National

Oct 24: At least 61 security personnel were martyred and 117 injured when terrorists stormed the Police Training College located on Quetta’s Sariab Road.

How did three terrorists wreak havoc in Quetta?

The attack, around 20 kilometres east of Quetta, began around 11:10 pm Monday, with gunfire continuing to ring out at the site for several hours. There were three attackers who first targeted the watch tower sentry, and after exchanging fire, killed him and were able to enter the academy grounds. The three terrorists burst into the sprawling academy, targeting sleeping quarters that are home to some 700 recruits, sending terrified young men fleeing. Some of the cadets jumped off the rooftops and through windows to try to escape. Two of the heavily-armed militants blew themselves up while a third one was killed in operation.

Around 250 cadets were held hostage by the attackers, but they were rescued when police, military and paramilitary personnel arrived at the training centre within 20 minutes of the attack and launched an operation.

Monday night’s attack also appeared well coordinated, with senior law enforcement agencies saying that assailants had fired at the police training centre from five different points.

Oct 24: Christine Lagarde, the Managing Director (MD) of the Washing­ton-based lending agency, International Monetary Fund (IMF), came on her first visit to Pakistan.

Oct 24: Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) celebrated the 69th anniversary of liberation from the Dogra regime.

Oct 24: The three-judge committee of the Islamabad High Court (IHC), comprising Justice Noorul Haq N. Qureshi, Justice Shaukat Aziz Siddiqui and Justice Athar Minallah, sacked the IHC registrar Atiqur Rehman and demoted four other officials.  

Oct 24: The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) issued 10 rupees coin

Important Features

1. The coin is yellow in colour with serrations on the edges and a diameter of 25.5 mm, weighing 5.50 grams.
2. The waxing crescent moon and a five pointed star facing North-West in rising position is in the center on the obverse side of the coin.
3. The reverse side of the coin is decorated with the front side picture of Faisal Mosque with Doves flying over it.
4. Along with periphery on the top of the crescent star is inscribed Islami Jomhuriya Pakistan in Urdu script.
5. Below the crescent and at the top of two springs of wheat with arms curved upward, there is the year of issuance.
6. A circle of small beads is all along the edge of the coin.
7. The face value of the coin in numeral wording “10” in bold letters and Rupee in Urdu script is inscribed at lower side of the coin.
8. The ten rupee coin joins the Rs1, 2 and 5 coins already used in Pakistan. The SBP issued Rs5 coin in 2005.

Oct 24: The Supreme Court restrained National Accountability Bureau (NAB) chairman Qamar Zaman Chaudhry from approving deals for voluntary return (VR).

What is Voluntary Return?

Section 25(a) of the National Accountability Ordinance allows people guilty of corruption to pay a certain portion of the embezzled money and be released without any stigma. The Section reads:

25. (a) Notwithstanding anything contained in section 15 or in any other law for the time being in force, where a holder of public office or any other person, prior to the authorization of investigation against him, voluntarily comes forward and offers to return the assets or gains acquired or made by him in the course, or as the consequence, of any offence under this Ordinance, the Chairman NAB may accept such offer and after determination of the amount due from such person and its deposit with the NAB discharge such person from all his liability in respect of the matter or transaction in issue:

Provided that the matter is not sub judice in any court of law.

The NAB scheme even allows federal and provincial government servants to resume work in their departments after availing the NAB’s VR facility.

The NAB, through an earlier report, had submitted that 1,584 civil servants, 165 of them federal government employees and 1,419 provincial government officers, enjoyed the VR facility of NAB by paying Rs2 billion.

Oct 24: A Senate committee passed the Representation of the People (Amendment) Bill 2016, seeking an amendment to the Representation of the People Act (ROPA) 1976, that on becoming law will require re-election in a constituency where women voters’ turnout remains less than 10 per cent.

Oct 24: Pakistan clinched the first-ever ICC Academy Physically Disabled T20 cricket tournament.

International

Oct 24: Comedian Bill Murray was awarded the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor.

The Mark Twain Prize

1. The Mark Twain Prize for American Humor is awarded by the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts annually since 1998.
2. It is named after the 19th century novelist, essayist and humorist Mark Twain.
3. It is presented to an individual who has made a significant contribution to American humor.
4. The prize is presented and show is taped in the Kennedy Center Concert Hall in Washington DC.
5. Recipients of the Twain Prize receive a copy of an 1884 bronze portrait bust of Mark Twain sculpted by Karl Gerhardt (1853-1940).
6. The first Kennedy Center Mark Twain Prize for American Humor was presented to comedian Richard Pryor on October 20, 1998.
7. Bill Murray is the 19^th recipient of the Award.

Oct 24: Lewis Hamilton won the United States Grand Prix to record his 50th career victory.

Oct 24: For the first time on record, the amount of CO₂ in the atmosphere averaged 400 parts per million (ppm) in 2015, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) said.

CO₂, the main greenhouse gas driving climate change, has previously passed the 400 ppm threshold on certain months in specific locations but never on a globally averaged basis.

CO₂ concentration rates have spiked in part because of a strong El Nino, the weather phenomenon that occurs every four to five years with a broadly warming effect.

The Kigali pact has been heralded as a major step towards curbing global warming, but Taalas cautioned that in working to cap HFC emissions the world could not afford to take its focus off CO2.

Oct 24: Qatar’s former Emir Sheikh Khalifa bin Hamad Al-Thani died, on Oct 23, at the age of 83.

1. Sheikh Khalifa was born in al-Rayyan in 1932.
2. He was appointed as Heir Presumptive by his grandfather on 30th June 1948.
3. He became the Heir-Apparent and Deputy Ruler on 24th October 1960.
4. Designations
5. Minister for Education (1957-1960)
6. Minister for Finance (1960-1972)
7. Minister for Petroleum (1970-1972)
8. Minister for Foreign Affairs (1971-1972)
9. He served as his country’s Prime Minister from 1970 to 1977.
10. The late emir ruled Qatar from 1972 until 1995 when his son Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani, the father of Qatar’s current emir Sheikh Tamim, took over.

Awards & Honours

1. Collars of the Orders of the Republic of Egypt (5.6.1971)
2. Honour of the Sudan (29.4.1972)
3. Badr al-Kubra of Saudi Arabia (1.5.1973)
4. Nile of Egypt (24.8.1973)
5. Husain ibn Ali of Jordan (18.7.1974)
6. Independence of Tunisia (22.7.1975)
7. Muhammadiya of Morocco (24.7.1975)
8. Pahlavi of Iran (13.11.1975),
9. Mubarak the Great of Kuwait (15.2.1982)
10. Chrysanthemum of Japan (23.4.1984)
11. GC of the Orders of Muaritania (10.5.1974)
12. the Legion of Honour of France (27.10.1975)
13. Lion of Senegal (20.11.1975)
14. Isabella the Catholic of Spain (3.11.1980)
15. Merit of the Lebanon (extraordinaire) (22.6.1986)
16. Merit of the Republic of Italy (15.1.1992)
17. Civil Order of Oman 1st class (20.12.1975)
18. Liberator Simon Bolivar of Venezuela (21.4.1977)
19. Anapurna 1st class of Indonesia (12.10.1977)
20. Nishan-i-Pakistan (16.4.1984)
21. Grand Order of Mugunghwa of Korea (21.4.1984).