Direct attack on Israel ordered. Emergency meeting of Iran's Supreme National Security Council

Direct attack on Israel ordered. Emergency meeting of Iran's Supreme National Security Council

Thousands of people participated in the funeral of Ismail Haniyeh Shaheed in Tehran, Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei led the funeral prayer, the burial will be held in Qatar today.

Israel's claim of martyrdom of Hamas military chief Muhammad al-Zif Ibrahim al-Masri in the July 13 attack, Hamas denied.

Govt working to bring uniformity in education system: PM

Govt working to bring uniformity in education system: PM

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Imran Khan said that the National Education Policy Framework (NEPF) is being devised to bring uniformity in existing fragmented apartheid system of education. He vowed that the objective is to create a nation and to put in place a system which is ‘fair’ and ‘produces Pakistanis’.

He chaired a briefing on NEPF here at Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) on Wednesday. The briefing was attended by Federal Education Minister Shafqat Mahmood, Punjab Education Minister Murad Rass, Adviser Education KP Ziaullah Bangash, federal and provincial secretaries for education and senior officers.

The Minister for Federal Education & Professional Training gave a detailed presentation on the National Education Policy Framework identifying various challenges vis-a-vie out of school children, education apartheid, quality of education and skill development issues. He said that NEPF is being formulated with an objective to ensure that all children have a fair and equal opportunity to receive a high quality of education in order to achieve their full potential.

Highlighting the contours of the NEPF, the Minister said that optimum utilisation of the existing infrastructure, employing technology solutions, improvement in non-formal education systems, attracting quality teachers and incentivizing the education were some of the measures in the proposed framework that would significantly help enhancing school enrolment and addressing the issues of out-of-school children. The Minister also suggested establishment of a National Curriculum Council for the purpose of engaging and creating broad consensus among stakeholders for common standards of education across Pakistan. Education Minister Punjab Murad Rass and Adviser Education KP Ziaullah also briefed the Prime Minister about the future roadmap in education sector and highlighted various short, medium and long-term measures to introduce qualitative change in the education sector. The Prime Minister appreciated the effort being done at federal and provincial level. The Prime Minister emphasized that skill development of the youth should be especially focused so that the immense potential of the youth could be effectively utilised.

No ‘amnesty’ for Zardari, Nawaz: Fayyaz

LAHORE : Punjab Minister for Information and Culture Fayyaz-ul-Hassan Chohan has said that former President Asif Zardari and former Premier Nawaz Sharif have joined hands to protect each other's corruption, but this time there will be no "amnesty" for them.

"How can the PPP leaders deny that their leader has nothing to do with these accounts, when Zardari himself has admitted before the media that the accounts in question belong to him", the minister maintained."Our opponents may do what they want but the PTI government will Insha Allah complete its five-year tenure under the dynamic leadership of Imran Khan", said the Punjab information minister while talking to the media persons on Wednesday. He said Zardari's politics had caused an irreparable loss to the Pakistan People's Party (PPP), which once was the party of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto. He said the anti-corruption authorities had traced around 5,000 fake accounts having billions of rupees in them, which is the result of the untiring efforts of Prime Minister Imran Khan's adviser on accountability, Barrister Shahzad Akbar. "Gone are the days when the country's looted money was laundered through models and actresses like Ayan Ali. The PPP leadership must understand the fact", he added. In the recent past, he went on to say, some politicians, including Ahsan Iqbal, used Aqama (work permit) for money laundering and concealing their illegal wealth.

Commenting on Senator Mushahidullah Khan's challenge for a debate on corruption, the minister said he was ready for that anytime anywhere. "His only forte is apple polishing of Sharifs, and he has got a seat in the Senate as a reward for this service, the minister said.

To a question regarding "vandalism" by the lawyers in Faisalabad, he condemned the incident and appealed to Chief Justice Mian Saqib Nisar to take cognisance of the incident and take action against those involved in it.

Responding to another question about presence of former PTI Secretary General Jehangir Tareen in the party and other meetings, Chohan said that Tareen was a senior party worker, and he participated in the meetings in that capacity. A political worker cannot be disqualified from politics, he opined.

To yet another question, he said, "Punjab Assembly Speaker Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi is a wise politician with a high intellectual level, and he is as sincere with the PTI as he is with the PML-Q", the minister said.