ISLAMABAD, July 5(ABC): The COVID-19 positive ratio in the country has declined to 3.45% a day after the infection ratio was recorded at over 4.5% in the country, the National Institute of Health (NIH) data showed Tuesday morning. A day earlier, a 4.61% COVID-19 positive ratio was recorded in the country with 675 cases. According to the NIH, during the …

KARACHI, July 5(ABC): Former federal minister Babar Khan Ghauri was arrested from the Jinnah International Airport in the port city on Monday after he returned to Pakistan. The police arrested Ghauri after it was alerted about his return to the country. The police said they arrested the former federal minister as corruption and terrorism cases have been registered against him. The …

ISLAMABAD, July 04 (ABC): The government is ready to implement another condition of the International Monetary Fund regarding Rs7.91/unit increase in the basic power tariff. According to sources, the federal cabinet in its meeting today (Monday) will deliberate on raising the basic power tariff by Rs7.91 per unit. A summary in this regard will be presented during its meeting. Sources …

ISLAMABAD, July 04 (ABC): Finance Minister Miftah Ismail has summoned a meeting of the Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) which would mull over import payments to Afghanistan in Pakistani rupees and other issues. According to sources, the Miftah Ismail-led meeting of the ECC would mull over an eight-point agenda. “It includes payment of imported items from Afghanistan in Pakistani rupee and …

ISLAMABAD, July 4(ABC): Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Monday decided to provide subsidies on flour, sugar, ghee, rice and pulses at utility stores. Sources privy to the development said that Rs 68.22 billion has been proposed for subsidy on 5 basic items in the financial year 2022-23 and a summary has also been prepared on the directions of PM Shehbaz …

ISLAMABAD, July 4(ABC): Prime Minister’s Advisor on Kashmir Affairs and Gilgit-Baltistan Chaudhry Qamar Zaman Kaira on Monday said that the people were enduring power outages due to the sheer negligence of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) led government, which had failed to commission several power generation plants as per schedule. Addressing a press conference along with minister for Information and Broadcasting Marriyum …

LAHORE, July 4(ABC): PML-N Vice President Maryam Nawaz on Monday said that Imran Khan used to speak against US Assistant Secretary of State Donald Lu but now he is sending messages to him for forgiveness. Addressing a rally in PP-170 Lahore ahead of by-election, she said that Punjab CM gave historic electricity bill relief to the poor people who had …

ISLAMABAD, July 4(ABC): Minister for Information and Broadcasting Marriyum Aurangzeb said on Monday that the presser of PTI leaders Fawad Chaudhry and Shireen Mazari has confirmed that former first lady Bushra Bibi was the mastermind of campaign against the institutions. In a statement on Monday, she said they admitted in their press conference that the wife of former Prime Minister …

WEB DESK, July 4(ABC): Detecting diseases might become easier in the future with robots’ ability to “sniff” hidden illnesses, surprisingly including cancer, by smelling a person’s breath. Scientists are trying to find out techniques that can analyse chemical compounds in patients’ breath, sweat, and even tears and point towards diseases. Experts believe these chemicals are like “fingerprints” leading to diagnosis. …

LAHORE, July 4(ABC): Punjab Chief Minister Hamza Shahbaz Monday announced that the provincial government will bear the power cost of households that consume up to 100 units of electricity in a month. Addressing a press conference in Lahore, the chief minister said that the Punjab government will bear the utility expenses of consumers who use up to 100 units of …

ISLAMABAD, July 4(ABC): Finance Minister Miftah Ismail has dismissed reports and tweets claiming that the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) bailout programme for Pakistan is being postponed or delayed. “I have been reading with some amusement all the tweets and stories about IMF programme being postponed or delayed due to some anti-corruption law. There is no truth to it,” tweeted Miftah, …

ISLAMABAD, July 4(ABC): PTI warned Monday that if former prime minister Imran Khan’s phone calls with his principal secretary Azam Khan were leaked, it would not sit quietly. “Ansar Abbasi sahab, in a blog, has said that an audio of former prime minister Imran Khan’s telephone call on a secure line with his principal secretary Azam Khan will be leaked,” Mazari told …

ISLAMABAD, July 4(ABC): The Pakistani rupee recovered on Monday, closing at 204.56 against the US dollar in the interbank market. According to data released by the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP), the local currency gained 0.14%, against the greenback. Last week, the local currency closed at 204.85. Traders said that the Pakistani rupee is expected to strengthen further this week as uncertainty …

