KARACHI, Jan 17 (APP): The Exchange Rates Committee of Financial Markets Association of Pakistan issued the following Exchange rates bulletin, here on Wednesday.
CONVERSION RATES FOR JANUARY 17, 2024 FOR FOREIGN CURRENCY FOR FORWARD COVER FOR DEPOSITS (EXCLUDING FE 25 DEPOSITS)
SBP SETTLEMENT VALUE DATE JANUARY 19, 2024
USD 280.0308
GBP 354.6869
EUR 305.6256
JPY 1.9164
APP/mzr/
ISLAMABAD, Jan 16 (APP): Pakistan on Tuesday strongly condemned the unprovoked violation of its airspace by Iran which resulted in death of two innocent children while injuring three girls.
This violation of Pakistan’s sovereignty is completely unacceptable and can have serious consequences, a statement issued by the Foreign Office Spokesperson said.
The statement added, “It is even more concerning that this illegal act has taken place despite the existence of several channels of communication between Pakistan and Iran”.
Pakistan’s strong protest has already been lodged with the concerned senior official in the Iranian Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Tehran.
Additionally, the statement maintained the Iranian Charge d’affaires has been called to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to convey our strongest condemnation of this blatant violation of Pakistan’s sovereignty and that the responsibility for the consequences will lie squarely with Iran.
“Pakistan has always said terrorism is a common threat to all countries in the region that requires coordinated action.”
Such unilateral acts are not in conformity with good neighbourly relations and can seriously undermine bilateral trust and confidence, the statement added.
UNITED NATIONS, Jan 16 (APP): The Israeli authorities have continued to block lifesaving aid from reaching northern Gaza 102 days since the eruption of the conflict on Oct 7, UN humanitarian officials insisted, just as UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned that “the long shadow of starvation” stalks the people in the Palestinian enclave.
“In the first two weeks of January, only 24 per cent – seven out of 29 – of planned missions to deliver food, medicine, water and other lifesaving supplies successfully reached their destinations north of Wadi Gaza,” the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said.
Echoing those concerns and highlighting the dire situation everywhere in the enclave, OCHA worker Olga Cherevko said that conditions were awful for displaced people in the south of Gaza, too.
“Some people have not eaten in days,” she said on Tuesday in a video posted on X, formerly Twitter. “The children have no winter clothes. There’s no
In its latest update on the war issued on Sunday evening, OCHA noted that most of the Israeli denials involved fuel and medicines allocated for reservoirs, water wells and health facilities north of Wadi Gaza.
“Lack of fuel for water, sanitation and hygiene increases risks of health and environmental hazards. Lack of medicine debilitated the functionality of the six partially functioning hospitals,” OCHA noted, as it highlighted “intense Israeli air, land and sea bombardments, ground operations and fighting with Palestinian armed groups continued across much of the Gaza Strip, alongside the firing of rockets by Palestinian armed groups into Israel”.
Meanwhile, the UN health agency WHO reported that Nasser Medical Complex in the southern city of Khan Younis “continues to receive high volume of trauma and burn cases”.
The hospital has 700 patients which is double its normal capacity while the ICU and burns unit “are severely understaffed, delaying lifesaving treatment”.
The development followed a ceasefire appeal to all parties issued late on Monday by UN chief Mr. Guterres. He also called for the immediate and unconditional release of all hostages taken during the 7 October attacks.
“We can’t effectively deliver humanitarian aid while Gaza is under heavy, widespread and unrelenting bombardment,” Mr. Guterres said, as he expressed deep concern about the “wholesale destruction” and levels of civilian casualties that were “unprecedented” during his time as Secretary-General.
“While there have been some steps to increase the flow of humanitarian assistance into Gaza, life-saving relief is not getting to people who have endured months of relentless assault at anywhere near the scale needed”, he continued.
UN human rights experts in a news release on Tuesday, reported that Gazans now make up 80 per cent of all those facing famine or catastrophic hunger worldwide.
“Currently every single person in Gaza is hungry, a quarter of the population are starving and struggling to find food and drinkable water, and famine is imminent,” several the UN Special Rapporteurs in a joint statement.
The group of experts warned that all children under five in Gaza – some 335,000 – are at high risk of severe malnutrition, which means that “a whole generation is now in danger of suffering from stunting.”
“It is unprecedented to make an entire civilian population go hungry this completely and quickly. Israel is destroying Gaza’s food system and using food as a weapon against the Palestinian people,” the human rights advocates stated.
The UN Human Rights Council-appointed rights experts said that Israel had essentially blocked all access to farmland and the sea as a food source.
Approximately 22 per cent of agricultural land in northern Gaza has been “razed by Israeli forces” and about 70 per cent of Gaza’s fishing fleet was allegedly destroyed, they added.
More than 60 percent of Palestinian homes in Gaza have been damaged, which directly affects the ability to cook any food, and the experts accused Israel of causing domicide through the mass destruction of dwellings, making the territory uninhabitable.
UNITED NATIONS, Jan 16 (APP): Smoking rates are falling worldwide, and lives are being saved as more countries implement policies and control measures to curb the global tobacco epidemic, according to a new World Health Organization (WHO) report.
Trends in 2022 showed that roughly one in five adults worldwide uses tobacco, compared to one in three in the year 2000.
Only six countries have meanwhile seen tobacco use rise since 2010 — Congo, Egypt, Indonesia, Jordan, Moldova and Oman.
Overall, the world is on track to shrink tobacco use by a quarter over the 15-year period to 2025, according to the report.
While cigarette smoking is the most common form of tobacco use worldwide, other products include cigars, waterpipe tobacco also known as hookah, and smokeless tobacco products, all of which are harmful.
