WORLD IN FOCUS (March – April 2013)

News From National & International Press

National

Mar 16: Senior bureaucrat Mahfooz Ali Khan was given the charge of chief secretary of Balochistan.

Mar 16: The federal government notified a Control of Narcotics Substances (CNS) court for Islamabad capital territory (ICT).

Mar 18: President Asif Ali Zardari and his Egyptian counterpart Dr Mohamed Morsi ‘the first Egyptian leader in over five decades to visit Pakistan’ agreed to take bilateral relations ‘to a higher trajectory’. The two countries also decided to hold biennial summits to intensify political interaction.

Mar 18: Balochistan Governor Nawab Zulfiqar Ali Magsi dissolved the provincial assembly.

Mar 18: The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) declared void the unopposed election of Dr Qayyum Soomro as senator on a reserved seat for technocrats from Sindh.

Mar 18: Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf appointed former federal secretary Aziz Bilour as member (social sector) of the Planning Commission and President Asif Ali Zardari appointed Asif Usman Khan as Controller General of Accounts.

Mar 19: After Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf and Leader of the Opposition in the now-dissolved National Assembly, Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan, failed to agree on a name for caretaker prime minister, NA Speaker Dr Fehmida Mirza constituted an eight-member parliamentary committee to do the job.

Mar 19: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Sindh assemblies were dissolved by the governors of these provinces on the advice of the respective chief ministers.

Mar 20: President Asif Ali Zardari announced that the nation would go to the polls on May 11 to elect the National Assembly.

Mar 20: Punjab Governor Ahmad Mahmood dissolved the Punjab Assembly and the provincial cabinet on the advice of Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif.

Mar 21: Sindh Governor Dr Ishratul Ibad Khan signed the Jinnah Sindh Medical University Bill, 2012, passed by the provincial assembly on February 28.

Mar 22: After three days of talks, politicians in the parliamentary committee gave up and handed over the task of selecting the caretaker prime minister to the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP).

Mar 22: President Asif Ali Zardari finally quit the office of PPP’s co-chairman, making his son Bilawal Bhutto Zardari the party’s patron-in-chief.

Mar 22: Gilgit-Baltistan Chief Minister Mehdi Shah announced the district status for Shigar sub-division.

Mar 22: President Asif Ali Zardari approved Sitara-i-Shujaat for slain Dr Parween Rahman, a human rights activist and director of the Orangi Pilot Project, and Tamgha-iShujaat for Shazia Ramzan and Kainaat Riaz, schoolfellows of Malala Yousufzai.

Mar 22: The Supreme Court ordered Rangers and police to launch operation under Director General (DG) Rangers and Sindh Police IG to eliminate no-go-areas from Karachi.

Mar 23: Evacuee Trust Property Board (ETPB) Chairman Syed Asif Hashmi resigned from the post.

Mar 23: The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) finally picked retired Justice Mir Hazar Khan Khoso as caretaker prime minister by a 4-1 majority.

Mar 23: President Asif Ali Zardari awarded almost 213 different awards to the citizens and foreigners for the outstanding performance in their respective fields.

Mar 23: Nawab Ghaus Bakhsh Barozai took oath as fifth caretaker Chief Minister of Balochistan. Provincial Governor Nawab Zulfiqar Ali Magsi administered the oath.

Mar 25: The caretaker Prime Minister, Justice (R) Mir Hazar Khan Khoso, was administered the oath of office by President Asif Ali Zardari. Justice Khoso ‘the sixth caretaker prime minister of the country ‘became the oldest-ever Pakistani to assume charge as head of government.

Mar 25: The outgoing Punjab government’s announcement regarding the upgrade of local Government Sadiq Degree Girls College to a women’s university came into force.

Mar 26: Well-known journalist Najam Sethi was selected as caretaker chief minister of Punjab.

Mar 26: Seven Peshawar High Court additional judges took oath increasing the court’s strength to 18. The judges were appointed for one year by the president of Pakistan.

Mar 27: The Punjab government, after delay of 11 years, published revised edition of policy guideline, Punjab Establishment Code (Estacode) 2013.

Mar 27: The ICC’s Elite Panel umpire Aleem Dar was conferred with Pakistan’s one of the highest civil awards ‘Sitara-e-Imtiaz’ for his great services in the field of umpiring at the investiture ceremony held on March 23 the Pakistan Day.

Mar 28: The details of financial standing and statement of assets of political parties released by the ECP for the fiscal year ending on June 30, 2012, showed that Pakistan Peoples Party-Parliamentarians (PPPP) is the poorest political party in the country.

Mar 28: Malala Yousufzai signed a deal worth around $3 million to tell her story. The book will be entitled ‘I Am Malala’.

Mar 29: The Supreme Court restored Asad I. A. Khan as managing director of Nespak.

