Category: General

Teachers from Balochistan University took to the streets on Tuesday to protest the non-payment of salaries and dues spanning four months, exacerbating the university’s financial crisis. Led by Professor Kaleemullah Bareech and Nazeer Lehri of the Academic Staff Association, the teachers marched from the university premises to Hockey Chowk.

Professor Bareech emphasized the need for immediate salary payments and a permanent solution to the financial turmoil within the university. They expressed disappointment with the government’s inaction towards resolving the crisis and its impact on university staff.

Holding placards demanding justice, they criticized the university administration and both provincial and federal governments for neglecting the education sector and lacking a clear education policy.

This protest follows a previous demonstration outside the Balochistan Assembly just a month ago, showcasing the teachers’ unwavering determination despite past setbacks. The road blockade caused inconvenience to
citizens, disrupting daily routines. Muhammad Tanveer, a primary school teacher, lamented the prolonged blockade’s impact on his ability to pick up children from school.

Chief Minister Mir Sarfaraz Bugti faces mounting pressure amidst the escalating situation.

Later, senior administration officials engaged in negotiations with the protesters, leading to the reopening of the roads for traffic, albeit temporarily calming the unrest.

Source: Pro Pakistani

World Malaria Day is being observed on Thursday.

The theme of the day this year is ‘Accelerating the fight against malaria for a more equitable world’.

The day is observed annually to raise awareness about malaria and mobilize resources to control the disease globally.

Source: Radio Pakistan

Fertilizer Review Committee has recommended import of urea fertilizer for Kharif season.

Chairing the committee’s meeting, Minister for Industries and Production Rana Tanveer Hussain said two hundred thousand metric tons of urea fertilizer should be imported immediately to avoid shortage.

Demand for urea fertilizer in Kharif season is three point six percent higher than the last year.

In his remarks, Rana Tanveer Hussain said the purpose of import is to ensure food security in the country. He said this will increase the productivity of the farmers.

The Federal Minister assured that the farmers will have uninterrupted supply of urea fertilizer in Kharif season.

He said all local urea fertilizer plants will also remain operational at full capacity. He said the government is ensuring gas supply to the fertilizer industry for the benefit of farmers.

The final decision to import urea fertilizer will be taken by the Economic Coordination Committee in the next meeting.

Source: Radio Pakistan

A delegation from the world’s leading company Moller-Maersk (APM) Terminals has expressed willingness to collaborate with Pakistan in developing existing ports and modernizing facilities through capacity building and other programs.

The interest was shown during a meeting between the delegation, led by its CEO Keith Svendsen, and Pakistan’s Minister for Maritime Affairs, Qaiser Ahmed Sheikh, in Islamabad today.

The Danish Ambassador to Pakistan, Jakob Linulf, was also present at the meeting. Discussions revolved around investment prospects in Pakistan’s ports and terminals sector.

The delegation head highlighted Moller-Maersk’s prominent global position and its robust relationship with Pakistan, which reflects a market share of approximately 20 percent in containerized import-export activities.

Recognizing the immense growth potential, Keith Svendsen proposed investments to enhance integrated supply chain solutions, including the upgrading of ports and logistics infrastructure. The delegation pledged supp
ort for the advancement of maritime affairs in Pakistan and for nurturing a skilled workforce in this sector.

Speaking on the occasion, the Minister reiterated the government’s dedication to promoting the blue economy to drive the overall economic progress of the country. He emphasized the significance of public-private partnerships in realizing the full potential of Pakistan’s maritime sector.

The Minister also highlighted the robust role of the Special Investment Facilitation Council (SIFC) in facilitating foreign investors by providing opportunities for doing business with ease.

Both sides expressed optimism about the transformative impact of these initiatives on the country’s economic landscape.

Source: Radio Pakistan

The 4th T20 international of five-match series between Pakistan and New Zealand will be played at Lahore today.

The match will start at 7:30 pm on Thursday.

The series is levelled at 1-1.

The fifth and last match of the series will also be played at the same venue on Saturday.

