Daily Top-10 Current Affairs MCQs / News (March 04, 2022) for CSS, PMS

Table of Contents

6. Pact for debt suspension with Saudi fund signed

• Pakistan on March 3, 2022 signed an agreement with the Saudi Fund for Development (SFD) for suspension of debt servicing of $846 million for six years under the G20`s Debt Service Suspension Initiative (DSSI).
• The total amount of Pakistan`s external debt that has been suspended and rescheduled under the DSSI framework, covering the period from May 2020 to December 2021, is about $3.688 billion.
• Islamabad has already signed 80 agreements with 21 bilateral creditors for the rescheduling of its debts under the G20`s DSSI framework, amounting to rescheduling of $2.088bn. The signing of agreement with the Saudi Fund for Development brings the total rescheduled amount to $2.934bn. The negotiations for the remaining $754 million are underway and agreements are expected to be signed with respective bilateral development partners within the current fiscal year, the ministry of economic affairs said

7. Jinnah`s portrait unveiled at prestigious London club

• A Portrait of the founder of Pakistan, Quaid-i-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah, was installed at Whitehall`s prestigious private members` club, the National Liberal Club, in London on March 3, 2022.
• Mr Jinnah was a member of the club, and has been honoured with a portrait to commemorate his membership in 1913, along with Dadabhai Naoroji.
• The portrait, painted by portrait artist Kaya Mar, was inaugurated by Pakistan High Commissioner to the UK Moazzam Ahmad Khan as part of Pakistan`s 75th independence anniversary celebrations in the presence of artists, writers, and club members.
• The portraits of Mr Jinnah and Mr Naoroji become the first ones of South Asian leaders to grace the main hallway of the club, which prides itself on `British liberalism`.

8. Mariupol under siege, Russian aircraft pound Chernihiv

• Russian forces pressed their way deeper into Ukraine on March 3, 2022, seizing a strategic seaport and threatening to overtake a major energy hub on the eighth day of the invasion, even as the two sides met in Belarus for a second round of face-to-face discussions.
• Russian troops are seeking to lay seige to the Ukrainian city of Mariupol, seeking to cut it off from electricity, water, heating and transportation, its mayor said Thursday.
• `They are trying to create a blockade here, just like in Leningrad,` Vadym Boichenko said in a statement referring to the horrific seige of Russia`s second largest city by the Nazis during World War II, which left hundreds of thousands dead.
• Ukrainian media reports said Russian troops had also entered the southern city of Enerhodar, a major energy hub on the Dnieper River that accounts for about one quarter of the country`s power generation. It is the site of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant, the biggest in Europe

9. Turkey walks a diplomatic tightrope in war

• The signs of Russian presence have long been visible in Turkey, from rows of tourists on Antalya beaches to the Russian battleships ploughing their way through the Bosphorus.
• President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has worked hard to forge close ties with his counterpart Vladimir Putin, despite being on opposing sides of several conflicts, including in Syria and Libya.
• Ankara has bought Russian missile defence systems against the wishes of its Nato partners and is dependent on Moscow for energy and trade

10. Sri Lanka ends policy on burial of Muslim Covid patients

• Sri Lanka on Thursday ended a heavily criticised policy that required Muslim Covid-19 victims to be buried at a remote government-designated site in the absence of their families or final religious rites.
• Only a year ago, Colombo reversed an initial policy of enforced cremations prohibited by Islam under intense international pressure, while still refusing to allow traditional burials at graveyards. In Thursday`s new directive, the country`s top health official said the bodies of virus victims could now be handed over to relatives for burial at any cemetery of their choosing.
• `The method of disposal, burial or cremation, at any cemetery or burial ground is at the discretion of relatives,` Health Director-General Asela Gunawardena said.