Jahangir's World Times First Comprehensive Magazine for students/teachers of competitive exams and general readers as well.
NATIONAL
Sep 16: Army Chief Gen Raheel Sharif reiterated that terrorists will not be allowed to return to Fata and that the army will remain in the area to complete its job.
Sep 16: The federal government removed the names of over 65,000 individuals from the Exit Control List (ECL) and the passport blacklist.
Sep 16: The Lahore High Court constituted a “Climate Change Commission” for effective implementation of the National Climate Change Policy (NCCP) 2012 and the framework for Implementation of Climate Change Policy (2014-2030).
Sep 17: The National Assembly’s Standing Committee on Information Technology passed the Prevention of Electronic Crimes Bill 2015.
Sep 17: According to a study by the Washington-based Pew Research Centre, Pakistan is the least favoured nation in India with only 18 percent seeking better relations with the neighbouring state while 64 percent wanting to stay away from it.
Sep 18: President Mamnoon Hussain accorded assent to Capital University of Science and Technology Bill 2015 after its passage by the National Assembly and the Senate.
Sep 18: The terrorists attacked a Pakistan Air Force (PAF) camp in Badaber area in Peshawar in what was described as one of the deadliest assaults on defence installations.
Twenty-nine people, among them personnel of the Pakistan Air Force and military and some civilians, lost their lives.
Sep 18: Delimitation of certain constituencies made by the provincial government for the upcoming local government elections was cancelled by the Sindh High Court.
Sep 18: President Mamnoon Hussain promulgated two ordinances merging the country’s two topmost registration organisations the National Database and Registration Authority (Nadra) and National Aliens Registration Authority (Nara), apparently to keep an eye on the movement of foreigners against the backdrop of acts of terrorism across the country.
Sep 18: The Director General of the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), Major General Asim Salim Bajwa, said that the attack on the Pakistan Air Force (PAF) Camp in Badaber was planned in Afghanistan.
Sep 19: Pakistan ranked 134 among 143 economies in the Global Innovation Index (GII) released jointly by Johnson Cornel University, INSEAD, and the World Intellectual Property Organization.
The GII 2014 covers 143 economies around the world and uses 81 indicators across a range of themes.
Sep 19: Pakistan Telecommunication Company Limited announced its partnership with global search giant Google for Tech ‘Mela’, a first of its kind online shopping festival in Pakistan.
Sep 21: Pakistan is one of the lowest-ranked countries in the world when it comes to access of citizens to fast mobile internet services, suggested the United Nations’ data. The country fetched 156th rank among the 192 member states of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), said a report, titled ‘The State of Broadband 2015: Broadband as a Foundation for Sustainable Development’.
Sep 21: India and Pakistan agreed to exercise restraint and work for defusing the situation on the Line of Control (LoC), which has been witnessing repeated ceasefire violations as senior army officers of the two countries held a Flag Meeting in Poonch sector of Jammu and Kashmir.
Sep 21: Faisal Butt, a well-known social activist and British Pakistani philanthropist, was appointed as the Chairman of Managing Committee UK & Europe for Red Crescent Pakistan.
The decision of his appointment was made by Chairman of Red Crescent Pakistan Dr Saeed Elahi.
Sep 23: Justice Ayesha A. Malik of the Lahore High Court suspended the operation of Election Commission’s notification barring parliamentarians from taking part in the campaign for by-elections in NA-122 (Lahore) and NA-154 (Lodhran).
Sep 27: Pakistan complained to the UN Security Council that India is building a wall along the Line of Control and plans to convert the LoC “into a quasi international border”.
Sep 27: Chairman of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Microsoft billionaire Bill Gates conveyed the hope that Pakistan can possibly eradicate polio by the end of this year in a meeting with Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif in New York.
Sep 27: Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif formally raised India’s serious ceasefire violations at the Line of Control (LoC) and the Working Boundary with the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and reminded the world body of its historic responsibility for conducting a plebiscite in the Indian-held Kashmir.
Sep 27: The Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Yukiya Amano, hailed Pakistan’s ‘impressive’ nuclear security record.
Sep 28: Prime Minister Muhammad Nawaz Sharif proposed initiation of a strategic dialogue and a Free Trade Agreement with South Korea, with an objective to translate the ties between the two countries into a meaningful relationship.
The prime minister met the President of South Korea, Park Geun-hye, at the United Nations headquarters on the sidelines of the 70th session of the UN General Assembly.
Sep 29: Prime Minister pledged an additional infantry battalion and unarmed Pakistani drones to enhance UN peacekeeping missions.
Sep 29: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Right to Information (RTI) Commission launched its web portal, which would enable people seeking information from government departments to submit their questions electronically.
Sep 29: Pakistan achieved improvement by three notches and attained 126th position in Global Competitiveness Report 2015 compared to 129th last year among 140 countries.
“Corruption tops as the most problematic factor for doing business in Pakistan,” the report finds out.
Sep 29: Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif approved an amendment to the Punjab Animals Slaughter Control Act of 1963, increasing penalties for those caught operating slaughter houses without a licence or selling uncertified meat.
Sep 30: Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, in his address to the United Nations General Assembly, urged India to pledge with Pakistan not to use force or the threat of force under any circumstances.
The prime minister proposed four peace measures, which include demilitarising of Kashmir and an unconditional withdrawal of troops from Siachen.
Sep 30: The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) suspended the implementation of three components of the Rs341 billion ‘Kisaan package’ announced by Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif.
Sep 30: Chief of Army Staff Gen Raheel Sharif, who is on a three-day official visit to UK, met Chief of the Defence Staff of the British Armed Forces, Gen Sir John Nicholas Reynolds Houghton.
Sep 30: The Higher Education Commission (HEC) claimed that the Comsats Institute of Information Technology (CIIT) is charging Rs1.3 million per student for a ‘worthless’ dual degree.
Sep 30: Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan ordered immediate suspension of a visa-free entry agreement with Zambia.
Sep 30: Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif inaugurated Chinese Consulate in Muslim Town Lahore on the occasion of national day of China and hoisted Chinese flag on the building.
Oct 03: In his address to the Royal United Services Institute for Defence and Security Studies in London, Pakistan’s Chief of Army Staff (COAS) General Raheel Sharif said that his country would not allow “even a shadow” of Islamic State and termed the group a greater threat than al-Qaeda.
