NATIONAL

Nov. 16: The Lahore High Court (LHC) allowed former prime minister Nawaz Sharif to travel abroad initially for a period of four weeks, extendable on the basis of medical reports.

Nov. 16: The tenth session of the European Union-Pakistan Joint Commission concluded in Brussels, Belgium. The European Union offered technical assistance to Pakistan for implementation of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) action plan by the country.

Nov. 16: The Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) approved a loan of $71.81 million for the Karachi Bus Rapid Transit Red Line project.

Nov. 16: Pakistan Army lifted the Quaid-e-Azam Trophy for the 24th time when they secured 7909 points with 150 gold medals, 134 silver and 96 bronze medals at the 33rd National Games.

Nov. 16: Justice Azhar Saleem Babar, senior most judge of the High Court, took oath as acting chief Justice of Azad Jammu and Kashmir High Court.

Nov. 16: Pakistan’s polio hit bodybuilder Naveed Butt was declared Natural Mr Olympia for the fourth time in Las Vegas.

Nov. 18: Suspending the notification to appoint singer-turned-politician and philanthropist Abrarul Haq as chairman of the Pakistan Red Crescent Society (PRCS), the Islamabad High Court restored Dr Saeed Elahi to his position.

Nov. 18: Prime Minister Imran Khan inaugurated Havelian-Mansehra section of the Hazara motorway.

Nov. 18: Former finance minister Asad Umar was inducted into the federal cabinet as minister for planning, development and reforms.

Nov. 18: Chief of the Army Staff Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa visited Tehran for security talks with Iranian military leaders.

Nov. 18: Pakistan conducted a successful training launch of the Shaheen-1 ballistic missile.

About the test

The training launch came a day after Pakistan’s arch-rival India conducted the first night trial of nuclear-capable intermediate-range Agni-II ballistic missile. The Shaheen-1 is classified as a surface-to-surface ballistic missile, with a range of 650 kilometres. The missile can carry both conventional and nuclear warheads.

Nov. 18: Pakistan posted $99 million current account surplus in October after a gap of more than four years.

Nov. 19: Federal Ombudsman Syed Tahir Shahbaz was elected unopposed as the president of the Asian Ombudsman Association (AOA) for a second time and for the next four years.

Nov. 19: Sindh became the first province to acquire the federal government’s license for establishing a provincial power grid company, enabling it to set up grid stations and transmission lines.

Nov. 19: Nehr Ghar’s debut production Laal Kabootar, helmed by director Kamal Khan with music by Taha Malik and cinematography by Mo Azmi, fetched the Best Feature Film Award at the Vancouver International South Asian Film Festival 2019.

Nov. 19: Pakistan’s Syed Imaad Ali, 13, became the youngest player ever to triumph in the Junior World Scrabble Championship.

Nov. 19: Government approved the country’s first-ever national tariff policy. It is aimed at removing anomalies in import duties structure and use it as an instrument to catalyse industrial production and for export growth.

Nov. 19: Pakistan whitewashed England 6-0 in the International Blind Twenty20 Series.

Nov. 20: Special Assistant to the Prime Minister (SAPM) on Media Affairs Yousuf Baig Mirza resigned.

Nov. 20: President Dr Arif Alvi conferred Nishan-e-Imtiaz (Military) upon Chief of General Staff of Turkish Armed Forces General Yasar Guler.

Nov. 21: The 193-member Third Committee of the UN General Assembly, which deals with social, humanitarian and cultural issues, unanimously passed a Pakistan-sponsored resolution reaffirming the right to self-determination for peoples subjected to foreign and alien occupation.

Nov. 21: Prime Minister Imran Khan named Lt Gen Nadeem Raza as the next Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee (CJCSC).

Who is Lt Gen Nadeem Raza?

Lt Gen Raza, Hilal-i-Imtiaz (Military), who had in August last year become the Chief of General Staff, the most prestigious appointment in the military after the army chief, was being seen by defence observers as the front runner for this post, given his profile.

As CGS, Gen Raza worked closely with Gen Bajwa and one of the considerations for the government while making this appointment would have been the working relationship between the two four-star generals over the next three years.

