ISLAMABAD, May 24 (APP): Chairperson Benazir Income Support Programme Marvi Memon has said that computerized system has been introduced in BISP to ensure transparency.

Talking to Radio Pakistan, she said a new poverty survey would be conducted after the holy month of Ramazan.

She said the survey teams would be accompanied by monitoring squads to ensure transparency and best international practices.

Marvi Memon also announced provision of interest free loan to educated women of the area.

Chairperson BISP said close monitoring of the programme is being carried out to guard against elements who try to exploit its beneficiaries.

She said in this regard PTA has launched a massive campaign to sensitize people about fraudulent practices.

To a question, she said the ongoing re-survey of the programme would span over two years to enlist new eligible people and strike down names of those who have graduated over time.

Marvi Memon said the stipend of beneficiaries has been increased from 1500 to 1566 rupees per month.

ISLAMABAD, May 24 (APP): At least 12 persons, including two minor girls,were killed in rain-related incidents in various cities after heavy rain lashed parts of upper and central Punjab on early Tuesday morning.

According to details, seven labourers were killed and four other sustained injuries when wall of an under construction godown near Lahore’s Quaid-e-Azam Interchange collapsed after getting over burdened from construction material, private news channel reported.

Rescue officials gather at a site where labourers died due to wall collapse , Rescue officials said that the labourers were sleeping in their tent when the wall collapsed, killing four of them on the spot whereas three succumbed to their injuries in hospital.

The killed labourers include Rahim Yar Khan’s Irfan, Uch Sharif’s Maqbool, Mianwali’s Usman alongwith Arshad, Zulfiqar, Nadeem and Nadir from the same family of Jalalpur.
Moreover, in Lahore’s Manga Mandi area eight-year-old Muskaan was electrocuted to death.

On the other hand, roof of a house collapsed due to rain in
Ibn-e-Mariam Colony in Faisalabad, killing a minor girl and injuring her father.

Meanwhile, in Dera Ismail Khan three people died after being struck by lightning.

Rescue teams reached the spot and shifted the dead and injured to a nearby hospital.

Furthermore, power system has also been affected by the widespread downpour. Atleast 232 feeders tripped in numerous areas of Lahore among which 148 have been restored whereas 83 are still unrepaired.

LAHORE, May 24 (APP): Punjab Chief Minister Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif on Tuesday said that work was continuing on 3600 megawatts gas-based power projects in the province.
He said that loadshedding would be overcome to a large extent with the completion of these projects. He said the government was making all out efforts for completing these projects of electricity as per schedule.

He said that Federal Ministries of Water & Power and Petroleum & Gas and other concerned institutions should speedily deal with all affairs with regard to execution of these projects.

According to a handout, the Punjab Chief Minister was talking during a high level meeting at Islamabad, which was attended by Federal Minister for Water & Power Khawaja Muhammad Asif, Federal Minister for Petroleum & Gas Shahid Khaqan Abbasi and senior officers of other concerned departments. Senior officials of Ministry of Water & Power, Petroleum & Gas, NEPRA and other concerned departments also attended the meeting.

Shehbaz Sharif said that Pakistan Muslim League-N government was determined to steer the country out of darkness and rid the people of load-shedding. He said that not only load-shedding would be eliminated with the completion of energy generation projects through different resources in the country but electricity would be available in abundance for the industry, agriculture and other sectors of the country in 2018.

The Chief Minister said that by ridding the country of energy crisis, the country could be put on the road to economic development and prosperity, therefore, the government was paying attention to electricity generation projects.

Federal Minister for Water & Power Khawaja Muhammad Asif and Federal Minister for Petroleum & Gas Shahid Khaqan Abbasi said that all out help would be provided for the completion of gas-based power projects in Punjab while dealing with the affairs relating to their ministries.

They said that elimination of load-shedding and resolving energy crisis was among top priorities of federal and Punjab governments.

Senior officials of Punjab Energy Department and officers of concerned federal ministries gave special briefing regarding progress of electricity projects and pace of work.

ISLAMABAD, May 24 (APP): Minister for Religious Affairs and
Interfaith Harmony Sardar Muhammad Yousaf Tuesday vowed to provide maximum facilities to hujjaj in Saudi Arabia.

