Activists condemn minimal female representation in PTI government

Agencies
August 28, 2018

Islamabad, Aug 28: Women’s rights campaigners have expressed concern over the minimal female presence in the new Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaaf government’s cabinets in the center, Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, urging the party to review its appointments.

“Pakistan’s politics and political parties are unfortunately male dominated and that’s why women lawmakers are not given the importance they deserve for being a parliamentarian,” said Farzana Bari, a gender specialist and women’s rights activist. She added that there is need to change the political culture in the country through mass awareness campaigns.

“Women make up 50 percent of Pakistan’s population and yet they are yet to be included in the decision-making process at the government level,” she said.

Bari said that activists and gender-equality organizations have been lobbying for increased inclusion of women in the country’s politics and decision-making processes, but much remains to be done.

“Legislation is the only solution for due share of female lawmakers in cabinets and other decision-making bodies,” she said, adding that female lawmakers in Pakistan have been historically more active in raising issues on the floor of parliament compared with their male colleagues.

In the July 25 general elections, PTI emerged as the single largest party in the center and the provinces of Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, where it has now formed governments.

The 24-member cabinet in the center appointed by new Prime Minister Imran Khan, the PTI leader, includes only three women: Dr. Shireen Mazari, Zubaida Jalal and Dr. Fehmida Mirza. In Punjab, Dr. Yasmeen Rashid is the only woman in the 23-member cabinet, and there are no women at all in the 15-member cabinet of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.

Alia Amirali, deputy secretary of the Women Democratic Front, said that political parties in Pakistan, including PTI, like to portray themselves as progressive and supporters of women’s rights while campaigning, but fail to recognize the importance and potential of women when in power.

“Our women are educated and vibrant and they want to play their role in the nation building but our male-dominant politics fails them,” she said. The situation for women will not change, she added, until female lawmakers of all party affiliations speak up for their rights, inside and outside the parliament.

“If the women lawmakers cannot get their own due rights, how will they fight for rights of ordinary girls and women in villages and remote areas?” said Amirali. “No nation can develop without the active participation of women, and our rulers need to realize this fact as early as possible.”

Professor Tahir Malik, an academic and political analyst, said political parties largely ignore women lawmakers when appointing members of the cabinet and other decision-making bodies, believing that they have already adequately accommodated female lawmakers simply by granting them seats in the parliament.

“The situation is likely to remain the same until more women become members of the parliament by winning direct elections, instead of being elected on reserved seats,” he added.

Azhar Laghari, PTI’s head of public relations, said that his party holds its elected women in high esteem and will give them more cabinet positions in the coming months.

“You will see more women ministers in the center and provinces where the PTI is in government after the cabinets are expanded in next few months,” he said. “Ours is the only party that has effectively raised women’s issues at all forums and we will continue doing so, besides increasing their strength in the cabinets.”

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News Network
July 2,2020

Geneva, Jul 2: The World Health Organization (WHO) has estimated the overall number of coronavirus cases globally at 10,357,662, with 508,055 people having died from the disease.

The UN health agency said in the situation report published on late Wednesday that 163,939 new cases had been recorded in the past day, while further 4,188 patients had died.

Americas continue to lead the count with over 5.2 million cases, followed by Europe with more than 2.7 million.

The WHO declared the COVID-19 outbreak a pandemic on March 11.

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News Network
May 8,2020

New York, May 8: An Indian-American father and daughter, both doctors in New Jersey, have died due to the COVID-19, with Governor Phil Murphy describing their demise as “particularly tough" and hailed them for dedicating their lives for others.

Satyender Dev Khanna, 78, was a surgeon who served both on staff and as the head of the surgical departments for multiple hospitals across New Jersey for decades.

Priya Khanna, 43, was a double board-certified in both internal medicine and nephrology. She was Chief of Residents at Union Hospital, now part of RWJ Barnabas Health.

