Lahore: Punjab Chief Minister Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi has lifted the ban to close shops and markets after 9 pm across the province to facilitate the people and business community.

According to details, the government of Punjab has lifted the restrictions related to the early closure of markets in the province, giving big relief to the people and trader community

It is pertinent to mention that the traders were directed to close markets after 9 pm in order to save power in the province. The ban was lifted after it was revealed that no significant change was seen in the power saving after this step. So, the CM Punjab allowed the traders to work after 9 pm.

After Punjab CM’s orders — shops, shopping malls, bakeries, general stores and tyre shops will remain open till late night.

The decision was made by Punjab CM during a meeting with traders.

Lahore: The fifth death anniversary of Dr. Ruth Katherina Martha Pfau, who devoted more than 55 years of her life to fighting leprosy in Pakistan, is being observed today.

Although born in Germany, Dr. Ruth came looking to make lives better for those afflicted by leprosy, and in doing so, found her a home.

Leprosy, a disfiguring and stigmatizing ailment also known as Hansen’s disease, can now be prevented and even cured after early diagnosis.

Less than four decades after Dr. Pfau began her campaign to contain leprosy, a mildly contagious bacterial infection, the World Health Organization declared it under control in Pakistan in 1996, ahead of most other Asian countries (although several hundred new cases are still reported there annually).

In 1960, due to a passport foul-up, fate landed Dr. Ruth in Pakistan where she visited a leper colony in Karachi and met one of the thousands of Pakistani patients afflicted with the disease.

“He must have been my age — I was at this time not yet 30 — and he crawled on hands and feet into this dispensary, acting as if this was quite normal,” she told the BBC in 2010, “as if someone has to crawl there through that slime and dirt on hands and feet, like a dog.”

That one visit enabled her to make decision that changed not only her but thousands of lives. 

In 1956, Dr. Pfau joined the Marie Adelaide Leprosy Center, opened in Karachi slums, and soon transformed it into the hub of a network of 157 medical centers that treated tens of thousands of Pakistanis infected with leprosy.

The center was funded mostly by German, Austrian and Pakistani donors, and also treated victims of the 2000 drought in Baluchistan, the 2005 earthquake in Kashmir, and devastating floods in 2010.

Once leprosy was declared under control, the center also focused on tuberculosis, blindness, and other diseases and on disabilities, some caused by land mines in war-torn Afghanistan.

For her immense contributions to Pakistani society, Dr. Pfau was often compared to Mother Teresa.

 “When you receive such a calling, you cannot turn it down, for it is not you who has made the choice,” she said. “For it is not you who has made the choice. God has chosen you for himself.”

Dr. Pfau wrote four books about her work in Pakistan, including “To Light a Candle” (1987), which was translated into English. 

Islamabad: Today marks the diamond jubilee of 1st Constituent Assembly of Pakistan which held its first session on 10th August 1947.

On the occasion, Speaker National Assembly Raja Pervaiz Ashraf said the parliament being representative of masses can ensure prosperity and inclusive development in the country.  

He said the incumbent parliament is cognizant of its responsibilities and exercising its parliamentary oversight of the executive.

He said both the treasury and opposition benches have a vital role in strengthening parliament as it is the place where decisions are made based on the aspirations of the masses.

Deputy Speaker Zahid Akram Durrani said the incumbent parliament is a true representative of people who would strengthen democracy and democratic norms in the country.

He said the coalition government is especially focusing on bringing positive changes in the lives of common man.