshi on November 22, Khan is not scheduled to meet him before the former minister announces his political future at a public rally in Ghotki, Sindh, on November 27.
With Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI) chief Imran Khan claiming that former foreign minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi would announce that he is joining the PTI at a public meeting on November 27 in Ghotki, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) President Nawaz Sharif is going all out to keep Qureshi away from the PTI and mutual friends are being pushed to attract him to the PML-N, Pakistan Today learnt on Friday. Khan recently said in a talk show that Qureshi would be announcing his decision to join the PTI at the public meeting in Ghotki.
Interestingly, Qureshi has opted to remain silent over his future ambitions and with the date of his Ghotki public meeting approaching, he has left for Dubai to keep analysts guessing. “Qureshi is an old friend. We haven’t met as yet but we’ve spoken over the phone and will meet very soon,” Sharif had told reporters at Sukkur airport on Thursday. PML-N sources claim that the meeting will be held on November 22, however no one was ready to confirm the meeting on the record. A PML-N source told Pakistan Today that his party chief thought Qureshi joining the PTI would give a huge boost to Imran Khan’s party, which would further dent the diminishing popularity of the PML-N and the only way to stop Qureshi was to use personal contacts. However, the source said further that there were irritants in Qureshi’s way into the PML-N and the biggest of those was Makhdoom Javed Hashmi. “Both Hashmi and Qureshi are arch rivals and Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani and Javed Hashmi were working on an alliance on both constituencies of the National Assembly falling under Qureshi. Gilani wants to field his brother or son in one of the constituencies while the other would be decided by Hashmi. This is also in the knowledge of Qureshi and he had conveyed his concerns to Shahbaz Sharif in his last meeting,” said the source.
The source said that Qureshi was also mulling over reviving his own faction of the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) and he had also contacted PPP-SB leader Ghinwa Bhutto, urging her to field her daughter Fatima Bhutto against the Zardari-led PPP. However, the source said Ghinwa had dropped the proposal.
An associate of Qureshi told The Express Tribune that his meeting with Sharif would likely take place in Multan on Tuesday. MPA Abbas Raan said Nawaz’s youngest son Hassan Nawaz, had conveyed to family members of Qureshi his father’s desire to meet Sharif at the family residence in Multan, known as Bab-ul-Qureshi, Daulat Gate.

Makhdoom Javed Hashmi, a senior PML-N leader from Multan, backs Qureshi’s entry to the party, said a PML-N colleague of his. He said that Hashmi had opposed Qureshi quitting the PPP, but believed he would be an important leader for the PML-N.

Another associate of Nawaz Sharif said Hashmi had conveyed his support for Qureshi joining the party to the top PML-N leadership.

However, sources in the party said that there was still one hurdle to Qureshi being offered a significant position.

They said that the Khosa family of Dera Ghazi Khan, who have been allied with the Sharifs for a long time, would not like to see another major leader from the south Punjab region in a key position in the PML-N. Sardar Zulfikar Khosa is president of the PML-N’s Punjab chapter.

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BISE announces Inter Part-I error-free result -- Is it true

The Lahore Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education on Saturday re-announced the Intermediate Part-I result. The result was earlier announced on October 17, and after the massive protests by students against enormous errors in the results and Result Late (RL), the Punjab government cancelled the results of all eight boards of the province. The government had ordered to recheck the result and re-announce within 45 days.
The BISE announced the result, claiming it ‘error free’. According to the provincial education minister the other boards of Punjab will also announce their revised results within 45 days.
The Lahore board organised a special ceremony at board’s examination center wherein Punjab Education Minister Mian Mujtaba Shuja-ur-Rahman, Lahore board chairman Dr Allah Bakhash and other senior officials addressed on the occasion.
According to the revised result, total 124,702 students took the Intermediate Part-I exam and 62,647 of them passed it. Earlier, the board declared 49,435 candidates as pass. The pass percentage in the revised result has gone up to 50.26 per cent from the previous 39.64 per cent.
According to the revised results, Government College University pre-engineering student Muhammad Umar stood first by securing 493 marks.
Zamad Gilnai of Government College University got first position in pre-medical group (boys) with 471 marks while in the same group (girls), Zabreen Tahir of Government Kinnaird College stood first with 473 marks. In general science group (boys), Muhammad Aamir Eyyaz of Government College University bagged first position by obtaining 474 marks while among girls, Fatima Qamar of Kinnaird College declared as first position holder with 479 marks.
A private student Ziaul Haq stood first in Humanities group (boys) with 468 marks and the same group (girls), Ammara Yousuf of Government College for Women Warburton (Nankana) declared as first with 483 marks.
In pre-engineering group (boys), Muhammad Umer of GCU bagged first position with 493 marks while Fatima Khurshid of Punjab College gained first position with 485 marks among girls in same group. In commerce group (boys), Zohaib Siddiqui of Punjab College stood first by obtaining 487 marks while Saba Kanwal of the Punjab College stood first with 489 among girls in commerce group.
Education Minister Mujtaba Shujaur Rehman while addressing the ceremony appreciated the board officials for working day and night and announcing the result after removing errors before the given deadline. The minister said the government had introduced the computerised system to facilitate the students and to eliminate errors. But unfortunately, he said, they could not get expected results from newly introduced computerized system. He said Judicial Inquiry Committee was probing the issue. “We have engaged new team of computer experts now to enhance the system and the computerized and manual system would be used parallel in order to avoid any mess in future”, the minister added. The minister also admitted that there were mafias inside and outside the board who tempered the results and changed the positions of the students. He, however, did not give any plan to counter these mafias. He also announced one increment on basic pay to the board employees in reward of their ‘hard work’ to prepare the result.

Write your comments on the latest result

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