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October 25, 2019: National Current Affairs
1. Pakistan takes big leap in business index
• In what appears to be the highest ever upward shift in a year shown by a country, Pakistan climbed 28 places and rose to the rank of 108 in the World Bank Ease of Doing Business index and landed in the club of world`s top 10 business climate improvers.
• In its report for the year 2020 released on October 24, 2019, the World Bank said the enactment of six regulatory reforms, including a concerted improvement in business regulation, had improved Pakistan`s overall ranking that would improve the country`s image for attracting investments.
• Global investors use the World Bank`s index as a guide to learn about the business environment of a country before making any business plan. Taking to Twitter, Prime Minister Imran Khan said Pakistan had achieved the biggest improvement in its history in World Bank`s ease of doing business rankings.
• `Overlast decade Pakistan`s ranking had slipped morethan 50 places. Now we have improved 28 places from 136 to 108,` he added.
2. Pakistan ignores India`s ill will, signs Sikh visa-free corridor deal
• Despite a chill in bilateral ties, Pakistan and India on October 24, 2019 signed the landmark Kartarpur Corridor agreement, allowing Sikh pilgrims visa-free access to Darbar Sahib, where the founder of Sikhism Guru Nanak Dev spent last 18 years of his life.
• The corridor will connect the Dera Baba Nanak shrine in India`s Punjab with Darbar Sahib at Kartarpur, just four kilometres from the international border, in Narowal district.
• Signed by Director General South Asia and SAARC Dr Mohammad Faisal at the Kartarpur zero line, the corridor will be inaugurated by Prime Minister Imran Khan on Nov 9, ahead of the 550th birth anniversary of Guru Nanak Dev on Nov 12.
• The Indian side was represented by its Joint Secretary for Home Affairs S.C.L. Das.
3. PM nominates nine members of Medical and Dental Council
• Prime Minister Imran Khan on October 24, 2019 nominated nine members of the Medical and Dental Council (MDC), which has been established after dissolution of the Pakistan Medical and Dental Council (PMDC), a regulatory body of health practitioners, medical and dental colleges and teaching hospitals.
• The nomination of members has been made in exercise of powers conferred on the prime minister under section 4(1) of the Pakistan Medical Commission Ordinance 2019.
• Last week, President Dr Arif Alvi dissolved PMDC through an ordinance, paving the way for establishment of a new organisation called Pakistan Medial Commission (PMC).
• PMC is a body corporate consisting of three components i.e. The Medical and Dental Council, The National Medical and Dental Academic Board and The National Medical Authority, which will act as a secretariat of the commission.
4. Dr Kazim Niaz appointed new chief secretary KPK
• Federal government has appointed Dr Kazim Niaz, a senior officer of Pakistan Administrative Service as chief secretary Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
• A notification issued by the establishment division said that Dr Kazim Niaz, BS-21, PAS, presently posted as additional secretary establishment division is transferred and posted as chief secretary KP.
• Mr Niaz would assume charge of office from October 31. Incumbent chief secretary Mohammad Saleem Khan is retiring on October 30.
• Mr Niaz has previously served as chief secretary Gilgit-Baltistan and has also done stints in KP and Balochistan.
• He hails from Rajjar area of Charsadda
October 25, 2019: International Current Affairs
5. Spain reburies dictator Franco in discreet tomb
• Spain exhumed the embalmed body of Francisco Franco from a grandiose state mausoleum on October 23, 2019, reburying it in more discreet grave in a country still conflicted over the dictator`s decades-long regime.
• The carefully-choreographed operation which began inside an imposing basilica in Valley of the Fallen and ended some four hours later at a state cemetery outside of Madrid, was hailed by the government as ending `an insult to Spanish democracy`.
• The delicate procedure drew a line under a sombre drama which had threatened to open barely healed wounds in a nation still divided over Franco`s legacy 44 years after his death.
6. Young Saudi prince appointed as new foreign minister
• Saudi Arabia has appointed a new foreign minister with experience in Western capitals and loyalty to the powerful crown prince, in what observers say is a generational shift being driven by the young ruler.
• Prince Faisal bin Farhan a onetime adviser to Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and currently ambassador to Germany will replace Ibrahim al-Assaf who was in the role for less than a year.
• Assaf, who was appointed in the aftermath of the murder of dissident Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi inside the kingdom`s Istanbul consulate, was demoted to minister of state.
• While Assaf was charged with mending the kingdom`s reputation in the immediate aftermath of the scandal, Prince Faisal has more repair work to do and must also contend with the kingdom`s dangerously tense relations with Iran.
7. EU awards top rights prize to Uighur activist
• The European Union on October 24, 2019 awarded its top human rights prize to economist Ilham Tohti for his work defending China`s Uighur minority, and urged Beijing to release him from jail.
• A moderate, though, outspoken Uighur critic of Beijing`s policies in the northwestern region of Xinjiang, Tohti was sentenced to life imprisonment in 2014.
• Despite being known as a moderate who argued against Uighur separatism, he was convicted of fanning ethnic hatred, advocating violence and instigating terror through his classroom teaching and a website on Uyghur issues.
• In awarding the Sakharov Prize, the European Parliament described Tohti as a `voice of moderation and reconciliation` who campaigned for the implementation of regional autonomy laws in China.
8. Louvre showcases Da Vinci`s work 500 years on
• Leonardo da Vinci is the star in a blockbuster retrospective that opened on October 24. 2019 at the Louvre museum in Paris to mark 500 years since the death of the Renaissance master.
• Some 240,000 people have already reserved their place in line for the exhibition, the biggest one ever organised to showcase the Tuscan polymath`s indelible contributions to humanity with an emphasis on his painting.
• A decade in the planning, the show simply titled `Leonardo da Vinci` groups 162 works, including 24 drawings loaned by Queen Elizabeth II of Britain from the Royal Collection.
October 25, 2019: Sports Current Affairs
9. Clinical Northern rout Balochistan to complete grand double
• Northern put up a brilliant teamwork to become the inaugural champions of the Audionic presents Zong 4G National T20 Cup on October 24, 2019 after decimating Balochistan by 52 runs in a lopsided final at the Iqbal Stadium in Faisalabad.
• The new-look tournament, featuring the six regional outfits, was fittingly won by the best side as the Imad Wasim-led Northern who had topped the league phase with four victories completed a grand double a few hours after their second strings team had defeated Southern Punjab in the Second XI title-decider in Karachi.
• Going by the trend so often observed during the competition, Balochistan skipper Haris Sohail preferred to chase rather than set a target for Northern, taking into account the dew factor once the lights are switched on. But Haris was certainly left to rue his decision as the pitch became difficult for his batsmen in the second half of the evening
10. China to host expanded Club World Cup in 2021
• China will host the first edition of the new, expanded 24-team Club World Cup in 2021, FIFA president Gianni Infantino on October 24, 2019 following a meeting of the global football body`s decision-making council in Shanghai.
• Infantino said the competition would take place in June July of that year and that the format, slot allocation and criteria for selecting the teams would be decided in the next few weeks.
• The competition is also expected to feature five or six teams from South America, one from Oceania, one from host nation China and three each from the other continental confederations.
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[catlist name=”October 2019″]
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