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Pakistan Prepares to Open Educational Institutions Amidst Rising Coronavirus Related Deaths

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Pakistan Prepares to Open Educational Institutions Amidst Rising Coronavirus Related Deaths
Pakistan Prepares to Open Educational Institutions Amidst Rising Coronavirus Related Deaths

Coronavirus claims another 80 lives as more than 1700 positive cases come forward. Deaths keep on rising as schools reopen in 3 days.

The Minister for education has met the stakeholders to decide the future of educational institutions amidst the coronavirus situation. According to the decisions already made in the meetings on the 4th and then 15th January, colleges are now open. Schools and universities are going to reopen at the turn of the month.

The coronavirus situation seems to be getting out of hand as more and more people fall victim to it. People are not paying heed to precautions and schools are about to reopen. Parents are voicing their concern as the students have not gone to school in a year and now that the final examinations are over the horizon the schools will look to grade their children badly.

That is the least of concern for other parents, whose worry is the well-being of their children. In other countries, things are returning to normal as the vaccination process progresses. Saudi Arabia has given out vaccinations to about 1 million citizens. It remains to be seen if the spread of the virus will see an acceleration after this reopening.

Coronavirus Vaccination Drive

Pakistan’s Covid-19 vaccination drive will be launched next week, starting with front-line health workers, the federal Minister for Planning Asad Umar said on Wednesday.

“A system for vaccination is in place. Hundreds of vaccination centers across the country will be administering Covid-19 vaccine,” Umar, who is also the head of the National Command and Operations Centre (NCOC), said in a tweet.

“God willing, the vaccination of frontline health workers will start next week,” he added.

China has pledged to donate 500,000 doses of the coronavirus vaccine made by Chinese firm SinoPharm to Pakistan.

ALSO READ: PEMRA and Pakistan Law Makers Under Fire Due To Controversial Internet Censorship Policies

Two government sources told Reuters the first batch would be flown in on Saturday.

Pakistan has so far approved three coronavirus vaccines — the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine, the vaccine developed by Chinese state-owned firm China National Pharmaceutical Group (SinoPharm) and Russian-developed Sputnik V.

Officials say the authorisations will be reviewed quarterly with regard to safety, efficacy and quality.

Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Health Dr Faisal Sultan has said Pakistan could get “in the range of tens of millions” of vaccine doses under an agreement with China’s Cansino Biologics Inc.

Cansino’s Ad5-nCoV vaccine candidate is nearing completion of Phase III clinical trials in Pakistan, and preliminary results may be available by mid-February, Sultan said.

More Free Vaccines?

The government also expects China to donate a further million vaccine doses.

Dr Ghazna Khalid, a member of the government task force on Covid-19, said Pakistan would procure vaccines from various markets.

“There’s going to be an accumulation of vaccines, a consortium available, there’s going to be Chinese vaccines, there’s going to be AstraZeneca,” she said.

“We are the fifth biggest country in the world, and it’s going to be very difficult to immunize.”

ALSO READ: Surveys Show Increased Coronavirus Precaution While Deaths Statistics Claim Otherwise

Meanwhile, the availability of the free-of-cost Covid-19 vaccine seems to have been assured for Pakistan as Covax announced earlier this month that it will acquire 150 million doses in the first quarter and two billion doses by the end of the year.

It further said that, out of the two billion doses, 1.3bn will be provided to 92 lower-income economies. As a result of this agreement, the chances of Pakistan getting the free doses in the first quarter of the current year seem to have brightened.

Ministry of National Health Services (NHS) spokesperson Sajid Shah had said it was a positive development and expressed the hope that Pakistan would get the vaccine in the current quarter.

Earlier today, the NCOC had outlined the country’s vaccination strategy against Covid-19, revealing an eight-step process for registration and vaccination once the vaccines become available.

The strategy was developed after consultation with all provinces and relevant stakeholders and is according to established international health guidelines, the NCOC said in a statement.

Surveys Show Increased Coronavirus Precaution While Deaths Statistics Claim Otherwise

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Surveys Show Increased Coronavirus Precaution While Deaths Statistics Claim Otherwise
Surveys Show Increased Coronavirus Precaution While Deaths Statistics Claim Otherwise

Deaths From Coronavirus Refuse to Go Down As Another 58 Patients Lose The Battle Against The Deadly Virus

A survey has shown that around 80% of people are wearing a mask when they go out. The thing that the survey conveniently left out is if the participants keep the mask on all the time or have it pushed down to their neck as can be seen all over the place.

Daily deaths have risen alarmingly and we are now at an average of 50 deaths per day. All the economic activity is back to normal. Heading over to any big market, it is evident that masks are not necessary.

The survey claims to have run for a month and says that Pakistani people are among the best in the world. But the reality shows otherwise. Deaths are now at an all-time high and the denial of the fact by the government is doing no good.

ALSO READ: PEMRA and Pakistan Law Makers Under Fire Due To Controversial Internet Censorship Policies

Lack of Preventative Measures

When survey recipients were asked about “what preventative measures they are taking against COVID-19,” 78% said that they are using a mask. Meanwhile, 51% said that they wash their hands frequently. Some 47% of the respondents indicated that they use a hand sanitizer to keep themselves safe from the virus, while 27% of people said they used gloves.