"Dr Satyender Dev Khanna and Dr Priya Khanna were father and daughter. They both dedicated their lives to helping others. This is a family dedicated to health and medicine. Our words cannot amply express our condolences," New Jersey Governor Murphy tweeted on Thursday.

“Both dedicated their lives to helping others and we lost both of them to COVID-19,” Murphy said during a press conference on Thursday, saying their demise is a "particularly tough one.”

Satyender passed away at the Clara Maass Medical Center where he had worked for more than 35 years.

Murphy described him as a "pioneering doctor” who was one of the first surgeons to perform laparoscopic surgery in the state. He is being remembered by colleagues as a “gentle and caring physician."

“And for a doctor, I'm not one, but I would bet, I don't think there could be a more fitting way to be remembered, or a nurse or a healthcare worker of any kind,” Murphy said, adding that the doctor had a passion for bicycling, and he often found peace from the hustle of the hospital in biking along the Jersey Shore.

Priya did all of her medical training in New Jersey and then did her fellowship in nephrology in South Jersey with the Cooper Health System. Like her father, she too worked at Clara Maass, where she died.

She was also Medical Director at two dialysis centres in Essex County and “took pride” in teaching the next generation of doctors, Murphy said, adding that the ICU physician who cared for Priya Khanna was trained and taught by her as well.

Follow live developments on the coronavirus pandemic here

“Priya will be remembered as a caring and selfless person who put others first. And even while in the hospital, fighting her own battle, she continued to check up on her mom and dad and her family,” Murphy said.

“This is a family, by the way, dedicated to health and medicine,” he said.

The governor spoke with Satyender's wife Komlish Khanna, who is a paediatrician. The couple has two more daughters - Sugandha Khanna, an emergency medicine physician and Anisha Khanna, a paediatrician.

“Unbelievable. Our words cannot amply express our condolences nor, I am sure, can they express the pain that the Khanna family is feeling. But I hope that the fact that our entire state mourns with them is some small comfort. And we mourn everyone we have lost. We commit in their memory to saving as many lives as we can,” Murphy said.

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Agencies
July 18,2020

Days after Twitter accounts of several billionaires were hacked to engineer a crypto scam, Twitter on Saturday said it is embarrassed, disappointed and, more than anything, sorry for what happened with some of its high-profile users as attackers successfully manipulated its employees and used their credentials to access internal systems, including getting through the two-factor protections.

In the first detailed summary of the "social engineering attack" via a crypto scam that hit at least 130 users this week, Twitter said for 45 of those accounts, the attackers were able to initiate a password reset, login to the account and send Tweets.

"We are continuing our forensic review of all of the accounts to confirm all actions that may have been taken. In addition, we believe they may have attempted to sell some of the usernames," the micro-blogging platform said in a statement.

For up to eight of the Twitter accounts involved, the attackers took the additional step of downloading the account's information via "Your Twitter Data" tool.

This is a tool that is meant to provide an account owner with a summary of their Twitter account details and activity.

"We are reaching out directly to any account owner where we know this to be true. None of the eight were verified accounts," said Twitter.

The company said the attackers were not able to view previous account passwords, as those are not stored in plain text or available through the tools used in the attack.

"Attackers were able to view personal information including email addresses and phone numbers, which are displayed to some users of our internal support tools," informed Twitter.

In cases where an account was taken over by the attacker, they may have been able to view additional information, Twitter added, saying its forensic investigation of these activities was still ongoing.

"We are actively working on communicating directly with the account-holders that were impacted".

The company said it will soon restore access for all account owners who may still be locked out as a result of the remediation efforts.

The New York Times reported on Friday that the Twitter crypto scam can be traced back to a group of hackers who congregate online at OGusers.com, a username-swapping community where people buy and sell coveted online handles.

The report said that the Twitter hack is not from Russian, Chinese or North Korean hackers but was done by a group of young people, "one of whom says he lives at home with his mother".

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