Day by Day Current Affairs (August 17, 2018) | MCQs for CSS, PMS, NTS

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 August 17, 2018

1. Syed Murad Ali Shah elected Sindh Chief Minister

• Pakistan People’s Party nominee Murad Ali Shah was elected as chief minister of Sindh after securing majority of votes on August 16, 2018.
• Shah secured 97 votes while Sheryar Mehr of opposition alliance bagged 61 votes.
• A total of 158 votes were cast during the election of leader of th
• Shah previously served as the chief minister rom July 29, 2016 to May 28, 2018.
• After last month’s polls, 97 MPAs of the PPP were elected to the provincial legislature, and the PTI secured 30 seats in the House, the GDA 13 and the MQM-P 21.

2. PTI’s Mehmood Khan elected KP CM

• Mehmood Khan of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf has been elected as chief minister Khyber Pakhtwnkha after securing 77 votes against his rival Mian Nisar Gul who could only beg 33 votes.
• Mehmood Khan will take oath of his post on August 18, 2018 at the Governor House. Caretaker Chief Minister Dost Muhammad Khan is said to have vacated the official residence of Chief Minister before the election of Mr Khan.
• Khan succeeds Pervaiz Khattak who was the chief minister of PTI government in the northwestern province of the country.

3. Pervez Elahi elected Speaker Punjab Assembly

• Joint candidate of PTI-led alliance Ch Pervez Elahi has been elected as Speaker of Punjab Assembly after securing 201 votes, August 16, 2018.
• His rival, PML-N’s Chaudhry Iqbal, obtained 147 votes. One vote was rejected.
• PTI`s Sardar Dost Muhammad Mazari was elected deputy speaker by obtaining 187 votes. The PML-N`s Waris Kallu could get 159 votes

4. Abdul Quddus Bizenjo elected Speaker Balochistan Assembly

• Balochistan Awami Party leader Mir Abdul Quddus Bizenjo has been elected Speaker Balochistan Assembly on August 16, 2018
• Bizenjo bagged 39 votes against Muhammad Nawaz, who secured only 20 votes.
• Previously Bizenjo has served as the 16th Chief Minister of Balochistan from 13 January 2018 to 7 June 2018.
• He was a member of the Provincial Assembly of Balochistan from November 2002 to May 2018. He served as Deputy Speaker of the Provincial Assembly of Balochistan from 2013 to 2015 and remained the member of the provincial cabinet between 2002 and 2013, as the minister of livestock.
• PTI’s Sardar Babar Musa Khel has been elected as the Deputy Speaker of the Provincial Assembly by clear majority.

5. Vajpayee, partisan of peace with Pakistan, dies

• Former Indian prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, remembered for his bold peace initiatives with Pakistan and defiant nuclear tests, died on August 16, 2018.
• He was 93.
• Reclusive and ailing after his Bharatiya Janata Party`s (BJP) shock defeat in 2004, Vajpayee`s absence from active politics weighed heavy on those who missed him as the man who alone could rein in Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his socially divisive policies.
• Vajpayee was idolised in Pakistan as a sincere peacemaker and wooed by rivals at home as the right man in the wrong party.
• His three visits to Pakistan did not include any of the tenures of the PPP. In fact, his first official visit to Pakistan came in February 1978, when Zulfikar Ali Bhutto was in jail under the Zia regime. Vajpayee met the military ruler and later pointedly refused to speak out against the death sentence passed on Bhutto, which Indira Gandhi had vociferously opposed. The favour won for prime minister Morarji Desai Pakistan`s highest civilian award from Zia.
• Vajpayee`s 1999 visit to Lahore became so popular in Pakistan that his host and then prime minister Nawaz Sharif said he could win an election there.
• Vajpayee had initially opposed Gen Pervez Musharraf`s coup, but he also became the first leader to greet him when Musharraf declared himself president. The 2001 Agra summit with the general also saw Vajpayee moving forward and rowing back on a peace deal, which many believe was on the cards.
• His last visit to Pakistan was occasioned by the Saarc summit in January 2004. However, it was the Musharraf-Vajpayee pact on the sidelines that became the more important event.