Oct 05: During a review of audit reports of 1990-97, it was pointed out that the Fokker F-27, a plane that crashed in 2003 with Air Chief Marshal Mushaf Ali Mir and 10 other officers onboard, had completed its life span. The plane had crashed near Kohat on February 20, 2003.
Oct 05: Gilead Sciences, a research-based US biopharmaceutical company producing the hepatitis C drug, sofosbuyir, in oral form authorised a Pakistani company Ferozsons Laboratories Ltd to manufacture the same medicine in order to lower its price.
Oct 06: The Punjab government declared the Children’s Hospital, Lahore, an autonomous institute. The top offices dean and medical director of this largest healthcare facility for the children in Punjab will remain intact.
Oct 06: Jahangir Khanzada, PML-N candidate for PP-16, Attock-II, won the by-election.
Oct 07: The Supreme Court upheld the death sentence awarded to Malik Mohammad Mumtaz Qadri — the Elite Force commando who assassinated former Punjab governor Salman Taseer — by an antiterrorism court in Oct 2011.
Oct 07: The Punjab Assembly passed the Local Government Amendment Bill with a clear majority despite heavy criticism from opposition benches.
Oct 08: The India-bound Samjhota Express had to return to Lahore after the Indian authorities communicated to the Pakistan Railways to postpone the train service due to an ongoing protest by farmers in Indian Punjab.
Oct 09: Following an agreement with the federal government over formation of a Grievance Redressal Committee (GRC), MQM withdrew resignations of its legislators from the Senate and National and Sindh assemblies.
Oct 09: Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Pervez Khattak made dissident MPA of the ruling PTI Javed Nasim a parliamentary secretary.
Oct 09: The Pakistan Airline Pilots Association (PALPA) announced calling off their strike.
Oct 09: Pakistan and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) formally launched the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by signing a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to establish the SDG centres both at the federal and provincial levels to review progress on achieving these envisaged targets on regular basis.
Oct 10: Baloch nationalist leader Hyrbyair Marri said that Baloch people are not in favour of seeking help from India to gain independence.
Oct 11: PML-N’s Sardar Ayaz Sadiq retained his NA-122 Lahore seat by defeating PTI’s Abdul Aleem Khan by 2443 votes.
Oct 11: Riazul Haq Juj, who contested by-election from Okara’s National Assembly constituency NA-144 (Okara-II) as an independent candidate, won by a big margin.
Oct 12: Former foreign minister Khurshid Mahmud Kasuri survived dire threats from the rightwing Shiv Sena ahead of his book launch in Mumbai while his host Sudheendra Kulkarni was plastered with black paint by Pakistan-baiting protesters.
Oct 12: An Anti-Terrorism Court (ATC) in Gilgit-Baltistan (GB) awarded 81-year imprisonment to the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) chief Altaf Hussain.
The court also issued orders to confiscate the MQM chief’s property over his anti-state speeches.
Oct 14: Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif recorded his statement with the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) in the Asghar Khan case relating to distribution of Rs140 million among components of an anti-PPP alliance of parties prior to the 1990 elections.
Oct 14: The Higher Education Evaluation and Accreditation Council of Taiwan (HEEACT) put the University of Agriculture Faisalabad (UAF) at the 87th position among the top 100 universities of the world.
Oct 15: The Islamabad High Court restored the Kisaan Relief Package by setting aside the suspension order of the Election Commission of Pakistan.
ECONOMY
Sep 16: During the Pak-German talks, agreements were signed to provide Pakistan a loan of 40 million euros for the rehabilitation of the Warsak hydroelectric power station on River Kabul in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
Another grant of 10m euros for the rehabilitation of the temporarily displaced persons (TDPs) in Fata will also be provided. Another 10m euros will go to KP’s regional infrastructure fund.
Sep 17: China agreed in principle to provide major concessions to Pakistan for boosting its exports under the second phase of the China-Pakistan Free Trade Agreement.
Sep 18: Naveed Akram Cheema, manager of Pakistan cricket team, stepped down from his post.
Sep 23: Pakistan and the International Fund for Agriculture Development (Ifad) signed an agreement to help increase agriculture incomes of at least 100,000 rural households in Gilgit-Baltistan and create employment opportunities for them.
The government is co-financing the $120 million initiative with $23.63m and will lead the programme, while the remaining amount is being provided by Ifad to finance the Economic Transformation Initiative in the region.
Sep 27: Pakistan issued a new 10-year bond of $500 million in the international Eurobond market that raised nearly $1 billion.
The coupon rate was 8.25% equal to the rate at which it issued such bonds last year in April.
Sep 28: The Joint Working Group of Pakistan and Belarus agreed on a trade and economic roadmap for bilateral cooperation in short- and medium-term.
The fields identified for cooperation included trade, economy, industry, agriculture, agricultural research, investment, science and technology, textile, healthcare and pharmaceuticals.
Sep 28: Dubai Islamic Bank Pakistan Limited (DIBPL) and UBL Fund Managers entered into a corporate Islamic mutual funds agreement.
Oct 02: The Republic of Korea and Pakistan signed a Framework Arrangement amounting to $500 million for different development projects.
Oct 02: National Bank of Pakistan won the third consecutive FPCCI Achievement Award for its ‘banking, leasing, financial services and capital markets’.
Oct 02: The European Union (EU) withdrew the crippling Anti-Dumping Duty on Pakistan’s products of PET (Polyethylene terephthalate, a chemical used in making mineral water and beverage bottles), imposed five years ago.
Oct 02: Moody’s Investors Service assigned a definitive rating of B3 to Pakistan’s global bond offering, quoting, “the outlook is stable.”
Oct 15: Pakistan and Turkey started negotiations on a bilateral free trade agreement (FTA) covering trade in goods, services and investments.
APPOINTMENTS & TRANSFERS
Sep 16: The federal government appointed Dr Shahzad Alam as Chairman of Pakistan Council of Scientific & Industrial Research (PCSIR).
Sep 17: Uzma Adil Khan was appointed as Managing Director Sui Northern Gas Pipelines Ltd (SNGPL). She is a chartered accountant by profession and is a fellow member of Institute of Chartered Accountants of Pakistan (ICAP) and Institute of Secretaries and Managers (ICSM).
Sep 21: Former Pakistan captain and coach Intikhab Alam was appointed Pakistan cricket team manager after Naveed Akram Cheema stepped down.
Sep 29: A senior bureaucrat and former manager of the national cricket team, Naveed Akram Cheema, was appointed as the chairman of the Federal Public Service Commission (FPSC).