Mar 30: The All Pakistan Newspapers Society (APNS) elected Sarmad Ali as president and Masood Hamid as secretary general for 2013-14.

Mar 30: The Sindh caretaker cabinet comprising 16 ministers was sworn in.

Mar 30: A Pakistani student from Lahore, Mishal Saeed, was elected the Student’s Union President at the University of Salford as the first-ever female international to represent 20,000 students for a year. Former Pakistani Premier, Benazir Bhutto, had earlier been elected as Oxford University students’ union president.

April 01: The Supreme Court laid down stringent rules for legislators and suggested to them to disclose everything while filing nomination papers because they would have to be chosen by electors as their representatives.

April 01: Prime Minister Justice (R) Mir Hazar Khan Khoso announced his 15-member caretaker cabinet. The prime minister gave representation to all the provinces in the cabinet.

April 01: The Islamabad High Court (IHC) declared illegal the appointment of former prime minister Raja Pervez Ashraf’s son-in-law in an investment company jointly owned by the governments of Pakistan and China.

April 01: A four-member caretaker cabinet of Punjab took oath. Tariq Pervaiz, Saleema Hashmi, Arif Ijaz and Shams Mehmood Mirza were administered oath by the Punjab Governor.

April 02: Fourteen members of the caretaker federal cabinet took oath for 39 days, while one was sent home for being a serving government employee.

April 02: The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) asked the caretaker federal governments in the Centre and in the provinces to shuffle and transfer all federal and provincial secretaries.

April 03: Jammu and Kashmir, once only known for its picturesque beauty, continues to have a mention in the Guinness Book of World Records as the ‘most militarised zone and the longest pending dispute on the planet earth’. The book says that Kashmir has made its place in the facts book for four reasons and all the reasons are linked to the pending dispute.

April 03: The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) decided to include, for the first time, a column ‘none of the above’ on the ballot papers and deferred till the decision to include overseas Pakistanis in the polling process.

April 03: Federal Economic Division Secretary Javed Iqbal was posted as new Punjab chief secretary by the federal government.

April 04: The Lahore High Court restrained Muhammad Ashraf Wathra from working as deputy governor of State Bank of Pakistan and directed the bank’s counsel to submit a reply about the legality of the appointment.

April 05: The Lahore High Court (LHC) stopped returning officers from asking irrelevant questions during the scrutiny of nomination papers of candidates. The LHC also put restrictions on the media covering the scrutiny process.

April 05: India finally started ‘visa-on-arrival’ facility for Pakistani senior citizens on reciprocal basis. Senior Pakistanis of more than 65 years of age will now get ‘visa-on-arrival’ at Attaril Wagah checkpost for 45 days.

April 05: A fund was set up by Malala Yousufzai to send 40 girls to school in her home region with the support of US actress Angelina Jolie.

April 05: The Chair of the House of Common’s International Development Committee said that the British public may rise against economic assistance to Pakistan if the elite don’t come to senses and continue to evade taxes and encourage corrupt practices.

April 08: The European Union’s Election Observation Mission (EOM) said it would monitor polls in Sindh, Punjab, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Islamabad, but would not send its teams to Balochistan and the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata) because of security concerns.

April 09: The World Bank established a ‘Centre of Excellence’ at the University of Punjab in Lahore to address the issue of management of land acquisition, resettlement and rehabilitation.

April 09: Mangal Bagh became supreme leader of both the Lashkar-i-Islam (LI) and Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) for the tribal region of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

April 10: Ayaz Amir and Faisal Saleh Hayat, two members of the erstwhile National Assembly who were casualties of articles 62 and 63 of the constitution, got back into the electoral race when election tribunals upheld their appeals.

April 10: The Multan bench of the Lahore High Court overturned the conviction of former MNA Jamshed Ahmad Dasti in a fake degree case and ordered his release.

April 10: Pakistan conducted successful launch of the intermediate-range ballistic missile Hatf IV Shaheen-1 weapon system. It is capable of carrying nuclear and conventional warheads to a range of 900km.

April 10: The Asia Society ranked Umar Cheema’s tax report on Pakistani politicians as the 2nd best piece of investigative journalism produced in Asia during the year 2012.

April 11: The Election Commission (ECP) ordered the caretaker Sindh government to immediately transfer 65 bureaucrats against whom it had received specific complaints.

April 12: The superior judiciary  ordered the sacking of three executives in the Securities and Exchange Commission, Pakistan Television and the Utility Stores Corporation after declaring the appointments illegal.

April 13: Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry expressed disapproval of the unprecedented security protocol and other perks given to some heavyweights of the previous governments both at the centre and in the provinces.

April 13: The Gilgit-Baltistan government initiated a microfinance scheme for the unemployed youth to help them gain economic independence and contribute towards the region’s economic growth. An amount of Rs250 million was allocated to give small loans to educated youth.

