National

Oct 25: The Sindh government issued orders to register all immigrants living in Karachi metropolis, including slum areas, and on its outskirts.

Oct 25: Serena Hotels was conferred the World Travel Award (WTA) for third consecutive year.

Oct 25: World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap Report 2016 ranked Pakistan as the second-worst country in the world for gender inequality for the second consecutive year.

Highlights

1. Iceland took the top spot for the 8th consecutive year, followed by Finland in second and Norway in third place.
2. The United States ranks 45.
3. Pakistan ranks 143 out of 144 countries in the index, way behind Bangladesh and India which rank 72nd and 87th respectively. Sri Lanka ranks 100th, Nepal 110th, the Maldives 115th and Bhutan 121st.
4. The only country ranked below Pakistan is Yemen (144), while Syria is one place ahead at 142.
5. Pakistan is also the worst performing state in South Asia.

Pakistan’s Rankings in Recent Years

2013: 135th                 2014: 141st                 2015: 143rd

Oct 25: Pakistan defeated West Indies by 133 runs to take an unassailable 2-0 lead in the series.

Oct 25: Pakistan athletes won five medals — three gold, one silver and one bronze — in International Biathle-Triathle World Championships.

Oct 25: With ensuring a Test series win against West Indies, Pakistan’s Misbah ul Haq became most successful Asian captain, by winning his 10th series.

Highlights

1. He has surpassed Indian duo of Saurav Ganguly and MS Dhoni, who both had won nine Test series each.
2. For Pakistan, next to Misbah is Javed Miandad who had led Pakistan in eight series victories.

Most Test wins as Captain (Asian captains only):

Captain	Matches	Won	Lost	Draw	Win Percentage
MS Dhoni (Ind)	60	27	18	15	45.00
Misbah-ul-Haq (Pak)	48	24	13	11	50.00
Sourav Ganguly (Ind)	49	21	13	15	42.85
Sanath Jayasuriya (SL)	38	18	12	8	47.36
Mahela Jayawardene (SL)	38	18	12	8	47.36

Most successful Captains for Pakistan:

Captain	Matches	Won	Lost	Draw	Win Percentage
Misbah-ul-Haq	48	24	13	11	50.00
Javed Miandad	35	14	5	14	41.17
Imran Khan	48	14	8	26	29.16
Wasim Akram	25	12	8	5	48.00

Oct 25: Pakistan and Iran agreed to enhance cooperation and contact on issues of mutual interest between the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) and anti-corruption institutions in Tehran.

Oct 26: The Asian Development Bank (ADB) declined to commit funds for the $14 billion Diamer-Bhasha dam project.

Oct 26: The 15th ministerial meeting of the Central Asia Regional Economic Cooperation (CAREC) programme was held in Islamabad.

Oct 26: Pakistan was ranked 144th out of 190 economies for 2017 on the Word Bank’s Ease of Doing Business (EODB) Index.

Highlights

1. Pakistan has jumped four ranks from its position last year — from 148th to 144th out of 190 countries.
2. Pakistan witnessed a remarkable improvement mainly in three areas: Registering Property, Getting Credit and Trade Across Borders.

Most improved economies in 2015/16

Bahrain, Belarus, Brunei Darussalam, Georgia, Indonesia, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Pakistan, Serbia, and the United Arab Emirates,

About the Index

The World Bank’s Ease of Doing Business Report and the WEF’s Global Competitiveness Index (GCI) are the main sources of assessing the competitiveness of economies. The report is based on its Enterprise Survey while the GCI is based on the Executive Opinion Survey. At times, the findings appear unrealistic, which is also because of lack of proactive approach by state institutions. The GCI’s survey is relatively more representative as it captures the perception of people in about half a dozen cities.

How rankings are set

The World Bank’s report focuses on the “underlying and embedded characteristics such as the regulatory system, the efficacy of bureaucracy and the nature of business governance.”

It gathers information from 10 areas of business regulation including starting a business, dealing with construction permits, getting electricity, registering property, getting credit, protecting minority investors, paying taxes, trading across borders, enforcing contracts and resolving insolvency to develop the ease of doing business ranking.

The information on these factors, which make up the EODB variable, is assessed and in turn used to rank country performance by way of business friendliness.

Complete Report at:

http://www.doingbusiness.org/~/media/WBG/DoingBusiness/Documents/Annual-Reports/English/DB17-Report.pdf

Oct 26: Lahore High Court declared the appointment of Environment Protection Agency (EPA) Director General Dr Javed Iqbal as illegal.

International

Oct 24: The United Nations Day was observed.

Highlights

1. The day marks the entry into force of the UN Charter (the founding document of UNO) on 24 October 1945.
2. On this day the Charter was ratified by the original five permanent members of the Security Council — China, France, Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (now Russia), United Kingdom, and United States and majority of the other signatories.
3. The United Nations General Assembly had declared 24 October as the United Nations Day by adopting Resolution 2782 in 1971.
4. The day is devoted making people aware of the aims and achievements of the United Nations Organization.
5. This day is part of United Nations Week, which runs from 20 to 26 October.

