Overseas Chinese hail their government policies

By Masood Sattar Khan
(Pakistan News & Features Services)

The Chinese Ambassador in Pakistan, Yao Jing, through a video session, extended Eid greeting to all Muslim overseas and the Chinese living in Pakistan besides offering condolences on PIA plane crash.

The participants included the top officials of the Rawalpindi Chinese Association, the Gilgit-Baltistan Chinese Association, the Pakistan Chinese Youth Overseas Chinese Association and the Pakistan Overseas Chinese Association. Ambassador Yao Jing introduced the relevant situation of China-Pakistan anti-epidemic cooperation. 

He pointed out that in the early stage of China’s epidemic prevention and control, Pakistan had actively donated anti-epidemic materials to China. 

“After the outbreak epidemic in Pakistan, China donated a large volume of anti-epidemic materials to Pakistan and sent a number of anti-epidemic medical expert groups to assist Pakistan in anti-epidemic drive,” he narrated. 

“The two countries have cooperated closely to fight against the epidemic and fully demonstrated that the friendship between China and Pakistan is unbreakable. In order to better serve the overseas Chinese in Pakistan, the Chinese Embassy has taken a number of measures,” the Ambassador said. 

“Firstly the Pakistani government was provided with testing reagents, masks, protective clothing and other anti-epidemic materials. Secondly close contacts and communication with the various overseas Chinese delegations were maintained. Thirdly multiple online health consultations took place from China. Then the overseas Chinese were provided with a health package and caring package besides coordination with the Bading Point Hospital to treat any confirmed overseas Chinese in a timely manner and actively develop consuls,” he explained.

The overseas Chinese leaders spoke one after another, expressing their profound gratitude to the Chinese government and embassy in Pakistan for their care, care and help for the vast number of overseas Chinese in Pakistan. 

The Uighur national leaders, Nasir Khan and Kyoumu, said that under the leadership and command of President Xi Jinping, China has achieved a major victory in the new crown epidemic prevention and control campaign and actively carried out international anti-epidemic cooperation making the Uighur and overseas Chinese extremely proud. 

Since the outbreak, the embassy in Pakistan has provided Uighur and overseas Chinese with anti-epidemic materials such as medicines, masks, and daily life materials including rice, flour and cooking oil to ease the living difficulties of the overseas Chinese and make the Uighur overseas Chinese feel the warmth and care from their home country. 

The overseas Chinese leaders also expressed their support for the 13th National People's Congress's review of the ‘Decision of the National People's Congress on Establishing and Improving the Legal System and Enforcement Mechanism of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region to Maintain National Security’ and believed that the decision (draft) was necessary for legislative actions to safeguard national sovereignty and implement ‘one country, two systems are of great significance to safeguard Hong Kong's prosperity and stability. 

They reckoned that Hong Kong was a special administrative region of China and its affairs were China's internal affairs. 

The overseas Chinese compatriots in Pakistan firmly supported the Chinese government in safeguarding national sovereignty, security and development interests, and resolutely opposed foreign forces interfering in the affairs of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region.

Cockpit voice recorder of crashed PIA plane yet to be recovered

By Masood Sattar Khan

(Pakistan News & Features Services) 

The cockpit voice recorder of the crashed PIA plane has yet not been recovered from the debris scattered on narrow lanes of the crash site located in the Karachi’s densely populated area of Model Colony in the close proximity of airport. 

The black box of the plane, which crashed on May 22, has however been retrieved and sent to the Airbus headquarters in France for decoding, the aviation sources disclosed. 

A spokesman of the national carrier has appealed to the people that if they found any part of the crashed plane they should handover the same to the concerned authorities. 

The 11-member Airbus investigating team, having reached Karachi, will resume their investigation by visiting the crash site on May 27. 

The French team, on May 26, inspected the damaged houses, debris and the runway which the captain of the ill-fated plane, Sajjad Gul, reportedly used for an abortive landing.

The team checked the run and apron from different angles. They asked questions like how many times the plane was grounded in a year and if repair on plane was done.

They also collected information about how many times the landing gear repair was carried out besides its maintenance on technical ground. 

They sought the names of the engineers having performed the repair work. The French team was provided with the one year performance record of the plane. 

The unfortunate plane crash claimed all but two fortunate passengers who survived miraculously. So far out of 97 dead, the identity of 44 passengers has been established. Squadron Leader Zain-ul-Arif Khan’s body was among those identified through DNA. 

Meanwhile, the Interior Minister, Ejaz Shah, visited the residence of captain of the PIA crashed plane, Sajjad Gul, and expressed condolence with his father. “Sajjaid Gul tried his best till the end but unfortunately nature had other ideas,” he noted. The father of the deceased pilot has appealed to refrain from such statement that can hurt family feelings. 

The Sindh Governor, Imran Ismail, visited Civil Hospital Karachi and enquired the welfare of the injured persons. He assured that the government will carry out repair of the damaged houses.

General Body meeting of PIA Retired Employees Association (PIAREA)

By Abdul Qadir Qureshi

(Pakistan News & Features Services)

The PIA Chief has assured the PIA's retired employees 

that their pension will be increased in near future'

This was disclosed by General Secretary PIA Retired Employees Association 

(PIAREA) while addressing the  General Body meeting of the association.

He informed the members of some of the PIAREA achievements gained after 

a long struggle which included increase in PIA pension in 2013, free medical 

facilities for disabled sons/daughters of Retirees, abolition of Federal Excise 

Duty (FED) on free tickets to issued to Retirees, extension of medical facilities etc. 

He said successful efforts were made against proposed  privatization of PIA,

Earlier, he informed that no one will be appointed as Association's office-bearer 

for whole of life in future whereas efforts while efforts will continue to seek more

facilities for retired employees..

At the meeting, presided over by Chairman, PIAREA Zulfikar Ali, the newly elected 

unopposed office bearers of PIAREA, also took oath as office bearers. 

On the occasion the General Body also approved the Annual Report unanimously. 

and expressed their full cooperation in the PIAREA's struggle for restoration of  their 

rights .

The newly elected office bearers who took oath were;

Senior. Vice President: Chaudhry Muhammad Azam, Vice Presidents: Parvez Farid

Muhammad Aslam Malik, Mohammad Khan Sial, General Secretary: Syed Tahir 

Hasan Chiefy. Organizing Secretary: Shaikh Abdul Majeed, Finance Secretary: 

Rehman Khilji, Welfare Secretary: Nisar Ahmed and  Joint Secretary: Muhammad Yousaf

New office bearers of PIAREA declared

By Abdul Qadir Qureshi
(Pakistan News & Features Services)

The Chairman, Election Commission of the PIA Retired Employees Association (PIAREA), Najamul Ghani, has announced the final list of the candidates upon the completion of the election procedure. 

According to the notification of the new office bearers of the PIAREA, having been elected unopposed for a term of three years, M Yunus Kakakhel will be the President and Syed Tahir Hasan will be the General Secretary. 

Chaudhry Muhammad Azam has elected as the Senior Vice President, Parvez Farid, Muhammad Aslam Malik and Mohammad Khan Sial are the three Vice Presidents while Shaikh Abdul Majeed has been elected as the Organizing Secretary.

Abdul Rahman Khilji, Nisar Ahmed and Muhammad Yousuf have been elected to the posts of Finance Secretary, Welfare Secretary and Joint Secretary respectively. 

The PIA Retired Employees Association (PIAREA) is a registered body of retired and ex-employees of all sections and departments of the Pakistan International Airlines (PIA), from Pay Group I to X and above.