RAWALPINDI, Mar 14 (APP):Chief of the Air Staff, Air Chief Marshal Sohail Aman Wednesday
paid a farewell call on Minister for Defence, Engr. Khurram Dastgir Khan here at the Ministry of Defence.
The Defence Minister lauded long meritorious services, rendered
by the outgoing Air Chief for the defence of the country.
He appreciated Sohail Aman for his contributions to make
Pakistan Air Force a strong and modern air force.
The minister said that the government was making all-out
efforts to enhance capability of Pakistan armed forces and enable them to face the challenges and ensure foolproof security to country’s frontiers.

ISLAMABAD, Mar 14 (APP):Alpine Club of Pakistan (ACP) provides the national forum for nature and adventure lovers who are fascinated by the charm and challenge of mountains and are endowed with the spirit of mountaineering and climbing.

Pakistan is blessed with magnificent, lofty and compelling mountains offering great opportunities for mountaineering, trekking and other adventure activities.

The ACP aimed to cultivate mountaineering culture amongst the nature lovers and interested persons, specially youth by providing facilities for climbing, mountaineering and mountain related activities.

ACP also make efforts to promote and organize mountaineering expeditions either singly or in collaboration with other mountaineering organizations, clubs and climbers from abroad.

Alpine Club of Pakistan also organize training in mountaineering, rock, snow, ice climbing, sports climbing, ski-ing and trekking and for other club activities.

Mountaineering is an exciting affairs and Pakistan is home to five of the 14 highest peaks in the world. Two of them are K2 (8611 meters) which is the second highest peak in the world and Nanga Parbat (8125 meters) which also known as killer mountain. There are numerous peaks above 6500 to 7700 meters, which have still remained unnamed and unclimbed. Alpine Adventure Guides offers a number of mountaineering options that mountaineers choose according to skill and strength.

LAHORE, Mar 14 (APP):Punjab Chief Minister Muhammad
Shehbaz Sharif on Wednesday condoled the death
of world-renowned physicist Stephen Hawking.
In his condolence message, Shehbaz Sharif lauded the
services of Stephen Hawking in the field of science and
said that he was a great scientist of his age.
His scientific discoveries were praiseworthy and
services in the field of physics would be remembered
forever, the chief minister added.

PESHAWAR, Mar 14 (APP):Governor Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Engr.
Iqbal zafar Jhagra has said that almost 97 percent of TDPs have returned to
their native lands and the remaining will be repatriated as soon as possible.
Moreover, he said various projects and developmental works
are under process for reconstruction and rehabilitation purpose of TDPs.
He expressed these views while presiding over a high level
meeting with a delegation of UNOCHA here at Governor’s House on Wednesday. The
delegation was headed by Mr. Jhon Ging ( Director of Operations (UNOCHA)
and was accompanied by Ms. Cathrine
Howard, Mr. Neil Hans Buhne, Ms. Heli Uusikyla, Mr. Tariq, DG projects FATA and
concerned officials from Fata secretariat Peshawar.
Governor said that skilled training has been given to youth
of FATA in various fields which can be beneficial in earning livelihood. Many
of FATA students were availing scholarships in higher institutes of Pakistan.
The Governor said the incumbent government was taking
concrete and imperative steps to facilitate people of FATA. He also appreciated
the role of UNOCHA in assisting people of FATA and urged international
communities to come forward for further support of people of FATA.
The Governor instructed concerned officials from Fata
Secretariat to be in coordination with UNOCHA to fully support and facilitate
people of FATA.

