International

Oct 22: Junko Tabei, the first woman to climb Mount Everest, the world’s highest peak, died at age 77.

Junko Tabei

1. Junko Tabei was born on 22 September 1939 in Miharu, Fukushima.
2. Tabei formed the Ladies Climbing Club: Japan (LCC) in 1969.
3. The club’s slogan was “Let’s go on an overseas expedition by ourselves”,
4. Tabei successfully summited Annapurna III on May 19, 1970.
5. On 16 May 1975, Tabei became the first woman to reach the summit of Everest.
6. In the 1990–91 season, Tabei reached the summit of Mount Vinson, Antarctica’s highest mountain.
7. On June 28, 1992, she summited Puncak Jaya and became the first woman to complete the Seven Summits.

Oct 22: Senegal put into service one of sub-Saharan Africa’s largest solar energy projects — the 20-megawatt Senergy 2 project in Bokhol, close to the Mauritanian border.

Oct 22: Zabivaka the wolf, was named as the official mascot of the 2018 Football World Cup to be held in Moscow.

1. The name of the wolf, according to FIFA, means “the one who scores”.
2. It received 53 per cent of the more than one million votes cast in a poll, beating a tiger (27 percent) and a cat (20 percent).

List of FIFA Mascots

1966 England: World Cup Willie (lion)

1970 Mexico: Juanito (boy)

1974 West Germany: Tip and Tap (two boys)

1978 Argentina: Gauchito (footballer)

1982 Spain: Naranjito (orange)

1986 Mexico: Pique (hot pepper)

1990 Italy: Ciao (stick figure player)

1994 United States: Striker (dog)

1998 France: Footix (cockerel)

2002 Korea/Japan: Spheriks (energy)

2006 Germany: Goleo VI (lion)

2010 South Africa: Zakumi (leopard)

2014 Brazil: Fuleco™ (three-banded armadillo)

Oct 22: Svetlana Kuznetsova defeated Daria Gavrilova to reclaim the Kremlin Cup.

Oct 23: The telecommunications giant AT&T agreed to buy Time Warner, the home of HBO and CNN, for about $85.4 billion, in what is said to be the biggest deal in the world this year.

Oct 23: The UN Office on Drugs and Crime said that Afghanistan’s opium production has risen by an estimated 43% this year.

Oct 23: International Snow Leopard Day was observed across the globe.

About Snow Leopard

1. The big cat, also called the phantom of the Himalayas, is under threat from a variety of factors, including climate change, prey depletion and a greater conflict with human encroachment.
2. Warmer temperatures are shrinking the snow leopard habitat, pushing it towards extinction every day.
3. Over 90pc of the reported snow leopard poaching occurred in five out of the total 12 range countries such as China, Mongolia, Pakistan, India and Tajikistan.
4. Afghanistan had also been a major illegal market for snow leopard furs over the past decade.
5. There number in Pakistan is estimated to be between 200-400.

We look at 13 incredible pictures to celebrate International Snow Leopard Day.

National

Oct 22: On the heels of Afghan-US-Taliban meeting in Qatar, a three-member delegation from the Taliban’s Qatar office, consisting of Maulvi Shahabuddin Dilawar, Maulvi Salam Hanafi and Jan Muhammad came to Pakistan to meet authorities.

Oct 22: Six additional judges of the Sindh High Court were sworn in as permanent judges.

Names of Judges

1. Justice Muhammad Iqbal Maher
2. Justice Khadim Hussain Shaikh
3. Justice Zulifqar Ahmed Khan
4. Justice Mahmood A Khan
5. Justice Muhammad Karim Khan Agha and
6. Justice Muhammad Faisal Kamal Alam.

Oct 22: As per United Nations Population Fund’s ‘State of World Population Report 2016’, in Pakistan, 44 out of 1,000 girls between the ages of 15 and 19 bear children.

About the Report

1. Over half of the world’s 60 million 10 year old girls live in the 48 countries with the worst gender inequality.
2. Up to $21 billion a year in dividends for developing countries can be unlocked if all 10-year-old girls complete secondary education.
3. Practices that harm girls and violate their human rights starting at the age of 10 prevent them from realising their full potential as adults.
4. They also impede them from contributing to the economic and social progress of their communities and nations.
5. Without their contribution, the UN Agenda 2030 for Sustainable Development and its accompanying 17 Sustainable Development Goals may never be achieved.
6. Nine out of 10 10-year-old girls live in development countries, and one in five lives in a least of developed country. One in five is in India and one in eight, in China.
7. Dr Hassan Mohtashami is the country director of the United Nations Population Fund

Oct 22: Renowned Seraiki poet, Nazeer Faiz Maggi, who gained unparalleled popularity among the masses for writing poems for rights of Seraiki region, passed away. He was 69.

Oct 23: Supreme Court’s Justice Iqbal Hameed ur Rehman resigned.

Oct 23: Veteran politician and eminent agriculturalist of Sindh Syed Qamaruzzaman Shah passed away.

About Syed Qamaruzzaman Shah

1. Shah was born on Nov 12, 1933.
2. He received his early education at Noor Mohammad High School and then studied intermediate at the Government College Hyderabad.
3. He remained deputy speaker of Sindh Assembly for three months in 1977 and senator in 1973-77.
4. He was incarcerated twice in Gen Zia’s rule, first in 1977 and then in 1981.
5. He founded and effectively led the Sindh Chamber of Agriculture, one of the vibrant growers’ bodies that struggled for farm sector reforms and growers’ rights. Late Shah’s elder son Dr Nadeem Qamar now heads it.
6. He was the father of Pakistan Peoples Party parliamentary leader in National Assembly Syed Naveed Qamar
7. He is the grandfather of Syed Qasim Naveed, special assistant to Sindh chief minister.

Oct 23: Army Services Sports of Pakistan won the first International PACES Competition 2016, held at Fortress Stadium, Lahore.

Oct 23: Pakistan was ranked 106th among 113 countries by the World Justice Project in terms of Rule of Law experienced by the citizens

Highlights

1. The top three overall performers in the WJP Rule of Law Index 2016 were Denmark (1), Norway (2), and Finland (3) and the bottom three were Afghanistan (111), Cambodia
2. Pakistan ranks only above Afghanistan, Ethiopia, Zimbabwe, Cameroon, Egypt, Cambodia and Venezuela.
3. In the South Asia, Nepal ranks 63rd, India is at the 66th position, Sri Lanka is at 68th; Bangladesh is at 103rd and Pakistan at 106th.
4. South Asia’s top performer is Nepal

All About Darawat Dam Project

Location: The Darawat Dam Project is under construction across Nai Baran River near Jhangri village located at about 70 kms West of Hyderabad and 135 kms North East of Karachi in Thatta / Jamshoro districts of Sindh.
Salient Features
Dam Type	Concrete Gravity Dam
Height of Dam	151 ft
Gross Storage Capacity	121,605 AF
Live Storage Capacity	89,192 AF
CCA	25,000 Acres
Power Generation	0.3 MW (will be developed under PPP mode)
Execution by	WAPDA
Supervision Consultants	M/s National Development Consultants & M/s CAMEOS JV
Contractor	M/s Sinohydro Corporation Ltd.
Donor Agency	Government of Pakistan
Commencement Date	July 2010
Completion Date	August 2014
Financial Status	Local (Rs. Million)	FEC (Rs. Million)	Total (Rs. Million)
Original PC-I Cost (03.09.2009)	3,175.000	–	3,175.000
1st Revised PC-I Cost (16.08.2012)	9,300.000	–	9,300.000
PSDP Allocation 2015-2016	1,000.000	–	1,000.000