April 13: The caretaker Sindh cabinet was expanded with the induction of seven more members.

April 13: Haroon-ur-Rasheed and Chaudhry Haseeb were elected president and general secretary of the Islamabad High Court Bar Association (IHCBA).

April 14: The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has barred the contesting candidates from seeking votes in the name of religion or sect in the upcoming general elections.

April 15: The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) announced to initiate Naya Pakistan Fund to provide financial assistance to candidates who are not in a position to contest upcoming elections.

April 15: The Water and Power Development Authority (WAPDA) started construction work on Darawat and Naj Gaj dams in Sindh. The dams would irrigate over 25,000 acres of barren land of Hyderabad and Daddu.

April 15: The caretaker prime minister inducted Dr Shahid Amjad Chaudhry as his adviser for finance and appointed Dr Waqar Masood Khan as secretary of finance department.

April 15: The issue of a border post in Mohmand Agency was resolved after Afghanistan dropped its objections and acknowledged that the Pakistan Army was renovating its post and not establishing a new one.

International

Mar 16: China’s new leaders turned to veteran technocrats to staff a cabinet charged with overhauling a slowing economy and pursuing a higher global profile for the country without triggering opposition.

The ceremonial legislature approved nearly three dozen trusted politicians, experienced officials and career diplomats who make up the State Council under Premier Li Keqiang.

Mar 16: Muslim and Western nations overcame deep divisions to agree on a landmark United Nations declaration setting out a code of conduct for combating violence against women and girls.
Iran, Libya, Sudan and other Muslim nations ended threats to block the declaration and agreed to language stating that violence against women could not be justified by ‘any custom, tradition or religious consideration’.

Mar 17: Iran launched a domestically built destroyer in the Caspian Sea, its first deployment of a major warship in the oil-rich region.
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad inaugurated the guided missile destroyer Jamaran-2 in the port city of Anzali, about 250kms northwest of Tehran.

Mar 17: China’s new President Xi Jinping will fight for a ‘great renaissance of the Chinese nation’, he said as the world’s most populous country completed its once-in-a-decade power transition.

Mar 17: Oil-rich Abu Dhabi officially opened the 100-megawatt Shams 1, the world’s largest Concentrated Solar Power (CSP) plant that cost $600 million to build and would provide electricity to 20,000 homes.

Mar 18: The Japanese government agreed to extend a grant of $2 million to Pakistan through the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) to support electoral process in the country.

Mar 18: India’s top judge said that Italy’s ambassador had forfeited his diplomatic immunity over his role in securing the release of two marines who skipped bail while on trial for murder in New Delhi.

Mar 18: Mumbai police set up India’s first ‘social media lab’ to monitor Facebook, Twitter and other networking sites. A specially-trained team of 20 police officers will staff the lab.

Mar 18: China overtook Britain to become the world’s fifth largest arms exporter with five per cent of the global trade, its highest position since the Cold War, a Swedish think tank reported.

Mar 19: European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton defended Italy’s envoy to India, prevented from leaving the country due to a row over two Italian marines who skipped bail while on trial for murder in New Delhi.

Mar 19: A French Muslim woman who was sacked for wearing the Islamic headscarf at work was unfairly dismissed on the basis of her religion, France’s top court ruled.
In a landmark decision, the Court of Cassation overturned an earlier ruling by an appeal court in Versailles which had upheld the right of her employer.

Mar 20: Syria’s main opposition group has elected Ghassan Hitto as interim prime minister to run what amounts to an administration in exile, tasked with bringing disparate rebel military groups under the control of a credible civilian leadership.

Mar 20: The United States and Kabul appeared to reach an agreement on the pullout of coalition forces from a strategic province, nearly a month after an ultimatum from Afghan President Hamid Karzai.

Mar 21: India’s Supreme Court sentenced popular film actor Sanjay Dutt to a five-year prison term and awarded death to a fugitive underworld operative in the 1993 Mumbai blasts case, saying the crime was carried out by men trained in Pakistan.

Mar 21: Jailed Kurdish rebel chief Abdullah Ocalan called for a new ceasefire, telling his fighters to lay down their arms and withdraw from Turkish soil, raising hopes for an end to a three-decade conflict.

Mar 21: Australia formally apologized for the forced adoption of tens of thousands of babies born mostly to unmarried mothers between the 1950s and 1970s.

Mar 22: Sultan Qaboos bin Said of Oman pardoned all dissidents jailed for defaming him or taking part in protests, in the latest effort to defuse unrest inspired by Arab uprisings elsewhere.

Mar 23: President Hamid Karzai asked the Taliban not to prevent students from equipping themselves with education and cooperate with his administration in reopening closed schools.

