Govt can terminate Pemra members for violating rules: Media Commission member

 

ISLAMABAD: Javed Jabbar, a member of the Media Commission formed by the Supreme Court, said on Tuesday the meeting of its private members had put the Pemra to ridicule once again.
He said the decision of private members was illegal and against the Pemra Ordinance. He said the members could be terminated by the government for violating the rules. The father of Pemra Ordinance, Javed Jabbar, said Pemra had no legal authority as it lacked a chairman. He said the private members had adopted an indecent way to violate their authority.

He said this act of private members could not be condemned enough. He said such an important decision needed participation of the majority and not mere quorum. Javed Jabbar said making such decisions without granting appropriate time was not right. He said Pemra should have taken notice of the one-sided and illegal campaign being run against Geo explicitly and implicitly.

He said Pemra should have taken notice of the fact that Geo transmission was delayed by putting pressure on cable operators.He said he condemned this act and hoped that the court of law would take a stern action on it if the matter was put before it. He said he has had reservations about the role of the media and on this subject, he had already written in Jang and The News. But this doesn’t mean that the licence of Geo may be terminated and a campaign is launched following a certain agenda.

He said the way other channels launched a campaign against Geo was indecent and improper. Pemra should take notice of it, which it unfortunately has not, he said.Javed Jabbar said after the statement of the official spokesperson of Pemra on the matter, no legal authority whatsoever could be attached to this meeting of five members. They have made fun of themselves, he said.

He said Pemra should act independently and impartially. He said the government reserves the right to terminate these five members for taking such an illegal step as holding the meeting in question.

Uruguay’s rules for marijuana market

Uruguay has finally released its rules for the legal marijuana market it is launching this year, detailing how the government plans to get very involved in every aspect of the business. But anyone hoping the South American nation will become a pot-smoker’s paradise should probably head to Colorado instead, President Jose Mujica suggested on Friday.

Colorado licenses sellers and producers but allows any adult to buy up to 28 grams at a time and then go down the street and buy 28 grams more. In Uruguay, consumers must be licensed as well, and each purchase will be tracked to ensure they buy no more than 10 grams a week, he said.

Mr. Mujica and his ministers plan to sign the regulations on Monday, and they’ll take effect on Tuesday.

Test accurately rules out heart attacks in the ER

 

WASHINGTON: A simple test appears very good at ruling out heart attacks in people who go to emergency rooms with chest pain, a big public health issue and a huge worry for patients.

A large study in Sweden found that the blood test plus the usual electrocardiogram of the heartbeat were 99 percent accurate at showing which patients could safely be sent home rather than be admitted for observation and more diagnostics.

Of nearly 9,000 patients judged low risk by the blood test and with normal electrocardiograms, only 15 went on to suffer a heart attack in the next month, and not a single one died.

"We believe that with this strategy, 20 to 25 percent of admissions to hospitals for chest pain may be avoided," said Dr. Nadia Bandstein of the Karolinska University Hospital in Stockholm.

She helped lead the study, published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology and presented Sunday at the cardiology college's annual conference in Washington.

Chest pain sends more than 15 million people to emergency rooms in the United States and Europe each year, and it usually turns out to be due to anxiety, indigestion or other less-serious things than a heart attack. Yet doctors don't want to miss one - about 2 percent of patients having heart attacks are mistakenly sent home.

People may feel reassured by being admitted to a hospital so doctors can keep an eye on them, but that raises the risk of picking up an infection and having expensive care they'll have to pay a share of, plus unnecessary tests.

The study included nearly 15,000 people who went to the Karolinska University hospital with chest pains over two years. About 8,900 had low scores on a faster, more sensitive blood test for troponin, a substance that's a sign of heart damage. The test has been available in Europe, Asia and Canada for about three years, but it is not yet available in the United States.

The patients were 47 years old on average and 4 percent had a previous heart attack. About 21 percent of them wound up being admitted.

Researchers later looked back to see how the blood test and electrocardiogram would have predicted how they fared over the next month.

They figured that in order to find one heart attack in patients like this, 594 would have to be admitted - a huge waste of resources.

A test like this would be "enormously useful," and the study's results are "almost too good to be true," said Dr. Judd Hollander, an emergency medicine specialist at the University of Pennsylvania.

He believes the test should be available in the U.S. and that the amount of evidence that regulators are requiring to approve it is too high.

Dr. Allan Jaffe, a cardiologist at the Mayo Clinic, said the problem is not what the test rules out, but what it might falsely rule in. It's so sensitive that it can pick up troponin from heart failure and other problems and cause unnecessary tests for that.

"I think the strategy long-term will be proven," but more studies underway now in the U.S. are needed to show that, he said.

 

Indian Revenue Department tightened baggage rules to curb illegal Gold Import

Union Government of India (Indian Revenue Department) on 6 March 2014 tightened baggage rules for inbound Indian passengers. According to the step, the passengers will have to provide details of source of funds for importing the metal as well as the air tickets. The baggage rule has been tightened to check gold smuggling in the country and to prevent misuse of gold import facility.

Circulation issued by the Revenue Department circular says that
• The baggage receipt that is issued by the customs will include engraved serial number on gold bars
• The Central Board of Excise & Customs directive has said that the passengers bringing gold in any form, which includes ornaments, will have to declare item-wise inventory that is being imported with baggage receipt

These norms have been revised and tightened following sudden increase (spurt) in import of gold by eligible passengers via airports in the country.

This rule has been hardened as the eligible passengers (Persons of Indian Origin or an Indian returning to India after a period of six months of stay abroad) are allowed to import gold up to 1 kilogram by paying 10 percent customs duty in foreign currency. The passenger should be a passenger who holds a valid passport issued under the Passport Act, 1967.
   
Background
In recent past, the Reserve Bank of India and the Union government have expressed concerns over the sudden increase of import of gold in the country. These increases were also felt even after measures taken by them to curb import of gold to reduce the widened Current Account Deficit (CAD).

Steps taken to curb excessive import of gold to the country were
• Import duty of 10 percent in 2013
• Linking the imports to exports under the 20:80 scheme

Analysis
Tightening of baggage rules have been done even after imposition of 10 percent amount on gold import may be because this step would have triggered gold smuggling in recent past. The eligible passengers have been targeted by the government as smugglers hires eligible passengers or NRIs to import gold in the country.