Significance of the UN Charter

With the ratification of UN Charter, the United Nations officially came into existence. It is a constituent treaty and all signatory members are bound by its articles. Furthermore, Article 103 of the UN Charter states that obligations to the United Nations prevail over all other treaty obligations. Most countries in the world have now ratified the Charter.

Global Gender Gap Report 2016

Complete List

Rank	Economy	Score
1	Iceland	0.881
2	Norway	0.85
3	Finland	0.85
4	Sweden	0.823
5	Ireland	0.807
6	Rwanda	0.794
7	Philippines	0.79
8	Switzerland	0.785
9	Slovenia	0.784
10	New Zealand	0.782
11	Germany	0.779
12	Nicaragua	0.776
13	Netherlands	0.776
14	Denmark	0.767
15	France	0.761
16	Namibia	0.76
17	South Africa	0.759
18	United Kingdom	0.758
19	Belgium	0.753
20	Latvia	0.752
21	Estonia	0.749
22	Bolivia	0.749
23	Burundi	0.748
24	Barbados	0.744
25	Spain	0.742
26	Moldova	0.742
27	Mozambique	0.741
28	United States	0.74
29	Cuba	0.74
30	Canada	0.74
31	Lithuania	0.74
32	Luxembourg	0.738
33	Ecuador	0.738
34	Belarus	0.734
35	Argentina	0.734
36	Australia	0.733
37	Austria	0.733
38	Costa Rica	0.732
39	Portugal	0.731
40	Bahamas	0.728
41	Italy	0.726
42	Colombia	0.725
43	Bulgaria	0.722
44	Panama	0.722
45	Serbia	0.72
46	Trinidad and Tobago	0.72
47	Kazakhstan	0.719
48	Kenya	0.719
49	Tanzania	0.718
50	Cape Verde	0.717
51	Poland	0.715
52	Lao PDR	0.713
53	Israel	0.712
54	Singapore	0.711
55	Botswana	0.71
56	Mongolia	0.709
57	Zimbabwe	0.709
58	Uganda	0.708
59	Croatia	0.708
60	Thailand	0.706
61	Lesotho	0.706
62	El Salvador	0.706
63	Ghana	0.704
64	Bangladesh	0.704
65	Jamaica	0.703
66	Guyana	0.702
67	Ukraine	0.702
68	Malawi	0.701
69	Macedonia, FYR	0.701
70	Albania	0.701
71	Mexico	0.699
72	Senegal	0.698
73	Chile	0.698
74	Madagascar	0.698
75	Russian Federation	0.694
76	Kyrgyz Republic	0.693
77	Romania	0.693
78	Venezuela	0.691
79	Montenegro	0.689
80	Honduras	0.688
81	Czech Republic	0.687
82	Georgia	0.687
83	Vietnam	0.687
84	Sri Lanka	0.686
85	Brazil	0.686
86	Dominican Republic	0.686
87	Greece	0.685
88	Brunei Darussalam	0.684
89	Peru	0.683
90	Cameroon*	0.682
91	China	0.682
92	Indonesia	0.681
93	Uruguay	0.679
94	Suriname	0.678
95	Tajikistan	0.675
96	Azerbaijan	0.675
97	Slovak Republic	0.675
98	Gambia, The*	0.674
99	Hungary	0.672
100	Cyprus	0.671
101	Japan	0.67
102	Swaziland	0.67
103	Belize	0.668
104	Malta	0.668
105	Armenia	0.668
106	Guatemala	0.667
107	Paraguay	0.666
108	India	0.664
109	Cambodia	0.662
110	Nepal	0.658
111	Malaysia	0.655
112	Liberia	0.652
113	Maldives	0.652
114	Burkina Faso	0.651
115	Korea, Rep.	0.651
116	Zambia	0.65
117	Kuwait	0.646
118	Bhutan	0.646
119	United Arab Emirates	0.646
120	Mauritius	0.646
121	Fiji	0.645
122	Qatar	0.645
123	Bahrain	0.644
124	Ethiopia	0.64
125	Nigeria	0.638
126	Angola	0.637
127	Tunisia	0.634
128	Algeria	0.632
129	Benin*	0.625
130	Turkey	0.624
131	Guinea	0.618
132	Mauritania	0.613
133	Côte d’Ivoire	0.606
134	Saudi Arabia	0.605
135	Oman	0.604
136	Egypt	0.599
137	Mali	0.599
138	Lebanon	0.598
139	Morocco	0.593
140	Jordan	0.593
141	Iran, Islamic Rep.	0.58
142	Chad	0.58
143	Syria	0.568
144	Pakistan	0.559
145	Yemen	0.484