LAHORE: Schoolchildren in Pakistan’s second-largest city of Lahore have been banned from outdoor exercise until January because of hazardous smog levels, officials said Friday.
The eastern megacity near the border with India regularly registers among the world’s most polluted cities, this week recording more than 20 times the level deemed safe by the World Health Organization (WHO).
Smog is particularly bad in winter as a result of low-grade fuel from factories and vehicles in the low-lying megacity of 14 million, where denser cold air traps emissions at ground level.
Seasonal crop burn-off by farmers on the outskirts of Lahore is also a major contributing factor.
This week the Environmental Protection Agency of eastern Punjab province said that outdoor school activities in Lahore would end from Monday.
A Punjab School Education Department spokesman told AFP on Friday the ban would last for three months until January 31.
School hours will also be cut in the morning to prevent children traveling when the pollution is most punishing.
Lessons will start no earlier than 8:45 am (0345 GMT), cutting 15 minutes off learning hours for public schools and more than an hour for most private schools.
Breathing the toxic air has catastrophic health consequences, with WHO saying strokes, heart disease, lung cancer and respiratory diseases could be triggered due to prolonged exposure.
According to UNICEF nearly 600 million children in South Asia are exposed to high levels of air pollution.
Schools in Pakistan’s most populous province of Punjab in particular are increasingly disrupted by extreme heat in the summer and choking smog in the winter.
In an editorial on Friday, Pakistan’s leading English-language newspaper Dawn said measures such as shutting schools were “akin to putting band-aids on gaping wounds.”
“The long-term strategies needed to combat this environmental crisis remain elusive,” it said.
Smog in Pakistan megacity ends outdoor play for schoolkids
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Smog in Pakistan megacity ends outdoor play for schoolkids
- The eastern city of Lahore near the border with India regularly registers among the world’s most polluted cities
- Smog is particularly bad in winter due to low-grade fuel from factories, vehicles in low-lying city of 14 million
Pakistani journalist ‘abducted’ as Amnesty seeks probe into crackdown on Islamabad protest
- Matiullah Jan’s family says he was taken by unknown people in a vehicle from a hospital’s parking
- Jan was covering the PTI protests and had criticized the authorities’ response to the demonstration
ISLAMABAD: A senior Pakistani journalist critical of the government’s handling of opposition protests was taken by unknown people late Wednesday, shortly after Amnesty International urged authorities to investigate reports of unlawful killings and mass detentions during a crackdown on an opposition demonstration in Islamabad.
Matiullah Jan, known for his outspoken reporting, was taken in an unmarked vehicle from the parking lot of the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS) hospital, his family said in a statement on social media.
Jan was covering protests by the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party, and had criticized the authorities’ response to the demonstrations.
“Matiullah Jan has been abducted from the parking of PIMS tonight at around 11 by unmarked abductors in an unmarked vehicle alongside Saqib Bashir (who was let go 5 minutes later),” Jan’s son announced on his father’s social media account. “I demand that my father be let go immediately and his family immediately be informed of his whereabouts.”
The journalist’s abduction adds to growing concerns over press freedom and rights violations in Pakistan, especially in the wake of a crackdown on PTI supporters who had gathered to demand the release of former Prime Minister Imran Khan who has been behind bars for over a year.
In a statement earlier on Wednesday, Amnesty International condemned the use of force against protesters in the federal capital, where PTI claimed multiple deaths. The Pakistani authorities also confirmed the arrest of over 900 demonstrators in a span of three days.
“Yet again, protesters in Pakistan have faced a brutal and lethal crackdown shrouded in a callous opacity by the authorities,” Babu Ram Pant, Amnesty’s Deputy Regional Director for South Asia, said in a statement. “The escalation of violence, shutdown of mobile Internet services, mass detentions, and alarming rhetoric against PTI protesters by the authorities speaks of a pattern of intolerance for the right to freedom of peaceful assembly.”
Amnesty highlighted reports of the use of lethal ammunition and restrictions on media coverage.
The rights body also called for a “prompt, thorough, impartial, effective, and transparent investigation into the deaths and injuries of protesters as well as the unlawful use of force by security personnel.”
Amnesty also demanded the release of all protesters, saying they were detained solely for exercising their right to peaceful assembly.
The government has yet not issued a statement about Jan’s disappearance, though Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif blamed PTI leaders and workers of trying to subvert the country’s economy, promising to “break the hand that wants to sacrifice Pakistan.”