Source: Radio Pakistan

After a few recent leaks, Qualcomm has officially unveiled the Snapdragon X Plus platform for laptops. This version is a notch below the Snapdragon X Elite. Instead of the 12-core CPU on the Snapdragon X Elite, the X Plus comes with 10 Cores of Oryon CPUs running at 3.4 GHz, and supports up to 64 GB of RAM with a bandwidth of 135 GB/s.

Speaking of Oryon CPUs, these new processors feature a 37% jump in performance while taking 54% less power than rival chips Qualcomm did not mention. The Snapdragon X Plus is built on a 4nm process, supports LPDDR5x RAM, and has a 45MB of total cache. It can run three different 4K displays at the same time, but capped to a 60Hz refresh rate. It has an advanced ISP for cameras, WiFi 7, and Bluetooth 5.4.

The Snapdragon X Plus stands out among rival chips thanks to its NPU, which is the fastest in the world according to Qualcomm. This is because it boasts a 45 TOPS NPU. Qualcomm says that the X Plus should provide ‘exceptional performance, long battery life, and industry-leadin
g on-device AI capabilities.’

During Qualcomm’s presentation, they showcased various applications of on-device AI. This included code generation in Visual Studio Code through Codegen, which instantly creates new code using AI right on the device.

Additionally, they demonstrated music generation in Audacity using Riffusion, where on-device AI creates new music based on prompts or existing music. Lastly, they highlighted live captions in OBS Studio, where Whisper on-device AI translates spoken languages into live captions in real-time during live streams, supporting up to 100 languages.

Laptops featuring the Snapdragon X Plus should come out within a few months ‘from leading global OEMs’.

Source: Pro Pakistani

The Ministry of Religious Affairs has announced a new policy regarding expenses for non-attending Hajj applicants. According to official documents unveiled on Wednesday, successful applicants who choose not to embark on the sacred journey of Hajj will face a deduction of Rs. 2 lacs from their allocated expenses. This decision seeks to ensure prudent financial management and equitable resource allocation within the framework of the annual Hajj operations.

The Ministry clarified that the deduction for non-participants will amount to Rs1 lac and 97 thousand after the implementation of the Hajj flight schedule. Exceptions will be made for individuals falling under specific categories, including those who are sick, deceased, or subject to travel restrictions such as being placed on the Exit Control List (ECL) or blacklist. These exemptions aim to uphold principles of fairness and compassion in the administration of the policy.

In addition to the expense deduction policy, the Ministry has taken steps to enhance t
ransparency and accessibility for all stakeholders. Detailed information regarding the Hajj flight schedules for all airlines has been made readily available on the ‘Pak Hajj App’ and the Ministry of Religious Affairs website. This initiative aims to provide applicants with easy access to relevant information, facilitating informed decision-making and ensuring a smooth and efficient process for all involved parties.

Overall, the introduction of the expense deduction policy represents a proactive effort by the Ministry to optimize resources, promote responsible behavior, and enhance the overall management of the Hajj pilgrimage. Through these measures, the Ministry aims to uphold the sanctity and integrity of the Hajj journey while ensuring fairness and transparency in its administration.

Source: Pro Pakistani

As HMD Global gradually lays its classic Nokia brand to rest, the Finnish phone maker is establishing its own HMD brand, starting with its new Pulse phones. The new HMD Pulse series features three phones, HMD Pulse, Pulse+, and Pulse Pro, all of which are priced between the pound 100-pound 200 range.

HMD is confident that consumers are leaning towards eco-friendly products and are giving importance to how easy it is to repair them. According to HMD, the Pulse range is designed with ‘Gen 1 repairability’ in mind, and users can get DIY repair kits from iFixit. These repairs cover two of the most commonly damaged components, the screen and the battery.

HMD Pulse

Starting with the HMD Pulse, serves as the starting point among the three models. It’s important to highlight that all of them are powered by the same chipset, the Unisoc T606 with Android 14 and 2 years of promised OS updates.

HMD Pulse trio unveiled: affordable phones with ‘Gen 1 repairability’

Moving on, the 6.65′ LCD is another feature shared by
all three models. It has a 720p+ resolution (20:9 aspect ratio) and a 90Hz refresh rate. However, it doesn’t stand out much, offering a peak brightness of 600 nits and covering only 70% of the NTSC color space.