Addressing Appreciation Momento Distribution Ceremony here, he said no compromise will be made on providing better facilities to hujjaj.

He said the ceremony has been organised in appreciation with the services rendered by ministry staff, banks, airlines, muavineen e hujjaj and others during Hajj 2015.

He said, ministry plans to initiate refreshers courses for
master trainers and hajj training staff for enhancing awareness and making the sacred religious ceremony hassle free and in accordance with the Sunnah of the Holy Prophet Hazrat Muhammad (PBUH).

He said the aspirants of performing hajj through government
scheme, hajj packages has been increased manifold due to
affordability of the package as compare to packages being offered by Hajj Group Organisers.

He said the packages of HGOs have been sought for protecting the interests of private hujjaj. On violating agreement, strict action will be taken against the responsible HGO.

He said Hajj Advisory Committee has been constituted to ensure monitoring of hajj operations.

Appreciating the role of media, he urged the reporters to pin
point mistakes, the ministry will remove all such hazards.
He congratulated the officials for showing excellent performance during Hajj 2015.

Earlier, the minister distributed certificates and shields
among 77 officials including muavineen, medical entourage members, others and a couple of banks, one airline as acknowledgement for their meritorious services during Hajj 2015.

Secretary Ministry of Religious Affairs and Interfaith Harmony
Sohail Aamir delivered welcome address. He congratulated the officials and others on winning prizes.

He said the winners have been selected through a transparent procedure. He hoped that the awarding prizes would help create competitive atmosphere.

At the end, Fateha was offered for martyred of Mina tragedy
during hajj-2015.

ISLAMABAD, May 24 (APP): The newly appointed Ambassador of Japan, Takashi Kurai called on Federal Minister for Inter-provincial Coordination Mian Riaz Husain Pirzada at his office here on Tuesday.

The Minister welcomed the Ambassador and said that Pakistan highly valued its relations with Japan and wanted to enhance further between the two countries.

He said that Japan attains high standards in Sports and Pakistan wants benefit from its technical assistance in various field of sports.

Minister said that Pakistan wishes to invite Japanese players for tournament between Pakistan and Japan.

Speaking on the occasion, Japanese Ambassador Takashi Kurai said that both Pakistan and Japan are enjoying good relations and we want to boost governments and people-to-people contact between the two countries.

He also ensured that Japan will fully support Pakistan in the field of sports.

ISLAMABAD, May 24 (APP): Minister for National Health Services Saira Afzal Tarar has called for greater emphasis on equity in access to health-care and people-centered set of universal and transformative goals and targets for the future.

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), she said, with strong focus on equity would serve to ensure that “no one is left behind”.
Addressing the 196-nation World Health Assembly in Geneva, the minister said health was positioned as a major contributor to the other SDGs, and reciprocally benefitted from progress towards them, according to a message received here from Switzerland on Tuesday.

The challenges we face, she said, were related to building health systems capable of providing integrated, people-centered care.

She said addressing new health priorities without compromising existing programmes required careful balance. The non-communicable diseases, she added, were becoming a global challenge in developed and developing countries alike. They would sooner or later overwhelm the existing health system capacities unless rapid investments were made in disease prevention and health promotion.
Noting the need to strengthen linkages between health, development and humanitarian work, the minister said a growing concern in many countries would be how to better integrate humanitarian and development assistance.
She informed the Assembly that Pakistan was taking strides in prioritizing universal health coverage through launching Prime Minister’s National Health Programme for population living below poverty line.

The programme, she said, was being implemented across the country in phases and was providing free of cost treatment to hundreds of thousands of families through both public and private health facilities.

She said that Pakistan was giving attention to implementation of International Health Regulations to stop spread of disease across borders in a globalised world.

Most recently, she said,”we have completed our Joint External Evaluation of International Health Regulations and Global Health Security Agenda.”

The External Evaluation assessed the country’s capacity to prevent, detect and rapidly respond to public health threats, she added.

The minister said that Pakistan was the first country in the Eastern Mediterranean Region and in Asia to volunteer for this assesment.

