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May 28, 2019: National Current Affairs
1. SC makes history, decides four cases via video link
• The dream of using modern technology for prompt dispensation of justice was finally realised when a Supreme Court bench, headed by Chief Justice of Pakistan Asif Saeed Khosa, on May 27, 2019 started hearing cases through the first-ever `e-court system` in the judicial history of Pakistan.
• The bench that also comprised Justice Sardar Tariq Masood and Justice Mazhar Alam Khan Miankhel took up and decided four cases mainly bail matters through a video link with the Karachi branch registry.
• `Through the e-court system, we have saved between Rs2 million and Rs2.5 milhon in one day alone that otherwise had to be borne by the litigants,` said a visibly calm and composed chief justice.
• Taking up the first case through the new technology, the chief justice remarked that a big milestone had been achieved with cases being heard through the latest technology.
• Besides, the video link would promote decentralisation and reduce burden of migration to urban centres like Lahore, Rawalpindi and Multan and would also help promote equality of opportunity to grow for the lawyers practising in Faisalabad, Gujranwala, Dera Ghazi Khan, Sargodha and Sahiwal
2. PM to launch Qarz-i-Hasna, asset transfer schemes next month
• The government will start next month the process of distributing over 80,000 loans and moveable/immovable assets every month to the deserving families under Qarz-i-Hasna and assets transfer schemes.
• Both schemes will be launched by Prime Minister Imran Khan under the ambitious Ehsaas programme.
• According to the Prime Minister Office, under the Ehsaas Qarz-i-Hasna scheme, over 80,000 loans will be disbursed every month among youth and women, enabling them to undertake their own business ventures and help their families extricate from poverty trap.
• These loans would be prioritized in the underdeveloped districts.
3. Narowal haveli has nothing to do with Baba Guru Nanak
• A building in Bathanwala village in Narowal with pictures of Baba Guru Nanak on some of its walls is not a shrine or sacred Sikh place where Guru Nanak stayed.
• Travel writer and poet Irfan Shahood had visited the haveli or saraye -and documented it through pictures and a blog last year. He rejected the impression that the haveli had anything to do with the founder of Sikhism, adding that it was not a sacred place related to Sikh religion or its founder, but just a haveli. Locals knew the building as `Haveli Ranjit Singh`, he tells Dawn.
• `The people who occupied the haveli at the time of my visit told me that it was built by Maharaja Ranjit Singh for a relative of one of Singh`s three wives belonging to that area,` says Mr Shahood.
• He adds that Sikh historian and writer Amardeep Singh, who has documented the whole of Sikh heritage in Pakistan in his book, Lost Heritage: The Sikh Legacy in Pakistan, has not mentioned this haveli as it had nothing to do with Sikhism.
4. Punjab invited to join hands with Chinese provinces for progress
• Chinese Vice President Wang Qishan has invited the Punjab government to enter into economic cooperation with big provinces of China.
• Chief Minister Usman Buzdar and provincial ministers Hashim Jawan Bakht and Mian Aslam Iqbal welcomed the Chinese vice president at L ahore airport.
• Chinese Ambassador Yao Jing and Consul General Long Dingbin were present on the occasion.
• Punjab Governor Chaudhry Sarwar hosted a dinner in honour of the Chinese vice president at Governor House.
5. Major parties suffer as far right gains in EU elections
• The tussle for top EU jobs got under way on Monday after European Parliament elections delivered a fragmented result, with gains for eurosceptic and green parties as the traditional mainstream groups took a hit.
• The main centre-right and centre-left groups lost their combined majority in the 751-seat parliament in the face of a challenge by eurosceptic and nationalist forces of Marine Le Pen, Matteo Salvini and Nigel Farage although the populist wave was less than some had predicted.
• There were big wins for the Greens, who posted double digit scores across Europe`s biggest countries, and the Liberals, with both parties likely to play a major role in any future parliamentary coalition.
• Each previous EU election since the first in 1979 has seen turnout f all, but figures from across the 28-nation bloc were at a 20-year high of 51 percent, suggesting this year`s culture clash mobilised both populists and those who oppose them.
May 28, 2019: International Current Affairs
6. Austrian chancellor loses no-confidence showdown
• Austria`s Chancellor Sebastian Kurz on May 27, 2019 became the first chancellor in the country`s postwar history to be removed from office by a no-confidence vote over a corruption scandal that had already brought down his coalition with the far-right.
• The motion against Kurz and his cabinet is the latest fallout from the so-called `Ibiza-gate` scandal, which saw farright Freedom Party (FPOe) leader and Vice-Chancellor Heinz-Christian Strache resign from both posts after he was caught appearing to of fer public contracts in return for campaign help from a fake Russian backer.
• The video led to Kurz ending his coalition with the FPOe and calling early elections for the autumn.
• But that didn`t stop opposition parties tabling the no-confidence motion and insisting that the 32-year-old leader must also take responsibility for the scandal.
7. Political novice wins Lithuania’s presidential race
• Gitanas Nauseda, a centre-right independent and political novice, won Lithuania’s presidential runoff in a race marked by low populist sentiment and concerns over inequality in the Baltic eurozone state.
• Although Lithuanian presidents do not directly craft economic policy, bread-and-butter issues have dominated the race.
• Experts also noted that by choosing between two pro-EU, centre-right candidates in the runoff, Lithuanians who see the European Union as a source of prosperity and security bucked growing eurosceptic and populist sentiment in the bloc. Vowing to build a “welfare state”, Nauseda said he would bridge the gap between rich and poor in Lithuania, which is among the most pronounced in the 28-member EU, adding that he would also seek to bring urban and rural Lithuanians closer together.
8. Nobel Prize-winning physicist Murray Gell-Mann dies at 89
• Murray Gell-Mann, a physicist who theorized the existence of the quark and won a Nobel Prize for his method of classifying particles, has died at age 89, the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) said.
• Considered among the most important physicists of the 20th century, the American scientist theorized in the 1960s that subatomic particles — protons and neutrons — were composed of paired subunits he called quarks. Experiments later confirmed the existence of the particles, which are a continuing subject of study by physicists including those at the Large Hadron Collider, the world’s most powerful proton smasher straddling the French-Swiss border.
• Amid an explosion of research into what makes up matter in the 1950s and 1960s, Gell-Mann came up with a criteria for putting particles in groups of eight based on characteristics like electric charge and spin.
9. Malaysia`s last male Sumatran rhino dies
• Malaysia`s last surviving male Sumat ranrhino died on May 27, 2019, wildlife officials said, leaving behind only one female in the country and pushing the critically-endangered species closer to extinction.
• Once found as far away as eastern India and throughout Malaysia, the Sumatran rhino has been almost wiped out, with fewer than 80 left, according to the World Wildlife Fund.
• Only a handful of the creatures remain in the wilds of Indonesia.
May 28, 2019: Sports Current Affairs
10. Australia record comfortable warm-up win over SL
• Australia concluded their World Cup preparation on an emphatic note, beating a struggling Sri Lanka by five wickets in their final warm-up game here on May 27, 2019.
• Usman Khawaja, who opened alongside skipper Aaron Finch in place of a rested David Warner, anchored the chase with 89 off 105 balls as Australia eventually breezed to victory in 44.5 overs.