Lt Gen Raza was commissioned in the infantry’s 10 Sindh Regiment in September 1985. He is a graduate of Command and Staff College Quetta and NDU Islamabad. He also attended Inf Coy Command Course in Germany in 1994.

The officer carries with him a varied experience of command, staff and instructional appointments. He has served as the brigade major of an infantry brigade, general staff officer (Grade 1) at the Military Operations Directorate, and chief of staff of a Strike Corps.

On the instructional side, he has been on the faculty of the School of Infantry and Tactics, Command and Staff College Quetta and War College Islamabad and served as the commandant of the Pakistan Military Academy. Lt Gen Raza has commanded an infantry battalion and infantry brigade along the Line of Control, an infantry division in South Waziristan and the 10 Corps (Rawalpindi).

He assumed the position of CGS on September 10, 2018. He is married and has four children.

Nov. 21: Prime Minister Imran Khan was given “Lifetime Achievement” award by two leading British Sikh organisations.

Nov. 22: Dawn Editor Zaffar Abbas received the prestigious Gwen Ifill Press Freedom Award for 2019 for his “extraordinary and sustained achievement in the cause of press freedom”.

About the Award

In 2017, the Burton Benjamin Memorial Award of the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) was renamed the Gwen Ifill Press Freedom Award to honour the veteran journalist and former CPJ board member, who died in 2016. Ms Ifill was also the first woman of African descent to host a nationally televised news show in the United States. The award is presented annually to an individual who has shown extraordinary and sustained

Nov. 22: Top seed Aqeel Khan and Ushna Suhail claimed the men’s and women’s titles of the fourth EBM Pakistan Open Tennis Championships.

Nov. 22: PCB’s veteran COO Subhan Ahmed resigned from his post.

Nov. 22: Pakistan’s top professional boxer, Mohammad Waseem, won the 10th professional bout of his career, outclassing Mexico’s Ganigan Lopez in an intense battle of eight rounds.

Nov. 23: Retired Lt Gen Syed Arif Hasan and Khalid Mahmood were re-elected unopposed as president and secretary of the Pakistan Olympic Association (POA) for fifth and third time, respectively for the term 2019-2023.

Nov. 23: Pakistan won the ACC Emerging Teams Asia Cup 2019 beating Bangladesh in the final.

Nov. 23: New reserves of oil and gas were found in Sindh during the drilling explorations of Shale gas and Tight oil deposits. The OGDCL claimed that the reserves have 95 trillion cubic feet (TCF) Shale gas and 14 billion stock tank barrel (BSTB) Tight oil reserves that are enough to meet country’s requirement for the next 90 years.

Nov. 24: Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) announced to finance $511.81 million for four projects for the infrastructural development in Pakistan, mainly related to roads, energy, sanitation and mass transit.

Nov. 25: Ambassador Khalil Hashmi, Permanent Representative of Pakistan to the United Nations in Geneva, was elected as president of the 11th session of the Commission on Trade and Development. The commission is one of the key constituents on the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) based in Geneva.

Nov. 25: Prime Minister Imran Khan launched Clean Green Pakistan Index (CGPI) as part of his government’s efforts to curb pollution and reduce the impact of climate change.

Nov. 25: Famous marsiya nigar (elegy writer) Sahir Lakhnavi passed away.

Nov. 25: Lt Gen Sahir Shamshad Mirza was named as the army’s next Chief of General Staff (CGS) while Lt Gen Nadeem Zaki Manj will be new Director General of the Strategic Plans Division (SPD), which is the custodian of nuclear arsenal.

About Strategic Plans Division

The command-and-control reforms of 1999 to 2001 established the Strategic Plans Division (SPD) as the secretariat of the National Command Authority (NCA). In this role, the SPD administers NCA policies over all of Pakistan’s nuclear and missile programs. Agencies administered by the SPD include the National Engineering and Scientific Commission (NESCOM), the Space and Upper Atmosphere Research Commission (SUPARCO), the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission (PAEC), Khan Research Laboratories (KRL), and the National Development Complex (NDC). The SPD exercises significant administrative authority over the research, development, production, and manufacturing of Pakistan’s ballistic and cruise missile arsenal. The International Institute for Strategic Studies also notes that the composition of the SPD, which is headed by an army three-star general, suggests a dominant army position in the SPD hierarchy.