Oct 02: Zubair Habib was appointed as chief of the Citizens-Police Liaison Committee after the former chief Ahmed Chinoy resigned.
Oct 03: Lt-Gen Aamir Riaz assumed the charge as new Commander Southern command at a ceremony held at Headquarters Southern Command Quetta Cantt.
Outgoing Commander Southern Command Lt-Gen Nasir Khan Janjua handed over the charge to Lt-Gen Aamir.
Oct 07: Lahore Transport Company’s board of directors appointed former deputy chairman Mehr Ishtiaq as the new LTC chairman.
Oct 07: Ambassador Tehmina Janjua assumed charge as the Permanent Representative of Pakistan to the United Nations and other International Organizations in Geneva.
Oct 13: The government announced new envoys for a number of world capitals.
The ambassadors-designate include: Qazi Khalilullah (Russia); Johar Saleem (Germany); Moinul Haq (France); Mr Afrasiab (New Zealand); Mazhar Javed (Nepal); Babar Hashmi (Bulgaria); Zahid Ali (Sudan); and And Chaudhry Nadir (Morocco).
Oct 14: Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif transferred managing director of the Nandipur Power Project retired Captain M. Mehmood.
ENERGY
Sep 28: The National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (Nepra) termed fake the shortfall in electricity production as compared to its demand.
Oct 15: Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif performed the groundbreaking of a 102MW run-of-the-river hydel project being built on the River Poonch, a major tributary of River Jhelum, near Barali, some 10 kilometres on the outskirts of Kotli city in Azad Kashmir.
Sep 18: The Mari Petroleum Company Limited (MPCL) announced to have discovered reserves of crude oil, condensate and natural gas in its Karak Block’s Kalabagh Well in Mianwali.
PEOPLE IN NEWS
Hadiqa Bashir
Sep 20: A 13-year-old Pakistani girl from Swat, Hadiqa Bashir, was honoured with ‘Mohammad Ali International Humanitarian Award’ in the US for her struggle against underage marriages.
Dr Javaid Laghari
Sep 21: The Clinton School of Public Service, University of Arkansas, one of oldest and most reputed higher education institution of America, declared renowned Pakistani educationist and former Chairperson Higher Education Commission Dr Javaid Laghari as the 3rd most favourite speaker among 1000 prominent personalities of the world.
Syeda Ghulam Fatima
Sep 28: Pakistani rights activist Syeda Ghulam Fatima was honoured with the ‘Global Citizen Award for Leadership in Civil Society’ during the Clinton Global Citizen award ceremony in New York.
Inzamam-ul-Haq
Oct 02: Former Pakistan captain Inzamam-ul-Haq was appointed temporary Afghanistan cricket coach for their upcoming Zimbabwe tour.
Agha Iqrar Haroon
Oct 08: The Kazakhstan Journalists’ Union, in partnership with the ministry of Foreign Affairs of Kazakhstan, awarded Pakistani journalist Agha Iqrar Haroon for his work to promote Kazakhstan and its culture.
PLACES IN NEWS
Lahore
Oct 14: The two-day Forum “Pakistan Sey Paris: on the road to 2015 Paris Climate Conference”, organised jointly by the Embassy of France, federal and provincial governments, the United Nations, and a large array of civil society organisations, concluded in Lahore.
WEIRD
Sep 21: The provincial government issued a notification of the establishment of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Ehtesab Commission Act almost a year after the commission began functioning.
SPORTS
Sep 20: Pakistan Super League (PSL) was officially launched with the unveiling of its logo, names of teams, theme anthem and change of venue. The much-awaited five-team PSL will take place in Dubai from February 4, 2016.
Sep 22: Despite winning only one match at the 27th Asian Senior Baseball Championship, Pakistan qualified for the qualifying round of the World Baseball Classic 2017.
Sep 27: Pakistan men’s team finished second in group D behind Thailand in round one of the 22nd Asian Table Tennis Championship.
Sep 29: Pakistan beat Zimbabwe by 15 runs to win the second Twenty20 International and sweep the two-match series.
Oct 01: Pakistan’s International Master (IM) Mahmood Ahmed Lodhi reached the pinnacle of his marathon career when he won the 6th edition of Asian Chess Championship in Lareston (Iran).
Oct 02: Pakistani female power-lifter Twinkle Sohail won the gold medal in the Asian Bench-Press Powerlifting Championship being held in Muscat, Oman.
Oct 05: Pakistan clinched the third and decisive One-day International against Zimbabwe.
Oct 06: Pakistan women cricketers completed a 2-0 One-day International clean sweep against Bangladesh by winning the second game.
Oct 06: President Pakistan Amateur Athletics Federation (PAAF) Maj. Gen (retd) Muhammad Akram Sahi was elected as President of regional athletics organization South Asian Athletics Federation (SAAF).
Oct 07: The Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata) were upgraded to the top of Pakistan domestic cricket when they qualified to play at first-class level for the first time in their history by securing an 81-run victory over Karachi Blues.
Oct 13: Noted cueist Mohammad Asif captured National Bank of Pakistan ranking title by defeating defending champion Mohammad Sajjad in the final.
Oct 13: In the first Test against England in Abu Dhabi, senior batsman Younis Khan, playing his 102nd test, became Pakistan’s leading run scorer in Test cricket when he overhauled Javed Miandad’s tally of 8832 runs made in 124 Tests.
Oct 14: Pakistan Army outclassed Navy in the final to keep the Asian Style National Kabaddi Championship title.
Oct 14: Shoaib Malik became the sixth Pakistani batsman to score a double century against England.
OBITUARIES
Sep 22: Awami National Party leader and former Khyber Pakhtunkhwa agriculture minister Arbab Ayub Jan breathed his last.
Sep 27: Former MNA Asad Murtaza Gilani, a nephew of former prime minister Syed Yusuf Raza Gilani, was confirmed dead in the Mina stampede.
Sep 27: Prof Dr Muhammad Rafiq Khan, former vice-chancellor of University of Agriculture, Faisalabad, died.
Oct 02: Renowned Punjabi scholar, poet, researcher and educationist Sharif Sabir passed away. He was 85.
Oct 02: Former international weightlifter Naveed Malik, who was also the coach of the Pakistan team from Wapda, breathed his last. He was uncle of Commonwealth Games gold medallist Shujauddin Malik.
Oct 04: Noted writer, poet and historian Major (Retd) Muhammad Nawaz Khan passed away in Peshawar, at the age of 72.
