World in Focus (SEP-OCT 2022)

National & International With MCQs

Sept. 16: The United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (Unicef) representative in Pakistan estimated that as many as 16 million children have been impacted by ‘super floods’ and at least 3.4 million girls and boys remain in need of immediate, lifesaving support.
Sept. 16: In his address to the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif (PMSS) called upon the member states to come up with Pakistan-specific programmes on climate change.
Sept. 16: Dr. Shazia Sobia Aslam Soomro, who is also an MNA, was elected as President of the Pakistan Nursing Council.
Sept. 17: Accountability courts returned 50 major corruption cases against suspects, including cases against PMSS.
Sept. 18: The Saudi Fund for Development confirmed the rollover of $3 billion deposit for the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) maturing on December 5, 2022, for one year.
Sept. 18: The government announced to launch a campaign to vaccinate children between five and 11 years against Covid-19.
Sept. 18: The Punjab government posted SP Shazia Sarwer as District Police Officer (DPO) of Layyah, making her the first woman from Balochistan to head the security of a district in Pakistan’s largest province.
Sept. 19: The Islamabad High Court (IHC) ordered the authorities concerned to remove sections of the Anti-Terrorism Act (ATA) from the case against PTI Chairman Imran Khan for threatening a female judge, Zeba Chaudhary.
Sept. 19: The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) jacked up valuation rates of properties in over 20 cities ranging between 10 and 30 percent on average.
Sept. 19: Chief of Army Staff (COAS) General Qamar Javed Bajwa met Chinese Minister for Defence General Wei Fenghe, in China.
Sept. 19: The Punjab Assembly, through a resolution, demanded registration of a case against PMSS for consulting a “court fugitive” over sensitive national issues.
Sept. 19: Gilgit-Baltistan’s former chief judge Rana Shamim submitted unconditional apology to the IHC.
Sept. 19: The Punjab government removed Tahir Mahmood Ashrafi as chairman of the Muttahida Ulema Board (MUB) and replaced him with Punjab Quran Board (PQB) Chairman Hamid Raza.
Sept. 20: On the sidelines of the 77th UN General Assembly session, Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari (FM Zardari) chaired a conference of young foreign ministers from different countries.
Sept. 20: PMSS and French President Emmanuel Macron had a bilateral meeting on the sidelines of the 77th Session of the UN General Assembly (UNGA) in New York.
Sept. 20: On the instructions of CM Punjab, Board of Revenue announced to reduce the property stamp duty in urban areas by 100 percent.
Sept. 20: Hollywood actress Angelina Jolie arrived in Pakistan and visited the flood-ravaged areas.
Sept. 20: Sindh lifted their maiden National T20 title after beating Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in the final of the Kingdom Valley National T20 Cup 2022-23.
Sept. 20: The federal cabinet swelled to 72 members after PMSS appointed two more special assistants.
Sept. 21: PMSS and US Special Presidential Envoy for Climate, John Kerry agreed to enhance Pak-US cooperation to fight the climate challenge.
Sept. 21: The IHC dismissed the National Accountability Bureau’s (NAB) Narowal Sports City corruption reference against Federal Minister Ahsan Iqbal.
Sept. 21: The KP government approved a Rs 500 million project for promoting modern policing through employing drone technology.
Sept. 21: Japan and Pakistan officially agreed on debt deferral amounting to about $160 million as the last phase of the “G20 Debt Service Suspension Initiative (DSSI)”.
Sept. 22: CM Punjab announced 30,000 new jobs in the province after lifting a ban on recruitment.
Sept. 22: Skipper Babar Azam (110 not out) and Mohammad Rizwan (88 not out) shared a record opening stand to enable Pakistan to demolish England by 10 wickets.
Sept. 22: The ADB approved a $100 million results-based loan to help strengthen the quality of secondary health care in KP.
Sept. 22: Pakistan’s foreign secretary from 1988 to 1989, Dr Humayun Khan, passed away.
Sept. 22: Wrestler Ali Asad, who won bronze medal for Pakistan in the 57kg category in the Birmingham Commonwealth Games, tested positive for banned performance-enhancing drugs, thus stripped of the medal.
Sept. 22: Pakistan and Iraq agreed to start a ferry service between Basra and Karachi.
Sept. 23: PMSS delivered his address at the 77th UNGA session.
Sept. 23: PMSS met with US President Joe Biden on the sidelines of the 77th UNGA session.
Sept. 24: The World Bank’s new Vice President for the South Asia Region, Martin Raiser, concluded his first visit to Pakistan.
Sept. 24: The World Bank announced repurposing $2 billion from the existing resource envelope for flood-affected areas in Pakistan.
Sept. 24: Mohammad Ishaq was elected president of the Sarhad Chamber of Commerce and Industry (SCCI) for 2022-23.
Sept. 25: Miftah Ismail resigned as the finance minister.
Sept. 25: Chairman of the Dubai Port World Sheikh Ahmed Sultan Bin Sulayem called on COAS Bajwa and made a donation of $2.5 million (Rs602 million) for the Army Relief Fund.
Sept. 25: Pakistan became the first team to play 200 T20 Internationals. Interestingly, Pakistan played their first T20I against England – on August 28, 2006, in Bristol.
Sept. 25: The Balochistan Assembly adopted a resolution unanimously calling upon the provincial government to plead with Islamabad to declare the Transgender Act of 2018 null and void in deference to the religious parties.
Sept. 26: A Pakistani delegation led by Federal Minister for IT and Telecommunication, Syed Amin Ul Haque, participated in the ITU’s Plenipotentiary Conference.
Sept. 26: US Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced another $10 million for food security assistance to Pakistan.
Sept. 27: Former finance minister and senior PMLN leader Ishaq Dar was administered oath as a member of the Senate of Pakistan.