Mar 23: A new network of professional Pakistani women was launched to work collectively towards a positive change for Pakistan and empowerment of its womenfolk. British Pakistan Foundation’s Women Network (BPFWN) was launched at Pakistan High Commission which saw the participation of more than 150 successful Pakistan-origin women.

Mar 24: Rebels in the Central African Republic, fighting to topple President Francois Bozize, said they seized the presidential palace.

Mar 25: Afghanistan took full control of Bagram prison from the United States. President Hamid Karzai had made the fate of the detention centre part of his push to regain sovereignty over key matters from the Americans.

Mar 25: Oman has granted asylum to some members of Muammar Qadhafi’s family, two of whom are wanted by Interpol.

Mar 25: Activists gather in the Arab Spring’s birthplace for a global anti-capitalist event that would later bring together Tunisian revolutionaries and Western protest movements united in demanding a more just world order.

Mar 26: Italian Foreign Minister Giulio Terzi resigned over his government’s decision to return two marines to India to face trial for the murder of local fishermen while on anti-piracy duty.

Mar 26: Qatar proposed the creation of a $1 billion Arab fund for East Jerusalem, which Palestinians say should be the capital of an independent state under any peace deal with Israel.

Qatar’s emir, Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al Thani, offered to contribute $250 million to the fund, which he suggested at an Arab summit in Doha that focused on the crisis in Syria and stalled Israeli-Palestinian peace efforts.

Mar 27: North Korea severed its military hotline with South Korea, breaking the last direct communication link between the two countries at a time of heightened military tensions.

Mar 27: President Barack Obama named Julia Pierson as the first female director of the Secret Service, charged with protecting the president and his family, signalling his desire to change the culture at the male-dominated agency.

Mar 27: President Barack Obama signed into law a stopgap bill that funds the US government to the end of the fiscal year but locks in $85 billion in budget cuts that could dampen the economy.

Mar 28: The United States nominated Air Force General Philip Breedlove as the new Nato Supreme Commander, filling the key position a month after top general John Allen stepped aside.

Mar 28: The US military made a rare announcement that two nuclear-capable B-2 stealth bombers ran a practice bombing sortie over South Korea, underscoring Washington’s commitment to defend its ally amid rising tensions with North Korea.

Mar 29: Iran, North Korea and Syria blocked adoption of a UN treaty that would regulate the multi-billion-dollar international arms trade which required agreement by all 193 UN member states.
The three countries charged that the treaty was flawed and failed to ban weapons sales to rebel groups.

Mar 30: North Korea declared it was in a ‘state of war’ with South Korea and warned Seoul and Washington that any provocation would swiftly escalate into an all-out nuclear conflict.

Mar 30: The first direct flight connecting Egypt and Iran in more than 30 years took off from Cairo International Airport.

Mar 30: The Sicilian regional government in Italy revoked permission for the United States to build a military satellite station on the island.
The planned ground station is part of the Mobile User Objective System (MUOS), an ultra high-frequency satellite network aimed at significantly boosting communications capacity for the US military and its allies.

Mar 30: Kenya’s Supreme Court ruled that Uhuru Kenyatta was elected president fairly, unanimously rejecting a challenge from defeated candidate Raila Odinga that the vote was marred by rigging and technical problems.

Mar 31: Jordan’s King Abdullah II and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas signed an agreement confirming their ‘common goal to defending’ Jerusalem and its sacred sites against attempts to Judaise the Holy City.

Mar 31: King Abdullah II sworn-in a new cabinet led for the first time by a prime minister elected by lawmakers.

April 01: The Central African Republic’s new post-coup government vowed it would get straight to work, as anger rose in South Africa over its military presence in the restive country.
Prime Minister Nicolas Tiangaye named a 34-member cabinet that includes nine ministers from the Seleka rebel coalition which seized Bangui in a rapid-fire assault.

April 02: UN chief Ban Ki-moon warned that the Korean peninsula crisis could spiral out of control, after North Korea announced it would restart a nuclear reactor to feed its atomic weapons programme.

April 02: The United Nations General Assembly passed the first-ever treaty regulating the global conventional weapons trade in an attempt to bring transparency and protection of human rights to the often murky industry.
Only Syria, North Korea and Iran which had blocked the treaty last week voted against. Russia, one of the world’s most prolific exporters of conventional weapons, was among the 23 countries abstaining.

April 02: India’s Supreme Court lifted a three-week order banning Italy’s ambassador from leaving the country after Italy sent two marines back to India to face trial over the deaths of two Indian fishermen.

April 02: Kuwait’s parliament overwhelmingly passed a bill to combat money laundering and funding of terror groups, stipulating jail terms of up to 20 years for violators.

April 02: The United Nations signed an agreement with the Democratic Republic of Congo aimed at fighting against rape and sexual violence by armed groups in the strife-torn eastern part.

