The Federal Urdu University of Arts, Science, and Technology on Thursday held its 42nd senate meeting at the Governor House Sindh.The online meeting was chaired by President of Pakistan Dr Arif Alvi, who is also the varsity’s chancellor. The meeting approved the nomination of two faculty...

Two people were wounded in two separate firing incidents on Friday. A 40-year-old man, Feroz, son of Salman, was injured near Mauripur’s Gate No. 15. The man was taken to the Civil Hospital for medical attention.The Jackson police said that the incident took place when a traffic police cop...

The Sindh High Court on Friday issued notices to the federal and provincial law ministries on a petition of the Sindh Bar Council seeking direction to the federal and Sindh governments for the provision of an annual grant in aid to the lawyers’ top provincial regulatory body and at least...

Microchip Announces Industry’s First Space-Qualified COTS-Based Radiation-Tolerant Ethernet Transceiver and Embedded Microcontroller

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Loan agreements outline the terms of an agreement for a loan. This document dated 6 May 2020 is provided for the ADB project 54183-001 in Bhutan.

Safeguards due diligence reports are prepared as part of safeguard due diligence and review to ensure compliance with ADB safeguard policy due diligence requirements. This document dated May 2020 is provided for the ADB project 51039-002 in Afghanistan.

Safeguards due diligence reports are prepared as part of safeguard due diligence and review to ensure compliance with ADB safeguard policy due diligence requirements. This document dated May 2020 is provided for the ADB project 2020-05-07 in Afghanistan.

ADB President Masatsugu Asakawa and Bhutan Finance Minister and ADB Governor Namgay Tshering today discussed ADB’s support to the country in its fight against the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic.

Grant agreements outline the terms of an agreement for a grant. This document dated 7 May 2020 is provided for the ADB project 54229-001 in Fiji.

ADB has a vacancy for the position of Principal Investment Specialist in the Private Sector Operations Department. The deadline for submitting applications is on 22 May 2020.

ADB has a vacancy for the position of Senior IT Officer (Project Management) (3 Vacancies) in the Information Technology Department . The deadline for submitting applications is on 22 May 2020.

The webinar will highlight the important role the MDBs are called to play in closing the SOGI data gap by supporting innovative forms of data generation and evidence-based policymaking in their countries.

ADB invites papers for the Asian Development Conference 2020 to be held 16-17 July 2020 in Seoul, Korea.

CHANDIGARH: The Punjab and Haryana high court on Thursday directed the Haryana government not to issue any change of land use (CLU) licence to developers to build colonies in Gurgaon and the National Capital Region till the NCR Planning Board approves a sub-regional plan. The high court also restrained authorities from initiating any process for acquisition of land in these regions till further orders. A division bench headed by Chief Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul passed these orders while hearing petitions alleging unregulated construction and development around Gurgaon and NCR without the mandatory sub-regional plan from the NCRPB. The petitioners had also challenged the proposed Gurgaon master plan of 2025 and […]

Schools and universities are to resume classes in June, Education Minister Tarek Majzoub said Friday

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The governments of Punjab, Sindh, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan on Friday announced the partial easing of lockdown measures imposed to curb the spread of the coronavirus, even as the number of infections in the country registered a record daily increase.

On Thursday, Prime Minister Imran Khan had announced the lifting of the countrywide lockdown in phases from Saturday by reopening all construction-related industries and shopping centres for five days a week from Fajr (early morning) till 5pm and outpatient departments (OPDs) in hospitals.

The premier, who had announced the decision after a meeting of the National Coordination Committee (NCC) attended by the chief ministers of the four provinces, had acknowledged that the lockdown was being eased "at a time when our curve is going up" but maintained that "it is not edging up as we were expecting.”

The trend continued on Friday, with the country recording 1,807 cases of Covid-19 from the three provinces of Punjab, Sindh and KP alone, and the national tally nearing 27,000. It is the highest daily increase in the number of infections since Pakistan confirmed its first case on February 26.

Also read: Pakistan's Covid-19 death toll doubles in last 10 days

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa

A notification issued by the KP relief department said businesses associated with the construction industry will be exempt from closure subject to them following the standard operating procedures (SOPs) already issued for industrial units and sale points.

Businesses of steel and PVC pipes, electric appliances, manufacturers of steel and aluminium equipment, ceramic and paint industries, sanitary, paints, steel and aluminium works, and hardware stores will be allowed to open four days a week, not later than 4:00pm. They will remain closed on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays.

All factories which are not included in the negative lists of factories will also be allowed to resume operations.

According to the notification, all shops will be allowed to remain open for four days a week and not later than 4:00pm, subject to their implementation of the government's SOPs.

