Kidnappers arrested

PESHAWAR, Feb 14: Police have arrested four accused involved in the kidnapping of a school student in Peshawar.

The accused were identified as Zafran of Karak, Mir Wali of Miranshah, and two Afghans, Ansar and Waliullah. They are presently living in Peshawar.

The Deputy Superintendent of Police Rahim Shah Khan while speaking at a press conference at Peshtakhara police station said that the accused had been arrested at a check point at Ring Road. He said they had kidnapped a grade 9th student, Tahir, of Tajabad on Dec 10 and received Rs1.3 million as ransom for his release. —Bureau Report

B-Tech engineers want jobs

PESHAWAR, Feb 14: The B-Tech engineers have expressed concern over the government’s apathy to equalise B-tech engineering with BE/BSc engineering. They said the Pakistan Engineering Council was violating directives of the Supreme Court in this regard.

Speaking at a press conference at Peshawar High Court on Tuesday leaders of the B-Tech Engineers Association said B-Tech engineering was considered better than BE and BSc engineering in the world but in Pakistan it did not get that status.

“On one hand the Pakistan Engineering Council is not ready to accept our status and on the other its officials are spreading disinformation against the B-Tech engineers and that is why they are not given jobs,” they said.

They said the B-Tech had been started by the ministry of education in 1973, adding the Supreme Court through a suo motu notice had also upheld its status as equal to the Bachelor of Engineering. —Bureau Report

Software competition

SWABI, Feb 14: A three-day All Pakistan Software Competition (Softcom) concluded in Ghulam Ishaq Khan Institute of Engineering Sciences and Technology on Tuesday.

The competition was organised by Association for Computing Machinery (ACM), GIKI chapter.

The competition comprised speed programming, software, quiz, poster design and business plan competitions. About 200 students from different universities and institutions competed.

The students vowed to take Pakistan to new heights in the IT field. They said the present era was an era of the information technology and they had learnt a lot in such events. They said those who excelled in IT field could achieve their objectives.

Dr Zahid Halim was chief guest at the prize distribution ceremony. He said the competition was intended to provide a platform to the IT students to demonstrate their technical and creative skills in the presence of IT experts and engineers. —Correspondent

Tree plantation drive

TIMERGARA, Feb 14:  The New Year tree plantation campaign was formally launched here on Tuesday. DCO Mahmood Aslam Wazir sowed a plant of Arauparia during a ceremony held at Government Higher Secondary School Saddo, organised by the UN Habitat. The UN Habitat is a Japanese-funded project that works in flood-affected areas. Local elders and government officials attended the function.

Addressing the function Mahmood Aslam urged masses to plant more and more trees in their barren and uncultivable lands.

“More trees should be planted on the riverbanks to prevent soil erosion,” the DCO said, adding last year’s devastating floods had washed away valuable lands because there had been no flood protection measures in the area.

The UN Habitat operational in-charge Qamar Islam said the organization would provide 5,000 fruit and shadow plants free of cost to farmers of seven villages which had been the worst affected by floods. —Correspondent  

Board of governors meeting

PESHAWAR, Feb 14: The first meeting of the Board of Governors (BoG) of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Judicial Academy is scheduled to be held today (Wednesday) at Peshawar High Court.

Justice Dost Mohammad Khan, the Chief Justice of the High Court, who is the Chairman of the BoG, will chair the meeting.

Key items appearing on the agenda are finances, necessary repair and rehabilitation of the old sessions court building (where the academy is presently housed), appointment of faculty and staff, transport facilities, acquisition of land for permanent premises and hiring of boarding and lodging facilities for trainees. —Bureau Report  

Land transfer to Afghans

PESHAWAR, Feb 14: The government will stop with immediate effect transition of land properties in favour of the Afghan nationals.

Home and tribal affairs department (Afghan management repatriation strategy), in a letter to the secretary Board of Revenue on Tuesday directed that necessary steps for identification, verification and remedial action for effectively blocking the practice of land transition in favour of Afghans should be according to a decision taken in a special meeting of provincial cabinet on Jan 30.

It was stated that the Board of Revenue would expedite verification of the details provided by the home department and initiate action for effectively blocking the practice of land transactions in favour of Afghans in Pakistan.

Similarly, the BoR will also carry out an exercise for identification of properties transacted in favour of Afghans, take remedial actions and share information with home department. —Bureau Report

Earthquake engineering

PESHAWAR, Feb 14: The earthquake engineering centre (EEC) of the University of Engineering and Technology (UET) and national centre of excellence in geology (NCEG) of University of Peshawar have joined hands for cooperation in earthquake engineering seismology and disaster risk reduction.

UET vice-chancellor Imtiaz H Gilani and director NCEG, Dr Asif Khan on Tuesday signed MoU to install a network of earthquake sensors in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, according to a press release.

The agreement is part of UET initiative, “PK SMIP”, strong motion instrumentation programme that was established in 2007 on the model of California State’s geological survey’s strong motion instrumentation programme (SMIP) and technical assistance of department of conservation, California. —Bureau Report