Lahore: The Punjab government issued notification of summer vacations for school kids on Thursday.

All state and private schools will observe a two-month summer vacation from the beginning of next month.

The vacataions for private and public schools will begin on June 1 and continue till July 31, the Punjab School Education Department said in the notification.

The notication has also advised private schools to spare students at 11am from May 27 to May 31 in the wake of ongoing heatwave.

Similarly, summer vacation in all public and private educational institutions in Sindh will be observed from June 1 to July 31.

Public and private educational institutes in Balochistan's summer zone districts are observing summer vacation from May 15 to July 31.

In Khyber Pakhthunkhwa, summer vacation in the summer zone would be observed from June 1 to August 14 and in the winter zone from July 1 to July 31.

Islamabad: The Supreme Court of Pakistan has refused to take contempt of court action against PTI Chairman Imran Khan for violating the apex court’s orders during ‘Azadi March’.

The government filed the plea this morning after the PTI openly defied the apex court’s directives, announcing to hold a rally at D-Chowk in Islamabad’s prohibited Red Zone.

The SC formed a five-member larger bench, headed by Chief Justice Umar Ata Bandial, to hear the contempt of court plea At the outset of the hearing, Attorney-General of Pakistan Ashtar Ausaf read out the SC verdict before the court.

The court dismissed a petition filed by the federal government, saying that activists were not responsible as they act on the directives of party leadership. It also ordered the release of 20 activists who were booked for rioting and violence.

However, following the reports of violence and mayhem during the protest brought before the Court, the Court has now decided to issue a comprehensive order after pondering over the matter keeping in view the nature of assembly and association so that it can serve as a guideline to the practice of constitutional rights in future.

The Court observed that fundamental rights of assembly, association, and movement are not unlimited, but there are certain limits to them.     

At the outset of the hearing today, Attorney-General of Pakistan, Ashtar Ausaf Ali presented his submissions before the Court pointing out the violations of the Court's order by PTI.

He also mentioned before the court the breach of allowed venue and entering the D-Chowk by PTI workers, burning public property and trees, injuring the security forces personnel, and creating turmoil in the federal capital.

Islamabad: Three-day `Pakistan-Turkey-Kazakhstan Youth Forum on Biotechnology’ will be arranged in September with emphasis on increasing the share of Muslim countries in biotechnology global market.

The forum, to be held from September 13-15, is being sponsored by COMSTECH-the OIC Standing Committee for Scientific and Technological Cooperation, Islamic Organization for Food Security (IOFS) and Islamic Cooperation Youth Forum (ICYF), an official said. 

The global biotechnology market is anticipated to reach a market value of US$ 775 billion by 2024 with an annual growth rate of 7.7%. Increased spending in biotechnology research and development, favourable initiatives by governments, global food security and the increasing need for emerging technologies are some of the factors influencing this growth.

Unfortunately, the share of Muslim countries in this global market of biotechnology is very little which needs to be increased.

This proposed tripartite youth forum (Pakistan-Turkey-Kazakhstan) will help promote excellence and competence in the field of agricultural biotechnology among Muslim countries.

The theme of the forum “Agriculture Biotechnology” aims at providing the best knowledge and resources to young participants to advance their research goals, the official informed.

The youth forum will stimulate the desire to collaborate and change the world of agricultural biotechnology and innovation by promoting state-of-the-art practices in biotechnology research and promoting evidence-based practices.

The event will include informative talks from young as well as the experienced scientists of the three countries.

The event will also include keynote lectures, plenary sessions, oral and poster presentations, discussions and other educational and social events that stimulate several networking opportunities among the young participants of Pakistan, Turkey and Kazakhstan.

The official highlighted that the forum aims to facilitate interactions within the young research community to discuss the latest developments in this rapidly advancing field and find ways to respond to the increasing demands of professionals and communities across the world.

The academics, students and researchers from the OIC countries may apply, while only participants from Kazakhstan, Pakistan and Turkey are eligible for the limited funding available for travel and local hospitality.

This youth forum is planned to be a hybrid event (Physical and virtual), while candidates are required to give their preference in the form.

The participants from all the member OIC states, who can bear their travel expenses may register for the forum and get ticket funding from their parent organizations.

The topics to be covered during the forum include Genome editing and new breeding technologies, large scale genomics and genomic selection in crop and livestock breeding, speed breeding for rapid genetic gain, variants of Cas proteins and their potential applications and high throughput phenomics.

SOURCE: APP