April 02: Khaled Meshaal was re-elected head of the Islamist Hamas movement, drawing a cautious welcome from the rival Fatah movement which rules the West Bank.

April 03: North Korea dramatically escalated its warlike rhetoric, warning that it had authorised plans for nuclear strikes on targets in the United States.
‘The moment of explosion is approaching fast,’ the North Korean military said.

April 03: Malaysia’s prime minister dissolved Parliament to call for general elections that will be contested between a coalition that has ruled for nearly 57 years and a resurgent opposition whose pledge to form a cleaner government has resonated with millions of citizens.

April 03: The United States unveiled a $5 million bounty on Lord’s Resistance Army chief Joseph Kony, one of the world’s most wanted men, and posted rewards for three other rebel leaders.

April 04: A new Pakistan-based political thriller was published by BBC correspondent Owen Bennett-Jones. Based in Balochistan and London, “Target Britain” shows both sides of the war on terrorism. Unlike other books that show all militants to be religious fanatics, Target Britain shows how drone strikes can cause havoc in the lives not only of the victims but also their surviving relatives.

April 06: Moderate MP Tamam Salam was named as Lebanon’s new prime minister, pledging in his first address to the nation to safeguard the country from the war raging in neighbouring Syria.

April 07: Iran barred a Saudi diplomat allegedly involved in a deadly drink-driving accident from leaving the country.

April 07: India test-fired its nuclear capable Agni-II strategic ballistic missile from a military base in Odisha. The medium-range surface-to-surface missile with a range of over 2,000km has already been inducted into the army and is part of the strategic forces arsenal for nuclear deterrence.

April 08: France’s Socialist government ordered its ministers to declare their assets publicly within days, as it seeks to limit the damage from a tax fraud scandal involving an ex-minister.

April 09: Uhuru Kenyatta was sworn-in as Kenya’s fourth president despite facing trial on charges of crimes against humanity.

April 10: President Barack Obama rolled out a $3.77 trillion budget that laid out his battle lies in a new fiscal showdown in Washington.

April 10: The use of the death penalty is broadly diminishing around the world although India, Japan, Pakistan and Gambia, the countries that had not used capital punishment for several years resumed executions in 2012, Amnesty International (AI) said.

April 11: Angelina Jolie joined British Foreign Secretary William Hague in announcing $36 million in additional funding from G-8 foreign ministers for the subject.
Hague said the ministers who were meeting in London also made the ‘historic’ declaration that rape and serious sexual violence in conflicts constitute war crimes and grave breaches of the Geneva Conventions.

April 11: France’s Grand Rabbi Gilles Bernheim ‘the country’s leading Jewish religious figure’ resigned with immediate effect, after admitting to plagiarism in his books.

April 13: Palestinian Prime Minister Salaam Fayyad resigned, leaving the Palestinians without one of their most moderate and well-respected voices.

April 13: The United States and China committed to a process aimed at ridding North Korea of its nuclear weapons, with the Obama administration gaining at least the rhetorical support of the only government that can exert significant influence over the reclusive North.

April 14: A Nepalese presenter, Rabi Lamichhane, a 36-year-old based in the US, set the world record for the longest television talk show `Lord Buddha Was Born in Nepal` by staying on air for 62 hours and 12 minutes.

April 15: Two bombs exploded near the finish line of the Boston Marathon, killing two people, injuring 23 others and sending authorities rushing to aid wounded spectators.

April 15: Thailand and Cambodia took their dispute over land around a flashpoint temple to the UN’s highest court, in a case Phnom Penh warned could end friendly relations between the countries.

April 15: An Egyptian court ordered the release of ousted president Hosni Mubarak over the deaths of protesters but he will remain in custody over fraud charges.

April 15: Venezuela plunged into uncertainty, with acting President Nicolas Maduro due to be proclaimed the winner of a tight election to succeed the late Hugo Chavez despite international pressure for a recount.

April 15: A mother’s milk bank catering to needy free of cost has been set up in north-western India as part of a drive to save the lives of vulnerable children. The bank was inaugurated in Rajasthan’s Udaipur city.

SPORTS

Mar 17: World champions Australia won their seventh Sultan Azlan Shah Cup title, defeating hosts Malaysia. South Korea were placed third.

Mar 18: Rafael Nadal battled to claim the biggest title since his return from injury with a win over Juan Martin Del Potro in the BNP Paribas Open final.

Mar 18: Squash legend Jahangir Khan was elected to the Pakistan Olympic Association (POA) as its General Council’s individual member.

Mar 18: Dr Yaqoob of Dera Ismail Khan clinched the trophy of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Inter-Region Chess Championship which concluded at the Pakistan Sports Board Coaching Centre.

