Positive vibes Pakistan

[ghazi52]

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Pakistan's Fiza Farhan appointed member of UN’s first-ever panel on women empowerment

ISLAMABAD: A Pakistani woman has been named as a member of the United Nations body dedicated to the economic empowerment of women.

Fiza Farhan was elected as a member of the first ever High-Level Panel of the UN Secretary-General on Women’s Economic Empowerment, according to a communiqué released on Monday.

Fiza is CEO of Buksh Foundation and director of Buksh Energy. She was also part of the ’30 under 30’ list by Forbes magazine for Social Entrepreneurs in 2015.

As a member of the panel, Fiza will join leaders of World Bank Group, International Monetary Fund, UN Women as well as several other eminent gender and equality actors. She will also establish connection with economics experts, academics, trade union leaders, businesses and government representatives from across the world.

Speaking of her appointment Fiza said, “It is indeed an honour for me to represent Pakistan and the women of Pakistan on this prestigious High-Level Panel.”

“It is time that we engage global leadership and galvanize political will to scale actions with measurable impact towards women’s economic empowerment,” she added.

UN Women Country Representative in Pakistan Jamshed Kazi said, “While, Fiza will be providing advice as a global thought leader, we also look forward to her continued contribution in championing women’s economic empowerment right here in Pakistan in alignment with UN Women’s mandate.”

The sole purpose of the panel is to put forth recommendations to implement a 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. It is aimed at improving economic outcomes for women and promoting their leadership in driving sustainable economic growth. The panel will send recommendations to enable governments, private sector, the UN system and other stakeholders on taking key decisions relating to Sustainable Development Goals and women empowerment.

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[ghazi52]

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Chefs' Association of Pakistan - CAP
on Sunday
Pakistan won 15 Gold Medals, 13 Silver Medals & 1 Bronze Medal. This all is first time in the history of Pakistan. The honorable Consul General to Turkey, Dr Yousaf Junaid visited the venue of International Istanbul Gastronomy Festival ‪#‎TYUAP‬ competition arena. He met the National Culinary Team of Pakistan (‪#‎NCTP‬) along with Mr. Ahmad Shafiq, CEO ‪#‎COTHM‬Pakistan & Dubai & Secretary General Chefs' Association of Pakistan (CAP), to extend heartiest congratulations on their amazing victory. He patted on their backs and wished them good luck for their future competitions.
"We at Chefs' Association of Pakistan (‪#‎CAP‬) dedicated this great award to the beautiful people of Pakistan. God bless us all. "





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[Lone Shooter]

Why is good news not good enough for Pakistanis?

This situation reminds me of bad parents who constantly berate their children, comparing them to others who have done much more with far less. The parent is frustrated and ends up blurring the lines between constructive criticism and just plain old yelling. This approach only helps to create depressed and unconfident children.

If the analogy holds true, then we are being bad parents to our own country. Let's stop yelling.


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Interesting read to say the least. Full article

http://www.dawn.com/news/1177114

 

[ghazi52]

How one man went from manufacturing pipes to making the most coveted cheese in town

Imran Saleh, founder of Farmer’s Cheese, sells cheese to small businesses, urban food snobs and foreign diplomats

Mr Saleh started in his own home kitchen — where he took me and showed off his professional pizza oven — and later moved operations to a small storage space in the backyard.


ISLAMABAD: I knocked on the gate of a guesthouse in the G-6 sector of Islamabad. After what turned into rapping and thumping, the gatekeeper approached leisurely, finally opening the door. “I am here for cheese,” I said, and he beckoned me to enter. Inside, I met the cheesemaker.

It is through such encounters that Pakistan’s affluent gain and trade in knowledge on where to get the best of something ‘over here’. I remember a baker who made delicious dinner rolls in Karachi’s now half-demolished Metropole Hotel. Imran Saleh, the founder of Farmer’s Cheese, falls into this category of secret food purveyors. He travels from Lahore to Islamabad and Karachi and with the assistance of two business partners; he sells cheese to small businesses, urban food snobs and foreign diplomats. Fascinated by his story I travelled to Lahore to find out more.

