Daily Top-10 Current Affairs MCQs / News (December 12, 2020) for CSS, PMS

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December 12, 2020: National / International Current Affairs

1. PM reshuffles cabinet, elevates Sh Rasheed to Interior Ministry

• In a surprise move, Prime Minister Imran Khan on December 11, 2020 reshuffled four cabinet members and appointed senior politician Sheikh Rasheed Ahmed as Federal Interior Minister.
• Rasheed will replace Brig (retired) Ijaz Shah, who has been given the portfolio of ministry of narcotics control.
• Azam Swati will take Sheikh Rasheed’s place as Railways Minister.
• The prime minister also appointed Hafeez Shaikh as Federal Minister for Finance in the latest reshuffle in the federal cabinet.
• This is 4th fourth reshuffle in the federal cabinet in less than three years of the PTI government

2. Virgin Atlantic launches operations in Pakistan

• A year after British Airways` resumption of operations in Pakistan, another British airline, Virgin Atlantic, has launched its flights for Pakistan amid the coronavirus pandemic that has badly hit the aviation industry across the world, with Islamabad International Airport becoming its first destination of the new route on December 11, 2020.
• From Manchester, Virgin Atlantic`s first flight (VS362) arrived at 1.45am at Islamabad airport where an opening ceremony was held, according to airport sources.

3. Pakistan signed up for $10.5bn foreign loan in FY20

• The PTI government contracted $10.447 billion worth of new foreign loans from multilateral institutions and commercial banks during the fiscal year 2019-20, almost one-fourth higher than previous year`s $8.4bn.
• According to Annual Report on Foreign Economic Assistance 2019-20 released by Ministry of Economic Affairs, 99 per cent of the new commitments were for loans and the remaining 1pc in grant commitments. Out of the total new agreements of $10.447bn, more than $6.79bn financing agreements were signed with multilateral agencies, $3.463bn with foreign commercial banks and $193 million with bilateral lenders

4. KP Assembly passes bill to create endowment fund for non-Muslim terror victims

• The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government will establish an endowment fund with the initial capital of Rs200 million for the rehabilitation of non Muslim victims of terrorism in the province.
• The provincial assembly on Friday passed the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Rehabilitation of Minorities (Victims of Terrorism) Endowment Fund Bill, 2020, with four amendments for the purpose.
• Speaker Mushtaq Ahmad Ghani chaired the sitting, which was later adjourned for an indefinite period

5. Remittances remain over $2bn for sixth consecutive month

• Remittances in to the country remained well above the $2 billion mark in November for the sixth consecutive month despite recording a slight increase compared to inflows in October.
• The data released by the State Bank of Pakistan on Friday showed remittances in November clocked in at $2.34bn, up 2.4 per cent month-on-month from October

6. Pakistan’s total external public debt up by 6pc to $77.9 billion till June 2020

• Pakistan’s total external public debt stood at $77.9 billion as of June 30, 2020, showing 6 percent growth over the previous year.
• The country’s external debt was recorded at $77.9 billion on June 30 this year as against $73.4 billion a year ago, registering 6 percent growth, said Ministry of Economic Affairs Division (EAD).

7. PM Khan launches Responsible Tourism Initiative – TREK

• Prime Minister Imran Khan has unveiled the logo of ‘Travel Responsibly for Experiencing Ecotourism in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’ (TREK) – a collaboration between KP government, World Bank Group and Nestlé Pakistan.
• The partners vowed to work together for the protection of ecosystem through solid waste management and plastics recycling at the tourism sites across Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. TREK activities include awareness campaigns for tourists, and training of local communities and businesses on waste minimization and collection.

8. US returns 12 military sites to South Korea

• The US military agreed on Friday to return 12 sites to South Korea, including some in central Seoul, clearing the way for civilian construction projects after years of squabbling over the hand-back.
• US forces have been stationed in South Korea since the 1950-53 Korean War. In recent years, the allies have disputed the cost of maintaining the 28,500 US personnel at various bases despite what many see as a growing North Korean threat.

9. Pakistan cricket the most searched topic in 2020

• Cricket remained the primary source of elation in Pakistan in the pandemic-hit 2020 as six of the top-10 searches for the year related to the sport, according to the year-end trends revealed by Google.
• `Pakistan vs England` was the top searched item in Pakistan on the world`s biggest search engine. `Zimbabwe vs Pakistan` was the third most-searched trend, while `PSL 2020` stood at sixth in the list, which had `Coronavirus` at number-two

10. Tayyab, Madina clinch international squash titles

• Top seed Tayyab Aslam and Madina Zafar won the men and women titles respectively after nail-biting contests in the Pakistan International Squash Tournament at Mushaf Squash Complex on December 11, 2020.
• In men`s final, both Tayyab and his smart opponent Nasir Iqbal exhibited excellent show of skills and gave tough time to each others from start to end in five sets that lasted for 68 minutes

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