1. Teachers in Punjab have boycotted the Training Need Assessment (TNA) test — an examination which evaluates their training needs in the School Education Department (SED).
The government created the TNA App to help in efficient online testing using multiple-choice questions to assess key teaching skills, and helping to identify areas for professional growth.
With 720 centres set up for the test, and 60 teachers expected at each location, around 43,000 primary school teachers (PSTs) were supposed to take the test over the weekend but only 80 showed up.
RELATED STORIES
2. The Swat River has been diverted for the Mohmand Dam project, confirmed by Asim Rauf Khan, Project Director and General Manager of WAPDA, and Chief Engineer Fasih Ullah.
About 35% of the dam is built, and 98% of the tunnel work is done. When finished, the dam is expected to generate 800 megawatts of electricity each year, with completion set for 2027.
It will store 1.29 million acre-feet of water, manage floods, produce low-cost electricity, and deliver 300 million gallons of drinking water to Peshawar every day.
3. With on-going tensions in the middle east and Iran being one of Israeli targets, Pakistan is now closely monitoring air traffic entering its airspace. Pakistani air traffic control is now reviewing all incoming flights from the west to ensure safety.
And now that Iran has closed its airspace, flights passing through Iran are now redirected through Muscat which is affecting a number of international routes and has resulted in increased security checks for planes coming from the west.
4. The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) officially announced Mohammad Rizwan as the new captain for the ODI and T20 teams, with Salman Ali Agha as the vice-captain. This decision comes after former captain Babar Azam stepped down from his role earlier this month. Rizwan will lead the team in the upcoming limited-overs tours of Australia and Zimbabwe.
Apart from this PCB has finalized the central contract list for the 2024-25 season, which will be effective from July 1, 2024.
Notably, Fakhar Zaman has not been awarded a central contract this time around. His exclusion is speculated to be due to his dissent towards PCB regarding the dropping of Babar Azam from the squad and his failure in fitness tests.
5. Manufacturers of essential foreign goods in Pakistan have not seen a major declines. In comparison, sales of foreign soft drinks, bottled water, and fast food have dropped amid consumer boycotts of Israeli products.
Dawn highlighted that sales for Nestlé Pakistan were Rs 149.2 billion for the nine months ending September 30 —- a slight drop of 1.3% from Rs151 billion the previous year.