“Everything changed a decade ago,” said Mr Saleh. He was running a trading company supplying air ducts to textile plants. “I had a pipe supplier and one day some big guns came and started buying out all the pipes so I was left with no supplier,” he recalled. “So I decided to make a machine [to make pipes] myself, even though I am not an engineer.”

Trying to build an industrial-grade pipe-making machine turned out to be a frustrating challenge that took over three years to materialise. Around the same time, Mr Saleh saw a television programme about cheesemaking: “I decided to try it out as a hobby,” he explained.

It was love at first knead. Like all passionate affairs, there were complications and accidents, but this only made the cheese better. “I used to follow the recipes but the cheese was not good,” he said.

“One day I had an accident…it helped me understand that there is more to making cheese than what is in the recipe,” he added.

Mr Saleh started in his own home kitchen — where he took me and showed off his professional pizza oven — and later moved operations to a small storage space in the backyard.

Mr Saleh had not yet explored cheesemaking as a business venture — what he produced was eaten at home and used on pizzas he made when hosting friends and family. Things changed when he was invited to open a stall at a Lahore farmers’ market.

Mr Saleh's cheese-making hobby soon flourished into a popular business


The result surprised him: “Whatever I had made, I took it over there and it was sold within a couple hours so that was very encouraging,” he said. It was after this success that he decided to expand his workspace to a commercial site in Lahore’s Valencia Town.

“But even at that time I was not thinking of it as a business but more as doing something that people are appreciating and also because I enjoyed it,” he added.

Just as Mr Saleh’s cheesemaking was coming together, the pipe-making machine he built also turned into a success. His business has since grown and he now exports industrial-grade pipes to the Middle East out of a small room next to his cheese shop.

Washed rind cheese (left) and cottage cheese with herbs and peppers (right) made at Farmer's Cheese


Working with his hands and building everything from scratch seems to be a theme with Mr Saleh: “I made the equipment myself,” he says, pointing to the cheesemaking vats in his production room. “It’s customised and I am thinking of making professional equipment for other cheesemakers.”

Mr Saleh would love to see cheese become his only business. “That is the goal. This is my passion, so the quality is very important. It’s not just a business for me,” he said.

It is a dream he only thought possible two years ago. “I was selling cheese in Islamabad for the first time at Gia’s Deli,” he recalled. “In one day, right before my eyes, all the cheese was sold. That’s when I knew that this was possible,” he added.

What would it feel like to be able to do what one loves for a living, I ask him: “This is everything,” he responds. “It is what you live for.”

Today, mistakes and accidents still happen and Mr Saleh stresses that they can be very costly. “I am making cheese in such large quantities so a lot of milk is lost if we make any mistakes.” But he also insists that these are still learning experiences. “One client of mine asked me to make buratta which is mozzarella with cream in the centre,” he says.

“It used to burst in my hand…. In the time it took to make two kilogrammes of buratta, I could make 100kg of mozzarella,” he added.

But Mr Saleh persisted and continued making burratta, even after his client stopped ordering it. “Now I make a very good buratta,” he said with a proud smile on his face.

So what does the future hold for Farmer’s Cheese? “I would like to open production centres in Islamabad and Karachi.” But he is careful to stress that these facilities would only make mozzarella, focusing on one product and doing that well.

“The hard cheese I will make myself in Lahore,” he added. Despite the inclination to grow his business, Mr Saleh’s passion will always stay close to home.

 

[Lone Shooter]

Five Foreigners Who Took a Chance on Pakistan

Pakistan may regularly feature in international news for all the wrong reasons, but these five foreign tourists were far from being deterred from visiting the country. Although they were aware of the news about terrorism and bomb blasts coming out of Pakistan, they are glad they took the plunge and had an experience they are unlikely to forget anytime soon

http://tribune.com.pk/story/1159561/five-foreigners-took-chance-pakistan/

 

[Lone Shooter]

Sister pilots claim new record for PIA by flying Boeing 777 concurrently

Maryam Masood and Erum Masood made history by flying the coveted large Boeing-777 aircraft as pilots at the same time to several local and international destinations.