ISLAMABAD, July 4(ABC): The non-recovery of missing persons despite judicial orders on Monday drew the ire of Islamabad High Court (IHC) Chief Justice Athar Minallah, who warned of summoning the prime minister for an explanation if the authorities still fail to implement the orders. “It is a fact that nobody is doing anything [about it],” Justice Minallah remarked during the …

LAHORE, July 4(ABC): Prime Minister Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif has directed to revise the policy of gas load-shedding for gas-fired power plants to ensure productive delivery of exports. He was chairing a meeting in Lahore to discuss problems of those industrial and export sectors that help promote investment in the country. The Prime Minister said economic survival of the country lies …

ISLAMABAD, July 4(ABC): The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on Monday declared the inquiry report pertaining to unrest during the by-election in NA 240 as unsatisfactory. A five-member bench of ECP headed by the Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) conducted the hearing on the matter. In the hearing, the Regional Election Commissioner submitted an inquiry report on NA-240 which stated that …

ISLAMABAD, July 4(ABC): Minister for National Health Services Abdul Qadir Patel has appealed the people to observe precautionary measures in view of rising trend of Covid cases. Talking to media in Islamabad on Monday, he said the positivity ratio of Corona cases is over four percent. He said the government has issued the Standard Operating Procedures, which were evolved earlier, …

ISLAMABAD, July 4(ABC): Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Monday extended his heartiest felicitations to the people and government of the United States on the occasion of the country’s 246th Independence Day and expressed Islamabad’s desire to engage with Washington at all levels. Americans mark their nation’s birthday on July 4, which was the day when the country was liberated from …

ISLAMABAD, July 4(ABC): PTI Chairman Imran Khan Monday approached the Supreme Court against the amendments in election laws revoking voting rights of overseas Pakistanis through internet voting. On June 9, Parliament’s joint session passed the Elections (Amendment) Bill, 2022, and National Accountability (Amendment) Bill, 2022 — depriving overseas Pakistanis of voting rights through i-voting, abolishing the use of electronic voting machines (EVMs), …

ISLAMABAD, July 4(ABC): Pakistan’s coronavirus positivity ratio has remained high in the past couple of weeks, with the country posting an infection rate of more than 4% in the last 24 hours as well, official data showed Monday morning. The National Institute of Health (NIH), in the latest statistics, showed that the positivity ratio shot up to 4.61% in the …

ISLAMABAD, July 4(ABC): Chief of the Army Staff (COAS) General Qamar Javed Bajwa has issued fresh directions to all his commanders and key officers, including those associated with the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), to stay away from politics and avoid interacting with politicians. These directions have been given in the wake of Imran Khan-led PTI propaganda against the military establishment alleging …

LAHORE, July 3(ABC): Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Sunday said that the risk of bankruptcy has been averted and the government’s foremost priority is to pull the country out of the economic crisis. PM Shehbaz visited the residence of senior Dunya News analyst Salman Ghani and he extended his condolences to Salman Ghani on his brother’s demise. On the occasion, …

FAISALABAD, July 3(ABC): Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leader Farrukh Habib on Sunday said that Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has spread chaos in the country as he came into power. Farrukh Habib criticized the incumbent government saying that they made personal attacks on Imran Khan. People fully support PTI Chairman. The public wants to see Pakistan as sovereign state led by a …

SAILKIOT, July 3(ABC): Federal Minister for Defense Khawaja Asif on Sunday said that law has tighten noose around Pakistan Tekreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan, as his only agenda is to spread chaos in the country. In a statement, Khawaja Muhammad Asif said the incumbent government is aware of the inflation hike and ensured that things will get better in the …

SUKKUR, July 3(ABC): Pakistan People’s Party leader and Federal Minister Khurshid Shah on Sunday said that all stakeholders are responsible for the country’s current situation, and we have to work jointly to save the country from further destruction. Talking to the media in Sukkur, Khurshid said that country is going through the worst economic and political crisis and all the …

LAHORE, July 3(ABC): Prime Minister Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif on Sunday directed the authorities concerned to take immediate steps for making the shut-down power plants functional and sought a report entailing clear reasons over the load-shedding. The prime minister chaired an important meeting to overcome the issues of power load-shedding and energy crises. The meeting was attended by Minister for Planning …

FAISALABAD, July 3(ABC): Federal Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah on Sunday said that the appointment of the army chief will be held on time and as per the prescribed procedure. Speaking during a ceremony in Faisalabad, the home minister commented on the increasing inflation in the country and said that the International Monetary Fund (IMF) had “red-marked” Pakistan after the Imran …

