ISLAMABAD, June 28 (APP): Chief Justice of Pakistan Anwar Zaheer Jamali on Tuesday administered the oath of office to Justice Ijaz ul Ahsan as judge Supreme Court (SC) at Supreme Court branch registry Lahore.

The ceremony was attended by judges of Supreme Court, Federal Shariat Court, Attorney General for Pakistan, Advocate General Punjab, office bearers of Pakistan Bar Council and Punjab Bar Council, senior lawyers and law officers.

Registrar Supreme Court Arbab Muhammad Arif conducted the proceedings of the oath taking ceremony. Officers and staff of Supreme Court also attended the ceremony.

ISLAMABAD, Jun 28 (APP): Minister of State for Interior and
Education, Engineer Baligh ur Rehman Tuesday said that government
had decided to launch projects like safe city in other big cities of
the country to control crimes.

The CCTV cameras were installed in Karachi and Rawalpindi like
Islamabad, he said.

Talking to PTV, he said it has been decided to analyze database of Karachi through National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA) that was a well equipped department.

He said National Alien Registration Authority (NARA) has also
been attached with NADRA for this purpose.

The data of Afghani migrants was also available with the
country that was attained from High Commission for Refugees, the
minister said.

He informed to launch an sms service from July 2016, for the
people to verify their family members registered with NADRA.
“We will remove weaknesses in the system within available
resources”, he added.

He said the Prime Minister had started Karachi operation with
the consultation of all stakeholder that has given remarkable
results for maintaining peace in business hub of the country.

The results of implementation on National Action Plan (NAP),
he said, are visible across the country particularly in Balochistan
and Sindh.

All points of NAP were being implemented to restore peace,
Baligh maintained, saying that 100 percent mobile sims had been made
biometrics, action was taken for hated speeches and seminaries were
registered under this plan.

He said military courts were established under an constitutional amendment and its tenure is two year.

To a question, he said ongoing operation Zarb e Azb would be
completed after achievements of all set targets.

The situation in Balochistan, he said, has been improved while
the no go areas in FATA also have been eliminated due to sincere
efforts of the government for peace.

He said no terrorism outfit would be allowed to operate with
another name in the country and facilitator of terrorists would also
be booked.

To a question, he said the murder of renowned Qawwal Amjad
Sabri and kidnapping of Awais Shah were the attempts to spread
unrest and uncertainty in the country, adding, the nation couldn’t
loss its commitment against terrorism by such coward incident.
The mechanism of information sharing among the intelligence
institutions have been improved, he said.

Baligh ur Rehman said Islamabad was the first city of the country where CCTV cameras have been installed that were helping in reducing crime rate.

The same projects would also be introduced in other big cities of the country to ensure security measures.

The federal government, he said, would assist the Sindh government in raising of its personnel.

He said after introduction of cyber crime bill, the cyber law would be more effective to control social media.

ISLAMABAD, June 28 (APP): National Assembly Standing Committee on Information, Broadcasting and National Heritage IIB&NH) was informed on Tuesday that 15 employees of Pakistan Television Corporation appointed during past two years had been sacked.

The committee meeting chaired by Pir Aslam Bodla was informed by Secretary IB&NH and Managing Director PTV Syed Imran Gardezi that
the sacked employees were getting hefty salaries ranging from Rs
600,000 to Rs 700,000 per month. He said investigations were being held into illegal appointments and illegal purchase of television plays from the market.

He said that a three-member committee had been constituted to probe various allegations against the former MD PTV Abdul Mallick. The committee was informed that PTV had restarted the process of its own drama production.

Some of the committee members said that video of Dr Asim Hussain shown by various private channels was a media trial.

Imran Zafar Leghari, MNA questioned was it not violation of Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority’s (PEMRA) rules and regulations? Talal Chaudhry said that it was media trial and should be avoided and PEMRA should examine how this video was leaked.

He said that Speaker National Assembly had written a letter to PEMRA for a separate channel for Parliament’s coverage. He said that consultations with the Speaker for a separate channel should be held.

The Secretary IB&NH said that the PTV would launch a new channel for Parliamentary coverage, if required funds were provided, and being the state channel it did not need any new licence.

The committee expressed displeasure over the telecast of a mobile phone advertisement in which a girl goes to cricket team camp without permission of the parents. Perveen Masood Bhatti and Naeema Kishwer remarked what moral values were being taught to the new generation through such advertisements.

ISLAMABAD, June 28 (APP): Minister for Religious Affairs and Interfaith Harmony Sardar Muhammad Yousaf Tuesday said that Pakistan was striving hard for promoting cordial relations with the Muslim world.

Talking to Secretary General of The World Islamic League (Rabita al-Alam al-Islami) Sheikh Abdullah Bin Al-Mushin At-Turki in Makkah Mukarma, the minister stressed the need for enhancing and strengthening relations with Saudi Arabia.