Other Name:            Strategic Planning Directorate; Combat Development Directorate (CDD); General Headquarters (GHQ)

Location: Islamabad, Pakistan

Subordinate to: President of Pakistan and Prime Minister of Pakistan

Size: 50 officers

Nov. 25: Queen Maxima of the Netherlands reached Pakistan on a two-day visit in her capacity as the UN Secretary General’s Special Advocate for Inclusive Finance for Development.

Nov. 25: Wapda signed a Rs52.5 billion contract with a joint venture of General Electric Hydro China and Power China Zhongnan Engineering Corporation for electro-mechanical works of the Dasu hydropower project (stage-I).

About the project

The 4,320MW hydropower project is being constructed by Wapda on the Indus upstream of Dasu town in Kohistan district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. The project will be completed in two stages—each stage having a generation capacity of 2,160MW. Electricity generation from the project is expected to commence in 2024-25. The stage-I will contribute more than 12 billion units per annum to the national grid. The project’s stage-II will provide 9bn additional units to the system every year. The project will have 12 units of 360MW each. In the first phase, 2,160MW electricity will be generated by 2023. The project’s first phase started in June 2017. The second phase will begin in 2023 on the completion of the first phase.

Nov. 26: Pakistan and the World Bank signed $787 million worth of loan agreements for improving civic services in Karachi, and financing a regional electricity transmission project.

Nov. 26: The federal government appointed Maj Azam Suleman (retd) the chief secretary Punjab and Shoaib Dastgir as the provincial IGP.

Nov. 26: The government announced the appointment of retired Lt Gen Asim Saleem Bajwa as chairman of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor Authority (CPECA).

Nov. 26: Princess Sara Zeid of Jordan visited Quetta and met Balochistan Chief Minister Jam Kamal Khan Alyani. She visited Pakistan as the United Nation’s Special Adviser to the World Food Programme on Maternal and Child Health and Nutrition.

Nov. 26: PTI’s Zeeshan Khanzada was elected a senator in a one-sided contest against Farzand Ali Khan of PPP.

Nov. 27: President Dr Arif Alvi inaugurated the two-day ‘Engage Africa Conference’ at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Islamabad.

Nov. 27: The launch ceremony of the first indigenous Fast Attack Craft (Missile)/FAC (M)-4, which is being built for Pakistan Navy, was held at Karachi Shipyard & Engineering Works (K&SEW).

FAC (M)-4 is a state-of-the-art, multi-mission vessel, 63 metres in length and displacement of over 560 tonnes. It is propelled by four shafts and has a speed of 30 knots. It will be equipped with locally built anti-ship missiles and sensors. The vessel has been designed by Maritime Technologies Complex (MTC).

Nov. 27: Gen Nadeem Raza took charge as new Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee (CJCSC).

Nov. 28: The Supreme Court allowed extension/reappointment of General Qamar Javed Bajwa, Chief of the Army Staff (COAS), for another six months.

Nov. 28: Rana Tanveer Hussain of PML-N was elected as the chairman of the parliament’s all-powerful Public Accounts Committee (PAC).

Nov. 29: The federal government appointed Wajid Zia the director general of the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) and reappointed Yusuf Nasim Khokhar to the position of interior secretary.

Nov. 29: Pakistan was re-elected as member Executive Council of Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) for another two-year term (2020-2021).

Nov. 30: Nadra launched a countrywide service to register physically challenged and seriously ill people on their doorstep.

Dec. 01: Annual Sindh Culture Day, popularly known as the Aikta (unity) Day, was celebrated across the Sindh province. This year’s theme for the event was ‘Our Unity Day’.

Dec. 01: A study commissioned by the World Bank has identified 23 selected tourist sites across the province of Punjab to delineate the engagement of youth and women in the tourism sector.

