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 October 17, 2018: National Current Affairs

1. Punjab unveils Rs2,026b budget amid rumpus

• The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf-led new Punjab government yesterday presented its first budget with Rs2,026 billion outlay for the remaining eight months of the current fiscal year 2018-19 amid noisy protest and rumpus created by the opposition in the house.
• The budget laid emphasis on education, health and social sector development.
• It is to be noted that the Punjab caretaker government in June 2018 had approved Rs693 billion budget for the period of four months (July-Oct) under the Article 126 of the Constitution. The Constitution authorises the caretaker cabinet to approve expenditure for up to four months from the provincial consolidated fund which is going to end this month.
• With major focus on social sector especially the education and health, provincial Finance Minister Makhdoom Hashim Jawan Bakht presented the Punjab budget with total outlay of Rs2,026.51 billion in the Punjab Assembly.
• Giving break-up of the budget in the house, the minister said general revenue receipts for FY 2018-19 were estimated at Rs1,652 billion, while the province was expected to get Rs1,276 billion from Federal Divisible Pool. He said total provincial revenue was estimated at Rs376 billion, including Rs276 billion under the head of taxes and Rs100 billion under non-taxes.

2. Iran assured of help in tracing abducted guards

• The Foreign Office on October 16, 2018 assured Iran of Pakistan`s cooperation in tracing some of its guards who were abducted near the border between the two countries earlier in the day.
• `No effort will be spared to assist our Iranian brothers in finding the Iranian guards,` the FO said in a statement issued late in the evening after Tehran protested over the kidnapping of its guards from a region bordering Pakistan and sought cooperation for their recovery.
• The border guards were kidnapped by militants from a post in Mirjaveh region close to the border with Pakistan`s Balochistan province. There were varying reports about the number of kidnapped guards.
• The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) of Iran in a statement held the agents of `anti-[Islamic] Revolution terrorist groups` and `foreign [spy J agencies` responsible for the incident. The IRGC vowed to go after the terrorists and infiltrators involved in the kidnapping

3. S. Arabia agreed to end Umrah tax on Pakistanis, Senate panel told

• The Senate Standing Committee on Religious Affairs was informed on October 16, 2018 that Prime Minister Imran Khan had requested Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman Al Saud to waive 2,000 riyals tax imposed by the Saudi government on Pakistanis performing Umrah every year.
• The committee, presided over by Senator Maulana Abdul Ghafoor Haideri, was briefed about the problems faced by Pakistanis while performing Haj and Umrah.
• The chairman of the committee said he had received several complaints about the Saudi government imposing a tax of 2,000 riyals on pilgrims performing more than one Umrah within two years.

4. Pakistan urges Russia to enhance defence ties

• Pakistan has urged Russia to enhance the defence ties as the new partners prepare to hold joint military drills ‘Friendship 2018’ this month.
• Islamabad had made it clear to Moscow it was against any arms race in the region but could not ignore the defence needs.
• Pakistan told Moscow that India’s madness to gain supremacy in the region is threatening the balance of power. Pakistan needs a strong defence. Hope Russia will not prefer India as it will threaten peace in the region and disturb the balance of power in the region.
• Russia had been positive about enhancing trade and defence ties with Pakistan and in the years to come, the two can become close partners. “The relationship is gaining strength. They (Russia) understand our defence needs.
• This month, India had signed the deal worth $5.43 billion to buy five Russian S-400 Triumf missile shield systems at the 19th India-Russia annual bilateral summit in Hyderabad. The agreement was signed after a meeting between Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Russian President Vladimir Putin.
• Though the United States has warned any such agreement between India and Russia could attract sanctions under the US law, the Indian government has decided to go ahead with the deal.

October 17, 2018: International Current Affairs

5. India’s BJP changes Muslim name of Allahabad city to Prayagraj

• Authorities in India’s most populous state have changed the Muslim name of an historic city to one with Hindu overtones.
• Allahabad, a city of more than one million people in northern Uttar Pradesh (UP) state, will now be known as Prayagraj.
• Siddarth Nath Singh, UP health minister, said the decision to rename the city was made at a cabinet meeting following a proposal by Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, who heads the state.
• The city, home of India’s first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru and located 650km southeast of the Indian capital New Delhi, was named Allahabad by Muslim Mughal rulers in the 16th century.
• Its new name, Prayagraj, refers to the confluence of the Ganges and Yamuna rivers, the site of the Hindu mega-festival Kumbh Mela, which is to take place in January. More than 100 million people attended the gathering when it was last held in 2013.