The minister said that Pakistan was not oblivious to ground realities and playing effective role for integration of Muslim Ummah. Religious Ministry has constituted Ulema and Mashaikh council with the mandate to achieve the target of interfaith harmony, said a message received here.

Both the leaders discussed further strengthening of Pak-Saudi relations and prevalent situation at Middle East.

Sheikh Abdullah Al Turkey said Pakistan was the centre of the hopes of Islamic world. Pakistan role in strengthening the relations among Muslim world could not be ignored. Pakistan could play effective role in resolving the issues of Muslim world.

Chairman National Assembly Standing Committee on Religious Affairs and Interfaith Harmony Hafiz Abdul Karim, MNA Sahibzada Muhammad Yaqoob, MPA Mian Ziaur Rehman, Maulana Abu Turab and Jameel Ur Rehman Farooqui were also present in the meeting.

ISLAMABAD, Jun 28 (APP): The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has announced a Civic and Voter Education Plan aims to provide information and contribute towards educating citizens about their rights in regard to elections and democracy for making electoral process more credible and accountable through their participation.

“The purpose of this plan to achieve the major objectives of maximizing the voters turnout in elections,minimizing the male and female gap in voting process and encouraging women and other underprivileged classes where they are prohibited to use their right of vote in a free, fair and fear free environment and to motivate urban well educated segment of population living in posh areas of large cities to actively participate in electoral process of next general elections” said Suriya Jamal,Additional Director General Public Relation of the ECP.

Civic Voter Education Committees will operate under the chairmanship of District Election Commissioner in each district of country. Other members may include staff of provincial and district departments, she said.

Suriya said that these Committees will be responsible to lead the voter and civic education work in their respective districts.

Committees will also be instrumental in expanding the ECP outreach to have more direct relationships with voters at the grassroots level through voter education planning and implementation regime for maximum yields, she added.

ECP will also organize training and seminars besides media campaign on state and private television channels and Radio stations., she said

The ECP will also coordinate with the Federal Education Ministry, Higher Education Commission and Provincial departments of Education to make appropriate amendments in the curriculum and syllabus for adding more targeted contents on elections and democracy, Suriya maintained.

ECP will prepare small documentaries, television commercials, public service messages to educate masses on voter and civic education related topics. The main content will include how to get registered as voter, why and how to cast vote, what is ECP and its mandate.

ISLAMABAD, Jun 28 (APP): Every Afghan family comprising about seven members would receive cash grant of about Rs 300,000 on repatriation as United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees have doubled the repatriation grant.

According to the sources, the grant to an individual refugee has been increased from US $ 200 to US $ 400 recently.

Meanwhile, the Minister for State and Frontier Regions (SAFRON) Abdul Qadir Baloch has welcomed the announcement of UNHCR doubling the repatriation grant.

He said this step would help motivate and encourage the Afghan refugees to voluntarily move back to their respective area thus taking part in the reconstruction of their motherland.

The Minister acknowledged the timely implementation of UNHCR’s announcement as the enhanced grant is being disbursed to the returning Afghan Refugees in Afghanistan from the beginning of the week.

He said that the enhanced amount of grant will have a positive impact on the returns which subsequently will help returnees anchor in Afghanistan.

However, he emphasised the need to complement the enhanced grant with meaningful development interventions in Afghanistan for necessary infrastructure development to sustain the return.

The Minister encouraged the Afghan Refugees to seize the opportunity and opt for voluntary return and play much needed role in development of their homeland.

ISLAMABAD, Jun 28 (APP): The government of Pakistan has released Rs 606995.500 million for National Highway Authority under the Public Sector Development Sector (PSDP) till May 20.

Rs 20,000 million have been released for Lahore-Abdul Hakeem Section (230 km) of Karachi-Lahore Motorway (KLM), while Rs 5250 million have been released for 387 km Multan- Sukkur Section of the KLM,an official source told APP Tuesday.

Rs 6850 million have been released for Thakot to Havelian 120 km (Construction of Phase-I of China-Pak Economic Corridor (CPEC) while Rs 5,000 million have been released for its land acquisition,he said.

The NHA official said that Rs 2000 million have been released to ensure timely completion of Lowari Tunnel & Access Roads in District Dir. Rs 2800 million have been released for Gwadar-Turbat-Hoshab Section of M-8 while, while for widening & Improvement of Hoshab-Nag-Basima-Surab Highway (N-85) Rs 2500 have been released,the source said.

Rs 500 million have been released for construction of Bridge over Indus River at Qazi Ahmed Amri including Skrand Bypass (Nawab Shah),Rs 950 mln have been released for construction of bridge across River Chinab linking Shorkot and Garh Maharaja in Jhang district.

He said Rs 500 million have been released for a 57 km section of Faisalabad-Multan Motorway including land acquisition (Multan) (IDB).