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May 22, 2019: National Current Affairs
1. Cabinet approves Rs100bn scheme for youth
• The federal cabinet on May 21, 2019 approved Rs100 billion Wazir-i-Azam Kamyab Naujawan Programme (WAKNP) under which the youth will be given soft loans up to Rs5 million for establishing their own business.
• `Soft loan of Rs100,000 to Rs500,000 will be given at six per cent interest rate and Rs50,000 equity, while loans of Rs500,000 to Rs5,000,000 will be provided at eight per cent markup with 20 per cent equity,` said Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Information Firdous Ashig Awan.
• The youth aged between 18 and 35 years were 65 per cent of the population and in order to empower them, the cabinet had decided to launch `Kamyab Naujawan Programme`. This would help engage young people in economic and trade activities and create job opportunities.
2. Buzdar suspends AC over power theft
• Chief Minister Sardar Usman Buzdar during his visit to Sargodha on May 21, 2019 suspended the Bhera assistant commissioner (AC) from service and ordered the police to register a case against him for power theft.
• Mr Buzdar also inspected four Ramazan bazaars but the public was barred from meeting him.
• The chief minister also directed the Bhera police to register a power theft case against AC Wasif Abbas after a Faisalabad Electric Supply Company (FESCO) team raided his official residence and found direct power supply to the residence late on Monday.
• FESCO officials` attempt to get a case registered remained futile.
• Then the matter was conveyed to the chief minister, who took the action immediately.
3. Rs9.98bn contract signed for Mohmand dam project
• The Water and Power Development Authority (WAPDA) on May 21, 2019 signed a contract of Rs9.98 billion with a joint venture (JV) for consultancy services regarding construction design, supervision and contract management of the Mohmand dam hydropower project.
• The JV namely Mohmand Dam Consultants Group (MDCG) is led by NESPAK and comprises six partners and seven sub-consultants (four foreign and nine local firms).
• The agreement was signed in Islamabad by the WAPDA general manager/project director of Mohmand dam, Mohammad Javed Afridi, and MDCG representative Dr Tahir Mehmood Hayat.
• Federal Minister for Water Resources Mohammad Faisal Vawda, Secretary of Water Resources Mohammad Ashraf, WAPDA Chairman retired Lt Gen Muzammil Hussain, Joint Secretary of Water Resources Syed Mohammad Mehr Ali Shah, Wapda members, senior officers and representatives of the consulting firms were present on the occasion.
4. New NDMA chairman appointed
• Lt Gen Mohammad Afzal has assumed the charge of chairman National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA).
• On recommendations of the Minister of Defense and approval by the Federal Cabinet, the Establishment Division has issued the notification of the appointment of Lieutenant General Mohammad Afzal as Chairman NDMA.
• He succeeds Lieutenant General Omar Mahmood Hayat who retired from the service last month.
• General Afzal is an officer of the Engineers Crops of Pakistan Army and has served as Engineer-in-Chief at GHQs and as Chief Technical Adviser to Chief of the Army Staff. He has also served as director general Frontier Works Organization (FWO).
• Lieutenant General Mohammad Afzal has a vast experience of various staff and command duties during over 35 years of his service.
5. Former Sindh CM Ali Mahar passes away
• Federal minister for narcotics control and former Sindh chief minister Sardar Ali Mohammad Mahar passed away on May 21, 2019 in Ghotki. He was 52.
• He was at his home in Khanpur Mahar when he suffered a cardiac arrest, family members said. His funeral prayers were offered after Isha prayers in Khangarh Sharif and he was laid to rest in his native graveyard in Khangarh.
• Ali Mohammad Mahar was inducted as federal minister for narcotics control into the cabinet of Prime Minister Imran Khan in September last year. He served as the 25th chief minister of Sindh from 2002 to 2004.
• Born to Ali Anwar Khan Mahar in Khangarh on Jan 12, 1967, Ali Mohammad Mahar got early education from Sadiq Public School in Bahawalpur, Punjab.
6. Hindko writer Ismail Awan laid to rest
• Mohammad Ismail Awan, a senior Hindko language writer and poet, passed away here the other day. He was 81. He left behind two sons and two daughters to mourn his death.
• The senior writer had not been keeping good health for quite some time. He suffered a heart attack on Monday which proved fatal.
• Large number of writers, poets and people from different walks of life attended last rites of the deceased who had to his credit award-wining Hindko language books and was a member of the several literary and cultural organisations.
May 22, 2019: International Current Affairs
7. Jailed Catalan separatists take seats in Spanish parliament
• Five jailed Catalan separatist leaders elected to the Spanish parliament last month were temporarily released from prison on May 21, 2019 and escorted by police to the assembly to be sworn in as lawmakers.
• The Supreme Court allowed the five men, on trial for their role in Catalonia`s 2017 secession attempt, to leave jail to take up their seats, but they are likely to be quickly suspended because of their legal situation.
• They won office in an April 28 general election that was won by acting Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez`s Socialists but without a majority.
• Oriol Junqueras, Jordi Sanchez, Jordi Turull and Josep Rull won seats in the Congress, the lower house of parliament, while Raul Romeva was elected to the Senate, the upper house.
8. First black woman sworn in as Chicago mayor
• Lori Lightfoot told aldermen and other city powerbrokers assembled at her inauguration on May 20, 2019 as Chicago`s first black woman mayor that she meant what she said on the campaign trail about top to-bottom reforms in the nation`s third largest city.
• `For years, they`ve said Chicago ain`t ready for reform,` said Lightfoot, speaking minutes after her swearing-in at the Wintrust Arena. `Well, get ready, because reform is here.
• Among her toughest challenges and perhaps the one most scrutinised by those outside the city will be overhauling the beleaguered Chicago Police Department.
9. Indonesia`s Widodo re-elected president as rival rejects result
• Heavily armed Indonesian troops were on high alert on May 21, 2019 amid fears of civil unrest in the capital Jakarta, as the surprise early announcement of official election results handed Joko Widodo another term as leader of the world`s third-biggest democracy.
• The election commission had been due to give the divisive poll`s final tally on Wednesday, but results were announced early Tuesday instead.
• Presidential challenger Prabowo Subianto, a 67-year-old retired general, vowed to take his claims of widespread cheating to court as several thousand supporters rallied in the sprawling capital.
May 22, 2019: Sports Current Affairs
10. Pakistan`s World Cup kit unveiled
• The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) on May 21, 2019 unveiled the kit of the national team for the ICC World Cup being staged in England and Wales from May 30 to July 14.
• The kit has different shades of green from dark to a lighter one.
