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September 20, 2019: National Current Affairs
1. Saudi king assures Imran of support on Kashmir issue
• Saudi King Salman Bin Abdulaziz during a meeting with Prime Minister Imran Khan on September 19, 2019 expressed his longstanding support and solidarity on the Kashmir issue.
• PM Khan, who arrived in Jeddah on a two-day official visit to Saudi Arabia on his onward journey to New York where he would attend the 74th session of the UN General Assembly, informed the king about the latest situation in India-held Kashmir (IHK). He was received by Makkah Governor Khalid Al-Faisal at the Jeddah royal terminal.
• Soon after his arrival, Mr Khan held a meeting with Crown Prince Mohammad Bin Salman and discussed with him bilateral relations and matters of mutual interest.
• He discussed the situation obtaining in IHK owing to an ongoing 46-day curfew in the region following the Indian government`s Aug 5 decision to strip the disputed territory of its special status.
• He apprised the Saudi prince that the occupied territory had been under a strict government-imposed lockdown and communications blackout.
2. Top auditor finds over Rs15tr irregularities by ministries
• The Auditor General of Pakistan (AGP) has pointed out irregularities of more than Rs15.67 trillion worth of public money by the federal ministries and divisions during the audit year 2018-19.
• In its report laid before parliament as required under Article 171 of the Constitution, the AGP highlighted a series of violation of rules and regulations, weaknesses of internal control, misappropriation or overpayment of public funds and negligence. The funds audited were of the fiscal year 2017-18 which is described as audit year 2018-19.
• The audit objections regarding the accounts of the federal government for the audit year 2018 are far greater (87 per cent) than the Rs5.8tr a year before, showing that financial control over public money has deteriorated instead of having been improved or the AGP office was too consumed in procedural niceties under the decade-old rules and regulations.
3. Seven children are abused daily in Pakistan: report
• From January to June in the current year, 1,304 cases of sexual abuse of children have been reported by the media in the country, which means that at least seven children are abused daily, reveals in a report released by a child rights organisation, Sahil.
• According to the report released on September 19, 2019, the data from January to June in 2019 reveals that 729 girls and 575 boys became victims of sexual exploitation. The cases under major categories included 378 of abduction, 139 of rape, 153 of sodomy, 46 of gang rape, 88 of gang sodomy whereas 12 boys and four girls have been murdered after sexual abuse.
• In 2018, there were 3,307 such incidents reported to police, 39 cases were not reported and 56 cases were not registered.
• Around 430 cases were reported by newspapers with incomplete information.
• In Lahore only, there were 50 incidents reported last year while nine children had been abducted and 12 reported missing from January to June 2019. January to June data gave grim numbers as it included five incidents of rape, seven of sodomy, three of gang rape and five of gang sodomy.
4. PA passes Alternate Dispute Resolution Bill
• The Punjab Assembly on September 19, 2019 passed The Punjab Alternate Dispute Resolution Bill 2019 with majority votes of the treasury members, rejecting numerous amendments sought in the bill by the opposition.
• Law Minister Raja Basharat also laid four ordinances which Speaker Pervalz Elahi referred to the standing committees concerned for reports in two months. They are: The University of Mianwali Ordinance, The Punjab Public Private Partnership Ordinance, The Punjab Medical Teaching Institutions (Reforms) Ordinance and the Punjab Probation and Parole Service Ordinance.
• The amendments were mainly presented by PML-N`s seasoned MPA Waris Kalloo who said the bill clashed with other related laws in the country and it would face the fateof the Local Government Act that was also passed in a hurry.
• He said the law could change the entire dispute resolution system in the country in violation of the constitution. The government was commercialising the justice system and taking over powers of the judiciary, he said.
September 20, 2019: International Current Affairs
5. US court asks Modi to explain Kashmir annexation
• A US court has asked Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and other members of his government to respond within 21 days to the charge that they have occupied Kashmir and are committing gross human rights violations there.
• The action has been taken on a complaint filed by the Kashmir Khalitsan Referendum Front in a US district court, in Houston, Texas, where Mr Modi is scheduled to address a joint rally with President Donald Trump on Sept 22.