6. A walking, talking robot debuts in UK parliament

• A WALKING and talking robot appeared in Britain`s parliament for the first time on October 16, 2018, prompting Twitter users to seize the chance to heap more mockery on Theresa May.
• The latest round of public amusement at the expense of the British premier came during a committee hearing on artificial intelligence (AI) and `the fourth industrial revolution`.
• MPs on the education committee invited a robot named Pepper a white female creation with an excruciatingly thin waist and a tablet computer stuck to her chest to answer some basic questions.
• Asked whether humans would have a place in a brave new world where AI reigns supreme, Pepper responded in a reassuring voice. `Robots will have an important role to play, but we will always need the soft skills that are unique to humans: to sense, make and drive value from technology,` the robot said.
• Comparisons to the premier`s propensity to dance in a robotic manner and speak with methodic precision traits that earned her the nickname `Maybot` quickly appeared on Twitter. `That`s fantastic….but can it do the Maybot,` asked someone named Hugh Duffy. `Theresa May is looking almost human these days,` Benedict Smyth offered.

7. China rolls out PR push on Muslim internments

• China on October 16, 2018 issued an ardent defence of the alleged mass internment of minorities in its far west Xinjiang region, with a regional official insisting that authorities are preventing terrorism through `vocational education` centres.
• Beijing has sought to counter a global outcry against the facilities with a series of op-eds and interviews and a roll out of new regulations that retroactively codify the use of a system of extra-judicial `re-education` camps in Xinjiang.
• Up to one million ethnic Uighurs and other mostly Muslim Turkic minorities are believed to be held in such centres, according to estimates cited by a United Nations panel.
• The programme has come under increasing fire from the international community, receiving particular censure from the United States and the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination.
• Chinese authorities initially denied the existence of the facilities. But they have changed their version as satellite imagery and documents issued by their own government have made that position untenable.

8. Pompeo raises Khashoggi case with Saudi king; Turks study `toxic materials`

• US Secretary of State Michael Pompeo has urged Saudi Arabia to hold a `thorough, transparent and timely investigation` into the murder of a Saudi journalist, Jamal Khashoggi, while a prominent Republican senator asked Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to step down.
• Secretary Pompeo met King Salman bin Abdul Aziz and the crown prince in Riyadh on October 16, 2018.
• The crown prince agreed there must be a thorough investigation into the disappearance.
• `The Secretary reiterated the President`s (Donald Trump) concern with respect to Jamal Khashoggi`s disappearance, as well as the President`s desire to determine what happened,` State Department spokesperson Heather Nauert told reporters in Washington.
• Ms Khashoggi disappeared from the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on Oct 2 and various US media outlets reported on Monday that Saudi authorities are working on a statement which would acknowledge that Mr Khashoggi died during interrogation andthat Riyadh would take immediate action against those responsible for his death.

9. US slaps sanctions against key Iranian paramilitary force

• The US Treasury Department on October 16, 2018 slapped sanctions on an Iranian paramilitary group along with a network of businesses that were providing it financing, as part of Washington`s campaign of maximum economic pressure against Tehran.
• In announcing the sanctions, Treasury said a network of more than 20 businesses known as the Bonyad Taavon Basij was financing the Basij Resistance Force, a component of Iran`s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).
• It also accused the militia of sending child soldiers to Syria in support of President Bashar al-Assad`s regime.
• `The international community must understand that business entanglements with the Bonyad Taavon Basij network and IRGC front companies have real world humanitarian consequences,` said Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin.

10. Ethiopian PM hands half of cabinet jobs to women, even defence

• Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed on October 16, 2018 unveiled a downsized cabinet where, in a first, half the members are women.
• Women occupy key positions in the 20-member cabinet that includes a newly created Ministry of Peace to oversee the federal police and intelligence agencies.
• Ethiopia is now the second African nation after Rwanda to achieve gender parity in its cabinet, and one of only a handful of nations to achieve this worldwide.
• Women are assigned to run key ministerial portfolios including ministries of Peace, Trade and Industry, and Defence.
• The new Minister of National Defence, Aisha Mohammed, is the first woman to hold the post.
• Aisha was earlier construction minister and before that in charge of the tourism ministry. She is from the drought-prone and poor Afar region, where she had once headed the disaster prevention office.
• Minister of Peace Muferiat Kamil is a former speaker of parliament.
• The previous cabinet had 28 ministers, of which only five were women.