ISLAMABAD, Mar 14 (APP):The health experts on Wednesday stressed to adopt a pro-active approach against the child mortality, calling it a great challenge for the country as United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund’s (UNICEF) recent report on newborn deaths revealed that one out of every twenty two child dies at the time of birth.
Talking to APP, Sameena Khalid Assistant Professor Maternal, New born and Child Health Unit(MNCH), Health Services Academy referring to the report said it was an alarming situation that the country was considered as a riskiest place for the new born even ahead of eight sub-Saharan African poor countries.
“The statistics reveal that almost 250,000 new born lose their lives, which is an eye opener for the authorities concerned and the situations demands practical emergency measures to overcome the issue” she warned.
She said the most effective tool was to create awareness among pregnant women to adopt appropriate dietary and precautionary measurements during pregnancy.
“It is common phenomenon that people bring the patients to the hospitals at the late stage due to economic in-affordability to monitor consistent health during pregnancy.The risk of child mortality enhances as the doctors are left with no other option at eleventh hour but to do emergency delivery,” she regretted.
She stressed for refresher training of midwives on modern lines to properly handle the pregnant women and refer the patients to hospitals in time.
The deliveries must not be handled by midwives to avoid complications and unauthorized prescription by them must also be discouraged in order to reduce the growing child mortality rates, she urged.
She also stressed for availability of 24/7 clean water and skilled staff in the hospitals.
“The women in our country have no say, particularly on their health issues and they must be acquainted with their due rights”, she added.
She also asked for discouraging traditional “Gutti” and said mother be forced to breastfeed their infants to have strong immune system, “a God’s blessing against all ailments”.

Head of gynecology department at Pakistan Institution of Medical Sciences Sayeda Batool said health of mother and child were interlinked as majority of premature deliveries and birth of malnourished children were due to presence of different diseases in mothers. She said only a healthy mother can give birth to a healthy child and pregnant women’ health must be monitored right from the beginning to the end.

She however stressed to easy access of every individual to an affordable treatment to avoid such complexities.

ISLAMABAD, Mar 14 (APP):The National Assembly session started at 10:35 am here Wednesday at the Parliament House with recitation of verses from the Holy Quran and Naat.
Speaker National Assembly Sardar Ayaz Sadiq is
in the Chair.
The agenda items included Question Hour, calling
attention notices, introduction of a bill, legislative business and
presentation of periodical reports of standing committees.

ISLAMABAD, Mar 13 (APP):Families and children of officers and staff of Pakistan High Commission in New Delhi are continuously facing intense harassment, intimidation and outright violence of the Indian state agencies.
According to foreign office statement on Tuesday, this deliberate bullying was not confined to a single isolated event, but continued unabated in a series of incidents, especially targeting the children of officers and staff of Pakistani High Commission.
Some of these events which occured on March 7 and 8, the children of the officers of the Mission were harassed while returning from school, the statement added.
The protest lodged by Pakistani High Commissioner with the Indian Foreign Secretary. Instead of taking steps to ameliorate the situation by the Indian government, further harassment of the officers of the High Commission, stoppage of provision of gas to the High Commission residential complex and threatening of contractors and staff working in the High Commission were continued.
On March 9, the car of the Naval Adviser was aggressively chased. On the same day, Counselor Political was forcibly evicted from a cab and harassed by unknown persons, who used abusive language, threatened him and filmed the whole incident with impunity.
On 12th March, the technicians working at the Pakistan High Commission in New Delhi were threatened and stopped from working. “The same evening our First Secretary was aggressively followed when he left work for his residence,” the statement said.
“Today, the car carrying the school-going children of our Counselor, who were returning from school, was followed by unknown persons on cars and motorcycles harassed, intimidated and their vehicle was blocked. For psychological intimidation, videos and photographs of the children were constantly made for 40 minutes, leaving the children extremely traumatized. They were followed upto their residence.”
Additionally, the drivers of the High Commission were forcibly halted and their mobile phones switched off to prevent them from contacting anyone.
The statement said all these incidents continued unabated despite repeated official protests lodged with the Indian Ministry of External Affairs at the highest level, providing specific details of the culprit’s vehicles.
“Our High Commission has also shared photographs identifying the individuals, who forcibly halted and took pictures of the officer, today.”
The Indian Deputy High Commissioner Mr. J.P. Singh was summoned by Director General (South Asia & SAARC) Dr. Mohammad Faisal and a strong protest was lodged at the maltreatment being meted out to the officials and families of the Pakistan High Commission in New Delhi.
He emphasized that under the Vienna Convention, the safety and the security of Pakistani diplomats and their families was the responsibility of the Indian government.
The foreign office statement said the total apathy and failure of the Indian government to put a halt to these despicable incidents, sparing not even young children, indicated both a lack of capacity to protect foreign diplomats posted in India or a more reprehensible and complicit unwillingness to do so.