The identified sites were: Derawar Fort (Bahawalpur), shrine of Hazrat Syed Ahmed Sultan Sakhi Sarwar (Dera Ghazi Khan), Fort Munro (D.G. Khan), tombs of Shah Rukne Alam, Shah Shams and Mai Maharban (Multan), Harappa (Sahiwal), shrine of Hazrat Baba Haji Sher Chawli Mashaikh (Vehari), shrine (darbar) of Sakhi Saidan Shah Shirazi (Choa Saidan Shah, Chakwal), Rohtas Fort (Jhelum), Mazar Sakhi Sultan Bahu (Jhang), Nur Jahan’s tomb (Lahore), Kalabagh (Mianwali), Sadiq Garh Palace (Bahawalpur), Cholistan Desert (Bahawalpur), Khanpur dam (Haripur), Jallo Park (Lahore), shrine of Hazrat Makhdum Jahaniyan Jahangasht (Bahawalpur), Hiran Minar (Sheikhupura), Lal Suhanra National Park (Bahawalpur), Khabeki Lake (Khushab), Thal Desert, and Raja Man Singh’s Haveli (Jhelum).

Dec. 02: New York-based credit rating agency Moody’s raised Pakistan’s economic outlook from negative to stable on the back of the country’s reforms supported by an IMF programme.

Dec. 02: Iconic journalist Zafar Iqbal Mirza — popularly known as ZIM based on his initials or by his pen name Lahori — breathed his last.

Dec. 02: Australia beat Pakistan by an innings and 48 runs to sweep the series 2-0.

Dec. 02: Young British Pakistani boxer Hamza Sheeraz became the new WBO super welterweight European champion.

Dec. 02: Provincial Minister Fayyaz-ul-Hassan Chohan was notified as new Minister for Information Punjab.

Dec. 03: The United Kingdom’s National Crime Agency (NCA) accepted an offer of a staggering £190 million from the family of property tycoon and businessman Malik Riaz, and announced that the amount is to be transferred to Pakistan.

Dec. 03: Prime Minister Imran Khan appointed Special Assistant on Accountability Barrister Shahzad Akbar as Adviser to the PM on Interior Affairs.

Dec. 04: The Global Climate Risk Index’s latest report placed Pakistan on the fifth spot on the list of countries, which remained most affected by climate change during the past two decades.

Dec. 04: The Ministry of Law and Justice notified Justice Gulzar Ahmed as Chief Justice of Pakistan.

Dec. 04: The international conference on ‘Quality Assurance System, Standards and Policies: Issues and Challenges’, organised by the Higher Education Commission (HEC) in collaboration with the United States Education Foundation Programme (USEFP), started in Islamabad.

Dec. 05: Chief Election Commissioner Justice (retd) Sardar Muhammad Raza retired after completing his term.

Dec. 05: Prime Minister Imran Khan launched the Digital Pakistan initiative.

Dec. 06: The Asian Development Bank (ADB) approved $1.3 billion in loans for Pakistan for emergency budgetary support, chiefly through a relatively expensive crisis response facility.

Dec. 06: Retired Justice Altaf Ibrahim Qureshi, a member of the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) from Punjab, took oath as acting Chief Election Commissioner (CEC).

Dec. 07: Pakistan’s javelin throw star Arshad Nadeem won a gold medal at the 13th South Asian Games (SAG) with a record throw of 86.48 metres.

Dec. 09: The Italian government announced Rs1.2 billion soft loan for the development of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Archaeology Department and promotion of religious tourism in the region.

Dec. 09: Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy’s new animated short “Sitara: Let Girls Dream” won three awards – for best screen play, best music and humanity category – in Los Angeles Animation Festival 2019.

Dec. 09: Lt Col Muhammad Suleiman, veteran hero of 1971 war breathed his last.

Dec. 09: Prime Minister Imran Khan inaugurated the country’s first National Science and Technology Park (NSTP) at the National University of Science and Technology (Nust), Islamabad.

Dec. 10: The first infrastructure project under the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), the Lahore Orange Line Metro Train (OLMT), was formally inaugurated for a trial run.