INTERNATIONAL
Sep 16: Nepalese lawmakers voted overwhelmingly to approve a new constitution that will turn the former Himalayan monarchy into a secular, multiparty democracy. The passage was the culmination of a long-running and at-times tumultuous process that started seven years ago after the end of a Maoist insurgency and the abdication of the country’s king.
Sep 16: Yemen’s Prime Minister Khaled Bahah and several of his ministers relocated to the southern port after nearly six months of exile in Riyadh as loyalists backed by a Saudi-led coalition pressed a major offensive towards the rebel-held capital.
Sep 16: The United States set up India Rapid Reaction Cell, the first-ever country-specific cell at the Pentagon, to accelerate its defence ties with India.
Keith Webster, Director, International Cooperation Office of the Under Secretary of Defence for Acquisition, Technology and Logistics, heads this cell.
Sep 16: Abdul Rahman Zahid, a former Taliban deputy foreign minister, was arrested in United Arab Emirates (UAE).
Sep 17: A million people were evacuated in Chile after an 8.3-magnitude quake struck offshore in the Pacific.
Earthquake was the sixth most powerful in the history of geologically volatile Chile and the strongest anywhere in the world this year.
Sep 17: A close ally of Burkina Faso’s strongman Blaise Compaore led a coup to topple his rule, just weeks ahead of presidential and legislative elections.
Sep 17: US Senate Democrats blocked legislation meant to kill the Iran nuclear deal for a third time, securing perhaps the greatest foreign policy win of President Barack Obama’s six years in office and clearing the way to implement the accord.
Sep 17: Oxford University secured the largest-ever European Investment Bank university loan as part of its programme to renovate some of its 500-year-old buildings and expand research facilities. The 200 million pound (310 million dollar) loan is a major boost to the university’s fundraising campaign.
Sep 17: August 2015 was the hottest August in modern history, in the latest sign of an unusually warm year across the world’s land and sea surfaces.
Sep 18: Japan’s parliament passed contentious security bills into law, in a move that could see Japanese troops fight abroad for the first time in 70 years.
Sep 18: Once contaminated with tens of thousands of land mines from a legacy of war, Mozambique was officially declared cleansed of those weapons after 22 years of work.
Sep 19: India’s Gujarat province banned the internet in a bid to stall a major rally against Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s handpicked government in his home state.
Sep 20: China launched the Long March-6, a newly-developed carrier rocket which uses liquid propellant, as the country races ahead with an ambitious space programme. The new, smaller type of rocket will be primarily used for carrying satellites.
Sep 21: German auto giant Volkswagen plummeted nearly 20 per cent on the stock market as investigations spread into revelations that hundreds of thousands of its diesel cars have software that secretly thwarts US emissions tests.
Sep 21: Hungary’s parliament gave the army and police sweeping new powers to keep migrants out as Prime Minister Viktor Orban warned that Europe was being “overrun”.
Sep 21: The 126-year-old New York Military Academy — once attended by Donald Trump, Stephen Sondheim and John Gotti — closed its doors and is up for auction.
Sep 23: Saudi Arabia’s Grand Mufti Sheikh Abdulaziz al-Shaikh said that some misguided people were trying to enforce their false agenda through violence and such people should be condemned because they were giving a bad name to the peaceful religion of Islam.
Sep 23: The chief executive of Volkswagen, Martin Winterkorn, resigned over a pollution cheating scandal.
Sep 23: The world’s biggest genetic rice database online is now available free, a move scientists hope will contribute to a “green revolution”, a leading rice research group said.
Information on the genetic sequence of 3,024 rice varieties can now be accessed through the Amazon Web Services system, a cloud computing platform.
Sep 23: Nigeria’s military troops rescued 241 women and children during operations against Boko Haram Islamist militants in the country’s restive northeast.
Sep 23: In their first ever joint declaration on combating terrorism, the United States and India equated Lashkar-e-Taiba with Al Qaeda affiliates and warned that such groups were seeking to undermine stability in South Asia.
Sep 23: Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi pardoned 100 prisoners including three Al Jazeera television journalists.
Sep 24: At least 717 pilgrims were killed in a stampede during Haj rites in Mina, outside Makkah. It is the worst disaster to strike the annual pilgrimage in 25 years. The number later rose to 2177.
Sep 24: EU leaders agreed at an emergency refugee summit to boost aid for Syria’s neighbours, including one billion dollars through UN agencies, as well as strengthening their borders to deal with a wave of migrants.
Sep 27: Clashes erupted between Palestinians and Israeli security forces at Jerusalem’s flashpoint Al-Aqsa mosque compound.
Sep 27: Paris staged a car-free day for the first time, with large parts of the increasingly polluted French capital. The roaring traffic of the world-renowned Champs-Elysees avenue was replaced by people strolling in the sunshine.
Sep 27: The Taliban largely seized a major Afghan city, Kunduz, storming government compounds and sending panicked residents fleeing, as the militants for the first time breached a provincial capital since being ousted from power in 2001.
Sep 27: World leaders pledged to end extreme poverty within 15 years, adopting an ambitious set of UN goals to be backed up by trillions of dollars in development spending.
Sep 28: An explosion ripped through a speed boat carrying Maldives President Abdulla Yameen, injuring his wife and two others but leaving him unhurt.
Sep 28: Scientists announced “the strongest evidence yet” of liquid water on Mars, raising a distant prospect of microscopic life on our neighbouring planet.
Sep 28: India successfully launched its first high-tech telescopes into space to study the stars, as New Delhi seeks to take another major step in its ambitious and low-cost space programme.
A rocket carrying the 150-tonne mini space observatory called Astrosat, along with six foreign satellites, blasted off on schedule from India’s main southern spaceport of Sri-harikota.
Sep 28: Russia and Iran announced a new coalition to defend Syrian strongman Bashar al-Assad and defeat the Islamic State, handing him a dramatic victory ahead of the UN General Assembly.
Sep 28: A new report from the UN agency, the International Labour Organization, showed that some 300 million people over the age of 65 cannot easily access long-term care when needed.
Sep 29: South Africa’s murder rate jumped to 4.6 per cent in the last year, official data showed, with almost 49 people killed every day in a country battling a reputation as one of the crime capitals of the world.
A total of 17,805 murders were committed from April 2014 to March 2015, an increase of 782 deaths from the year before.