The “tobacco epidemic” is among the biggest public health threats the world has ever faced, killing over eight million people a year, according to WHO. More than seven million of these deaths are the result of direct tobacco use, but some 1.3 million non-smokers die from exposure to second-hand smoke.
Globally, there are 1.25 billion tobacco users, according to the latest estimates, which revealed that 150 countries are successfully reducing rates among people aged 15 and above.
Examples include Brazil and the Netherlands, which are seeing the benefits of implementing an initiative known as MPOWER, focused on six tobacco control measures including protection, enforcement of advertising and sponsorship bans, raising taxes on tobacco products, and helping people to quit.
As a result, Brazil has made a relative reduction of 35 per cent since 2010 and the Netherlands is on the verge of reaching the 30 per cent target.
Dr. Ruediger Krech, Director of WHO’s Department of Health Promotion, hailed the “good progress” achieved so far while warning against complacency.
“I’m astounded at the depths the tobacco industry will go to pursue profits at the expense of countless lives. We see that the minute a government thinks they have won the fight against tobacco the tobacco industry seizes the opportunity to manipulate health policies and sell their deadly products,” he said.
WHO urged countries to continue putting tobacco control policies in place and to keep fighting against tobacco industry interference, highlighting how it “continues to lie to the public,” including through front groups and third parties, sponsored events, social media influencers, sponsored events and funding scientists and biased research.
Southeast Asia currently has the highest percentage of the population using tobacco at 26.5 per cent, followed closely by Europe at 25.3 per cent. Tobacco use rates among women in Europe are more than double the global average and are reducing much slower than in all other regions.
WHO said the world is on track to achieve a 25 per cent relative reduction in tobacco use by 2025, short of the voluntary global goal of 30 per cent reduction from the 2010 baseline.
Only 56 countries will reach this goal, down from 60 since the last report three years ago,
With more work still ahead, WHO called for countries to step up action, noting that efforts to protect health policy from increased tobacco industry interference have faltered around the world.
Country surveys consistently show that children aged 13 to 15 years in most nations are using tobacco and nicotine products such as e-cigarettes, the agency said.
APP/ift
ISLAMABAD, Jan 16 (APP): The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) is contemplating the option of delaying general elections in particular constituencies, if the current procedure of altering election symbols is not stopped in those areas.
“If the symbol change continues, the ECP is considering a proposal to delay elections in those constituencies,” said the ECP in a statement issued here.
Highlighting the current scenario, the ECP noted that the allocation of election symbols, changes are being made through various channels. It’s crucial to remember that the Election Commission has already directed the printing of ballot papers to three printing corporations, and the printing process has commenced.
To address this evolving situation, the election commission is holding meetings with the primary objective of managing the circumstances and ensuring strict adherence to instructions against changing election symbols.
The statement raises concerns about potential election delays due to continued symbol alterations, posing a risk of reprinting ballot papers within the limited timeframe.
On the flip side, the special paper designated for ballot printing is also at risk of being wasted. In the 2018 elections, 800 tons of paper were utilized for ballot paper printing, whereas this time, an estimated 2070 tons of paper are expected to be used in the 2024 elections.
Likewise, in the 2018 elections, 11,700 candidates were involved, whereas this time there were 18,059 candidates in the competition. Similarly, the production of ballot papers has surged from 220 million in 2018 to an estimated 260 million in the upcoming 2024 elections.
ISLAMABAD, Jan 16 (APP): The Ministry of Health has confirmed the presence of poliovirus in environmental samples from nine districts of the country.
According to the spokesperson of the Ministry of Health, the virus was found in one sample each from Quetta, Mastung, Multan, Peshawar, Nowshera, and Hab.
The Poliovirus was also found in samples from Karachi Malir, Karachi South and D.I.Khan.
He said that the virus found in all the samples was from across the border.
He said that the only way to prevent transmission of the virus is the polio vaccine, adding children can be protected from disability by vaccination against polio.
He added parents must give the polio vaccine to their children under five years of age.
ISLAMABAD, Jan 16 (APP): The Federal Government on Tuesday constituted a six-member Joint Investigation Team (JIT) in order to investigate the ongoing malicious social media campaign against the Supreme Court judges.
The JIT, headed by the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) Cyber Crime Wing additional director general, included Grade-20 officers of the Intelligence Bureau, Inter-Services Intelligence and Pakistan Telecommunication Authority, besides Islamabad deputy inspector general of police and another officer, a Ministry of Interior notification said.
According to the term and conditions, the JIT would ascertain facts behind the malicious social media campaigns attempting to malign the image of the SC judges, identify and bring the culprits to book in accordance with relevant laws and cause presentation of challans in the relevant courts and recommend measures for prevention against the occurrence of such incidents in future.
The JIT would submit a preliminary report to the interior ministry within a fortnight.
FIA Headquarters would provide secretarial support to the JIT, the notification said.
ISLAMABAD, Jan 16 (APP): The organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) and University of Management and Technology (UMT) Lahore signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) in Jeddah to enhance educational cooperation among the OIC member states.
Witnessed signing of MoU b/w OIC & University of Management & Technology (UMT) Lahore. Mission arranged finalization of MoU that aims to enhance educational cooperation among OIC Member States. UMT offers 114 scholarships for students from OIC countries. Jeddah, KSA (16 Jan 2024) pic.twitter.com/GulASDWiv4
— SYED M FAWAD SHER (@fawadsher) January 16, 2024
Under the MoU the UMT offers 114 scholarships for students from the OIC countries, Pakistan’s Ambassador/Permanent Representative to OIC Syed M Fawad Sher said on his official X handle.
The signing of the MoU was witnessed by Syed M Fawad Sher.
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