Islamabad: The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has issued the schedule for by-polls on four vacant and one reserved seat of the National Assembly.

As per the schedule, the process of filing nomination papers for by-polls began today which will continue till Saturday while the list of candidates will be published on Sunday.

The ECP will scrutinize nomination papers by 17th of this month.

Candidates will be able to file appeals against approval and rejection of nomination papers by by 20th of this month.

Polling for the by-polls will be held on 25th of next month.

The vacant constituencies include NA-22 Mardan, NA-24 Charsadda, NA-31 Peshawar and NA-45 Kurram.

California: A small plane made a crash landing and burst into flames on the 91 Freeway in Riverside County in a dramatic incident that was captured on video. 

Video footage has captured the intense moment when a small plane crash-landed in the middle of a US highway, hitting a truck full of people before bursting into flames.

As per the video clip, the plane nosedived and swerved towards the ground, narrowly missing incoming cars, and then leaving a trail of fuel and fire as it slid toward the sound barrier.

DRAMATIC VIDEO: Plane crash-lands in traffic on 91 Fwy, Riverside Co. -- and no one is hurt!https://t.co/sJdMDLmDPZ

— Alicia Zoumas (@AliciaZoumas) August 9, 2022

Firefighters were called to put out the fire and parts of the highway were temporarily closed.

The pilot claims to have experienced possible engine failure around 12:30 p.m. between Lincoln and Main Avenues.

Once the plane landed it caught fire, but crews managed to quickly put it out. The plane also collided into a pickup truck, but fortunately, nobody was injured in the crash. 

The exact cause has not yet been determined. 

Meanwhile, the Federal Aviation Administration issued the following statement:

"An unidentified small plane landed on the eastbound 91 Freeway near Interstate 15 in Corona, Calif., around 12:30 local time today. Two people were on board. The FAA will investigate. The agency does not identify people involved in aircraft accidents or incidents."

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.