Sep 29: Afghan Ulema Council announced a Fatwa (edict) that it was legitimate to wage Jihad in Pakistan.
Security establishment in Pakistan has taken exception to the edict that has been issued probably in line with the already ongoing anti-Pakistan propaganda of Afghan government.
Sep 29: The majority group of the United Nations’ member Uniting for Consensus (UFC) sealed the fate of India’s moves to capture the UN Security Council’s (UNSC) permanent berth by adopting a resolution to announce its resolute opposition to any expansion in the permanent members on the UNSC and urged all members states to engage in a more flexible and constructive way in the upcoming negotiations to reform the 15-member Council.
Sep 30: The Palestinians raised their flag at the United Nations for the first time as President Mahmud Abbas called on the world body to grant them full membership.
Sep 30: The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Prince Zeid, recommended that the Sri Lankan Commission to Investigate Cases of Forced Disappearances be disbanded.
Sep 30: Russia launched air strikes in Syria in the Kremlin’s biggest Middle East intervention in decades, but Moscow’s assertion that it had hit the self-styled Islamic State (IS) group was immediately disputed by the United States and rebels on the ground.
Sep 30: The G7 group of leading economies and Gulf states pledged $1.8 billion in funding for UN aid agencies helping Syrian refugees.
Oct 01: India rejected outright Pakistan’s four-point initiative for establishing normal ties between the two countries.
India’s formal response came from its Minister for External Affairs Sushma Swaraj while addressing the 70th United Nations General Assembly (UNGA).
Oct 01: Loyalist Yemeni troops and Gulf Arab forces seized the Bab al-Mandab Strait connecting the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden from Houthi fighters, reasserting control over the strategic sea lane.
Oct 01: A United Nations panel ruled that the jailing of former Maldives president Mohamed Nasheed was illegal, and called for his immediate release.
Oct 02: The leaders of France, Germany, Russia and Ukraine met in Paris to consolidate a fragile peace in Ukraine, as President Vladimir Putin eyed relief from punishing sanctions over Moscow’s role in the conflict.
Oct 03: A US air strike on a hospital killed 19 people in the Afghan city of Kunduz.
Oct 05: Islamic State group militants blew up the Arch of Triumph in Syria’s Palmyra, the country’s antiquities chief said.
Oct 06: Federal authorities in the US started investigating a scheme in which officials at the United Nations, including a former president of UN General Assembly, John Ashe, were allegedly bribed for their support to develop real estate in Macau.
Besides Mr Ashe, a deputy UN ambassador for the Dominican Republic, Francis Lorenzo, was also charged in the alleged scheme.
Oct 07: President Barack Obama apologised to Doctors Without Borders for the US air attack that hit the group’s medical clinic in Afghanistan.
Oct 07: A Chinese Navy destroyer, a Chinese frigate and a Chinese supply vessel sailed into Poland’s navy port of Gdynia on the first such visit ever, marking 66 years of diplomatic ties and aiming to strengthen them even more.
Oct 07: Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei banned any further negotiations between Iran and the United States, putting the brakes on moderates hoping to end Iran’s isolation after reaching a nuclear deal with world powers in July.
Oct 07: Yemen’s Houthi group and the party of the former president accepted a peace plan brokered by the United Nations in talks in Oman, paving the way for resuming negotiations to end months of conflict in the country.
Oct 10: At least 86 people were killed in the Turkish capital when bombs set off by two suspected suicide attackers ripped through leftist and pro-Kurdish activists gathering for an anti-government peace rally.
Oct 10: The Group of 20 major economies endorsed a package of measures to tackle corporate tax avoidance.
Oct 10: Egypt signed a deal with France to buy two Mistral warships originally ordered by Russia as French Prime Minister Manuel Valls began an Arab nation tour.
Oct 11: Iran successfully test-fired a new guided long-range ballistic surface-to-surface missile Emad (or pillar in Farsi).
Oct 13: The governor of Okinawa Takeshi Onaga revoked approval for work on a US air base on the southern Japanese island, in the latest setback to the controversial plan.
The proposal to relocate Futenma air base to the Henoko region, first mooted in 1996, has become the focus of anger among locals, who insist it should be shut and a replacement built elsewhere in Japan or overseas.
Oct 13: The Taliban announced to pull back from the northern city of Kunduz in order to protect civilians but fighting will continue elsewhere in the country with government troops.
Oct 13: Iran’s parliament approved the country’s nuclear deal with world powers, paving the way for the historic agreement curbing Tehran’s atomic programme to take effect and for sanctions to end.
The vote came after fierce debate among lawmakers over the terms of the accord, which was struck on July 14 but has faced a rough ride from hardliners in Tehran and in the US Congress.
Oct 14: Israel set up checkpoints in Palestinian neighbourhoods of east Jerusalem and mobilised hundreds of soldiers as it struggled to stop attacks that have raised fears of a full-scale uprising.
Oct 15: The United Nations General Assembly elected Egypt, Japan, Senegal, Ukraine and Uruguay to serve as non-permanent members on the Security Council for two-year terms beginning on Jan 1, 2016.
Oct 15: Myanmar’s government signed a cease-fire agreement with eight armed ethnic groups, in what the country’s leaders described as a major step toward peace in the vast borderland regions that have been restive since the earliest days of the country’s independence.
Oct 15: President Barack Obama announced maintaining the current level of US forces in Afghanistan till 2017 and leaving at least half of the troops after that while running various military bases.
ECONOMY
Sep 16: The OECD cut its world economic growth forecasts for 2015 and 2016, warning of a dramatic slowdown in Brazil and a global outlook clouded by uncertainty over China.
The policy analysis club of 34 advanced economies had already slashed its forecasts just three months ago because of weak US activity.
Sep 28: Chinese President Xi Jinping pledged $2 billion for a new development fund for poor countries on a UN visit showcasing Beijing’s growing global role.
Xi’s announcement, made in his first address to the United Nations, follows longstanding criticism from the United States and other developed countries that China has not taken responsibilities in line with its aspirations for a greater global role.
Oct 13: France announced a series of deals worth 10 billion euros ($11.4bn) with Saudi Arabia, reinforcing growing ties between the two countries.
Oct 14: China lost an appeal ruling in a World Trade Organisation dispute in which Japan and the European Union had complained about Chinese use of antidumping duties on high performance, seamless stainless steel tubes.
ELECTIONS & APPOINTMENTS
Sep 19: Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi swore in a new government that included 16 new ministers. Sharif Ismail, who served as petroleum minister in the last cabinet, was sworn in as prime minster.
