Chinese embassy participates in tree plantation drive

By Masood Sattar Khan
(Pakistan News & Features Services)

The Chinese Embassy in Islamabad has been actively taking part in Pakistan's Tree Plantation drive launched all over the country from August 9. 

"Ambassador Yao Jing planted a tree at the embassy today to echo the tree plantation of Prime Minister Imran Khan," the embassy tweeted on August 9. 

In two years the embassy has planted five hundred trees in the compound. Green Embassy, Green Pakistan,” it was further tweeted.

Saudi Arabia starts third phase of Chinese COVID-19 vaccine clinical trial

By Masood Sattar Khan
(Pakistan News & Features Services)

Saudi Arabia, besides its own, will start the third phase of a clinical trial for a coronavirus vaccine in cooperation with China’s vaccine developing company Can Sino.

The trial will target 5,000 healthy volunteers in Saudi Arabia over the age of 18 years old, and the ministry was currently working on preparing to launch operations in three main cities of Riyadh, Dammam, and Mecca, according to a news report published on August 9, which quoted the Kingdom’s Ministry of Health. 

The first and second phases of the clinical trial of the Ad5-nCOV potential vaccine were conducted in China. 

The first phase conducted between March 16 to 27 and it included 108 volunteers while the second phase was carried on between April 11 to 16, having involved 603 volunteers. 

Can Sino’s vaccine uses a modified common cold virus to carry genetic material from the coronavirus into the human body. It elicits antibody and T-cell immune responses and did not prompt any serious side effects. 

Meanwhile, the Kingdom’s health authorities and organizations have been conducting their own coronavirus clinical trials. Last month, King Abdullah International Medical Research Center (KAIMRC) had invited Saudi hospitals to participate in several COVID-19 clinical trials approved by the Saudi Food and Drug Authority (SFDA). 

The first study ‘Avi Mild 19’ involved the drug favipiravir which was manufactured in Japan and used in cases of mild illness, according to SPA. The second was labelled ‘FACT’ involving a combination of favipiravir and the anti-malaria drug hydroxychloroquine while the third is based on convalescent plasma and the fourth is a comparative study to assess the efficacy of each of the different coronavirus treatment protocols. 

Saudi Arabia has also been training dogs to sniff out COVID-19 infected individuals

PMA considers businesses reopening premature

By Mukhtar Alam
(Pakistan News & Features Services)

Cautioning that the COVID-19 disease was not over in the country yet, the Pakistan Medical Association (PMA), on August 8, urged the government to ensure maintenance of related preventive measures above all.

In a statement the association regretted that 80 to 85% people did not follow the standard operating procedures (SOPs) nowadays. 

“Even at the government offices people do not adopt preventive measures while it is the responsibility of the government to implement SOPs strictly,” it was pointed out. 

The statement issued by the PMA Secretary General, Dr Qaiser Sajjad, reckoned that the government had taken the decision of reopening almost all the businesses across the country in haste. 

“We are still under quarantine period for monitoring corona cases and only after five to six days we will be able to know how many new cases have emerged after Eid,” he stated. 

The PMA brought to light the fact that the other countries including United States, England, Brazil, Australia, China and South Korea, who had eased their lockdowns and opened different sectors in view of their subsiding cases of COVID-19, were once again reporting cases which have increased in the second phase there. 

“We are scared that our graph may not increase again. It could increase the burden over our hospitals and healthcare workers like it happened after Eid-ul-Fitr,” the PMA Secretary feared. 

The PMA felt that the decision about resumption of different sectoral activities, businesses, educational institutions, travelling and tourism should have been made after upcoming festivals and events like Independence Day, Muharram and Rabi-ul-Awwal.

Coronavirus Update: Sindh still threatened

By Mukhtar Alam
(Pakistan News & Features Services)

Sindh still remained threatened by COVID-19 with its maximum of 300 new infections, among the provinces, on August 8 when the authorities confirmed testing of 10,001 samples across the province during the last 24 hours.

According to official data, Sindh was followed, in term of number of tests, by Punjab (7,114 tests with 137 positive cases), KPK (2314 with 96 new cases) and Balochistan (697 with 49 cases). Pakistan overall had 634 new cases on August 8. 

In Sindh, surprisingly, the LUMHS laboratory at Hyderabad performed as many as 5,262 samples during the last 24 hours ending on August 8 afternoon but did not find any positive case while other laboratories operating in the interior districts of the province gave 3 to 14% positive results for COVID-19, according to an official data. 