What distinguishes the three models most noticeably are their cameras. As the entry-level option, the Pulse features a 13MP main camera on the rear, equipped with autofocus and dual-LED flash, accompanied by a single depth sensor. Meanwhile, the punch-hole cutout in the front features an 8MP selfie camera.

Regarding the battery, it packs a 5,000 mAh capacity and is labeled as ‘QuickFix replaceable.’ While it is not as easily replaceable as old phones with removable rear panels, HMD says it should only take 5 minutes to replace the battery with simple, easily available tools.

The battery should be good for about 800 cycles and can be charged at 10W speeds if you can even call it ‘speed.’

HMD Pulse has a starting price of pound 140 and memory configurations include 4 to 6 RAM with 64 GB built-in stor
age that can be expanded through a microSD card. It comes in black and pink color options.

HMD Pulse+

HMD Pulse+ is priced slightly higher at pound 160 but keeps the same screen specs as the HMD Pulse as well as the Unisoc T606 chipset, an old 12nm chip with two Cortex-A75 cores and six A55 cores. However, it takes RAM up to 8 GB and the built-in storage is 128 GB instead of 64 GB, expandable through a memory card.

HMD Pulse+ with 50MP rear camera

The main upgrade comes in the camera department, which features a 50MP sensor (up from 13MP), alongside the same 2MP depth sensor. There is no mention of video recording capabilities but it is worth mentioning that the chipset cannot go higher than 1080p recording. The selfie camera is an 8MP shooter.

The 5,000 mAh battery is also shared between the two, with the same 10W charging. HMD Pulse+ takes the price up to pound 160 and comes in Apricot Crush (Orange) and Midnight Blue color options.

HMD Pulse Pro

Despite being the top dog in the series, the HMD Pulse
Pro is not that far ahead of its siblings. The main camera setup is the same as the HMD Pulse+ (50MP + 2MP) and the Unisoc T606 budget chipset is shared too. The 720p screen is sized at 6.65 inches, just like the others and the memory options are identical as well. The selfie camera takes a major jump to 50MP.

The other upgrade would be the phone’s charging tech, which is rated at 20W instead of 10W like the others, but it’s still on top of the same 5,000 mAh battery, which is not low by any means.

HMD Pulse Pro adds another pound 20 to the price, taking it up to pound 180. The colors are called Glacier Green, Black Ocean, and Twilight Purple.

Specifications

HMD Pulse HMD Pulse+ HMD Pulse Pro

Chipset Unisoc T606 Unisoc T606 Unisoc T606

CPU Octa-core (2×1.6 GHz Cortex-A75 and 6×1.6 GHz Cortex-A55) Octa-core (2×1.6 GHz Cortex-A75 and 6×1.6 GHz Cortex-A55) Octa-core (2×1.6 GHz Cortex-A75 and 6×1.6 GHz Cortex-A55)

GPU Mali-G57 MP1 Mali-G57 MP1 Mali-G57 MP1

OS Android 14 Android 14 Android 14

Supported Ne
tworks 2G, 3G, 4G LTE 2G, 3G, 4G LTE 2G, 3G, 4G LTE

Display 6.65″ IPS LCD, 720 x 1612 pixels, 90Hz 6.65″ IPS LCD, 720 x 1612 pixels, 90Hz 6.65″ IPS LCD, 720 x 1612 pixels, 90Hz

RAM 4 GB, 6 GB 4 GB, 6 GB, 8 GB 4 GB, 6 GB, 8 GB

Storage 64 GB 128 GB 128 GB

Card Slot Yes Yes Yes

Main Camera 13 MP, (wide), AF

Auxiliary lens 50 MP, (wide), AF

Auxiliary lens 50 MP, (wide), AF

2 MP, (depth)

Front Camera 8MP 8MP 50MP

Colors Meteor Black, Dreamy Pink Apricot Crush, Midnight Blue Black Ocean, Glacier Green, Twilight Purple

Battery

5,000 mAh, 10W wired charging 5,000 mAh, 10W wired charging 5,000 mAh, 20W wired charging

Price

pound 140 pound 160 pound 180

Source: Pro Pakistani