The government has labeled the PTI protest as “unlawful,” citing a Pakistani court ruling that barred disruptions in the federal capital during the three-day visit of a Belarusian delegation, which coincided with the opposition’s demonstration.
Imran Khan’s wife Bushra Bibi forcibly removed from Islamabad protest, claims her sister
- Maryam Wattoo says Bibi was taken by KP administration, with her location concealed from family members
- A senior PTI leader and close aide of ex-PM Khan dismisses Wattoo’s claims, says they should be ignored
ISLAMABAD: Bushra Bibi, the wife of Pakistan’s incarcerated former Prime Minister Imran Khan, was forcibly removed from a Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) protest in Islamabad and her whereabouts are now unknown, her sister said during an interview with a local media network on Wednesday.
The protest, led by Bibi and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) Chief Minister Ali Amin Gandapur, drew tens of thousands to Islamabad’s D-Chowk, located near the country’s parliament building and other government installation, demanding Khan’s release more than a year after his imprisonment.
Police and paramilitary Rangers cracked down on the demonstration on Tuesday night to disperse the crowd, as senior PTI leaders vanished from the venue despite announcing an indefinite sit-in in the capital and telling their party supporters they would not return without the ex-premier.
Initially, it was not clear where Bibi and Gandapur had gone, though media reported on Wednesday morning they had reached Mansehra district in KP and were going to address a news conference.
While Gandapur appeared on the media, calling the sit-in a movement and saying it would continue, Bibi did not give a public appearance.
“For several hours, we had no idea what was happening,” her sister, Maryam Riaz Wattoo, told ARY TV during an interview. “We were only being told that she had gone to KP. But I couldn’t believe that she would leave for KP so easily because I knew she was determined to stay there until it was do or die.”
Wattoo said she tried to contact her sister but no one was willing to put her through.
“I got to talk to her through my own means very late in the day,” she said. “And I asked her to tell me clearly, ‘Did you leave with your own will?’ She said, ‘No. I never wanted to leave. I was ready to die there.’“
The sister maintained Bibi was taken by the KP administration, with her location concealed even from family members.
She also described the chaotic scenes as Bibi was removed, with gunfire in the background and her vehicle’s tire punctured.
“Bushra didn’t even know about the press conference,” she said, referring to the planned media interaction by Gandapur and her that was reported in the media. “She has been taken to an unknown location.”
Wattoo said that while she did not accuse Gandapur of ill intent, the lack of family communication was deeply concerning.
“I find it strange that even if they are moving her for security reasons, why is her family not informed about it,” she asked.
Sayed Zulfikar Bukhari, a senior PTI leader and close aide of ex-premier Khan, dismissed Maryam Riaz Wattoo’s claims as “not true,” adding that they should be ignored.
Pakistan’s Geo TV also aired CCTV footage purportedly showing Bibi in Islamabad, where she is seen stepping out of one vehicle and boarding another before leaving the federal capital.
The government has faced criticism for using excessive force while dispersing protesters, but the PTI leaders have also expressed disappointment over how the demonstration unfolded before reaching an abrupt conclusion.
Oxford vice chancellor bid, popularized in Pakistan by Imran Khan, ends with election of Lord Hague
- Former British foreign secretary and ex-Conservative party leader William Hague elected chancellor
- Pakistan’s Khan, in jail since August 2023, had applied for chancellor election but was not shortlisted
ISLAMABAD: Oxford University announced on Wednesday it had elected Lord William Hague, a former Conservative party leader and ex-British foreign secretary as its chancellor, months after rejecting former Pakistan premier Imran Khan’s bid for the post.
Khan, who ruled Pakistan from 2018-2022, has been in prison since August 2023 on charges he says are politically motivated. His aide Sayed Zulfikar Bukhari said Khan filed his application for the chancellor’s role in September.
Oxford later released a shortlist of 38 candidates for the first round of the voting among its alumni. Khan’s name was not featured in the list.
“Lord Hague will be formally inaugurated as Chancellor early in the New Year and serve for a term of 10 years,” Oxford University said in a report. “He becomes the 160th recorded Chancellor in the University’s history, a role that dates back at least 800 years.”
Hague was a leader of the Conservative Party from 1997-2001 and later served as Britain’s foreign secretary from 2010-2014. He also served as Secretary of State for Wales, Leader of the House of Commons and Minister for Disabled People, in which role he was the author of the Disability Discrimination Act.
He spent 26 years as a member of parliament for Richmond, Yorkshire.
