Day by Day Current Affairs (July 23, 2018) | MCQs for CSS, PMS, NTS

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July 23, 2018

1. Table of Contents

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   Another candidate killed in D.I. Khan suicide blast

• Khyber Pakhunkhwa witnessed two more attacks on election candidates on July 22, 2018, one killing Sardar Ikramullah Khan Gandapur of the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) and the other targeting Jamiat Ulema-iIslam-Fazl (JUI-F) leader Akram Khan Durrani.
• Akram Durrani, however, remained unhurt.
• Mr Gandapur, a candidate from the KP Assembly`s constituency PK-99, was killed while his driver and two police guards were among five injured in a suicide blast in the Kulachi area of Dera Ismail Khan district.
• The Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) claimed responsibility for the attack in a statement sent to media outlets.
• Meanwhile, the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has postponed the election in PK-99 and all political parties have suspended their campaigns in Dera Ismail Khan to mourn Mr Gandapur`s death.

2. Pak-Afghan working groups hold inaugural meetings

• Afghanistan and Pakistan on July 22, 2018 held inaugural meetings of five working groups (WGs) under the Afghanistan and Pakistan Action Plan for Peace and Solidarity (APAPPS) in Kabul.
• The Afghan delegation was led by Deputy Foreign Minister Hekmat Karzai and the Pakistani side by Foreign Secretary Tehmina Janjua.
• The 28-member multi-departmental Pakistan delegation included representatives from the ministries of Foreign Affairs, Safron, Commerce, Railways, Communications and Interior, the Federal Board of Revenue, military and intelligence, who met their Afghan counterparts in respective working groups.
• In the inaugural joint meeting of the WGs, the Afghan and Pakistani side assessed prospects for the APAPPS forum that covers all areas of mutual interest, including counter-terrorism and security, peace and reconciliation, bilateral trade and transit, connectivity, Afghan refugees` repatriation and promoting people-to-people contacts.
• Following the APAPPS inaugural session, five WGs held their respective group meetings at the level of relevant ministries and departments. The WGs, besides discussing important issues in each area, also deliberated on the terms of reference for future course of action and the agenda items for their next round of meetings to be held in Islamabad at mutually agreed dates.
• The concluding session noted the great importance of the APAPPS to deliver on the commitments made under the forum within the mutually agreed timeframe.

3. First time in history…: Tendered, challenged ballot papers to be counted

• In the July 25 parliamentary polls, the ‘tendered’ and ‘challenged’ ballot papers will also be counted like ordinary votes in favour of or against the contesting candidates while spoilt ballots will not be computed.
• However, some tendered and challenged ballots, held invalid, will not be taken into account. Under Section 90(15) of the Elections Act, the Presiding Officer (PO) will seal in separate packets the un-issued ballots; tendered papers; challenged ballots held to be valid and counted by the PO; challenged papers considered doubtful and excluded from the count by the PO; spoilt ballots; marked copies of the electoral rolls; the counterfoils of used ballot papers; and such other papers as the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) or Returning Officer (RO) may direct.
• Section 86 defines the challenged ballot. It says if, at the time, a person applies for ballot paper for the purpose of voting, a candidate or his polling agent declares to the PO that he has reasonable cause to believe that person has already voted in the election at the same or another polling station, or is not the person whose name is entered in the electoral roll and undertakes to prove the charge in a court and deposits with the PO in cash a sum of one hundred rupees, the PO may, after warning the person of the consequences and obtaining on the counterfoil, his thumb impression and if he is literate, also his signature, issue a ballot paper (challenged) to the person. If the PO issues a challenged ballot to any person, he will enter the name and address of that person in a list to be prepared by him (challenged votes list) and obtain on it the thumb impression and, if he is literate, also the signature of that person.

4. Secret papers show FBI suspected Trump aide of `conspiring` with Russia

• The FBI believed that a former campaign adviser to Donald Trump was `collaborating` with Russia as it worked to influence the 2016 presidential election, top secret documents released to US news organisations have revealed.
• The US president hit back on July 22, 2018, portraying the wiretapping of his ex-aide as part of a partisan and `illegal` conspiracy because the FBI partly relied on information provided by Democrat-funded research in seeking its warrant.
• The October, 2016 application to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court named Carter Page, a former foreign policy adviser to the Trump campaign, according to the documents published late on Saturday by The New York Times.
• The newspaper, along with USA Today and others, filed Freedom of Information Act lawsuits to obtain the material, which the Justice Department released but with many details redacted.
• `The FBI believes Page has been the subject of targeted recruitment by the Russian government,` the initial FBI application says before it is blacked out and continues: `undermine and influence the outcome of the 2016 presidential election in violation of US criminal law.` `The FBI believes that Page has been collaborating and conspiring with the Russian government, the document adds lower down.
• Release of the documents comes just over a week after Special Counsel Robert Mueller, probing possible collusion between Trump`s 2016 campaign and Russia, indicted 12 Russian intelligence officers, accusing them of hacking Democratic challenger Hillary Clinton`s campaign to steal documents, which were then publicly released. It also caps a week dominated by Trump`s extraordinary inaugural summit with Vladimir Putin, at which he seemed to take at face value the Russian leader`s denial of election meddling, dismissing the findings of his own intelligence chiefs.