About 20% said they avoid going out most of the time to prevent themselves from contracting the infection, while 4% think that quarantining at home is the safest way to prevent the virus from wreaking havoc. Moreover, 13% of the respondents said that they are not taking any kind of precautions against the virus. They believe that they can’t be affected as the virus is now weak.

Worrying About Deaths: Taking Precautions

When asked about feeling worried in public places when people avoid wearing masks, 50% of the respondents said they do not feel worried about it. Meanwhile, 46% said they feel worried when people do not wear a mask in public.

When asked about shops and shopping centres which people frequent without wearing a mask, 51% said they do not feel worried about it, while 46% said they feel concerns for their safety.

ALSO READ: 5G Services In Pakistan Over the Horizon

In terms of offices, 50% of professionals said they do not feel worried when their coworkers come to work without a mask, while 46% said they feel concerned for their safety when their colleagues show up without a mask.

Precaution: A Community Effort

57% of the 1000 participants said they have observed their neighbors wearing a mask, whereas about 42% indicated that their neighbours do not wear a mask. It should be a community effort and we all have to play our part in it. Only we, as a community, can bring down the death rate and can stop this virus from spreading further. If we are not careful, we might fall in the same death trap as Britain and France. Over 500 people die every day in the UK and in France.

PEMRA and Pakistan Law Makers Under Fire Due To Controversial Internet Censorship Policies

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PEMRA and Pakistan Law Makers Under Fire Due To Controversial Internet Censorship Policies
PEMRA and Pakistan Law Makers Under Fire Due To Controversial Internet Censorship Policies

International Media is Criticising The Audacity Of Pakistani Politicians Who Are Criticizing WhatsApp for Controversial Policy. In Reality, They Have Been Doing The Same Since Forever.

Pakistan is among the late adopters of technology and other IT-related advancements. A definitive blueprint for the regulation of new technologies exists in the form of international laws and laws of more developed nations. Yet Pakistani regulators always come up with something that is controversial.

Back in November, Pakistan introduced laws to regulate social media and to look into the usage history of users. These laws and regulations got the approval silently to stay clear of criticism. But since then, PEMRA is facing a lot of pressure to ‘review’ its controversial policies.

Nations across the world are terming the attempts to control the media and internet as absurd and a privacy breach. Pakistan is trying its best to stay under the radar and avoid any sanctions or criticism.

The government now says it will review regulations that rights groups term as draconian and which limit freedom of speech and increase internet surveillance.

The Attorney of Pakistan General Khalid Jawed Khan says civil society groups would be in close consultation to decide the future.

ALSO READ: 5G Services In Pakistan Over the Horizon

The rules set in November require social media companies to comply with all government pleas for censorship within a day. In some strict cases, this time can be a mere six hours.

This is part of the Pakistan Electronic Crimes Act (PECA), which was passed in 2016.

These rules allow Pakistan Telecommunications Authority (PTA) to censor content they think is hateful and un-islamic. Moreover, they can also censor content that they deem inappropriate or damaging to national interests.

The Unlimited Powers of the Law

This effectively means that departments can ban online platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube if they do not comply with censorship pleas.

In addition, the government has the power to force apps IM apps to share user usage data with authorities without judicial oversight. PTA can even impose huge fines of up to $3.14m in case of non-compliance.

Rights groups decried the rules as being violative of citizens’ freedom of expression rights and having been passed without adequate consultations with civil society, while technology companies – including tech giants Google, Facebook, and others – said the rules’ data localization and decryption requirements would be impracticable.

“Every time civil society, social media platforms, and internet companies have pushed back against the social media rules and regulations, the government has promised a more transparent and wide-ranging consultative process, and then come back with many of the same objectionable rules intact,” said journalist Amber Rahim Shamsi, who is one of the petitioners in the case at the Islamabad High Court.

‘Review’ Promises Removal Of Controversial Clauses

“We had no choice but to go to court. The attorney general’s promise for a review is reason to hope. Particularly so with the court as a kind of guarantor.” say activists.

Other rights activists, however, warned that they had little faith in the government’s promises to review the rules.

Activists think that the government could have started out by being more transparent and approachable. The Pakistani government is notorious for repeated changes to the rules as per their discretion. They do so without paying any heed to the requests of the users.

Technology companies have also expressed “alarm” at the regulations, with the Asia Internet Coalition (AIC), a regional organization that represents Google, Facebook, Twitter, and others, saying in December that the government’s consultative processes so far had been “neither credible nor transparent”.

5G Services In Pakistan Over the Horizon

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5G Services In Pakistan Over the Horizon
5G Services In Pakistan Over the Horizon

Pakistan has its eye on the most advanced internet services. The country hopes to deploy 5G services countrywide by 2023.