Sep 21: Alexis Tsipras, who won election as Greece’s prime minister in January on an anti-austerity platform that he was later forced to abandon, was returned to power by Greek voters.
Oct 11: Nepal’s parliament elected Communist party leader Khadga Prasad Oli as country’s new prime minister, thrusting him into the centre of daunting challenges, from ethnic protests over the new constitution.
Oct 12: Aleksandr G. Lukashenko, the authoritarian president of Belarus was re-elected.
Oct 14: Twitter Inc. appointed former Google executive Omid Kordestani as its executive chairman, holding good on a promise to appoint an outsider to work alongside cofounder Jack Dorsey in his second stint as CEO.
WEIRD
Oct 08: Opposition lawmakers released clouds of tear gas in Kosovo’s parliament, causing two MPs to faint, in protest at a recent EU-brokered deal reached by the government with Serbia.
Sep 29: The head of Italy’s Senate rejected the more than 70 million computer-generated amendments submitted by the anti-immigrant Northern League to a government-sponsored constitutional reform bill.
PEOPLE IN NEWS
Ahmed Mohamed
Sep 16: US President Barack Obama invited, Ahmed Mohamed, a Muslim teenager to the White House with his clock that initially led to his arrest.
Queen Rania Abdullah
Sep 17: Queen Rania Abdullah of Jordan received the Walther Rathenau Prize from German Chancellor Angela Merkel in recognition of her foreign policy achievements and efforts on behalf of refugees and children.
Hedieh “Roshan” Ghaffarian
Sep 18: The White House announced to select Hedieh “Roshan” Ghaffarian, an Iranian-born woman who started a business from her parents’ garage, as its new chief florist.
Viola Davis
Sep 21: Viola Davis made Emmy history when she won the award for best actress in a drama series, becoming the first black woman to take the honour in the prestigious category.
Zaha Hadid
Sep 24: Zaha Hadid became the first woman to scoop a top British architecture prize, the Royal Gold Medal from the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA).
Patchamuthu Illangovan
Sep 30: Patchamuthu Illangovan (Illango) was appointed as the World Bank’s new Country Director for Pakistan. He succeeded Rachid Benmessaoud.
Mr Illangovan, a Sri-Lankan national, counts over three decades of international development experience. He joined the World Bank in 1993 and has since served in many positions including leadership roles in Europe and Central Asia, East Asia and Pacific, and South Asia regions of the World Bank.
PLACES IN NEWS
Berlin
Sep 16: G7 Forum for Dialogue with Women, organised by German Chancellor Angela Merkel, was held in Berlin, Germany.
SPORTS
Sep 16: The Chinese city of Hangzhou was awarded the 2022 Asian Games, in what was described as another win for China’s global sporting ambitions.
Sep 18: Moscow’s Red Square was transformed into a football pitch as Russia launched its 1,000-day countdown to the 2018 FIFA World Cup it will host in 11 cities.
Sep 29: Former world number one Venus Williams claimed the 700th win of her career, beating Germany’s Julia Goerges in the second round of the Wuhan Open.
The 35-year-old American became the ninth woman to chalk up 700 victories since tennis turned professional in 1968.
Oct 08: Sepp Blatter and UEFA President Michel Platini, the former France great who had been favoured to take over as FIFA leader, were both suspended in a deepening corruption scandal.
Oct 11: World number one Novak Djokovic beat the Spaniard Rafael Nadal to win his sixth China Open title.
Oct 13: Real Madrid star Cristiano Ronaldo won a record fourth Golden Boot as the top scorer in Europe’s domestic leagues last season.
OBITUARIES
Sep 16: Fred DeLuca, who in 1965, at 17, borrowed $1,000 to open a sandwich shop to help pay his college expenses and parlayed that experience into building Subway, the world’s largest chain of fast-food franchises, died. He was 67.
Sep 17: The former Gloucestershire wicketkeeper, international umpire and professional footballer Barrie Meyer died aged 83.
Sep 18: Carl Schorske, a Pulitzer Prize-winning historian and popular classroom lecturer whose “Fin-De-Siecle Vienna” is widely regarded as a classic work of intellectual scholarship, died.
Sep 19: Sheikh Rashid bin Mohammad bin Rashid Al Maktoum, a son of Dubai’s ruler and elder brother to the emirate’s heir apparent, died at age 33.
The United Arab Emirates state news agency WAM said that he died of a heart attack.
Sep 20: Former International Cricket Council (ICC) chief Jagmohan Dalmiya, hailed as the architect of India’s rise as the game’s financial superpower, passed away. He was 75.
Sep 21: C.K. Williams, whose morally impassioned poems addressing war, poverty and climate change, as well as the imponderable mysteries of the psyche, won him a Pulitzer Prize and a National Book Award, died. He was 78.
Sep 27: Former England fast bowler Frank Tyson died at the age of 85.
Oct 03: Former British finance minister and “Labour party giant” Denis Healey died, aged 98.
Oct 08: Arpad Goncz, a playwright, translator and anti-Communist dissident who became the first president of post-Communist Hungary, died. He was 93.
Oct 10: Jerry Parr, the “true hero” Secret Service agent who helped save the life of US president Ronald Reagan during a 1981 assassination attempt, died aged 85.
Oct 10: Former British Treasury chief Geoffrey Howe, a prominent figure in Margaret Thatcher’s government who helped bring about her downfall after they parted ways over policy toward Europe, died at 88.
Oct 12: Ravindra Jain, who overcame lifelong blindness to achieve renown in his native India and beyond as a singer and composer, died. He was 71.
National MCQs
1. The Exit Control List (ECL) is maintained by the Government of Pakistan under the Exit from Pakistan (Control) Ordinance, ______
(a) 1973 (b) 1977
(c) 1981 (d) 1984
2. National Aliens Registration Authority (Nara), which was merged into Nadra on Sep 18, was established in ______.
(a) 1998 (b) 1999
(c) 2000 (d) 2003
3. Pakistan ranked ______ among 143 economies in the Global Innovation Index (GII) 2015.
(a) 131 (b) 134
(c) 139 (d) 142
4. The incumbent Chairman of Red Crescent Pakistan is ______.
(a) Dr Saeed Elahi
(b) Marvi Memon
(c) Capt (R) Muhammad Safdar
(d) Senator Aitzaz Ahsan
5. The coupon rate for the new 10-year Eurobonds issued by the Government of Pakistan is ______.
(a) 4.35% (b) 6.25%
(c) 7.75% (d) 8.25%
6. On Sep 28, the Joint Working Group of Pakistan and ______ agreed on a trade and economic roadmap for bilateral cooperation in short- and medium-term.
