Day by Day Current Affairs (July 14, 2018) | MCQs for CSS, PMS, NTS

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July 14, 2018

1. Over 125 perish as savage attack on Mastung rally stuns nation

• Around 132 people were killed and 180 injured in two separate terrorist attacks during election related activities in Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa on July 13, 2018.
• Nawabzada Siraj Raisani, Balochistan Awami Party (BAP) candidate for a Provincial Assembly seat, was among 128 people killed in a shocking suicide attack on an election gathering in the Mastung area, some 60km south-west of Quetta. As many as 150 people were injured in the tragic incident.
• The suicide bombing came hours after Akram Khan Durrani, Muttahida Majlis-iAmal candidate from NA-35, survived an attack when a motorcycle bomb exploded near his convoy in the Bannu area of KP, killing four people and injuring 30.
• Siraj Raisani was younger brother of former chief minister of Balochistan Nawab Aslam Raisani, who is a candidate from PB-35 Mastung from where the former was also contesting election.
• Around 128 people have been killed and 150 injured in the suicide attack.
• The sixteen-year-old son of Siraj Raisani had also lost his life in a bomb blast in Mastung in 2011.
• Current Caretaker Home Minister of Baluchistan: Agha Umar Bangulzai

2. Land-based communication link with China opened

• Prime Minister Nasirul Mulk on July 13, 2018 inaugurated the PakChina Optical Fibre Cable project that would serve as the first land-based communication link between Pakistan and China.
• The project that has been completed in two years will help develop the telecom sector in Gilgit-Baltistan region, besides contributing to enhancement of security of the schemes falling under the umbrella of the ChinaPakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC).
• The project includes an 820-kilometre-long underground Optical Fibre Cable (OFC) from Rawalpindi to Khunjerab and a 172-km aerial OFC link from Karimabad to Khunjerab.
• The project being launched as part of the CPEC also has 26 high-capacity microwave links as backup to the OFC network and nine node centres in different locations.

3. Sharifs in jail; jury out on future

• Former premier Nawaz Sharif and his daughter Maryam Nawaz were arrested just after their flight landed at Allama Iqbal International Airport, flown to the Islamabad airport on a private plane before being shifted to Adiala jail in a convoy of security vehicles July 13, 2018.
• The Sharifs, who were sentenced in absentia by an accountability court of Islamabad in Avenfield properties case, were arrested by the National Accountability Bureau as they returned from London via Abu Dhabi to galvanise support for the beleaguered Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) before the July 25 polls.
• Judicial magistrate Wasim Ahmed executed the warrants issued by Judge Mohammad Bashir of the accountability court of Islamabad in which the convicts were informed about their sentences announced on July 6. While the district administration declared the Sihala police rest house a subjail, the caretaker law ministry issued a notification declaring that the accountability court will conduct trial in Flagship Investment and Al Azizia Steel Mills references in Adiala jail.

4. Military court sentences 12 terrorists to death

• A military court has handed down death penalties to 12 terrorists, including one involved in Bannu and Dera Ismail Khan jail break incidents, and prison terms to another six.
• The sentences were ratified by Chief of the Army Staff Gen Qamar Bajwa on July 13, 2018.
• `Chief of Army Staff confirmed death sentences awarded to 12 hardcore terrorists, who were involved in heinous offences related to terrorism, i.e. attacking armed forces/law enforcement agencies of Pakistan, destruction of educational institution, telephone exchange, etc, and killing of innocent civilians, the ISPR announced in a statement.
• The convicts were involved in the killing of 99 people, including seven civilians and 92 law enforcement personnel, it said.
• Another 58 people were injured in the attacks carried out by the militants. Since their inception in 2015, military courts have sentenced 231 terrorists to death. Of these, 56 have been executed.

5. Turkey to sell Pakistan 30 attack helicopters

• Turkey`s deal with Pakistan to sell 30 Turkish T129 attack helicopters is worth around $1.5 billion.
• The helicopters will be delivered gradually over five years.
• The deal is the biggest export deal of Turkey`s defence industry, the country`s defence industry directorate said.
• The deal was signed between Turkish Aerospace Industries, TUSAS, and Pakistan`s Defence Production Ministry.
• Turkey would also provide logistics, spare parts, training and ammunition.

