SWABI: Power supply remained suspended to many areas of Swabi throughout Thursday night after a thunderstorm lashed the city damaging three electricity poles in Doubian area.

Supply to Doubian, Sodher, many areas of Yar Hussain, Sard Cheena, some parts of Tarakai union council and far-flung areas remained suspended till morning.

The Peshawar Electric Supply Company staff, however, managed to restore the supply by 1pm on Friday.

In a related development, three young boys were injured when boundary wall of a house collapsed in Ismalia village of Razaar tehsil.

The injured were taken to the tehsil headquarters hospital, and later referred to Mardan Medical Complex in critical condition.

Software contest: Three-day International Collegiate Programming Contest (ICPC) concluded at the Ghulam Ishaq Khan Institute of Engineering Sciences and Technology here on Friday.

Nabeel Hussain, Hamza Zaheer and Syed Mohammad Ali of Fast University Lahore won the gold medals, while students of Habib University Karachi stood second, and students of Fast University Karachi got the third position.

The gold medal winning team will participate in the world finals scheduled to be held in Moscow from October 1 to 6.

The organisers said the ICPC was a multi-tier programming contest, which included multi-provincial, regional and world finals. Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, only 22 shortlisted teams competed in the regional contest after an online preliminary contest held in February, according to a statement.

Students of different universities and colleges from across the country, especially Karachi, Lahore and Peshawar, participated in the competition.

Chief guest Khalid Khan, Director General of Directorate of Science and Technology, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, distributed gold medals and gave away certificates to the winning teams.

Sardar Aminullah Khan, Acting Rector, GIK Institute, said information technology was changing the rules of competition in various ways, and the competition like ICPC was a great leap forward. He said the students, who were engaged in IT-based competitions from the platform or ICPC and GIK deserved appreciation.

Special Guest, Dr Syed Ali Abbas Hasani, Director Pakistan Software Export Board, said taking initiatives, conducting result-oriented research and working for innovation would enable them to move forward and acquire a unique place in the comity of nations.

Published in Dawn, August 7th, 2021