Mar 18: India clinched the Test series against Australia with their biggest-ever margin after recording a tense six-wicket victory in the third Test. Never in their 81-year-old Test history, have India won more than two matches against Australia in a single series.

Mar 18: The Bangladesh Cricket Board banned international umpire Nadir Shah for 10 years after a sting operation by an Indian television channel found him apparently willing to fix matches for cash.

Mar 18: Pakistan won a silver medal when they lost final against India at the 4th South Asian women Handball Championship held in Lucknow. Nepal won the bronze medal.

Mar 20: The Dominican Republic beat Puerto Rico to claim their first World Baseball Classic title.

Mar 21: Pakistan Steel Mills won the National Touch-Ball championship defeating Pakistan Highway Motorway in the final at the Punjab Stadium.

Mar 22: Pakistan put up a commendable performance while routing second seed Singapore 2-1 to advance into junior Davis Cup final in Kuching, Malaysia.

Mar 22: Khyber Pakhtumnhwa (KP) won the Inter-Provincial Judo Championship title with seven medals.

Mar 23: The conclusion of the Faysal Bank National One-day Cup proved to be a damp squib as the final between Karachi Zebras and Lahore Lions was abandoned after just 8.5 overs of play.

Mar 24: South African captain A.B. de Villiers survived being dropped early to smash a series-winning unbeaten 95 as his side beat Pakistan by six wickets.

Mar 25: The debutant Hamza Akbar surprised the fraternity of the game as he carved a magnificent 8-7 victory in an epic best of 15 frames final against Imran Shehzad to win the Jubilee Insurance 38th National Snooker Championship at the Karachi Gymkhana.

Mar 28: Gurinder Sandhu, Australia’s rising pace bowling star of Indian heritage, won the Steve Waugh Medal for the New South Wales cricketer of the season.

Mar 28: South Africa were officially rewarded for their number one Test status after being handed the International Cricket Council Test Championship mace and a cheque for US$450,000.

Mar 31: Faisalabad Wolves ended an eight-year drought after a blazing Asif Ali knock inspired them to dethrone Sialkot Stallions as the Faysal Bank Super Eight T20 Cup Champions.

Mar 31: Serena Williams earned a record sixth Key Biscayne women’s title by beating familiar foil Maria Sharapova at the Sony Open.

Mar 31: Pakistan’s Aisam-ul-Haq Qureshi and Dutchman Jean Julien Rojer sealed the men’s doubles title at the Sony Open after a victory over Polish duo of Mariusz Fyrstenberg and Marcin Matkowski.

April 02: FIFA surprisingly opted for Goal Control as its goal-line technology system ahead of next year’s World Cup in Brazil.
The German camera-based, ball tracking system was the last of four contenders to join the race to win a FIFA contract.

April 04: The International Cricket Council (ICC) issued a new law which states that if a bowler breaks the stumps at the non-striker’s end during a delivery, umpires will call it a no-ball in all international cricket matches from April 30.

April 07: Kenyan Peter Some was a shock winner of the Paris marathon as he won the 37th edition of the event ahead of Ethiopia’s Tadese Tola and compatriot Eric Ndiema.
In the women’s event Boru Tadese streaked clear of the field to set a new course record of 2hr 21min 06sec.

April 07: Pakistan clinched the Under-16 Asia Cup hockey title by routing Bangladesh in the final in Singapore.

April 13: The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) banned umpires Nadeem Ghauri and Anis Siddiqui for four and three years respectively after both were found guilty of being willing to compromise their honesty in performing their professional duties.

April 14: Star player Sania Mirza  also joined Indian Tennis Players Association (ITPA) as one of its Vice Presidents.

April 14: Former Pakistan hockey captain Olympian Islahuddin Siddiqui was appointed as Special Assistant to Sindh Chief Minister.

April 15: The Asia Cup cricket tournament will be held in Bangladesh for the second time in a row after India, who had earlier agreed to host the 2014 edition, backed out citing a packed international schedule. Bangladesh had hosted the last edition of the tournament in 2012.

April 15: American John Isner won the US men’s clay court championship in Houston with a win over top seeded Spaniard Nicolas Almagro.

Obituaries

Mar 18: Air Commodore (retd) Muhammad Mahmood Alam Khan, known to the world as M. M Alam a veteran of the 1965 and 1971 wars, died after a long illness. He was 78.

Mar 19: Prominent poet Khalid Ahmad passed away. He was 70.

Mar 19: Former PPP leader Ghiasudddin Janbaz died of lungs failure in Lahore. He was 73.

Mar 18: The principal of a college and a campaigner of sectarian harmony, Prof Sibte-Jafar Zaidi, was gunned down in Karachi.

Mar 21: One of the highly respected sports administrator and freelance journalist Zakir Hussain Syed died of cardiac arrest.