Meanwhile, Adviser to the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa chief minister on information, Ajmal Wazir, told a press conference in Peshawar that educational institutions in the province will reopen as per the federal government's instructions and the province will not take an independent decision in this regard.

He added that discussions were being held on inter-district and intra-district transport with transporters and the decision will be shared with the public whenever it is taken.

Punjab

Punjab Information Minister Fayyazul Hassan Chohan said that the provincial government will submit a recommendation to the Centre for not lifting the lockdown in the province's major cities.

Speaking to reporters in Lahore, he said: "We have seen that there is a hype about coronavirus in some big cities. Therefore, we are submitting this recommendation to the federal government and if it is approved, then the lockdown and standard operating procedures will remain in big cities like Lahore, Rawalpindi, Multan and Gujranwala."

Examine: The lockdown dilemma

He added that higher secondary board examinations in Punjab will be cancelled and students will be promoted based on last year's grades. Schools will reopen on July 15.

As per the federal government's decision, OPDs in the province will open from May 9, Chohan said.

He added that the SOPs for congregational and Taraweeh prayers in mosques as announced by President Arif Alvi will remain in place.

The first session of the Punjab Assembly since the pandemic began was also to be held today.

Sindh

Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah told a press conference in Karachi that under "phase two" of the easing of the restrictions, businesses linked to construction industries will be allowed to open while observing the preventive guidelines. Selective OPDs will also be allowed to resume services.

Industries will no longer be required to submit an application to resume operations; however, they will have to submit an undertaking and forward the details of their employees to the government.

Shops will be allowed to open after sehri (dawn) and will be required to close at 5pm. They will remain closed on Saturdays and Sundays which will be "safe days with 100 per cent lockdown", the chief minister said.

The businesses permitted to resume from Monday include shops in rural areas and neighbourhood shops situated in residential localities, excluding large market places.

Shah said marriage halls, shopping malls, hotels and restaurants in the province will remain closed and there will be no congregations or sports events either.

"These guidelines will remain applicable until May 31. This is what the federal government has outlined and we are ready to comply with these directives," he said.

The chief minister appealed to citizens to stay at home as much as possible. "If you are allowed to leave your homes, according to the directives issued by the government, then make sure to follow standard operating procedures. Wear a mask," he said.

Referring to the increase in Covid-19 infections, he added: "I am seeing the rise in cases, but for national integrity and uniform policy we are going along."

In a statement released by the CM House later in the day, Shah denied media reports stating that the lockdown will end on Monday, saying: "We are entering the second phase of the lockdown with some extra restrictions, particularly at hotspots."

He maintained that air, train and public transport will continue to remain suspended.

Balochistan

In Balochistan, a meeting chaired by Chief Minister Jam Kamal Khan approved the move to turn the lockdown imposed in the province into a 'smart lockdown', under which restrictions are enforced in virus hotspots only, according to Balochistan government spokesperson Liaquat Shahwani.

He announced that markets will be allowed to open from 3am till 5 in the evening.

Shopkeepers and traders will be bound to implement SOPs for precautionary measures while legal action will be taken against the violators, Shahwani said in a tweet.

An estimated 29 million babies will be born in South Asia in the nine months after the Covid-19 outbreak was classified as a pandemic by the World Health Organisation (WHO), while five million births will be reported in Pakistan, according to a report released by the United Nations Children's Fund (Unicef).

The report — released on May 6 — has predicted that an estimated 116 million babies will be born across the world in the 40-week period between March 11 and December 16, with almost a quarter of them in South Asia.

India is expected to report 20 million births, the highest in the region, during this period, the report said, followed by Pakistan, Bangladesh (2.4 million) and Afghanistan (one million).

The report also warned that lockdown measures imposed to curb the spread of the coronavirus may cause disruptions in life-saving health services "putting millions of pregnant mothers and their babies at great risk".

"The continuing rapid spread of Covid-19 across South Asia means new mothers and newborns will be greeted by harsh realities, including global containment measures such as lockdowns and curfews, health centres overwhelmed with response efforts, supply and equipment shortages, and a lack of sufficient skilled birth attendants as health workers [...] are redeployed to treat Covid-19 patients.

"Unicef cautions that although evidence suggests that pregnant mothers are not more affected by Covid-19 than others, countries need to ensure they still have access to antenatal, delivery and post-natal services.

"Likewise, sick newborns need emergency services as they are at high risk of death. New families require care to ensure the health and well-being of mothers, support to start breastfeeding, and to get medicines, vaccines and nutrition to keep their babies healthy," the report said.