This was said by PIA spokesman Daniyal Gillani who claimed that the sisters have made history for PIA by flying Boeing 777 concurrently.

https://arynews.tv/en/sister-pilots-claim-new-record-pia-flying-boeing-777-concurrently/

 

[Lone Shooter]

Swabi girl declared worldwide topper in online test

Sidratul Muntaha alias Sidra Khan, a resident of Topi tehsil of Swabi district, has got first position by scoring 100 per cent marks in the Management Accounting MA-1 paper in an online examination of the Association of Certified Chartered Accountants ( ACCA) .

She has been declared a worldwide topper from Pakistan to have competed among 180 countries of the world by a UK-based university. The online examination is conducted by local British council officials.

http://www.dawn.com/news/1280667

 

[ghazi52]

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[Lone Shooter]

The man who invented the ‘bionic eye’

A Pakistani-American has won the US highest award for technology achievement. Mark Humayun is to receive the prestigious National Medal of Technology and Innovation from President Obama. It is a “testament to American ingenuity,” announced Obama. Mark Humayun has developed Argus II, commonly known as the ‘bionic eye’. It restores vision to most blind people. By merging medical science and engineering, Mark’s invention is a miracle for people suffering from inherited retinal degenerative disease that leads to blindness in old age. “A camera mounted on special glasses sends a signal to an electronic receiver with electrodes that are implanted in and around the eye. The electrodes send signals to the retina that stimulate the retina and then these retinal impulses travel through the optic nerve to the brain where they are interpreted as images.”

Voilà! Seeing is believing, literally. The bionic eye has helped thousands of patients with the gift of sight.

http://www.dawn.com/news/1242055

 

[ahsanhaider]

PHARRELL Williams - Happy ( Pakistani Version) Check it out and share, it is the first one made for Pakistan. faces from every city of pakistan,

 

[Adecypher]

Hats off to this Teacher...amazing person...

 

[Faiez]

graet news !

 

[Banglar Bir]

Reuters UK
9 hrs ·


Pakistani cab driver Aasia Abdul Aziz is one of a small number of women who have begun to work as cab drivers - a traditionally male-dominated profession in the conservative country.

https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=1419898158020336

 

[Arsala.nKhan]

We have Eminence talent just need platform to be showcased

 

[Dastaan]

کیپٹن صفدر کو امام مسجد بنانے کی تجویز
اکرام جنیدیشائع 2 گھنٹے پہلے

قومی اسمبلی کی رکن شاہجہان منگریو نے کیپٹن ریٹائرڈ محمد صفدر کو پارلیمنٹ ہاؤس کی مسجد کا امام بنانے کی تجویز دے دی۔

نیشنل پیپلز پارٹی کی خاتون رکن قومی اسمبلی شاہجہان منگریو نے انفارمیشن ٹیکنالوجی کی قائمہ کمیٹی کے اجلاس کے دوران کہا کہ 'آپ کو اسلام کے حوالے سے بہت زیادہ معلومات ہیں اور میں آپ کی معلومات سے متاثر ہوئی ہوں'۔

کیپٹن صفدر کی جانب سے توہین رسالت اور سوشل میڈیا کے استعمال پر طویل جذباتی تقریر کے بعد یہ تجویز سامنے آئی ہے۔

وزیراعظم نوازشریف کے داماد کیپٹن صفدر نے اجلاس کی صدارت کرتے ہوئے کہا کہ انھوں نے سوشل میڈیا میں توہین رسالت کے حوالے سے قرارداد پارلیمنٹ میں جمع کرادی ہے۔

انھوں نے کہا کہ توہین رسالت کے مواد کو پھیلانے کے پیچھے ایک منظم مافیا ہے اور تجویز دی کہ اس مافیا کو روکنا چاہیے جبکہ یہ پارلیمنٹیرینز کی بنیادی ذمہ داری ہے کہ وہ اس معاملے کو دیکھیں۔

