Day by Day Current Affairs (August 25, 2018) | MCQs for CSS, PMS, NTS

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August 25, 2018

1. Discretionary funds abolished, govt office working hours revised

• In what appears to be unfolding of its agenda for `change`, the Pakistan Tehreek-iInsaf (PTI) government on August 24, 2018 revised working hours in government institutions, abolished discretionary funds of the prime minister, federal ministers and members of the National Assembly and imposed a ban on first-class air travel by the president, head of the government, chief justice, Senate chairman and NA speaker.
• The decisions were taken at the second meeting of the federal cabinet in a week presided over by Prime Minister Imran Khan.
• The cabinet rejected a proposal for declaring only one official weekly holiday on Sunday and withdrawing the second weekly holiday on Saturday.
• The meeting also decided to conduct audit of all mega transport projects carried out in Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa during the last government. It was decided that the prime minister would use the official aircraft only for domestic tours andnotforforeign visits.
• Another important decision taken by the cabinet was formation of task forces for upgrading katchchi abadis (shanty settlements) across the country and launching tree plantation in main cities.
• The meeting decided to abolish the Ministry of Capital Administration & Development Division (CADD) and merge its departments into other ministries.
• Dissolution of ministry The information minister said that as part of the government`s austerity plan, the cabinet decided to dissolve the CADD ministry and the departments working under it would be merged into other ministries.
• The CADD ministry was created by the last Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz government and its main departments were the Capital Development Authority, Federal Directorateof Education and two hospitals of the federal capital Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences and Poly Clinic.
• Prime Minister Khan has decided that he will not use a special plane for foreign visits and will travel in business class. However, he will use official plane for domestic travelling.

2. One-third of corps commanders replaced in major reshuffle

• The army on August 24, 2018 appointed Lt Gen Nadeem Raza as new Chief of General Staff (CGS) amidst a major reshuffle in which almost one-third of the corps commanders were replaced.
• The reshufne precedes upcoming changes in the army`s top brass due to the impending retirement of five three-star generals in October. It is assumed that the postings at the General Headquarters and top command positions have been phased to smoothly carry out the imminent changes.
• The appointments announced on August 24, 2018 and the upcoming changes together mean that a total of 22 posi-tions of lieutenant generals will be affected. Executing all of them in one go would have come with logistical challenges.
• An important feature of the postings announced by the army is that all of the transferred ofHcers have swapped their positions with the new appointees. Lt Gen Nadeem Raza moves from 10 Corps to position of CGS and incumbent CGS Lt Gen Bilal Akbar goes to Chaklala to head 10 Corps.
• Lt Gen Shahid Baig Mirza has been posted as Inspector General of Communications & Information Technology in place of Lt Gen Humayun Aziz, who goes to Karachi to head 5 Corps.
• Lt Gen Naeem Ashraf will now be heading 2 Corps in Multan and the corps` current commander Lt Gen Abdullah Dogar will become chairman of Heavy Industries Taxila in Lt Gen Ashraf`s place.
• Current ISI chief Lt Gen Naveed Mukhtar and 11 Corps (Peshawar) Commander Lt Gen Nazir Butt will be among the five retiring three-star generals.
• The other three are Commander of Army Strategic Force Command Lt Gen Mian Muhammad Hilal Hussain, Military Secretary at the GHQ Lt Gen Ghayur Mahmood and Training and Evaluation Inspector General Lt Gen Hidayatur Rehman.

3. Bureaucracy reshuffle: PTI govt retains old faces but gives them different roles

• The newly installed Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf-led government has re-shuffled senior bureaucracy, retaining old faces on top slots but assigning them different roles.
• As per notifications issued by the establishment division on August 24, 2018, Ijaz Munir, a grade-22 officer of the Pakistan Administrative Service (PAS) who was working as secretary of the aviation division, has now been posted as establishment secretary.
• His predecessor Aurangzeb Haq is awaiting further posting.
• Tariq Mahmood Pasha, an officer of the Inland Revenue Service, has been transferred from the statistics division to the Ministry for Kashmir and Northern Areas` Affairs (KANA).
• Grade-22 officer Mohammad Ayub Shaikh, who was working in the KANA division, has now been posted as secretary of the statistics division.
• Saqib Aziz, a PAS officer of grade-22 and secretary of the capital administration and development division, has now been posted as aviation secretary.
• Mohammad Jalal Sikandar Sultan, another PAS officer, has been transferred from the petroleum ministry to the states and frontier regions division, which he would supervise as secretary.
• Asad Hayauddin, a PAS grade-21 officer on special duty, has been posted as additional secretary (in-charge) of the petroleum ministry.
• The government has also transferred Mohammad Tariq, an officer of grade-19, from the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government, and posted him as joint secretary at the prime minister office

4. Imran Ismail formally appointed as 33rd Sindh governor

• Prime Minister Imran Ismail has formally been appointed as 33rd governor of Sindh province.
• A notification announcing the appointment of Karachi based PTI leader Imran Ismail has been issued. The notification says Ismail will take oath as Sindh Governor on August 27.
• The oath will be administered by Sindh High Court Chief Justice at the Governor House building in Karachi.
• Sindh’s former governor Muhammad Zubair stepped down from his position and sent his resignation to the president on July 28, three days after PTI emerged as the biggest party after general elections. Zubair’s resignation was approved by President Mamnoon Hussain on August 3.