Mar 22: Boris A. Berezovsky, once the richest and most powerful of the so-called oligarchs who dominated post-Soviet Russia, and a close ally of Boris N. Yeltsin’s who helped install Vladimir V. Putin as president, died at the age of 67.

Mar 22: Former Uruguay goalkeeper Anibal Paz, a member of their 1950 World Cup-winning squad, died in Montevideo at the age of 95.

Mar 22: Nigerian novelist Chinua Achebe, the revered ‘father of modern African literature’ died aged 82. Best known internationally for his novel ‘Things Fall Apart’ which depicts the collision between British rule and traditional Igbo culture in his native southeast Nigeria, Achebe was also a strong critic of graft and misrule in his country.

Mar 24: Joe Weider, the fitness and bodybuilding guru who built a magazine empire that include such publications as Muscle and Fitness, Shape and Men’s fitness, died at the age of 93.

Mar 25: Former Pakistan football team captain Masood-ul-Hassan died. He was 80.

Mar 26: Anthony Lewis, a former New York Times reporter and columnist whose work won two Pulitzer Prizes and transformed American legal journalism, died. He was 85.

Mar 27: Norwegian speed stake great Hjalmar Andersen, who won three gold medals at the 1952 Oslo Winter Olympics, died at the age of 90.

Mar 28: Richard Griffiths, one of the greatest British stage actors of his generation, died. He will always be remembered as grumpy Uncle Vernon, the least magical of characters in the fantastical ‘Harry Potter’ movies.

Mar 30: Ahad Malik, a film producer for over 40 years and twice elected member of the Punjab Assembly, died. He also served as chairman of Nefdac, Film Producers Association and the Film Distributors’ Association before joining politics and the PPP.

Mar 31: Senior journalist of The News, Investigation Wing, Islamabad, Dilshad Azeem, 44, passed away.

Mar 31: Phil Ramone, the legendary US music producer behind hits by Paul Simon, Paul McCartney, Billy Joel and Barbra Streisand, died at the age of 79.

April 02: Former South African swimming great Karen Muir, the youngest-ever world record holder in any sport, died. She was 60.
Muir was elected to the International Swimming Hall of Fame in 1980 having set 15 world records in the backstroke at 100 metres, 200 metres, 110 yards and
220 yards. Muir also won 22 South African Championships and three US National Championships, but never competed at the Olympic Games.

April 07: Engineer Zille Ahmad Nizami, a visionary who established Pakistan’s first private engineering university, passed away.

April 07: Taj Muhammad Langah, the founder of the Pakistan Seraiki Party, died. He was 73.

April 07: Lilly Pulitzer, a Palm Beach socialite turned fashion designer whose tropical print dresses became a sensation in the 1960s died. She was 81.

April 08: Sara Montiel, the first Spanish actress to make it in Hollywood and best known for her roles in international blockbusters such as ‘Vera Cruz’, died. She was 85.

April 09: Sindhi poet Sher Mohammad Ujjan, better known as Aajiz Ujjan, passed away. He was 65 years old.

April 09: US actress Annette Funicello, who first gained fame as a ‘Mickey Mouse Club’ member and later starred in 1960s ‘Beach Party’ films died aged 70.

April 10: Robert Edwards, a British Nobel prize-winning scientist known as the father of IVF for pioneering the development of ‘test tube babies’, died aged 87. Edwards, who won the Nobel for medicine in 2010, started work on developing in-vitro fertilisation (IVF) in the 1950s, and the first so-called test tube baby, Louise Brown, was born in 1978 as a result of his research. Since then, more than 5 million babies have been born around the world as a result of the techniques Edwards developed together with his late colleague, Patrick Steptoe.

April 11: Justice Khwaja Muhammad Ahmad Samdani, a highly respected jurist, passed away after a protracted illness. He was 81.

April 15: Sunni Ittehad Council chairman and former MNA Sahibzada Fazal Kareem died of cancer.

Economy

Mar 18: Europe’s main stock markets lost ground and the euro fell under $1.30 on news that Cyprus might tax bank deposits as part of a controversial international bailout.

Mar 19: Engr Tahir Shamshad took over as Nespak managing director/president.

Mar 23: The Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) cancelled asset management and advisory service licences of Dawood Capital Management Limited (DCML) and slapped a heavy penalty of Rs.20 million on its chief executive officer for providing undue benefits to its connected persons and close relatives.

Mar 25: Zubair Ahmad Malik was elected unopposed as the president of the Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FPCCI) in the annual elections for the year 2013.

Mar 25: After a year of rocky relations with the Board of Directors and failing to improve power generation, the Chief Executive Officer of Genco Holding Company Limited (GHCL) Naveed Ismail was fired on account of poor performance.