Hague graduated from Magdalen College, Oxford, in 1982, where he studied Philosophy, Politics and Economics. He was president of the Oxford Union as well.
“Thank you to my fellow Oxonians for placing such confidence in me,” Hague said. “I regard being elected as the Chancellor of our university as the greatest honor of my life.”
The chancellor is the titular head of Oxford University and presides over several key ceremonies. The chancellor also undertakes advocacy, advisory, and fundraising work, acting as an ambassador for the university at a range of local, national, and international events.
Hague succeeds Lord Patten of Barnes, who announced his retirement from the post in February.
Pakistan’s KP to deploy law enforcers in Kurram as sectarian clashes kill 63
- Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government says negotiations underway between warring Kurram tribes
- Kurram, tribal district bordering Afghanistan, has a long history of violent, sectarian clashes
PESHAWAR: Pakistan’s northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) government announced on Wednesday that law enforcement personnel will be deployed in the restive Kurram district to maintain law and order, where sectarian clashes over the past three days have killed at least 63 and injured over 150.
Kurram, a former semi-autonomous tribal area bordering Afghanistan, has a long history of violent conflicts that have claimed hundreds of lives over the years. A major conflict in the district, triggered in 2007, lasted for years before being resolved by a jirga, or a council of tribal elders, in 2011.
The recent violence in the restive district erupted earlier this month when gunmen attacked a convoy carrying members of the minority Shiite community in the Uchat area of Lower Kurram, killing 41 people. A 10-day ceasefire announced by the KP government failed to hold as clashes between warring tribes continue.
“The process of negotiations are underway to resolve the issue peacefully,” an official handout by the chief minister’s office said about a meeting held by the CM Ali Amin Gandapur on the issue on Wednesday.
“To maintain peace, contingents of law enforcement personnel will be deployed at important places,” the statement added.
Participants of the meeting, which also featured the KP chief secretary and other senior officials, were briefed that a damages assessment was being conducted to compensate victims of the clashes.
KP Chief Minister Ali Amin Gandapur said the government’s top priority was ensuring lasting peace in the district.
“The provincial government will utilize all available resources for this purpose,” he said.
Participants were also told that standard operating procedures were being finalized to ensure the safe travel of people in the district.
The recent clashes in Kurram mark one of the deadliest incidents in the region in recent years, following outbreaks of sectarian violence in July and September that killed dozens.
Several hundred people demonstrated against the Kurram violence last week in Pakistan’s two largest cities, Lahore and Karachi, reflecting nationwide concern over the situation.
Pakistan reports fresh polio case from country’s northwest, taking 2024 tally to 56
- Male child contracts polio in northwestern Dera Ismail Khan district, confirm authorities
- Pakistan is one of only two countries worldwide where poliovirus still remains endemic
PESHAWAR: Pakistan reported another polio case from the country’s northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) province on Wednesday, taking this year’s tally of the disease to 56 cases as Islamabad struggles in its efforts to contain the infection.
Pakistan, along with neighboring Afghanistan, remains the last polio-endemic country in the world. The nation’s polio eradication campaign has faced serious problems with a spike in reported cases this year that have prompted officials to review their approach to stopping the crippling disease.
The Regional Reference Laboratory for Polio Eradication at the National Institute of Health (NIH) confirmed the detection of the 56th wild poliovirus type 1 (WPV1) case of the year, saying that a male child in the northwestern district of Dera Ismail Khan had contracted the disease.
“This is the seventh polio case of the year from D.I. Khan, one of the seven polio-endemic districts of southern KP,” the polio program said.
Pakistan’s southwestern Balochistan province and KP have reported the highest number of polio cases this year, 26 and 15, respectively, while 13 have been reported from Sindh and one each from Punjab and Islamabad.
Poliovirus, which can cause crippling paralysis particularly in young children, is incurable and remains a threat to human health as long as it has not been eradicated. Immunization campaigns have succeeded in most countries and have come close in Pakistan, but persistent problems remain.
In the early 1990s, Pakistan reported around 20,000 cases annually but in 2018 the number dropped to eight cases. Six cases were reported in 2023 and only one in 2021.
Pakistan’s polio program began in 1994 but efforts to eradicate the virus have since been undermined by vaccine misinformation and opposition from some religious hard-liners, who say immunization is a foreign ploy to sterilize Muslim children or a cover for Western spies. Militant groups also frequently attack and kill members of polio vaccine teams.
