A team of Transport Canada — a government department based in Ottawa responsible for developing regulations, policies and services of road, rail, marine and air transportation in its country – will visit Karachi’s Jinnah International Airport from December 4.

According to a statement issued by the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA), the two-member Canadian delegation is arriving for a security audit and assessment of the Karachi airport.

The purpose of the team’s visit is to review the security of the Pakistan International Airlines’ (PIA) direct flights to Canada.

The CAA said it would facilitate the Transport Canada team in every way possible during its visit.

The Transport Canada delegation will review flight operations, baggage control, cargo handling, access control, perimeter security, and record procedures at the airport.

It will also look into the CAA, PIA, Airport Security Force (ASF), cargo complex and flight kitchen procedures.

In 2021, the Canadian Transport Authority declared that the PIA’s operational services met international standards. It hoped that the airline would maintain the efficiency of its flight operations.

The authority had conducted an audit of the PIA in August 2020 after the European Union imposed a ban on the state-run airline.

The Transport Canada Safety Validation and Airworthiness Desk of the Canadian Transport Authority released the audit report on the PIA’s safety in 2021.

“Transport Canada accepts that [the] PIA has implemented the corrective actions to address the findings generated by the Transport Canada Foreign Operations Division Airworthiness Audit Specific ICAO Airworthiness Elements on August 26, 2020,” Transport Canada wrote in a letter to the then PIA CEO Air Marshal Arshad Malik.

“Accordingly, all of the airworthiness findings are closed. We also recognise that other long-term systematic changes have been implemented both in flight and airworthiness operations over the past years to enhance safety in [the] PIA,” it added.

“Transport Canada will continue to carry out surveillance and oversight activities of PIA operations in Canada which will allow us to evaluate the effectiveness of the long-term corrective action plan,” the letter continued.

The PIA landed in hot water in the wake of its flight PK-8303 crashing in Karachi on May 22, 2020, and the subsequent announcement by the then aviation minister Ghulam Sarwar Khan of the grounding of 262 airline pilots suspected of dodging their exams.

The then aviation minister claimed in parliament that 150 pilots working for the PIA had “dubious licences”.

On learning about the fake licences of the PIA pilots, the European Union Air Safety Agency (EASA) suspended the PIA’s license for flights to the destinations falling under its jurisdiction in July, 2020.

In December 2022, the National Assembly Standing Committee on Aviation held the former aviation minister responsible for the financial woes of the national flag carrier and the ban by several countries, including the US and UK.

The previous coalition government introduced laws and ordinances in an attempt to ensure effective service provision to improve the standards of the country’s aviation sector to meet the international standards for the resumption of the PIA flights to the US, UK, and Europe.

In June this year, the then premier Shehbaz Sharif formed a committee to prepare a plan to restructure and revive the PIA.

The Senate Standing Committee on Aviation later approved the Pakistan Civil Aviation Bill, 2023, and Pakistan Air Safety Investigation Bill, 2023 after some amendments.

Source : The Express Tribune

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As you just heard, this is the 100th school constructed with the support of USAID’s Sindh Basic Education Program. This program aims to improve access to quality public school education by constructing 106 state-of-the-art schools in ten districts of Sindh, including here in Jacobabad.

We know that children and schools were hit particularly hard by last year’s devastating floods. This is my fourth trip to Sindh since the floods last year. I want everyone to know that the United States is still here and is still working. We are committed to supporting your vision for progress and prosperity here.

This facility represents the work we are doing in partnership with Sindh not only to recover, but to rebuild back better. It is more than a schoolhouse. It is a flood-resilient safe haven for the community in times of need. It serves as a platform for parent and community engagement. And it comes with modern facilities like a computer and science lab, a library, and new classroom furniture.

By 2024, the 106 schools we are building like this one will provide quality education to more than 80,000 boys and girls. And all the schools that we built are based on this model.

Thank you to the headteacher, fellow teachers, and students for your warm welcome and hospitality. I want to also acknowledge the Sindh Education Minister and Department of School Education and Literacy for your partnership, leadership, and dedication to improving access to quality education.

To all who made this new facility possible, congratulations. I’m eager to hear about how you put this new facility to good use — for the benefit of the broader community.

Source: U.S Embassy & Consulates in Pakistan

The post Remarks: U.S. Ambassador to Pakistan Donald Blome at the Inauguration of Government High School Adam Khan Panhwar appeared first on The Victoria Post.

According to the Israel Defense Forces, the Palestinian, armed with a knife, approached an army post on Route 55 near the settlement of Kedumim and tried to stab soldiers.

Suviallence camera footage of the incident showed the suspect exiting a red car next to the army post which is adjacent to a bus stop, running toward the troops, and apparently attempting to stab them, before being shot.

Another image showed the man lying on the ground, holding a knife in his hand.

“The terrorist was neutralized by forces at the scene,” the IDF said.

Local security officials said the suspect, named as Aref Abdel Nasser Lahlouh, 20, from the Jenin refugee camp, was killed.

The military said no soldiers were hurt in the incident. The attempted attack came as tensions have soared in the West Bank, with the IDF pressing on with an anti-terror offensive to deal with a series of attacks that left 31 people in Israel dead in 2022.

The IDF’s operation has netted more than 2,500 arrests in near-nightly raids. It also left 171 Palestinians dead in 2022, and another 19 since the beginning of the year, many of them while carrying out attacks or during clashes with security forces, though some were uninvolved civilians.

In arrest raids across the West Bank early Wednesday, the IDF said troops arrested 11 wanted Palestinians.

source: timesofisrael

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