Mar 26: BRICS members China and Brazil agreed a swap line allowing them to trade the equivalent of up to $30 billion per year in their own currencies, moving to take almost half of their trade exchanges out of the US dollar zone.

April 01: SSGC signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Transparency International Pakistan (TIP). The MoU will facilitate the gas utility in availing TIP’s expertise as an observer.

April 02: World Bank chief Jim Yong Kim called for a global drive to wipe out extreme poverty by 2030, acknowledging that reaching the goal will require extraordinary efforts.

April 02: Haris Georgiades, who was appointed the new Cyprus finance minister, will face the huge task of trying to steer the debt-ridden island out of bailout turbulence.

April 02: India’s billionaire Ambani brothers, who fought a very public feud for spoils of their father’s business empire, signed a $220 million deal in the first tangible sign of a corporate reconciliation.

April 03: Executives from the Islamabad Stock Exchange announced that religious elements had begun taking deposits from investors and offering extravagant returns. This ‘gray market’ poses a risk to investors and the financial markets.

April 03: The International Monetary Fund agreed to provide approximately one billion euros to the 10bn euro rescue plan for cash-strapped Cyprus.

April 05: The State Bank provided credit information of over 23,000 candidates to the ECP.

April 05: The UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) proposed regional countries a new development strategy aimed at shifting from growth strategies and paradigms based on trade-offs to maximise growth.

April 05: Germany’s patent court invalidated a patent held by Apple ‘and contested by rivals Motorola and Samsung — on its ‘slide to unlock’ function for smartphones.

April 05: The Thai operator of Bangkok’s SkyTrain system raised $2.1 billion in one of the biggest initial public offerings (IPOs) worldwide this year.

April 05: German media group Bertelsmann and British publisher Pearson secured unconditional EU regulatory clearance to merge their publishers Random House and Penguin.

April 09: The European Union’s five largest economies agreed to deepen cooperation on tackling tax evasion, raising pressure on smaller members Austria and Luxembourg to join a crackdown on cross-border cheats.

April 10: The caretaker government appointed Ansar Javed (Grade-22 officer of Inland Revenue Service) the new chairman of the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) with immediate effect.

April 11: Pakistan State Oil signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (GoKP) to set up a technologically advanced refinery with a capacity of 40,000 barrels per day (BPD) on about 400 acres of land in district Kohat-Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

April 15: Newly-appointed FBR chairman Ansar Javed, instructed all Large Taxpayer Units and Regional Taxpayer Offices to make certain that the revised target is met.

Everyday Science

Mar 20: China’s Suntech reached its zenith as the world’s largest solar panel producer, but plunged to the nadir of financial distress in just a year, highlighting the woes of the industry it shaped.

Mar 20: An unmanned rocket launched a new US military satellite into orbit. The Atlas V rocket lifted off from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station carrying the second satellite of four planned in the Space-Based Infrared System.

Mar 21: The scientists discovered a new dinosaur species, and they decided to name it after Daisy Morris, who found the fossil of this species 40 years ago.

Mar 27: An Australian-led group of scientists, for the first time, tracked down and tagged Antarctic blue whales by using acoustic technology to follow its songs.
The blue whale, the largest animal on the planet, is rarely spotted in the Southern Ocean but a group of intrepid researchers were able to locate and tag some of the mammals after picking up on their deep and complex vocals.

Mar 31: Global warming is expanding the extent of sea ice around Antarctica in winter in a paradoxical shift caused by cold plumes of summer melt water that re-freeze fast when temperatures drop, a study showed.

April 02: Astrophysicists witnessed the rare event of a black hole awakening from its slumber to snack on a planet-sized object in a galaxy 47 million light years away. The observation made using the European Space Agency`s INTEGRAL satellite project.

April 04: The world’s largest freshwater aquarium was opened to the public at the nature-themed River Safari in Singapore. River Safari is Asia’s first river-themed wildlife park.
The freshwater aquarium is a 12-hectare park featuring fish and other wildlife from eight of the world’s major rivers; the Congo, Ganges, Mississippi, Amazon Mekong, Nile Murray and Yangtze. The aquarium is made at a cost of over USD 160 million. There are nearly 300 species of animals or display at River Safari, of which 42 species are endangered.

April 11: President Barack Obama asked NASA to start work on finding a small asteroid that could be shifted into an orbit near the moon and used by astronauts as a stepping-stone for an eventual mission to Mars.

April 13: The prototype tube lighting LED is found twice as efficient as those currently used in offices and industry around the world but offers the same amount of light. Being able to halve the amount of energy used could bring huge cost and energy savings lighting accounts for more than 19 per cent of global electricity consumption. The prototype tube lighting produces 200 lumens per watt (200lm/W) compared with 100lm/W for equivalent strip lighting and 15lm/W for traditional light bulbs.