Gas load shedding announced in Pakistan
Islamabad, Feb 27: Pakistan’s Sui Southern Gas Company (SSGC) has announced the gas load-shedding schedule during Ramadan, media reported.
According to the schedule, gas supply will remain suspended from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. and 10 p.m. to 3 a.m. during the holy month, ARY News reported.
In an alarming announcement, the SSGC said that Pakistan’s gas reserves are likely to be reduced by half by 2027.
The SSGC also said it is working on biogas, nitrogen production and production of gas from the coal to meet the needs of the country’s gas.
The ongoing gas load shedding in Karachi continues to disrupt daily life, with citizens increasingly frustrated by the limited supply and rising costs. Residents from various neighbourhoods have expressed growing dissatisfaction, highlighting the severe challenges brought on by the deteriorating situation. (IANS)
Pentagon says transgender troops can’t serve
Washington, Feb 27: The Pentagon revealed the specifics of its new transgender troop policy in a court filing Wednesday that says any service member or recruit who has been diagnosed with or treated for gender dysphoria is disqualified from serving – unless they can prove they meet a specific warfighting need and adhere to severe restrictions on their day-to-day behavior.
The policy memo was included in the latest court filing in a lawsuit challenging President Donald Trump’s executive order against transgender military service, one of many hot-button issues the president made a priority to address on his first days in office. Like the executive order, the policy filed Wednesday suggests that the lethality and integrity of the military “is inconsistent” with what transgender personnel go through as they transition to the gender they identify with, and issues an edict that gender is “immutable, unchanging during a person’s life.” (AP)
Morocco urges people to not buy sheep for Eid al-Adha
Rabat, Feb 27: With Morocco’s sheep herds dwindling at an alarming rate, King Mohammed VI made a rare break with tradition by urging families to forego buying sheep for sacrifice during the upcoming Eid Al-Adha. Economic and climate-related challenges put the yearly sacrifice and feast out of reach for most Moroccans, Ahmed Toufiq, the kingdom’s minister of Islamic Affairs, said late Wednesday evening.
Reading a letter from the King on state-run Al Aoula television, Toufiq said it was Morocco’s duty to acknowledge circumstances in which livestock shortages have led prices to skyrocket.
Eid al-Adha, which takes place this year in early June, is an annual “feast of sacrifice” in which Muslims slaughter livestock to honour a passage of the Quran in which the prophet Ibrahim prepared to sacrifice his son as an act of obedience to God, who intervened and replaced the child with a sheep. It’s a major holiday from Senegal to Indonesia, with traditions so embedded that families have been known to take out loans to buy sheep. (AP)