(a) Belarus (b) Russia
(c) Thailand (d) S. Korea
7. The incumbent Chairman of Federal Public Service Commission (FPSC) is ______.
(a) Abdul Wajid Rana
(b) Naveed Akram Cheema
(c) Malik Asif Hayat
(d) Haseeb Athar
8. In Global Competitiveness Report 2015, Pakistan attained ______ position.
(a) 116th (b) 134th
(c) 126th (d) 136th
9. On Sep 30, while addressing the ______ session of the United Nations General Assembly, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif urged India to pledge with Pakistan not to use force or the threat of force under any circumstances.
(a) 69th (b) 70th
(c) 71st (d) 72nd
10. The total volume of the Prime Minister Kisan Package 2015 is ______.
(a) Rs. 341 billion (b) Rs. 360 billion
(c) Rs. 375 billion (d) Rs. 400 billion
11. On Sep 30, Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan ordered immediate suspension of a visa-free entry agreement with ______.
(a) Zambia (b) S. Africa
(c) Mauritius (d) Algeria
12. On Oct 02, ______ was appointed as chief of the Citizens-Police Liaison Committee.
(a) Zubair Habib
(b) Moinuddin Haider
(c) Siddiq Memon
(d) Naimatullah Khan
13. On Oct 02, the Republic of Korea and Pakistan signed a Framework Arrangement amounting to ______ for different development projects.
(a) $300 million (b) $500 million
(c) $700 million (d) $900 million
14. On Oct 02, ______ won the third consecutive FPCCI Achievement Award for its ‘banking, leasing, financial services and capital markets’.
(a) NBP (b) HBL
(c) UBL (d) ABL
15. On Oct 02, the ______ withdrew Anti-Dumping Duty on Pakistan’s products of PET (Polyethylene terephthalate).
(a) United States (b) European Union
(c) United Kingdom (d) Australia
16. On Oct 02, Moody’s Investors Service assigned a definitive rating of ______ to Pakistan’s global bond offering.
(a) B1 (b) B2
(c) B3 (d) B4
17. On Oct 03, ______ assumed the charge as new Commander Southern Command at Quetta cantt.,
(a) Lt. Gen Ashfaq Ahmad
(b) Lt. Gen Aamir Riaz
(c) Lt. Gen Tauqir Shah
(d) Lt. Gen Salman Alvi
18. Former Air Chief Marshal Mushaf Ali Mir died in a plane crash near Kohat on February 20, ______.
(a) 2001 (b) 2002
(c) 2003 (d) 2004
19. At present, the largest healthcare facility for the children in Punjab is ______
(a) Children’s Hospital, Multan
(b) Children’s Hospital, Faisalabad
(c) Children’s Hospital, Sialkot
(d) Children’s Hospital, Lahore
20. On Oct 07, the Supreme Court upheld the death sentence awarded to Malik Mohammad Mumtaz Qadri who had killed former Governor Punjab Salman Taseer in ______.
(a) 2010 (b) 2011
(c) 2012 (d) 2013
21. On Oct 07, former deputy chairman of Lahore Transport Company, ______, was appointed as its new chairman.
(a) Ahmad Hassan
(b) Nadeem Baig
(c) Mehr Ishtiaq
(d) Zaeem Qadri
22. On Oct 07, Ambassador ______ assumed charge as the Permanent Representative of Pakistan to the United Nations and other International Organizations in Geneva.
(a) Imtiaz Bhatti
(b) Jalil Abbas Jilani
(c) Tehmina Janjua
(d) Rizwan Saeed Sheikh
23. MQM withdrew the resignations of its legislators from the Senate and National and Sindh assemblies on ______.
(a) Oct 09 (b) Oct 10
(c) Oct 11 (d) Oct 12
24. On______, Pakistan and the UNDP formally launched the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
(a) Oct 06 (b) Oct 07
(c) Oct 08 (d) Oct 09
25. On Oct 12, an Anti-Terrorism Court (ATC) in Gilgit-Baltistan (GB) awarded ______ imprisonment to the MQM chief Altaf Hussain.
(a) 60-year (b) 81-year
(c) 90-year (d) 100-year
26. On Oct 14, the Higher Education Evaluation and Accreditation Council of Taiwan (HEEACT) put the University of Agriculture Faisalabad (UAF) at the ______ position among the 100 top universities of the world.
(a) 87th (b) 90th
(c) 94th (d) 96th
27. On Oct 15, Pakistan and ______ started negotiations on a bilateral free trade agreement (FTA) covering trade in goods, services and investments.
(a) Thailand (b) Turkey
(c) Sri Lanka (d) Nepal
28. Jalil Abbas Jilani is Pakistan’s current ambassador to the ______.
(a) UN (b) UK
(c) US (d) EU
International
1. On Sep 16, ______ adopted a new constitution that will turn the former Himalayan monarchy into a secular, multiparty democracy.
(a) Myanmar (b) Nepal
(c) Thailand (d) Bhutan
2. Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), a Paris-based body consists of ______ members.
(a) 30 (b) 32
(c) 34 (d) 47
3. On Sep 17, a million people were evacuated in ______ after an 8.3-magnitude quake struck offshore in the Pacific.
(a) Indonesia (b) Chile
(c) Japan (d) Mexico
4. On Sep 17, Queen Rania of ______ received the Walther Rathenau Prize in recognition of her foreign policy achievements and efforts on behalf of refugees and children.
(a) Jordan (b) Brunei
(c) Lebanon (d) Algeria
5. On Sep 18, ______ parliament passed contentious security bills into law, in a move that could see country’s troops fight abroad for the first time in 70 years.
(a) China’s (b) Germany’s
(c) Japan’s (d) France’s
6. On Sep 18, after 22 years of work ______ was officially declared cleansed of tens of thousands of land mines from a legacy of war.