On polio eradication, Saira Tarar informed the global health
leadership that the country had taken major strides to arrest spread of polio with 11 cases restricted to three well-defined regions as compared to 24 in corresponding period last year.
This year 9 per cent environmental samples were found positive as compared to 22 per cent last year, she said, adding that the intensity and distribution of wild poliovirus had declined significantly.

Aggressive campaigns were being undertaken in 2016 to stop poliovirus transmission with major strides in security for teams, campaign quality and monitoring, she added.

ISLAMABAD, May 24 (APP): Minister for Water and Power Khawaja Muhammad Asif has said that early closure of markets especially in Karachi and Punjab could help save 1500 MW.

In a statement here Tuesday, he said that day light must be used for business. “Around world, market aren’t typically open past midnight,” he added.

He said that with early closure of markets would not help reduce the power tariff but also 1500 MW free electricity would be available.

Asif said that a megawatt saved was far better than a megawatt generated.

He also called up the provincial governments and traders to cooperate in this regard.

ISLAMABAD, May 24 (APP): Pakistan and Czech Republic on
Tuesday called for the need to further the exiting ties in the field of defence and defence production.

Secretary Defence Lt Gen (retd) Muhammad Alam Khattak and visiting Chief of General Staff Czech Republic General Josef Becvar discussed modalities to enhance defence cooperation at a meeting in the Ministry of Defence, Rawalpindi.

According to news release, both the sides exchanged views on matters of mutual interest, including the present status of Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on Defence Cooperation which was signed between the two sides back in 2010.

While deciding to further enhance their existing defence
cooperation, the Secretary Defence informed the visiting dignitary about the capability of Pakistan Armed Forces in the field of military and technical training along with a well-established defence industry which was compatible to the defence industries of the developed countries.

He expressed the desire to benefit from the expertise of Czech Republic in the field of defence industries.

The visiting dignitary was informed about the present status
of Zarb-e-Azb along with efforts for reconstruction and
rehabilitation of Temporary Displaced People in FATA region.

General Josef Becvar, while appreciating the military and
technical capability of Armed Forces of Pakistan, stressed on
diversifying the defence cooperation between the two countries and also dilated upon the present refugee crisis in Europe.

He apprised the Secretary Defence that at present a contingent comprising about 2000 personnel of Czech Republic was stationed in Afghanistan.
General Josef Becvar was installed Chief of the General Staff
of the Czech Republic on May 01, 2015.

RAWALPINDI, May 24 (APP): Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff
Committee (CJCSC) General Rashad Mahmood, currently on official visit to Turkmenistan, today called on Deputy Minister of Defence and Chief of General Staff Lt. Gen. Ismallov Ismail Allamyradovich.

According to ISPR, both dignitaries discussed matters of
professional interest and reiterated the need to enhance mutual cooperation between the Armed Forces.

The Minister lauded Pakistan’s commitment to eradicate
terrorism and acknowledged the sacrifices rendered by Pakistan in fight against this menace.

All Services Chiefs of Turkmenistan Armed Forces were also
present during the meeting.

CJCSC also called on Colonel General Berdiev Yaylym
Yagmyrovich, Minister of Defence.

Upon arrival at Ministry of Defence, CJCSC was presented the Guard of Honour.

CHAGAI, May 24 (APP): Federal Minister for Commerce Eng. Khurram Dastagir Tuesday said Prime Minister Muhammad Nawaz Sharif had directed for practical measures to create employment oppportunities for the youth of Balochistan on priority basis.

Mega projects to be launched with the cooperation of Iran and Turkey in the province would also generate jobs for local people, he said while speaking during his visit to border area of Taftan in Chagai district.

He was accompanied by Additional Secretary Commerce Ms Robina Aata, Collector Custom Balochistan Dr. Saeed Jadoon and other officials.

The minister said: “It is desire of Prime Minister Muhammad Nawaz Sharif to strengthen friendly ties with Iran and Turkey.”

The joint projects being carried out by Pakistan, Iran and Turkey would also generate a lot of jobs for the people of Pakistan, especially for the youth of Balochistan, he added.

He said steps were being taken to boost trade activities with Iran through rail and road links.

The minister visited Zero-Point Gate, Custom House and other important government installations. He also met with the officials and personnel of Iranian Border Force.