KARACHI: Sindh Home Minister Dr. Zulfiqar Mirza has proceeded on leave for an indefinite period and Sindh Chief Minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah will now oversee his affairs, SCI News reported on Wednesday.
Dr. Zulfiqar Mirza is ill and proceeding on leave for getting medical treatment, sources quoted Syed Qaim Ali Shah as saying.
It is also learnt that Dr. Mirza’s portfolio has also been taken from him.
Meanwhile, the Sindh Chief Minister has said that restoration of law and order is the responsibility of the government and that it will be established with the cooperation of the coalition partners.
He expressed his inability to say anything in regard to the duration of Dr. Mirza’s leave at the moment.
It may be mentioned here that Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) had only yesterday given two-day deadline to the government to purge Karachi of extortion mafia. It is in this context that Dr. Zulfiqar Mirza’s going on leave holds particular importance.
Government has banned Geo Super’s transmission in Pakistan. The gagging of Geo Super will deprive the people of the country of sports events including the domestic events.
In spite of financial losses suffered by Geo Super lately, the channel strived to ensure that viewers continue to catch the sporting action on TV.
According to Geo’s administration, the Government subjected the Geo Super to punishment for showing sporting events to the people.
Cheap tactics are being used to black mail Geo Super. The Government issued order on April 4 to turn Geo Super off in what appears to be a vengeful action of the government against the Jang Group.
Geo Network had been uncovering government conspiracies and raising voice against corruption.
Gul Muhammad Kakar, former official of PEMRA, had been sacked for making public the illegal tactics being used for targeting Geo. He said Chairman PEMRA had ordered to cause losses to Geo Super.
But in an illustration of how fragile progress is at the Fukushima plant, operator Tokyo Electric Power said it was concerned a build-up of hydrogen gas at a different reactor could cause another explosion at the site.
The water leak was thought to be a source of spiking radiation levels in the sea, which prompted Japan to announce its first seafood radiation safety standards following the discovery of fish with high levels of contamination.
TEPCO workers had injected sodium silicate, a chemical agent known as "water glass", to solidify soil near a cracked pit where water was escaping into the Pacific.
The pit, which has a 20-centimetre (8-inch) crack in its wall, is linked to the plant's reactor No. 2, one of several that had their cooling systems disabled by a catastrophic earthquake-tsunami disaster on March 11.
"Workers confirmed at 5:38 am (2038 GMT Tuesday) that the water running out of a pit had stopped," TEPCO said in a statement on Wednesday.
Several unsuccessful attempts had been made to try to stop the leak, including an effort to seal the crack with cement.
Despite the rare sign of progress at the plant, shares in TEPCO continued to tumble on Wednesday, closing down 6.9 percent at 337 yen, a new record low, amid expectations of huge compensation claims.
TEPCO, whose shares have lost around 85 percent of their pre-quake value, has said it may need state help to meet claims some analysts say could reach 10 trillion yen ($118 billion).
On Wednesday, the government promised compensation for the fishing industry, a day after increasing unease about the contamination led it to impose a legal limit for radioactive iodine in seafood for the first time.
Levels of radioactive iodine-131 and caesium in seawater immediately outside the plant have spiked, raising fears over marine life in a country whose diet depends heavily on seafood.
Fishing has been banned within 20 kilometres (13 miles) of the stricken plant, matching the radius of the evacuation zone on land.
TEPCO officials are also concerned that a hydrogen build-up in the housing around reactor No. 1 could react violently with oxygen, creating an explosion.
On Wednesday they announced plans to begin introducing nitrogen, an inert gas abundant in the atmosphere, which they hope will displace the oxygen.
"We are considering injecting nitrogen into the container of the reactor number 1 because hydrogen gas has possibly accumulated in the container," a TEPCO official said.
Public broadcaster NHK, citing unnamed sources, said TEPCO could start nitrogen injection at reactor number 1 on Wednesday evening and was mulling the same procedure at reactors 2 and 3.
In the days after the earthquake and tsunami crippled the plant, large explosions resulted from hydrogen accumulation near the reactors, damaging the outer buildings housing them.
A 20-kilometre exclusion zone around the plant has forced tens of thousands of people to evacuate.
The plant has emitted radioactive material into the air, contaminating drinking water and farm produce, with radioactive iodine above legal limits detected in vegetables, dairy products and mushrooms.
Nuclear concerns continue to distract from the March 11 disaster that has left more than 12,000 dead and over 15,000 missing.
TEPCO continued a separate operation to release 11,500 tonnes of lower-level radioactive water into the sea to free up urgently needed storage space for water so toxic that it is hampering crucial repair work.