The UN body urged governments and healthcare providers to take a few steps to save lives in the coming months by:

• Helping women receive regular checkups during their pregnancy, skilled delivery care and post-delivery care
• Ensuring health workers are provided with the necessary personal protective equipment and priority testing and vaccination for Covid-19 when it becomes available
• Ensuring that all infection prevention and control measures are being followed at health facilities
• Allowing healthcare workers to reach pregnant women through home visits, encouraging women living in rural areas to visit maternal waiting homes, and using mobile health strategies for tele-consultations
• Training, protecting and equipping health workers with kits to attend to home births
• Allocating resources to lifesaving services and supplies for maternal and child health

The report also urged pregnant women to take precautionary measures by practicing social distancing, avoiding physical gatherings and using online health services.

Read: Mothers may pass coronavirus to unborn children, say Chinese doctors

It also advised them to continue breastfeeding their children even if they are infected as "the virus has not been found in samples of breast milk".

"Mothers with Covid-19 should wear a mask when feeding their baby, wash hands before and after touching the baby, and routinely clean and disinfect surfaces," it cautioned.

Human Rights Watch (HRW) said on Saturday that Saudi Arabian authorities recently detained and are holding incommunicado Prince Faisal bin Abdullah, who had previously been netted in an anti-corruption drive and released in late 2017.

The US-based rights group, citing a source with ties to the royal family, said Prince Faisal bin Abdullah, a son of late monarch King Abdullah, was detained by security forces on March 27 while self-isolating due to the coronavirus pandemic at a family compound northeast of the capital Riyadh.

Reuters could not immediately independently verify the detention. The Saudi government media office did not immediately respond to a detailed Reuters request for comment.

Earlier in March, authorities had detained King Salman’s brother, Prince Ahmed bin Abdulaziz, and former crown prince Mohammed bin Nayef, who was replaced in a 2017 palace coup and placed under house arrest, sources had told Reuters.

Sources with royal connections said at the time that the move was a preemptive effort to ensure compliance within the ruling Al Saud family ahead of an eventual succession to the throne by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman upon the king’s death or abdication.

It was not clear if the reported detention of Prince Faisal was related to those in early March, which also saw Ahmed’s son Nayef and Mohammed bin Nayef’s brother Nawaf detained.

Saudi authorities have not commented on those detentions, which follow crackdowns on dissent in which clerics, intellectuals and rights activists have been arrested, and an anti-corruption drive launched in 2017 that netted scores of royals, ministers and businessmen.

Critics have said the campaigns were part of moves by Crown Prince Mohammed, the king’s son and the kingdom’s de facto ruler, to consolidate his grip on power.

“Now we have to add Prince Faisal to the hundreds detained in Saudi Arabia without a clear legal basis,” said Michael Page, deputy Middle East director at HRW.

The kingdom has regularly denied allegations of unfair detention.

Authorities said last year the government was winding down the anti-corruption campaign after 15 months, but would continue to go after graft.

HRW said Prince Faisal’s whereabouts or status are not known.

“The source said that Prince Faisal has not publicly criticised authorities since his December 2017 arrest and that family members are concerned about his health as he has a heart condition,” it added.

In late December 2017, a senior Saudi official said Prince Faisal and another royal, Prince Meshaal bin Abdullah, were released from Riyadh’s Ritz-Carlton hotel, where people nabbed in the anti-corruption drive were being held, after reaching an undisclosed financial settlement with the government.

CHANDIGARH/GURGAON: There is a ray of hope for real estate projects awaiting change of land use (CLU) licences from the state government. The department of town and country planning on Tuesday submitted a revised sub-regional plan to the NCR Planning Board (NCRPB). The builders, however, will have to wait till the board approves the revised plan. Last month, the Punjab and Haryana high court had barred the state government from issuing CLU licences to developers or government agencies in NCR because of the same reason. Earlier, the NCRPB had highlighted loopholes in Haryana’s draft of the sub-regional plan, but the government failed to incorporate the changes. After a rap from […]

NEW DELHI: The Delhi state consumer panel has asked real estate firm Omaxe Buildhome Pvt Ltd to pay over Rs 11 lakh to a retired Indian Airlines official after holding the realty firm of “deficiency of service” in the allotment of a flat at Greater Noida in Uttar Pradesh. The Delhi State Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission (SCDRC), presided by judicial member S A Siddiqui, asked the firm to pay Rs 11.14 lakh to Secunderabad resident Pradeep Chaudhary. Chaudhary had approached the Commission alleging “unfair trade practice” and “deficiency of service” on the firm’s part and said that despite his strong opposition, the company, on its own, changed the location of […]

Stars who depend on China's lucrative market have to watch what they say. Ordinary netizens? Not so much.

Colorado Republican Party Chair Ken Buck, a U.S. representative from Windsor, pressured a local party official to submit incorrect election results to set the primary ballot for a state Senate seat, according to an audio recording of a conference call obtained by The Denver Post.