• The Front has complained that the Modi-led government has occupied Kashmir and on Aug 5 when it annexed the disputed territory in violation of international laws.
• It has also nominated Indian Interior Minister Amit Shah and another functionary, Kanwal Jeet Singh, as the accused responsible for this illegal occupation and for committing gross human rights violations.
6. Toppled Tunisian ruler Ben Ali dies in exile
• Former Tunisian President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, an autocrat who led his small North African country for 23 years before being toppled by nationwide protests that unleashed revolt across the Arab world, died on September 20, 2019. He was 83.
• Ben Ali, who had lived in Saudi Arabia since fleeing Tunisia in 2011, died in Jeddah, said his lawyer Mounir Ben Salha.
• The former president was receiving treatment for prostate cancer and was hospitalised last week.
• Ben Ali`s ouster on Jan 14, 2011, amid Tunisia`s relatively peaceful `Jasmine Revolution` inspired what became known as the Arab Spring, a movement that saw several autocratic leaders swept from power.
7. Top executives cleared of negligence in Japan`s nuclear accident
• A Japanese court on September 19, 2019 cleared three energy firm bosses of professional negligence in the only criminal trial stemming from the 2011 Fukushima nuclear meltdown.
• The three men were senior officials at the TEPCO firm operating the Fukushima Dalichi plant and had faced up to five years in prison if convicted.
• `All defendants are not guilty,` the presiding judge said, ruling that the executives could not have predicted the scale of the tsunami that overwhelmed the plant and triggered the accident.
• The decision is likely to be appealed, extending the legal wrangling over responsibility for the worst nuclear accident since Chernobyl, more than eight years after the disaster.
• Outside the courtroom, dozens of people staged a rally, including some who had travelled from the Fukushima region to hear the verdict. `It is absolutely an unjust ruling. We absolutely cannot accept this,` one woman said angrily, addressing the crowd. `We will appeal this and continue our fight,` shouted a man nearby.
8. Mother or baby dies in child birth every 11 seconds: UN
• Global child and maternal deaths have fallen sharply in recent decades, but new UN statistics released on Thursday show unequal progress, with more than five childbirths a minute ending in tragedy.
• Two reports by several United Nations` agencies showed clear global progress in reducing the number of pregnant women or new mothers and young children who die each year, pointing to improved access to affordable, quality health services.
• `In countries that provide everyone with safe, affordable, high-quality health services, women and babies survive and thrive,` WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in a statement.
• Since the turn of the century, the number of deaths among children under the age of five has been cut almost in half to some 5.3 million worldwide last year.
• Almost half of those deaths occurred during the first month of life, meaning that around 7,000 newborns still died every single day last year.
• At the same time, the number of women dying due to complications during pregnancy and childbirth dropped by more than a third to around 295,000 in 2017, compared to 451,000 in 2000.
9. Archaeologists find vessels over 1,400 years old
• Pre-Hispanic vessels over 1,400 years old have been found in the centre of Bolivia`s Tiwanaku ruins, archaeologists said on September 19, 2019.
• The finding was made at the Kalasasaya temple during a research, conservation and restoration project undertaken with the support of Unesco on the grounds of the ancient city, which is about 75kms from the capital of La Paz, near the southern shore of Lake Titicaca.
• Mary Luz Choque, an assistant archaeologist at the Archaeological Investigations Centre of Tihuanaco, said that the circular shape in which the objects were buried suggests they formed part of an offering made at the funeral of a person of noble lineage.
September 20, 2019: Sports Current Affairs
10. ICC bans Dananjaya for one year over illegal action
• Sri Lanka spinner Akila Dananjaya has been banned for a year from bowling in international cricket due to an illegal action, the International Cricket Council (ICC) announced on September 19, 2019.
• Dananjaya, 25, was reported for a suspect action after last month`s opening Test against New Zealand in Galle, during which he picked up six wickets in Sri Lanka`s victory.
• `His bowling action was found to be illegal after he underwent independent assessment in the southern Indian city of Chennai,` the ICC said in a statement.
• Dananjaya was also reported for a suspect bowling action last November after a test match against England and suspended the following month after an independent committee found it to be illegal.
• He was cleared to bowl again in February following remedial work on his action.