The Sindh Chief Minister, Syed Murad Ali Shah, in his daily COVId-19 statement, remarked that as many as 450 patients had recovered from the diseases during the last 24 hours, taking the total number of cured patients to 114,515 for the province. 

He further said that as of August 8, there were 5,869 active patients of COVID-19 in the province, including 5,489 at homes, six at isolation centres and 374 at hospitals.

A total of 254 patients were told undergoing there critical phase of their illness, while 44 of them were put on ventilators.

Without giving any details about hospitalization, age, gender and districts of the deceased patients, the statement mentioned that three more COVID-19 fatalities had taken across the province, taking the total of deaths to 2,262.

In the meantime, Karachi witnessed an increase of 22% in its daily new cases, in comparison to August 7 numbers.

A total of 4,415 samples were taken up by 14 testing establishment in the city during the last 24 hours, out of which 335 were found positive for COVID-19, including 277 new infections.

Karachi, in terms of new cases, was followed by Hyderabad (9), Thatta (8), Badin (7), Dadu (7), Larkana (6), Jamshoro (4), Shikarpur (3), Sukkur (3), Umerkot (2) and Shaheed Benazirabad (2) while Mirpurkhas and Sanghar reported one cases each, among other districts.

Sindh’s overall infection rate was 15% compared to Pakistan’s 13% on August 8.

Mistakes, errors in books not unusual: Javed Jabbar

By Abdul Qadir Qureshi
(Pakistan News & Features Services)

Reacting to the debatable decision of the Punjab Curriculum & Textbook Board (PCTB) to ban nearly 100 textbooks in the province without serving notices to the publishers, Javed Jabbar, a former federal minister and author of quite a few books, has made it clear that errors or mistakes were part and parcel of book industry which got generally corrected in the subsequent editions. 

“I endorse the views of the publishers that the PCTB should not have acted in such a manner even if they had found some factual errors or other mistakes in those books,” he observed in a talk show on a news channel. 

“The reputable publishers and authors work hand in hand for printing books which are authentic with accurate information. But despite every conceivable professional efforts we still find odd mistakes in various books,” Javed Jabbar explained. 

“Let me quote a couple of famous examples. A famous California-based scholar had incorrectly mentioned the religion of Pakistan’s first-ever President, Major General Iskander Mirza, as Zoroastrian which he was not. Another scholar of USA had described Field Marshal Ayub Khan as the President at the time of dismemberment of Pakistan in 1971, instead of General Yahya Khan,” he recalled. 

Javed Jabbar, currently also the honorary advisor of the National Curriculum Council, emphasized that mistakes could still be committed even though the manuscripts are sent to subject experts and historians for checking and relevance. 

Aziz Khalid, Chairman, Pakistan Publishers & Booksellers Association (PPBA) and Iqbal Saleh Muhammad, Managing Director, Paramount Books, during the television talk show, also resented the moves aimed at victimizing the publishers.

Shahbaz Sharif lauds China's fight against COVID-19

By Masood Sattar Khan
(Pakistan News & Features Services)

Former Chief Minister of Punjab and leader of the opposition in the National Assembly, Mian Shahbaz Sharif, has lauded Chinese government's fight against COVID-19. He recorded his appreciation when he met the Chinese Ambassador, Yao Jin, in Islamabad on August 8.

He thanked China for its vigorous help to Pakistan in fighting the pandemic and expressed the confidence that the time-tested China and Pakistan friendship would continue to strengthen in future. 

Shahbaz Sharif remarked that China happened to be Pakistan’s most trusted and iron brother and his party fully supported the further development of China-Pakistan relations. 

He observed that the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) has brought historical development opportunities to Pakistan and it will lead to the restoration of Pakistan's economy and regional connectivity in the post-epidemic era. 

He stated that his party, Pakistan Muslim League (PML-N), will continue to support the construction of the economic corridor. 

Shahbaz Sharif highly praised the great achievements of the Chinese Communist Party in governance and looked forward to strengthening exchanges between the two parties and jointly promote the continuous development of the Pakistan-China all-weather strategic partnership. 

Ambassador Yao praised Mian Shahbaz Sharif for its long-term emphasis on China-Pakistan relations and support for the construction of the CPEC, assuring that China and Pakistan will help each other, join hands to fight the epidemic, and build a China-Pakistan community with a shared future.