ADB President Masatsugu Asakawa and Bangladesh Finance Minister and ADB Governor A H M Mustafa Kamal today discussed ADB’s support to Bangladesh in its fight against the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic.

ADB returned to the US dollar bond market with the pricing of a $4.5 billion 5-year global benchmark bond issue, proceeds of which will be part of ADB’s ordinary capital resources.

The Government of Palau will draw down on a $15 million policy-based loan from ADB's Disaster Resilience Program to help finance the country’s response to the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic.

ADB today announced the release of a $6 million grant from its Pacific Disaster Resilience Program (Phase 2) to help finance the Government of the Marshall Islands’ response to the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic.

ADB today announced the release of a $3 million grant and a $3 million concessional loan from its Pacific Disaster Resilience Program (Phase 2) to help finance the Government of Solomon Islands’ response to the COVID-19...

ADB has approved a $1.5 billion loan to help the Philippine government fund its novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) response program and strengthen the country’s health care system in its fight against the pandemic.

ADB has approved a $100 million loan to help supply renewable energy to Mongolia by installing its first large-scale advanced battery energy storage system.

ADB and AIM today launched the #DigitalAgainstCOVID-19 virtual challenge to crowdsource digital solutions and ideas to help countries in Asia and the Pacific deal with the medium- and long-term...

ADB needs to address issues causing weak sustainability of its projects to improve performance, says the 2020 Annual Evaluation Review (AER) conducted by ADB’s Independent Evaluation Department.

ADB today approved a $1.5 billion loan to the Government of India to help fund its response to the COVID-19 pandemic, including support for immediate priorities such as disease containment and prevention, as well as social...

ADB President Masatsugu Asakawa and Nepal Finance Minister and ADB Governor Yuba Raj Khatiwada today discussed ADB’s support to Nepal in its fight against the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic.

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has provided a guarantee for a $25 million trade loan to the State Pharmaceuticals Corporation of Sri Lanka (SPC) to purchase medical supplies as part of the country’s response to the novel ....

ADB President Masatsugu Asakawa and Bhutan Finance Minister and ADB Governor Namgay Tshering today discussed ADB’s support to the country in its fight against the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic.

The United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) launched an emergency coronavirus appeal Friday, saying Palestinians across the Middle East were suffering a devastating socio-economic impact.

The United States has approved a $2.3 billion deal on attack helicopters for Egypt, but an official insisted Friday that Washington was still pressing on human rights concerns.

In December 2006, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) approved a $900.0 million equivalent multitranche financing facility (MFF) for the Punjab Irrigated Agriculture Investment Program (PIAIP) to finance improvements to Punjab’s irrigation sector. At the same time, two loans for tranche 1 totaling $227.8 million equivalent were approved using the MFF for $217.8 million equivalent from ADB’s ordinary capital resources and $10.0 million equivalent from ADB’s Asian Development Fund (ADF).

The government requested financing from the Asian Development Bank (ADB) to support the National Highway Authority (NHA) in constructing new roads and improving existing ones along the backbone from Peshawar to Karachi, to Gwadar Port in Baluchistan, as well as connections between Pakistan and the People’s Republic of China. Following the completion of loan preparatory activities in May 2007 and loan negotiations in October 2007, the ADB Board in December 2007 approved a multitranche financing facility (MFF) for $900 million to support the NTCIP–Tranche 1.

This guideline specifies framework for validating technical assistance completion reports (TCRs) to capture lessons learned from completed technical assistance (TA) operations and to improve accountability for achieving results, the quality of completion reports, and the independence of project ratings.

This report evaluates the performance of three technical assistance (TA) projects in Viet Nam for the resilience of rural development and climate change, approved by the Asian Development Bank over 2009–2013: (i) TA 7377: Climate Change Impact and Adaptation Study in the Mekong Delta; (ii) TA 8102: Promoting Climate Resilient Rural Infrastructure in the Northern Mountain Provinces; and (iii) TA 8592: Improving Payment for Forest Ecosystem Service Implementation.

The project aimed to construct the Fiu River hydropower plant and extend the distribution grid to peri-urban households in the main provincial center of Auki in Solomon Islands. Hydropower generation was to benefit the economy by reducing fossil fuel imports and lowering the cost of power generation. Likewise, it was intended to improve energy security and minimize tariff volatility. The use of renewable energy was also aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions. This report validates the completion report's assessment of the project. IED overall assessment: Unsuccessful. 

ADB needs to address issues causing weak sustainability of its projects to improve performance, says the 2020 Annual Evaluation Review (AER) conducted by ADB’s Independent Evaluation Department.