ان کا کہنا تھا کہ 'قیامت کے روز خدا ہم سے پوچھے گا اور میرا ماننا ہے کہ پاکستان ٹیلی کمیونی کیشن اتھارٹی (پی ٹی اے) اس معاملے کو سنھبالنے کی اہلیت رکھتی ہے جبکہ اس معاملے پر تمام انٹیلی جنس ایجنبسیاں اور پاکستانی عوام ہمارے ساتھ ہیں'۔

کیپٹن صفدر کا کہنا تھا کہ چند لوگوں نے ایک جج کو توہین رسالت کے معاملے کو اٹھانے پر تنقید کا نشانہ بنایا اور شکایت کی کہ جج نے عدالت کو مسجد میں تبدیل کردیا ہے'۔

ان کا مزید کہنا تھا کہ 'ایسے لوگوں کو یہ نہیں پتہ کہ اگلے وقتوں میں عدالتیں مسجدوں میں لگتی تھیں اور تمام اہم فیصلے وہاں لیے جاتے تھے، پی ٹی اے کو معلوم کرنا چاہیے کہ توہین رسالت مہم کے لیے فنڈنگ کہاں سے ہورہی ہے اور اس معاملے پر آواز بلند کرنا ہماری ذمہ داری ہے کیونکہ یہ جہاد ہے اور ہم اس کو جاری رکھیں گے'۔

پاکستان مسلم لیگ نواز کی خاتون رکن فرحانہ قمر کپٹن صفدر کے بیان کی حمایت کرتے ہوئے آبدیدہ ہوگئیں۔

شاہجہان منگریو کا کہنا تھا کہ ملک میں ضرور چند ایسے لوگ موجود ہیں جو اس مہم کے پیچھے ہیں جبکہ ان کا کہنا تھا کہ کیپٹن صفدر کو اسلام کی معلومات کی بنا پر پارلیمنٹ ہاؤس کی مسجد کا امام ہونا چاہیے۔

کیپٹن صفدر نے جواب دیتے ہوئے کہا کہ وہ مسجد کا امام بننے پر خوشی محسوس کریں گے اور شاہجہان منگریو سے کہا وہ ان کا نام اس کے لیے تجویز کردیں۔

اپنے بیان کی وضاحت کرتے ہوئے انھوں نے کہا کہ یوٹیوب اور فیس بک سمیت سوشل میڈیا پر پابندی نہیں ہونی چاہیے لیکن توہین رسالت کا مواد ضرور ہٹادینا ہوگا۔

متحدہ قومی مومنٹ (ایم کیوایم) کے رکن سید علی رضا عابدی نے کہا کہ اس حوالے سے کمیٹی جو بھی فیصلہ یا اقدام اٹھائے گی ہماری پارٹی اس کی حمایت کرے گی۔

انفارمیشن ٹیکنالوجی کی وزیرمملکت انوشا رحمٰن نے شکایت کرتے ہوئے کہا کہ وزارت جب بھی سوشل میڈیا کے حوالے سے کوئی لائحہ عمل بنانے کی کوشش کرتی ہے تو عدالتیں رکاوٹ بن جاتی ہیں۔

ان کا کہنا تھا کہ 'اس معاملے پر حکومت کی پالیسی بڑی واضح ہے اور ہم اس بات پر متفق ہیں کہ پاکستان میں یوٹیوب اورگوگل کواجازت ہونی چاہیے جس پر ہم نے اپنا موقف نہ بدلا ہے اور نہ ہی بدل دیں گے'۔

انوشا رحمٰن نے کہا کہ 'یہ بدقسمتی کی بات ہے کہ جب کبھی ہم قانون بنانے کی کوشش کرتے ہیں تو این جی اوز اس کو آزادی اظہار کامعاملہ قرار دیتے ہوئے عدالت سے رجوع کرتی ہیں تاہم ایسے کسی مواد کو برداشت نہیں کریں گے جو پاکستان کے قانون کے خلاف ہو'۔

