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.

Tehran: Iranian authorities announced Thursday that 18 people were killed in the collapse of a building under construction in southwestern Iran, in a new toll after four days of the tragedy. 

On Monday, a large part of the 10-storey "Metropol" building under construction collapsed in Abadan, one of the main cities in Iran's Khuzestan province. The building is located in the middle of one of the busiest streets in the city of 230,000 people.

The number of people still trapped under the rubble remains unclear.

The cause of the collapse, which occurred during a sandstorm, is yet to be ascertained. 

Police, however, arrested the owner of the building and the project manager of the construction company that built it.

Islamabad: Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Thursday appointed public policy expert Salman Sufi as the head of the Prime Minister’s Strategic Reforms.

Salman Sufi, a Mother Teresa Award winner and an expert in introducing unique social welfare schemes, will render his services voluntarily. 

Mr. Salman has introduced a number of people-friendly schemes, including the Punjab Women Protection Act, Violence Against Women Centre, Women on Wheels and Shehr-e-Khamoshan. 

He has also served as Director General Strategic Reform Unit during Shehbaz Sharif’s Punjab chief ministership.

Salman Sufi was named one of the top five women’s rights activists in the world, including by the government of incumbent US President Joe Biden, and was also awarded the Vital Voices Award.

Additionally, the government has directed all ministries to make every effort to effectively implement the Prime Minister’s reform agenda.