Sherry Rehman condemns Zhob Garrison attack

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Wed, 12 Jul 2023, 5:54 PM

ISLAMABAD, Jul 12 (APP): Federal Minister for Climate Change Senator Sherry Rehman on Wednesday strongly condemned the terrorist attack on Zhob Garrison in North Balochistan.

She in a statement issued here expressed solidarity with the families of the martyred soldiers who bravely thwarted the terrorist attack.

She said, “I pay my respects to the martyred soldiers who embraced martyrdom in the attack. I am standing with the families of the martyred soldiers.”

Senator Rehman also prayed for the speedy recovery of the injured soldiers in the clearance operation.

“The brave soldiers of Pakistan Army thwarted a major terrorist attack. The entire country, including the Pakistan Army, is united and determined against terrorism,” the minister said.

Head grabs second spot in ICC Rankings

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NNPS Desk

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Wed, 12 Jul 2023, 5:45 PM

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ISLAMABAD, Jul 12 (APP):Australia batter Travis Head has overtaken team-mates Steve Smith and Marnus Labuschagne to grab a career-best second position in the MRF Tyres ICC Men’s Test Player Rankings.

Head’s scores of 39 and 77 in the third match of the ICC World Test Championship series against England at Headingly had taken him to within nine points of Kane Williamson’s 883 rating points even as the batting rankings continued to be volatile at the top with five of the top seven featuring in the ongoing Ashes series, said an ICC press release.

Head’s previous best ranking was third, attained after the ICC World Test Championship Final against India last month, in which he had scored a decisive 163 in the first innings.

Quite a few England batters progressed in the weekly update carried out on Wednesday after a three-wicket victory helped them narrow the gap in the series to 2-1.

Harry Brook moved up to a career-best 12th place after scoring 75 in the second innings, captain Ben Stokes was in the top 20 for the first time since September after scoring 80 in the first innings, and Zak Crawley’s knocks of 33 and 44 lifted him eight places to the 48th position.

In the bowling rankings, Stuart Broad and Mark Wood made notable progress. Broad gained four places to reach sixth position after finishing with five wickets in the match while Wood was up nine places to the 26th position with a career-best 591 rating points with seven wickets, including a five-for in the second innings. Chris Woakes re-entered the rankings in 36th position after taking three wickets each in both innings.

In the MRF Tyres ICC Men’s ODI Player Rankings, Afghanistan batter Ibrahim Zadran gained 11 slots to reach 16th position after contributing 142 runs during a 2-1 series win over Bangladesh while Rahmanullah Gurbaz galloped 37 places to 45th after topping the series aggregate with 173 runs.

Player of the Series Fazalhaq Faroozi progressed 58 places to 33rd position after grabbing eight wickets in the series while Rashid Khan was up three places to fourth.

For Bangladesh, Liton Das moved up three places to 38th after aggregating 92 runs in the series while Shakib Al Hasan was back in the top 10 for bowlers.

In the latest weekly update, that also took into consideration performances in matches of the ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup Qualifier 2023 played over the past week, Netherlands’ Max D’Owd (up five places to 56th) and USA’s Gajanand Singh (up five places to 59th) were others to move up the batting rankings.

In the bowling rankings, Saurabh Netravalkar of the USA (up 13 places to 18th), Maheesh Theekshana of Sri Lanka (up 13 places to 19th) and the United Arab Emirates’ Aayan Afzal Khan (up three places to 46th) made notable progress.

WHO donates fully equipped Mobile Hospital Unit to GB

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NNPS Desk

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Wed, 12 Jul 2023, 5:45 PM

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GILGIT, Jul 12 (APP): Chief Secretary Gilgit Baltistan Muhiudeen Wani said World Health Organization (WHO) has generously donated a fully equipped Mobile Hospital Unit, which will be deployed to the Diamer region to address the health needs of its remote communities.

While talking to media here in Gilgit, he said the state-of-the-art facility is not only furnished and equipped with water tanks but also features a 5KV solar system, two 5KV generators, and two air conditioners, ensuring its readiness to provide efficient and effective medical services regardless of local infrastructure.

He added this contribution is a significant step forward in enhancing and uplifting healthcare accessibility in the far-flung areas of Diamer.

Poultry traders, importers’ hullabaloo on GMOs import halt exploitative, NA body told

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Wed, 12 Jul 2023, 5:36 PM

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ISLAMABAD, Jul 12 (APP): The poultry traders and importers of Soybean seeds have created an exploitative hullabaloo at the national level pertaining to halt of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) seeds as the importers were illicitly importing the soybean seeds without meeting the legal formalities and protocols.

Additional Secretary Ministry of Climate Change and Environmental Coordination, Musadik Ahmed Malik on Wednesday informed the National Assembly Standing Committee on Climate Change and Environmental Coordination presided by MNA Nuzhat Pathan that in 1995 GMOs were introduced to create pest and weather resistant crops.

The chairperson raised the query before the Ministry of Climate Change pertaining to the alleged deliberate halt of soybean seeds causing economic damage to the poultry industry and increase in the price of broiler chicken.

Setting the historical context, he said there were two lobbies one opposing and the other supporting the GMOs.

However, later the Cartagena Convention was formulated in Spain and all countries made commitment that they would report on international biosafety house to report transboundary movement of the GMOs.

In Pakistan, the Cultivation regime after 2005 introduced locally produced BT Cotton GMOs based seeds and it was the only genetically modified crop prevailing in the country and there was no other GMOs locally produced or cultivated.

Soybean seeds were imported to produce oil and its husk was used for making poultry feed as it had high protein which was good for fast growth of chicks, he added.

“In Pakistan, there is no import without license. From 2015 till date none of the importers took license for importing soybean seeds. US is the biggest exporter of GMOs-based soybean and canola and it is not signatory to Cartagena Protocol,” he added.

The Customs Department on suspicion in 2022 tested two consignment of soybean seeds that were found GMOs whereas it was necessary to hold risk assessment to obtain a license and in order to circumvent the cumbersome ordeal of risk assessment the importers used illicit means, he added.

The federal cabinet gave directions to revisit rules and improve regulatory regime for biosafe human consumption of GMOs whereas the ministry engaged biotechnology scientists in an aggressive consultative sessions on the matter, the MoCC official said.

The scientist’s opinion was that since 1995 GMOs’ human consumption was underway like in US most of the products were GMO-based and heavily consumed at the local level.

The countries importing it were also using and there were no harmful impact reported so it was safe for human consumption, he added.

Since its developers are far ahead of Pakistan in GMOs risk assessment there was no need to develop local risk assessment mechanism and therefore the ministry decided to amend the rules and engage stakeholders like Ministry of Food Security, he said.

Musadiq Khan said Pakistan had soybean seed alternates in the country and there was no shortage of poultry feed raw material.

The Food Ministry claimed that there would be no shortage of chicken feed whereas the importers and poultry farmers exploited the matter, he alleged.

The rules amendment summary was submitted to the Cabinet Committee on Legislative Amendments on July 10th and it suggested that keeping in view local risk assessment of US FDA and EPA a one time license for three years with the condition of local risk assessment for mandatory to review and renewal of the license would be awarded to an importer, he said.