6. UN slaps arms embargo on South Sudan

• The UN Security Council on July 13, 2018 imposed an arms embargo on South Sudan and sanctions on two military officials, ratcheting up pressure after the latest diplomatic efforts failed to end nearly five years of war.
• The council narrowly adopted a US-drafted resolution with the backing of nine countries. Russia, China and four other countries abstained.
• The United States had lobbied hard to win votes for the arms embargo after it failed in 2016 to persuade the council to back the measure and cut off the arms flow to South Sudan.
• South Sudan won independence from Sudan in 2011, with critical backing from the United States, which remains Juba’s biggest aid donor.
• Countless efforts have failed to bring peace to the country now in its fifth year of a war that has seen ethnic killings, gang rapes and other atrocities documented by UN rights officials.

7. Iceland takes up US seat at UN rights council

• Iceland on July 13, 2018 was elected to take up the seat left vacant at the United Nations Human Rights Council after the United States quit the body over what it charges was anti-Israel bias.
• In a vote at the General Assembly, Iceland picked up 172 votes during a secret ballot as the candidate put forward by the regional grouping for that seat.
• Like the United States, Iceland has pledged to seek reform to the 47-nation Geneva-based body which monitors human rights worldwide and has the authority to set up inquiries of mass atrocities.
• The US exit from the rights council was seen as the latest move by the administration of Donald Trump to step away from multilateral cooperation.
• Washington has also quit the UN cultural agency UNESCO and cut funding to the United Nations, notably the UN Palestinian refugee agency UNRWA.

8. Pakistan crush Zimbabwe in first One Day match

• Pakistan stormed to a 201-run win over Zimbabwe in Bulawayo on July 13, 2018 in the opening game of their five-match one-day series.
• Career-best efforts from opening batsman Imam-ul-Haq and leg spinner Shadab Khan ensured that Pakistan kept control through both innings. Opener Imam cracked 128 runs as Pakistan made 308 for 7.

9. First space tourist flights could come in 2019

• The two companies leading the pack in the pursuit of space tourism say they are just months away from their first out-of-this-world passenger flights – though neither has set a firm date.
• Virgin Galactic, founded by British billionaire Richard Branson, and Blue Origin, by Amazon creator Jeff Bezos, are racing to be the first to finish their tests – with both companies using radically different technology.
• Neither Virgin nor Blue Origin’s passengers will find themselves orbiting the Earth: instead, their weightless experience will last just minutes. It’s an offering far different from the first space tourists, who paid tens of millions of dollars to travel to the International Space Station (ISS) in the 2000s. Having paid for a much cheaper ticket – costing $250,000 with Virgin, as yet unknown with Blue Origin – the new round of space tourists will be propelled dozens of miles into the atmosphere, before coming back down to Earth. By comparison, the ISS is in orbit 250 miles (400 kilometers) from our planet. The goal is to approach or pass through the imaginary line marking where space begins – either the Karman line, at 100 kilometers or 62 miles, or the 50-mile boundary recognized by the US Air Force.

10. Chinese, Pakistani climbers celebrate expedition anniversary

• Chinese and Pakistani mountaineers gathered together here on July 12, 2018 to commemorate 11 years since the China Tibet Mountaineering Expedition achieved the feat of summitting all 14 mountains standing over 8,000 meters.
• The Pakistan side also shares in this achievement. In 1997, a joint China-Pakistan expedition scaled Nanga Parbat, the ninth highest mountain in the world at 8,125 meters.
• In 1995, the Chinese expedition headed to Pakistan to climb Gasherbrum II. Their summit was supported by the government of Pakistan, who sent a crew of eight to their assistance, including a liaison officer, a guide, three supporting members and three cooks. With their help, the expedition successfully summitted Gasherbrum II, the world’s 13th highest mountain.
• That was the first time a Chinese flag flew in the chilly winds of a Pakistan mountain, and that marked the beginning of mountaineering cooperation and friendship between the two countries.
• Since then, climbers of the both nations have engaged in nearly 10 climbs together, scaling the Broad Peak (8,051 meters), K2 (8,611 meters), and Gasherbrum I (8,068 meters), in 2001, 2004 and 2007 respectively.