Sri Lankan PM expresses gratitude to Imran Khan

By Masood Sattar Khan
(Pakistan News & Features Services)

The newly elected Prime Minister of Sri Lanka, Mahinda Rajapaksa, has expressed gratitude to Pakistan’s Prime Minister Imran Khan for congratulating him on his victory. 

“Many thanks to Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan for your phone call and warm wishes,” the Sri Lankan Prime Minister tweeted on August 8. 

"I look forward for mutual high level visits between our two countries to strengthen our friendly bilateral ties,” he added.

ML-1 tender to be issued on Aug 31

By Masood Sattar Khan
(Pakistan News & Features Services) 

The Federal Railways Minister, Sheikh Rashid Ahmed, has announced that the tender for ML- 1 railway project, a part of the China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), will be issued on August 31. 

"I am going to meet the Prime Minister (Imran Khan) in next week and request him to invite the Chinese President (Xi Jinping) to be the chief guest on the launching of the all-important CPEC project", the Railways Minister told a press conference in Lahore on August 8. 

“I met the Chinese Ambassador, Yao Jin, on August 7 and congratulated him on the approval of the project by ECNEC and requested him to complete it in three years instead of five years,” the Minister disclosed.

Sheikh Rashid said that Ambassador Yao Jin had assured him that he would convey his observation to the Chinese side. Briefing the salient features of ML-1, the Minister said that there would be no railway crossing on the track in order to avoid accidents.

He said that Pakistan would pay 10 percent of the total amount while China had agreed to pay for the remaining 90 percent.

Bridge realigned after house owner resists

By Masood Sattar Khan
(Pakistan News & Features Services)

The local authorities in Guangdong province of China were compelled to realign construction of an overhead bridge as the lady owner of the house built enroute the bridge refused neither to accept the alternative flat the local administration offered nor the money. 

Heated debate has ensued among the Chinese netizens both in favour of the lady owner as well as the local administration. 

One blogger termed the lady as greedy while another, defending her, claimed that the offered compensation amount was less considering the location of the flat, situated nearby the morgue. 

However, the local administration remained confident that it would succeed in resolving the issue amicably. Meanwhile the bridge has now become a place of attraction and people from far and across the city have been regularly visiting and enjoying there.

Iqbal Saleh Muhammad welcomes textbook regulatory authority; opposes conflict of interest

By Abdul Qadir Qureshi
(Pakistan News & Features Services)

Iqbal Saleh Muhammad, an eminent publisher and bookseller, has welcomed the idea of forming an authority to regulate the contents of textbooks but at the same time he has strongly opposed a possible conflict of interest.

“It’s fine to have a regulatory body to monitor the contents of textbooks but the same body should not be mandated to publish these books because it will lead to conflict of interest which must be avoided in the larger national interest,” the Managing Director of Paramount Books pointed out during a television talk show aired recently. 

“In the past there used to be an organization by the name of National Book Council. Founded in early 1960s, it was being headed by the great Ibne Insha for many years. After acquiring the skill set from developed countries like England and Japan, they facilitated and trained the publishers and booksellers. It was a golden era for publishing and bookselling in the country,” he recalled. 

He didn’t mince words in stating that publishing books was not the cup of tea for every Tom, Dick or Harry, adding that only those having the understanding, experience and expertise of the profession could deliver the goods. 

“Everyone cannot publish high quality books just by assembling a group of authors and engaging some illustrators. Publishing is a thinking job. Only experienced and talented publishers can be expected to produce quality books,” he explained.

Iqbal Saleh Muhammad, whose company Paramount Books has been in business for the past 72 years, regretted that they have had to engage raw hands who needed on-job training in the absence of institutions who could teach editing or book production.

He dispelled the impression that professional publishers committed far too many errors or mistakes in their books.

“Professional publishers have a system of self-regulation. They treat the manuscript submitted by the authors and subject specialists with utmost respect and care. A full process, in which a number of meetings and discussions take place, is in place before any book comes out. Obviously it’s humanly not possible to bring out a book which is completely error-free but they are just minor errors which are removed in revised editions,” he clarified.

The same talk show, hosted by senior journalist Aamir Zia, was also participated by Aziz Khalid, Chairman, Pakistan Publishers & Booksellers Association (PPBA), and Javed Jabbar, a former federal minister and advisor of National Curriculum Council, who bitterly criticized the recent decision of the Punjab Curriculum & Textbook Board (PCTB) to have banned around 100 textbooks in the province without serving notices to the publishers.