کمیٹی نے اسلامی نظریاتی کونسل سے صلاح و مشورے کی تجویز دی اور کہا گیا کہ تمام موبائل کمپنیوں کے ذریعے ایس ایم ایس اور پرنٹ اور الیکٹرانک میڈیا کے ذریعے آگاہی مہم شروع کرلینی چاہیے جبکہ ایک تجویز یہ بھی دی گئی کہ این جی اوز کو ریگیولر کرنے کے طریقہ کار کو مزید مضبوط کیا جائے۔

قائمہ کمیٹی کا کہنا تھا کہ مشترکہ سفارتی کوششوں کو یقینی بنانے کے لیے اس معاملے کو دیگر مسلم ممالک کے سفیروں کے ساتھ بھی اٹھانا چاہیے جبکہ اسلامی تعاون تنطیم (او آئی سی) اور اقوام متحدہ کی متعلقہ اداروں کے سامنے بھی اس معاملے کو لے جانا چاہیے۔

یہ خبر 11 اپریل 2017 کو ڈان اخبار میں شائع ہوئی
https://www.dawnnews.tv/news/1055672/


Lawmaker suggests Capt Safdar become Parliament mosque’s imam
ISLAMABAD: MNA Shahjehan Mangrio on Monday suggested that retired Capt Mohammad Safdar should become the imam (prayer leader) of the Parliament House mosque.

“You have a lot of information on Islam and I am impressed with your knowledge,” Ms Mangrio of the National People’s Party said during the meeting of the NA Standing Committee on Information Technology.

The remarks came after a long and emotional speech by Capt Safdar on the issue of blasphemy and the irresponsible use of social media.

Chairing the meeting of the committee, Capt Safdar, who is the son-in-law of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, said he had submitted a resolution to parliament about blasphemous material on social media.

Emotional speech on blasphemous content on social media by Capt Safdar impresses MNA Shahjehan Mangrio
He said there was an organised mafia behind the circulation of the blasphemous material and suggested that strict action should be taken against the mafia. He said it was the prime responsibility of parliamentarians to look into the issue.

“God will ask us about it on the Day of Judgment. I believe that the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) is quite capable of tackling the issue. I believe that all intelligence agencies and people of Pakistan are with us on the issue.”

He said some people criticised a judge who took notice of the blasphemous material and complained that the judge had converted his courtroom into a mosque.

“Such people do not know that in the past courts were held in mosques and all important decisions were taken there. The PTA should know from where the funding for the blasphemous campaign is coming. It is our responsibility to raise our voice because it is a jihad and we will continue it,” he said.

Supporting the arguments of Capt Safdar, Farhana Qamar of the PML-N broke into tears.

Ms Mangrio said there must be some elements in the country behind the malicious campaign. She said because of his knowledge of Islam, Capt Safdar should be the imam of the Parliament House mosque.

Capt Safdar replied that he would feel proud of becoming the imam of the mosque and asked Ms Mangrio to propose his name for the post.

He said it should be clear that the social media, including YouTube and Facebook, would not be shut down but the blasphemous material would have to be removed.

MQM legislator Syed Ali Raza Abidi said his party would support any decision or step taken by the committee on the issue.

State Minister for Information Technology Anusha Rahman complained that whenever the ministry tried to make a framework about social media, courts became a hurdle.

“The policy of the government is very clear over the issue as we convinced Google and then allowed YouTube in Pakistan. We have not diverted from our stance and will never do it,” she said.

“It is unfortunate that whenever we try to make a law, NGOs approach courts terming it an issue of the right to freedom of expression. However, we will not tolerate any content against the law of Pakistan,” she said.

The committee suggested consultation with the Council of Islamic Ideology. It said a public awareness campaign should be launched through SMS by all mobile phone service providers and the print and electronic media. It was also suggested that the regulatory mechanism of NGOs should be strengthened.

The committee said the issue should also be taken up with the ambassadors of other Muslims countries to ensure joint diplomatic efforts. Besides, the issue should also be taken up at the platforms of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) and the relevant agencies of the United Nations.

Published in Dawn, April 11th, 2017
https://www.dawn.com/news/1326274/lawmaker-suggests-capt-safdar-become-parliament-mosques-imam