LAHORE, July 3(ABC): Minister for Railways Khawaja Saad Rafique on Sunday criticised PTI Chairman Imran Khan and said that while he was “apparently” a democratic leader, he has been “playing with the Constitution and laws” of the country. Speaking during a press conference alongside Federal Minister for Economic Affairs Sardar Ayaz Sadiq, the railways minister said that the previous government, …

LAHORE, July 3(ABC): Accusing Farah Gogi and her husband Ahsan Jameel Gujjar of corruption, land fraud and running a racket of diamond smuggling, Punjab Home Minister Atta Tarar on Sunday vowed to bring back the couple via Interpol in the country. Addressing a joint press conference flanked by Punjab Minister for Law Malik Muhammad Ahmad Khan, Tarar said that the …

WEB DESK, July 3(ABC): Scientists have developed a bilayer passive cooling technology inspired by the way camels stay cool in the hot desert sun. The technology’s bottom hydrogel layer acts like a camel’s sweat glands, lowering the temperature through evaporating water, whereas the top aerogel layer functions like fur, insulating against outside heat while letting water vapor pass through. The …

WEB DESK, July 3(ABC): The ‘electronic nose’ (e-nose) comprises a ‘barcode’ that changes color over time in reaction to the gases produced by meat as it decays, and a barcode ‘reader’ in the form of a smartphone app powered by artificial intelligence (AI). The e-nose has been trained to recognize and predict meat freshness from a large library of barcode …

WEB DESK, July 3(ABC): Professor of Biomedical Engineering Adam Feinberg and his team have created the first full-size 3D bioprinted human heart model using their Freeform Reversible Embedding of Suspended Hydrogels (FRESH) technique. Showcased in a recent video (below) by American Chemical Society and created from MRI data using a specially built 3D printer, the model mimics the elasticity of …

WEB DESK, July 3(ABC): Faster, smaller, smarter and more energy-efficient chips for everything from consumer electronics to big data to brain-inspired computing could soon be on the way after engineers at The University of Texas at Austin created the smallest memory device yet. And in the process, they figured out the physics dynamic that unlocks dense memory storage capabilities for …

WEB DESK, July 3(ABC): A material that mimics human skin in strength, stretchability and sensitivity could be used to collect biological data in real time. Electronic skin, or e-skin, may play an important role in next-generation prosthetics, personalized medicine, soft robotics and artificial intelligence. “The ideal e-skin will mimic the many natural functions of human skin, such as sensing temperature …

WEB DESK, July 3(ABC): Stanford University engineers have developed an airborne method for imaging underwater objects by combining light and sound to break through the seemingly impassable barrier at the interface of air and water. The researchers envision their hybrid optical-acoustic system one day being used to conduct drone-based biological marine surveys from the air, carry out large-scale aerial searches …

WEB DESK, July 3(ABC): Bacterial infections have become one of the biggest health problems worldwide, and a recent study shows that COVID-19 patients have a much greater chance of acquiring secondary bacterial infections, which significantly increases the mortality rate. Combatting the infections is no easy task, though. When antibiotics are carelessly and excessively prescribed, that leads to the rapid emergence and …

WEB DESK, July 3(ABC): Meta-owned instant messaging app WhatsApp is planning to update the time limit to delete messages for everyone, reported. According to the tracker, WhatsApp is finally rolling out the new time limit to some beta testers. Reported that earlier the limit was one hour, eight minutes, and 16 seconds. The platform revealed that they tried to delete …

ISLAMABAD, July 3(ABC): The fresh COVID-19 case count in Pakistan slumped down to 650 a day after a sharp hike in infections across the country, the National Institute of Health, Islamabad (NIH) data showed Sunday morning. Pakistan has been witnessing a constant rise in coronavirus cases since mid-June. On Sunday, Pakistan reported a 3.88% COVID-19 positivity rate with 650 new …

KARACHI, July 3(ABC): As uncertainty over the revival of an International Monetary Fund programme is vanishing and the country inches closer to reach a staff-level agreement with the fund, the Pakistani rupee is expected to strengthen further in the next week, said traders. Market players are also eyeing an increase in inflows from remittances ahead of Eid-ul-Azha festival, the traders …

WEB DESK, July 3(ABC): PML-N Vice President Maryam Nawaz Saturday claimed that the International Monetary Fund (IMF) told the coalition government that it does not trust Pakistan anymore because of the wrongdoings of “fitna” Imran Khan. Addressing party workers in the PP-167 constituency, Maryam termed the agreement signed with the Fund by the “fitna” Khan as a “bad deal”, adding …