Pakistan is on the path to becoming one of the first countries in South Asia to get the best 5G experience. Pakistan will get the most advanced 5G internet commercially available to consumers by 2022-23. This is going to boost speeds to over one gigabit per second (Gbps). Moreover, it will provide the economy with a much-needed boost.

The government of Pakistan is developing a comprehensive roadmap for 5G technology readiness in the country. It is aimed at auctioning “spectrum for…5G services in the fiscal year 2023,” the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) said in its annual report 2020.

The Covid-19 pandemic proved a blessing in disguise as the digital economy widened multi-fold during these testing times in Pakistan. The crisis has prompted regulators and stakeholders to improve digital infrastructure.

5G Trials

Earlier, mobile phone service providing firms successfully conducted a test trial of 5G services under limited environment and on non-commercial basis in 2019 and 2020. Pakistan stands the first country in South Asia to test 5G “with a recorded download speed of more than one Gbps.”

ALSO READ: Worlds Biggest Coronavirus Vaccine Factory Catches Fire

The tested speeds stands 10 times high compared to 100 megabits per second (Mbps) on 4G internet in the world, it was learnt.

Federal Minister for IT and Telecommunication Aminul Haque said the government has planned to launch 5G technology by December 2022 but experts in different fields are still sceptical, believing the country will take a much longer time (5-7 years) to roll out the next-generation technology.

Haque made a test video call through 5G to China and believes it was a wonderful experience. The voice was loud and clear, and the video quality was also wonderful, according to an international media outlet.

The modern technology would make great economic progress when it comes to Pakistan, Haque added.

Increasing Adaption Rate

GSM Association estimates the economic contribution of the mobile industry in Pakistan will reach $24 billion, contributing 6.6% to total gross domestic product (GDP) by 2023.

The telecommunications authority said it, along with the government, would publish a Spectrum Master Plan and a Spectrum Rolling Strategy to enable operators to plan their investments in a more efficient manner. Together, they will need to create an environment that encourages creativity and innovation so that large and small businesses can explore the possibilities created by 5G.

In Pakistan, 98% of the households own a mobile phone whereas penetration of mobile services reached 81.1% at the end of October 2020, with 172.3 million mobile subscriptions. Broadband subscriptions showed impressive growth trends of 17% during FY20. It is crossing the 90.1 million mark, whereas 4G subscriptions registered an exponential 60% growth in FY20. Resultantly, total broadband penetration in Pakistan reached 42.4% by the end of October 2020. A spike of 77% in mobile data usage for FY20 can be seen from stats.

3G/4G History 

PTA has geared up to hire international consultants for market valuation and auction of spectrum of 1,800 MHz and 2,100 MHz in Pakistan including AJK and Gilgil Baltistan. “The availability of additional spectrum in 1,800 MHz will also enable operators to expand their existing 4G operations and transition to advance technologies.”

The spectrum for LTE and VoLTE Services is up for auction in FY21 and 5G services in FY23. Furthermore, it has also planned for re-farming of spectrum allocated to WLL operators, which will also make additional spectrum available for 5G services.”

ALSO READ: Government Gives Go Ahead to Use of Russian Sputnik V Coronavirus Vaccine

The government expects to raise Rs27 billion through the auction of the spectrum in FY21.

The authority is instructing mobile phone service providing firms to refund Rs9.2 billion to consumers. This comes following the Supreme Court order that stops the companies from the imposing service and maintenance charges in 2019. However, they have so far refunded only Rs6.9 billion.

Turkey Crystal Globe Award 2020

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Turkey Crystal Globe Award 2020

Turkey Crystal Globe Award 2020

Crystal Globe Awards, one of Turkey’s prestigious awards ceremony found its owners on 22 January 2021. Held from November 15 to 30 in the online voting for the bests of Turkey results in many different areas was elected by the people.

The TV series Kurulus Osman was once again awarded by the audience. Oguz Kara (Ahmed Alp), who started to act in the TV series Kurulus Osman this season, received the “Best Child Actor of the Year” award. In the television series, Oguz Kara plays a child who lost his family in the war. Oguz later went to the Byzantine castle as a prisoner, but Osman Bey rescued him and other Turkish prisoners safely from the castle.

In addition, the famous actress Ozge Torer received the “Best Actress of the Year” award. Ozge Torer successfully portrays the character of Bala Hatun in the TV series Kurulus Osman. Bala Hatun is Osman Bey’s wife and the daughter of Sheikh Edebali. These are not the only awards that the Kurulus Osman television series has received. Aysen Gurer, known to the audience as “Helen”, received the “Best Debut Actress of the Year” award. Helen is a character who helps Osman’s biggest enemies in the series since the first episodes of Kurulus Osman such as Princess Sofia and Aya Nikola. Bala Hatun’s best friend Gonca finally got the award she deserved. Emel Dede, who played the character of Gonca Hatun, received the “Best Supporting Actress of the Year” award. After the last episode of Kurulus Osman, Gonca is about to marry Osman’s best Alp, Boran.

With these awards, Kurulus Osman received eight awards in total. Kurulus Osman received awards from different countries and Turkey so far. Kurulus Osman will receive more awards as it continues to air every Wednesday evening.

 

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