Dec. 10: Pakistan lifted men’s squash team event gold after beating India 2-1 in the decider to wrap-up its 13th South Asian Games journey with 32 gold, 41 silvers and 59 bronze medals in Nepal. Overall Pakistan finished fourth behind India (174-93-45), hosts Nepal (51-60-95) and Sri Lanka (40-83-128).

Dec. 10: Secretary of the Regional Transport Authority (RTA) Rohana Gul Kakar won Balochistan’s first Integrity Icon Award 2019. The Award has been instituted by the Accountability Lab in Islamabad.

Dec. 10: The United States placed Rao Anwar on a list of 18 major global abusers of human rights, accusing him of being involved in 190 fake police encounters that resulted in over 400 deaths.

Dec. 10: Nepra imposed a fine of Rs50 million on K-Electric (KE) Ltd after holding it responsible for 19 of the 35 deaths from electrocution in July-August in Karachi amid heavy rains.

Dec. 11: An accountability court ordered freezing of the immovable assets of opposition leader in the National Assembly Shahbaz Sharif and his family members.

Dec. 11: Islamabad High Court granted post-arrest bail to former president Asif Ali Zardari in Park Lane and fake accounts cases on medical grounds.

Dec. 11: Customs authorities of Pakistan and China reached consensus to expedite clearances of agriculture products under the proposed Green Corridor at Sust and Khunjerab.

Dec. 11: Pakistan and Russia agreed to enhance bilateral cooperation in trade, aviation, economic and energy sectors.

Dec. 12: The Switzerland Parliament approved to grant Pakistan, among 18 countries, to access its financial data from 2021. The development would allow Pakistan authorities to learn how much money Pakistanis have in Switzerland.

Dec. 12: Pakistan’s ranking on the Human Development Index (HDI) 2019 fell one notch more and it stood at 152nd position out of the total 189 countries.

Dec. 12: Spin great Mushtaq Ahmed was appointed a spin bowling consultant at the National Cricket Academy (NCA) in Lahore.

Dec. 12: Pakistan’s Elite Panel umpire Aleem Dar broke Steve Bucknor’s world record of supervising most Tests (128) as an umpire.

Dec. 13: Three newly-appointed judges of Islamabad High Court (IHC)— Fiaz Ahmed Anjum Jandran, Ghulam Azam Qambrani and Lubna Saleem Pervez—took oath of their offices.

Dec. 13: The government signed $407 million loan agreement with the World Bank for the construction of a 48-km long-road project — Khyber Pass Economic Corridor (KPEC) — from Peshawar to Torkham.

Dec. 14: Pakistan was named the top holiday destination for travellers for the year 2020 by the United States-based luxury and lifestyle publication Conde Nast Traveler.

Dec. 14: President Arif Alvi reconstituted the National Economic Council (NEC) and appointed Asad a member while also terminated Khusro Bakhtiar’s council membership.

Dec. 14: Chief Minister Punjab, Sardar Usman Buzdar, inaugurated the “Hunarmand Jawan” programme for the youths of Punjab under the auspices of Technical Education and Vocational Training Authority (Tevta).

Dec. 14: Prime Minister Imran Khan visited Saudi Arabia, while Chief of the Army Staff Gen Qamar Bajwa travelled to Abu Dhabi.

Dec. 14: A monumental statue to pay tribute to the Baloch scholar, poet, author and lexicographer late Syed Zahoor Shah Hashmi was installed at Padizar Avenue of Gwadar. The sculpture was made by renowned Iranian sculptor Hassan Yadgarzadeh with the support of Mir Abdul Ghafoor Kalmati Trust.

Dec. 14: The government appointed new envoys in 18 countries, including Russia, Germany and Iran.

Dec. 14: Special Assistant to Prime Minister (SAPM) on Media Affairs Iftikhar Durrani was removed from his post.

Dec. 15: Siddiqa Begum, the chief editor of the oldest Urdu literary journal of the country Adab-i-Latif, passed away.

Dec. 15: Pakistan’s opener Abid Ali rewrote history books by becoming became the first batsman on the planet to score hundred on debut both in One-day International and Test formats.