Nuclear safety agency spokesman Hidehiko Nishiyama said the bulk of the water -- around 10,400 tonnes -- had now been released.
Ikuhiro Hattori, the head of Japan Fisheries Cooperatives, on Wednesday visited TEPCO headquarters to protest at the dumping, calling it "unforgivable."
Meanwhile, new government figures showed the crisis has slashed the number of foreigners travelling to Japan's two main airports by two-thirds to a daily average of just over 5,000.
The wider economic fallout from the quake, tsunami and nuclear crisis is likely to drive the country into recession in the coming months, many economists now say.
The government is planning a first emergency budget of more than three trillion yen ($35 billion), Kyodo news agency reported, quoting ruling party politicians saying total spending could top 10 trillion yen.
Under special attention of the government, all resources are being utilized to make the campaign success, the District Officer Health Hyderabad Dr. Altaf Ahmed Khero informed.
He informed that during three days long campaign, the immunization of 269580 children under five years against polio has been planned.
He informed tat 671 mobile vaccination teams have been engaged to immunize anti polio drops door to door in Hyderabad City, Latifabad, Qasimabad and Hyderabad Rural tulakas of the district.
Besides, the health department has established 90 fixed points and 32 transit points to administer anti polio drops to the children, he said and added that seven Taluka Supervisors with 24 Zonal Incharges and 156 Area Incharges are monitoring the campaign along with the officers of Health Department and representatives of WHO and UNICEF.
He appealed to the people to vaccinate their children of under five years age against polio and if the mobile team failed to reach their home, they should contact at Toll Free Number 080012012.
ISLAMABAD: Inspector General Police Balochistan Malik Muhammad Iqbal has been appointed Director General of Federal Investigating Agency (FIA) after Waseem Ahmed resigned from the post, SCI News reported.
Earlier, Waseem Ahmad sent his resignation to the prime minister who was in London on a private visit.
Waseem Ahmed has come under severe criticism from the Supreme Court over his performance. In his resignation letter he said: "Some very unusual circumstances emerged between the two state situations, the SC was asking me to quit while the government was insisting to continue".
The resignation of Waseem Ahmed has been accepted and IGP Balochistan Malik Muhammad Iqbal has been notified new DG FIA.
The situation further aggravated as the senior doctors have also announced their support to the demands of their young colleagues, leaving the normal operations in the hospitals totally paralyzed, outdoor, indoor as well as emergency remained shut, seizing all options of the patients to get some sort of medical help.
The cruel apathetic attitude of the government towards the ailing humanity in the province and its failure to pacify the enraged doctors by negotiating some settlement with the low paid financially crippled doctors costing precious lives of specially the poor, who could not afford luxury of getting treatments in five-star hospitals, an exclusive privilege of the ruling elites.
MANILA: Asian Development Bank (ADB) has said, “Pakistan economy is facing fundamental challenges---the financial deficit is mounting due to inordinate delay in increasing the income, SCI News reported.
ADB in its Outlook Report-2011 released here said that the escalating global crude prices and the enhancement of power tariffs would intensify the inflationary pressure---the rate of inflation in the current fiscal year would be around 16 percent, while the volume of subsidies would shoot up to Rs200 billion due to flawed planning, the report forecast.
ADB report further said that the Pakistan economy severely hit by the last year flood devastations facing myriad problems and the failure of the government in expanding the tax net swelling the financial deficit.
Pakistan’s economy would grow by 2.5 percent during the current fiscal year, the report predicted.
The 29-year-old was criticised for dropping crucial catches during the World Cup, where Pakistan lost in the semi-finals to arch rival and host India.
"We have given Kamran Akmal a break because his wicketkeeping was not up to the mark during the World Cup," chief selector Mohsin Khan said.
Mohammad Salman, 29, will keep wicket in the Twenty20 and one-day matches.
Pakistan will play a Twenty20 international, five one-day games and two Tests on the month-long tour, starting from April 18.
One-day skipper Shahid Afridi had hinted that senior players would be rested to give younger team members a chance, prompting Younis Khan, Abdul Razzaq and Umar Gul -- all part of the World Cup squad -- to be left out.
Afridi will not be part of the Test team after retiring from the longer version of the game last year.
Misbah-ul-Haq will lead Pakistan in the Tests, for which a squad will be announced later.
Squad (T20 and one-day): Shahid Afridi (captain), Mohammad Hafeez, Ahmed Shahzad, Taufiq Umar, Usman Salahuddin, Misbah-ul-Haq, Asad Shafiq, Umar Akmal, Abdur Rehman, Saeed Ajmal, Tanvir Ahmed, Wahab Riaz, Junaid Khan, Hammad Azam, Aizaz Cheema, Mohammad Salman.