6. Presidential election scheduled for Sept 4

• The Election Commission of Pakistan on August 16, 2018 announced that the presidential election will be held on Sept 4 — five days before the expiry of the five-year term of President Mamnoon Hussain.
• Under Article 41 (4) of the Constitution, election to the office of the president is to be held not earlier than 30 days before expiry of the term of the president in office.

7. 150-page questionnaire: FATF asks Pakistan to submit reply by 31^st

• The Asia Pacific Group (APG) has asked Pakistan to submit replies on 150 pages of technical compliance questionnaires with deadline of August 31, 2018 mainly related to extradition treaties signed with different countries and possibility of revision with inclusion of offences of money laundering and terror financing in revised format.
• They also demanded of Pakistan to ensure documentation of all kinds of financial transactions and charities to curb activities of prescribed militant organisations. The response on technical compliance questionnaire will determine the basis of detailed review scheduled to be held from October 8 to 20, 2018 here at Islamabad.
• The APG also demanded of identifying network of terrorist organisations, structures and commands & control systems and fund raising data with solid evidence that could be produced in any court of law for granting maximum punishments to those involved in such crimes.
• On the name of enhancing international cooperation, the extradition treaties with revised format will help extraditing elements involved in money laundering and terror financing. Now the PTI-led coming government will have to make changes in legislation in months ahead with approval of the Parliament.
• The 6 member delegation of APG of Financial Action Task Force (FATF) concluded its three days visit on August 16, 2018 in which the APG mission pointed out loopholes in legislative, administrative and operational matters and recommended way forward by ensuring documentation of transactions of real estate, jewelers, chartered accountants, charities and all others with the purpose to discourage cash economy and bring them all into digital financial systems.

8. Keita re-elected Mali president with landslide

• Malian President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita has been re-elected for a five-year term after winning a landslide in a runoff ballot, according to official figures on August 16, 2018.
• The elections have been closely watched abroad, as Mali is a linchpin state in the Jihadist insurgency raging in the Sahel. Keita, 73, picked up 67.17 percent of the vote against 32.83 for opposition challenger and former finance minister Soumaila Cisse, 68, who also ran against Keita in 2013, the government announced. Turnout was low, at 34.5%.
• Cisse’s party angrily vowed to use contest the results, but using “all democratic means”.
• Mali, a landlocked nation home to at least 20 ethnic groups where most people live on less than $2 a day, has been battling a years-long Islamic revolt that has now fuelled intercommunal violence.

9. ‘Queen of Soul’ Aretha Franklin dies at 76

• Aretha Franklin, the music icon, legendary singer and “Queen of Soul” loved by millions whose history-making career spanned six decades, died on August 16, 2018. She was 76.
• She influenced generations of female singers with unforgettable hits including “Respect” (1967), “Natural Woman” (1968) and “I Say a Little Prayer” (1968). She passed away at home in Detroit from advanced pancreatic cancer.
• The multiple Grammy winner cemented her place in US music history with a powerful, bell-clear voice that stretched over four octaves. In a career crossing generations, her hits spanned soul and R&B, to gospel and pop.

10. Nasa detects hydrogen ‘wall’ surrounding solar system

• Nasa’s spacecraft New Horizons has found new evidence of a ‘wall’ of hydrogen at the edge of the solar system, encircling all the planets and objects orbiting the Sun.
• The “wall” is actually a vast amount of trapped hydrogen atoms caught up in the solar wind, which produce waves of ultraviolet (UV) light and have been detected by the sensors aboard New Horizons, according to Nasa. The phenomenon was first glimpsed by astronomers around 30 years ago, and was called helisphere. However, evidence supporting the theory has remained murky.
• New Horizons has been using its on-board detector, known as “Alice”, to look for traces of the celestial interaction. It picked up UV rays with “Alice” seven times from 2007 to 2017, and finally found evidence to verify earlier observations. New Horizons will then continue to look for the “wall” about twice a year until the mission reaches its conclusion, which is expected to be around 10-15 years from now on, Nasa said.
• If the levels of UV light detected ever take a nosedive, it could prove the spacecraft has left the “wall.”