5. Australia gets new PM after bitter ‘political coup’

• Scott Morrison was sworn in as Australia’s seventh prime minister in 11 years August 24, 2018 after a stunning party revolt against Malcolm Turnbull, which the new leader admitted had left the government “bruised and battered”.
• Former home affairs minister Peter Dutton, an ex-police officer and right-winger, was the driving force behind the move to oust Turnbull after a Liberal Party backlash against his more moderate policies.
• But after a torrid week of political manoeuvring in Canberra it was Morrison, a Turnbull ally who served as treasurer, who won a party vote 45-40. He was officially sworn in as Australia’s 30th prime minister late Friday in a ceremony in the capital.
• Environment minister Josh Frydenberg – who was elected as the deputy Liberal leader – was sworn in as treasurer.

6. US to help Ukraine counter Russian vote `meddling`

• The United States is ready to help Ukraine counter any `interference` by Russia in its 2019 presidential election, US National Security Advisor John Bolton said on August 24, 2018 during his visit to Kiev.
• (Ukrainian) President (Petro) Poroshenko and I agreed that we would look at steps that the US and Ukraine could take to look at election meddling.
• But currently the former prime ministerYulia Tymoshenko, who was imprisoned under ex-president Viktor Yanukovych, is the favourite, according to the latest opinlon polls.

7. Spain passes decree to exhume Franco`s remains from mausoleum

• Spain`s Socialist government passed a decree on August 24, 2018 allowing the exhumation of the remains of Francisco Franco from his vast mausoleum, a decision that divides Spaniards and has opened old wounds.
• Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, who came to power in June after he ousted his conservative predecessor in a confidence vote, has made removing the late dictator`s remains from the monument in the Valle de los Caidos (Valley of the Fallen) near Madrid one of his priorities.
• Around 41 per cent of Spaniards approve of removing Franco from his mausoleum, compared with 38.5 per cent who oppose the move, according to an opinion poll published last month in centre-right daily newspaper El Mundo.But even though a slim majority are in favour of the move, 54 per cent of those sur-veyed said they did not think now was the right time to do it.

8. Japan gets first woman fighter pilot

• Japan will shortly have its first female fighter pilot, with the Top Gun inspired officer vowing to blaze a trail in the sky for other women.
• First Lieutenant Misa Matsushima, 26, of Japan Air Self Defence Force, finished her training to fly F-15s and will officially be named a fighter pilot in a couple of days, the ministry said in a brief statement.
• The air force decided in 1993 to open all positions to women, except for pilots of fighter jets and reconnais-sance aircraft. But the limit was lifted in 2015, opening the way for Matsushima to join the elite group of fighter pilots, with three other women now going through training. Women account for a mere 6.4 per cent of Japan`s 228,000 troops.
• Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has called on the nation`s corporate world to open leadership positions to women but with little visible success.

9. Pakistan rout Kazakhstan in hockey, clinch kabaddi bronze

• On the day Pakistan`s kabaddi team received its bronze medals, the hockey team continued its quest for gold with a 16-0 romp against Kazakhstan at the Asian Games in the Indonesian capital on August 24, 2018.
• The thrashing of Kazakhstan was Pakistan`s third straight win in Pool `B` and strengthened their position for a place in the semi-finals ahead of their toughest fixture against Malaysia on August 26, 2018 a clash that would potentially decide which team ends top ofthe section.
• Nine goals came through open play, five via penalty corners and two through penalty strokes.
• Tauseef Arshad scored four times, Abu Bakr Mahmood struck a hattrick while there were braces for Ali Shan, Rizwan Senior and Umar Bhutta. Mohammad Dilber, Atig Arshad and Mubashar Ali added a goal apiece.
• After another convincing show, the hockey team yet to concede a goal at the Games so far would be hoping to at least get to the podium, where the kabaddi team received their bronze medal on August 24, 2018 for Pakistan`s first medal at the event.
• The medal was secured after Pakistan lost the semi-final 24-27 to South Korea on Thursday. India also took bronze in kabaddi after they were stunned by Iran in the other semi-final.
• India got the better of Pakistan in a handball thriller, the 28-27 triumph courtesy a last-minute goal from Naveen Punja seeing them leapfrog their arch-rivals in the 9-13 place classification group.

10. Journalist, peace activist Kuldip Nayar passes away

• Veteran journalist and a missionary of peace with Pakistan, Kuldip Nayar died on August 23, 2018. He was 95.
• Mr Nayar was a human rights activist and was jailed during the Emergency as the editor of Indian Express. He was arrested forhisvocalprotestagainstcensorship during the time.
• Born in Sialkot in 1923, Mr Nayar also remained associated with Dawn and wrote for the paper for long.
• Mr Nayar`s interview with A.Q. Khan in 1987 revealed to the world that Pakistan had a nuclear bomb. The interview published three weeks later in London`s Observer was contradicted in Pakistan fervently but may have accelerated India`s quest to improve on its own 1974 nuclear test.
• Mr Nayar`s first job was with an Urdu daily.
• He served in a leadership role in The Indian Express, too, and had written columns in over 80 newspapers, including in Pakistan.
• Apart from his work as a journalist, Mr Nayar will also be remembered as a human right activist and peacenik, as well as India`s high commissioner to the United Kingdom.Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi tweeted: `Kuldip Nayar was an intellectual giant of our times. Frank and fearless in his views, his work spanned across many decades. His strong stand against the Emergency, public service, and his commitment to a better India, will always be remembered. Saddened by his demise.