(a) Burkina Faso (b) Chad
(c) Mozambique (d) Mali
7. On Sep 19, Sharif Ismail was sworn in as the prime minster of ______.
(a) Yemen (b) Jordan
(c) Oman (d) Egypt
8. WAM is the state news agency of ______.
(a) Australia (b) UAE
(c) Japan (d) Russia
9. On Sep 21, ______ parliament gave the army and police sweeping new powers to keep migrants out of the country.
(a) France’s (b) Turkey’s
(c) Greece’s (d) Hungary’s
10. Alexis Tsipras is the 185th and current Prime Minister of ______.
(a) Hungary (b) Greece
(c) Poland (d) Sweden
11. Volkswagen is a ______ multinational automotive manufacturing company headquartered in Wolfsburg.
(a) American (b) German
(c) British (d) Japanese
12. On Sep 23, in their first-ever joint declaration on combating terrorism, the US and ______ equated Lashkar-e-Taiba with Al Qaeda affiliates.
(a) Bangladesh (b) Afghanistan
(c) China (d) India
13. On Sep 24, ______ became the first woman to scoop a top British architecture prize, the Royal Gold Medal from the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA).
(a) Ruth Reed (b) Zaha Hadid
(c) Eileen Gray (d) Louisa Hutton
14. Champs-Élysées avenue is located in ______.
(a) Paris (b) Cannes
(c) Strasbourg (d) Roubaix
15. Al-Aqsa mosque is located in ______.
(a) Tel Aviv (b) Gaza
(c) Jerusalem (d) Bethlehem
16. On Sep 28, India successfully launched into space its first high-tech telescopes through a mini space observatory called ______.
(a) Astro-G (b) Astrosat
(c) Corot (d) Proteus
17. On Sep 28, ______ and Iran announced a new coalition to defend Syrian strongman Bashar al-Assad and defeat the Islamic State
(a) Iraq (b) Russia
(c) Lebanon (d) Jordan
18. The International Labour Organization, created in 1919 by Part XIII of the Versailles Peace Treaty, is headquartered at ______.
(a) Geneva (b) New York
(c) Brussels (d) Tokyo
19. On Sep 29, Afghan Ulema Council announced a Fatwa (edict) that it was legitimate to wage Jihad in ______.
(a) Russia (b) India
(c) Syria (d) Pakistan
20. Uniting for Consensus (UfC), or the Coffee Club, is a group of countries, led by ______, in opposition to the expansion of permanent seats in the UNSC.
(a) China (b) Italy
(c) S. Africa (d) Pakistan
21. The Palestinians raised their flag at the United Nations for the first time on ______.
(a) Sep 20, 2015 (b) Sep 27, 2015
(c) Sep 30, 2015 (d) Oct 01, 2015
22. On Sep 30, ______ launched air strikes in Syria in the country’s biggest Middle East intervention in decades.
(a) Russia (b) Germany
(c) Iran (d) France
23. Patchamuthu Illangovan (Illango), who was recently appointed as the World Bank’s new Country Director for Pakistan, is a ______ national.
(a) S. Korean (b) Thai
(c) Sri Lankan (d) Nepalese
24. The Bab al-Mandab Strait connects the ______ and the Gulf of Aden.
(a) Arabian Sea (b) Black Sea
(c) Dead Sea (d) Red Sea
25. On Oct 07, US President Barack Obama apologised to Doctors Without Borders for the US air attack that hit the group’s medical clinic in ______.
(a) Yemen (b) Afghanistan
(c) Iraq (d) Syria
26. On Oct 07, Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei banned any further negotiations between Iran and ______.
(a) United States (b) Pakistan
(c) Saudi Arabia (d) India
27. On Oct 11, Iran successfully test-fired a new guided long-range ballistic surface-to-surface missile named ______.
(a) Barq (b) Ghazb
(c) Emad (d) Faras
28. On Oct 11, Communist party leader Khadga Prasad Oli was elected as the new prime minister of ______.
(a) Thailand (b) Maldives
(c) Bhutan (d) Nepal
29. On Oct 12, Aleksandr G. Lukashenko was re-elected as the President of ______.
(a) Azerbaijan (b) Belarus
(c) Ukraine (d) Sweden
30. On Oct 15, the United Nations General Assembly elected Egypt, Japan, Senegal, Ukraine and ______ to serve as non-permanent members on the Security Council for two-year terms.
(a) Canada (b) Uruguay
(c) Pakistan (d) India
Sports
1. 2022 Asian Games will be held in Chinese city of ______.
(a) Shanghai (b) Beijing
(c) Hangzhou (d) Tianjin
2. The five-team Pakistan Super League (PSL) will take place in ______ from February 4, 2016.
(a) Karachi (b) Dubai
(c) Lahore (d) Abu Dhabi
3. On Sep 29, former world number one ______ claimed the 700th win of her career.
(a) Li Na
(b) Maria Sharapova
(c) Serena Williams
(d) Venus Williams
4. On Oct 02, Pakistani female power-lifter Twinkle Sohail won the gold medal in the Asian Bench-Press Powerlifting Championship held in ______.
(a) Bangkok (b) Beijing
(c) Maldives (d) Muscat
5. On Oct 11, Novak Djokovic beat ______ to win his sixth China Open title.
(a) Rafael Nadal (b) Andy Murray
(c) Roger Federer (d) David Ferrer
6. On Oct 13, ______ won a record fourth Golden Boot as the top scorer in Europe’s domestic leagues last season.
(a) Lionel Messi
(b) Neymar da Silva
(c) Cristiano Ronaldo
(d) Luis Suárez
7. On Oct 13, senior batsman Younis Khan became Pakistan’s leading run scorer in Test cricket by surpassing ______.
(a) Hanif Muhammad
(b) Javed Miandad
(c) Inzamam-ul-Haq
(d) Mudassar Nazar
Obituaries
1. On Sep 16, Fred DeLuca, who built the world’s largest chain of fast-food franchises named ______, died.
(a) Subway (b) McDonald
(c) KFC (d) Fat Burger
2. Sheikh Rashid bin Mohammad bin Rashid Al Maktoum, a son of Dubai’s ruler, died on ______, 2015.
(a) Sep 19 (b) Sep 20
(c) Sep 23 (d) Sep 24
3. On Sep 27, Prof Dr Muhammad Rafiq Khan, former vice-chancellor of ______, died.
(a) UAF (b) PU
(c) FCU (d) GCU
4. Renowned Punjabi scholar, poet, researcher and educationist Sharif Sabir passed away on ______.
(a) Sep 28 (b) Sep 30
(c) Oct 02 (d) Oct 06
5. On Oct 03, former ______ finance minister, Denis Healey, died.
(a) Japan (b) British
(c) Kosovo (d) Australian
