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ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s national space agency said this week that people will be able to see the “Parade of the Planets,” a celestial spectacle in which four or more planets will line up in the sky, from the naked eye beginning from the last week of January till mid-February. 
A planetary parade, or planetary alignment, is a rare celestial event where multiple planets in our solar system align in a straight line or appear close together in the sky. This occurs when the orbits of the planets bring them together in a specific configuration.
“The lining up of four or more planets in the sky is usually called Parade of the Planets,” Pakistan’s Space and Upper Atmosphere Research Commission (Suparco) said on Tuesday. “Out of all these planets, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn will be visible to the naked eye.”
It said that since the moon will be a waning crescent on Jan. 25, from a moderately pollution free sky, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn will appear within a similar celestial line.
The space agency said familiarity with constellations would make it easier for people to identify planets. It said many free stargazing applications were available to identify celestial objects in the sky.
“To find out the name of an object, access the app and point the device toward the object in the sky and the app will display the names of the objects toward which the app is pointed out,” Suparco said.
It said Mars would be visible on the eastern horizon in the constellation Gemini whereas a brighter Jupiter would be located in the constellation Taurus.
“If the sky is dark enough, you can also enjoy the beautiful Pleiades, Hyades, and the yellow star Aldebaran,” Suparco said. 
The space agency said high-powered binoculars or a telescope would be required to observe Uranus which lies in the constellation Aries.
It added that strong binoculars would be required to see Neptune in the constellation Pisces while Saturn and Venus would also be visible.

ISLAMABAD: The chief minister of Pakistan’s most populous Punjab province, Maryam Nawaz, launched cash cards for minorities on Wednesday, stressing the importance of undertaking measures to ensure they are not marginalized in the country. 
Nawaz announced the ‘Minority Card’ in October last year during the Hindu festival of Diwali. Through the card, the provincial government will provide Rs10,500 [$37.65] per family every quarter to Sikhs, Christians, Hindus and other minorities residing in Punjab. 
The chief minister had said that 50,000 individuals from minority communities in Punjab would receive the card during the first phase of its launch. She had said that the provincial government would increase both the number of beneficiaries to 75,000 and the per quarter funds as well. 
“I am very happy that that for the first time in Pakistan and Punjab’s history we have launched the minority card,” Nawaz said at the launching ceremony of the card. 
She thanked Punjab Minority Affairs Minister Sardar Ramesh Singh Arora and the Bank of Punjab for helping the provincial government in “making and implementing” the card.
Emphasizing that minorities were like the “crown on her head,” Sharif said the true identity of minorities was not non-Muslims but “true Pakistanis.” She distributed minority cards among participants at the ceremony.
Pakistani minorities have often suffered attacks at the hands of religiously motivated militants and hard-liners. There have been dozens of instances of mob violence against religious minorities in the South Asian nation in recent years, including an attack on Christians in Punjab’s Jaranwala town in August 2023. An angry mob had torched churches, homes and businesses targeting the Christian community there over blasphemy allegations. 
In the country’s southern Sindh province, Hindus have frequently complained about forced conversions, particularly of young girls, and attacks on temples.
Over 96 percent of Pakistan’s population is Muslim, according to the population census of 2023, with the remaining four percent comprising 5.2 million Hindus, 3.3 million Christians, 15,992 Sikhs and others.