5. Pakistan rout Zimbabwe 5-0 after Fakhar gets another milestone

• Imam-ul-Haq smashed his third century of the series and Fakhar Zaman became the fastest batsman to complete 1,000 runs in ODIs as Pakistan swept Zimbabwe 5-0 with a 131-run win in the fifth and final One day International on July 22, 2018.
• Imam hit 110 off 105 balls, and Fakhar belted 85 off 83 to reach the 1,000 mark in only his 18th ODI, with Pakistan posting yet another strong total of 364-4 after choosing to bat at the Queens Sports Club.
• Fakhar improved on the record of 21 matches which was shared by five cricketers, including his team-mate Babar Azam, who made 106 off 76 deliveries, and the legendary Sir Vivian Richards of the West Indies.
• In a lopsided series, Pakistan won two matches by nine wickets and two by more than 200 runs before wrapping up the series on July 22, 2018.
• Fakhar also notched up most runs scored between dismissals in ODIs, having scored 455 runs since he was last dismissed in the first match of the series, while his overall tally was the second most runs in a bilateral ODI series after Virat Kohli`s 558 runs, which the India skipper made against South Africa earlier this year in a sixmatch series.

6. Three Kashmiri separatists die in gun battle

• Three separatists were killed in a gun battle with troops in India-held Kashmir on July 22, 2018.
• Counterinsurgency police and soldiers staged an early morning raid on a cluster of homes in southern Khudwani village on a tip that separatists were hiding there and came under fire.
• Residents said the raiding troops torched two houses where the separatists were trapped.
• The fighting came a dayafter separatists abducted and killed a police official in the same area.
• In recent years, local police working with India`s counterinsurgency forces have increasingly been targeted by the separatists, who accuse them of being collaborators.
• Kashmiris have been fighting Indian control over the disputed Himalayan region since 1989, demanding that the territory be united either under Pakistani rule or recognised as an independent country.
• Most Kashmiris support the cause while also participating in civilian street protests against Indian control over their region.

7. India withdraws controversial tax on sanitary pads

• India has withdrawn a controversial tax on sanitary pads following a vocal campaign led by activists and Bollywood stars to boost female education and empowerment.
• July 21, 2018’s announcement is part of a slew of changes to the national goods and services tax (GST) intended to reduce the prices of around 90 key consumer goods, many of which target urban middle classes ahead of next year’s general election.
• Activists, Bollywood actors and some politicians had opposed the 12 percent tax, citing a lack of access and affordability for a key hygiene product as a key barrier to female empowerment in the country. A national survey report released earlier this year said around 60 percent of young women aged between 16 and 24 years did not have access to sanitary pads.
• The figure was as high as 80 percent for some of India’s poorer central and eastern states. Reports in the last few years have linked absence of basic infrastructure such as toilets at Indian government schools outside big urban centres, and lack of access to sanitary pads, with higher dropout rates among girls.
• The new national GST (goods and services tax) was introduced last July under Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and was the country’s biggest tax overhaul in a generation. It was meant to unify the over $2 trillion economy into a single market, with four tax rates of 5, 12, 18 and 28 percent.

8. Polish daredevil skies down K2 in world first

• Daredevil Andrzej Bargiel has become the first person to ski down the world’s second-highest mountain.
• Bargiel whizzed down from the summit of Pakistan’s 8,611-metre (28,251-feet) K2 to the mountain’s base camp after reaching the peak with around 30 others on July 21, 2018.
• “Andrzej Bargiel reached the base of the mountain. The first complete descent on ski from K2 is done.
• The feat was the 30-year-old’s second bid to enter the record books, after an attempt last year was scotched by bad weather.
• Three years ago Bargiel became the first skier in the world to descend from the nearby 8,015-meter Broad Peak.
• He has now skied from the summits of five of the 14 highest mountains in the world after earlier conquering Shishapangma and Manaslu peaks in the Himalayas, according to Polish media.
• Known as “Savage Mountain” among climbers, K2 is often deemed a more challenging ascent than Mount Everest, the world’s highest peak.
• Less than 350 people have made it to the top of K2 since it was first summited in 1954.

9. Tokyo unveils Miraitowa and Someity as 2020 mascots

• The mascots for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games were named during a ceremony in the Japanese capital on July 22, 2018.
• The Olympic mascot, a blue-checked pointy-eared figure, was named as Miraitowa — combining the Japanese words ‘mirai’, meaning future, and ‘towa’, which means eternity.The Paralympic counterpart, who is pink-checked and wears a cape, was named Someity after a variety of cherry blossom called Someiyoshino.

10. Baker wins 100m after Coleman injury at London meet

• World Indoor 60-metre bronze medallist Ronnie Baker emerged victorious from a hotly-contested 100-metre on Saturday`s opening day of the London Diamond League after injury struck his US team-mate and rival Christian Coleman.
• Coleman, the world indoor 60-metre champion, withdrew from his heat because of a hamstring problem, but Baker had to work hard to simply claim victory in the final, clocking 9.90 seconds again, after losing ground with a sluggish start Britain`s Zharnel Hughes took second place in 9.93, with South Africa`s Commonwealth champion Akani Simbine third in 9.94 seconds.
• Meanwhile, Jamaica`s two-time Olympic 100m champion Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, on the comeback trail af ter giving birth to son Zyon in August last year, overhauled Dezerea Bryant of the United States to take the women`s 100 metres in 10.97 seconds her first sub-11 seconds time for the distance for two years. Bryant took second in 11.04 ahead of Jamaica`s Jonielle Smith, who ran an 11.07 personal best.