Sept. 27: The Council of Islamic Ideology (CII) declared that different clauses of the Transgender Act, 2018, clash with the Islamic Sharia.
Sept. 27: Erum Lakhani was re-appointed as the chancellor of Iqra University, the largest private university in Sindh.
Sept. 28: The French government consented to the appointment of Additional Foreign Secretary Asim Iftikhar Ahmad as Pakistan’s new ambassador to France.
Sept. 28: The EU announced to provide €265 million (Rs60.4 billion) to Pakistan under the six-year multi indicative programme (MIP).
Sept. 28: Irfan Qadir, who has expertise in prosecution matters, was appointed Special Assistant to the Prime Minister (SAPM) with the status of federal minister.
Sept. 28: Balochistan Chief Minister Mir Abdul Qudoos Bizenjo inaugurated the newly constructed Mehrgarh Museum in Quetta.
Sept. 29: The IHC acquitted PMLN Vice President Maryam Nawaz and her husband Captain (R) Safdar in the Avenfield Reference, nullifying the conviction handed to them in 2018 by an accountability court.
Sept. 29: CM Punjab inaugurated the Rescue-1122 motorbike service for all districts of the province.
Sept. 29: Pakistan and China agreed on early launch of much-awaited Mainline-1 (ML1) project, aimed at revamping and modernising the country’s age-old railway infrastructure.
Sept. 29: Climate Change Minister Sherry Rehman announced to launch multi-billion dollar ‘Living Indus Initiative’, one of the largest climate resilience projects built in partnership with the UN.
Sept. 29: Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) won the Best Islamic Stock Exchange Award 2022 presented by Global Islamic Finance Awards (GIFA).
Sept. 29: Foreign Secretary Sohail Mahmood retired, ending his 37-year-long career in the foreign service.
Sept. 30: The United States rolled over an agreement to suspend service payments on $132 million of Pakistan’s debt.
Sept. 30: Ambassador to Italy Jauhar Saleem was named as the acting foreign secretary.
Sept. 30: PMSS appointed Finance Minister Senator Ishaq Dar as leader of the House in the Senate.
Sept. 30: Pakistan’s captain Babar Azam equalled the record of India’s Virat Kholi of being the fastest to reach 3000 T20 International runs.
Sept. 30: The induction ceremony of ATR-77 and roll out ceremony of upgraded ATR-79 was held in Karachi.
Sept. 30: Pakistan and Bosnia and Herzegovina reached an understanding to ensure safe, orderly and humane return of Pakistani nationals.
Oct. 02: CM Punjab launched Punjab Ehsaas Ration Programme of Rs100 billion.
Oct. 02: CM KP approved the establishment of Shangla Development Authority to develop tourism and end backwardness in the district.
Oct. 02: England cruised to a comprehensive 67 runs victory in the final game to return triumphant in the seven-match T20 International series 4-3.
Oct. 02: Pakistani athlete Sinan Ashfaq won gold medal at Europe’s prestigious competition — Albania Open Taekwondo Championship.
Oct. 03: The UN revised the ‘Flash Appeal’ for Pakistan’s flood victims from $160 million to $ 816 million.
Oct. 03: Maryam Nawaz received her passport after being confiscated for more than three years.
Oct. 03: Veteran journalist Zawwar Hasan passed away.
Oct. 03: The IHC directed the government to notify Sardar Akhtar Mengal as convener of the commission that had been constituted to prevent harassment of Baloch students.
Oct. 04: COAS Gen Bajwa met US Secretary of Defence Lloyd Auston at the Pentagon. The army chief was also accorded an honor cordon by Secretary Austin.
Oct. 04: A grid failure left over 80 percent of the population of Bangladesh, or 130 million people, without power for several hours.
Oct. 05: President Alvi, on the advice of PMSS, accorded approval to the summary for filing a reference in the Supreme Court in Reko Diq case.
Oct. 05: PMSS appointed former FBR chairman Tariq Bajwa as a special assistant.
Oct. 06: In his address to the joint sitting of both the houses of parliament to kick off the Fifth Parliamentary Year of the National Assembly, President Alvi called for ending political polarisation in the country and suggested that the political parties sit across the table and decide a date for fresh elections in the country.
Oct. 06: PMSS assigned portfolios of different ministries to his eight special assistants.
Oct. 06: The laureates of the 2022 Aga Khan Music Awards were announced. The winners from Pakistan are: Zarsanga (who is known as the Queen of Pashtun Folklore for her career-long devotion to the orally transmitted traditional music of tribal Pashtuns), Sain Zahoor (Punjabi musician with a lifelong practice of singing Sufi poetry in local shrines and festivals).
Oct. 06: PMSS appointed an Information Group officer of grade-20, Abdul Akbar Khan, as his press secretary.
Oct. 07: Wapda retained the National Women Basketball Championship title.
Oct. 08: FM Bilawal held a press conference with his German counterpart Annalena Baerbock where the latter called for the United Nations’ role to solve the Kashmir dispute.
Oct. 10: PMSS inaugurated commercial operations of Phase-II of Sindh Engro Coal Mining Company (SECMC) during his visit to Thar Coal Mines Block-II.
Oct. 10: Muhammad Kamran Khan Tessori took oath as the 34th Governor of Sindh province.
Oct. 10: The United Nations Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP-27) appointed PMSS as the vice-chair of the conference.
Oct. 10: Pakistan’s Mohammad Rizwan was crowned the ICC Men’s Player of the Month for September 2022.
Oct. 11: Twelve Major Generals of Pakistan Army were promoted to the rank of Lieutenant General.
Oct. 11: Punjab Home Minister Hashim Dogar resigned.
Oct. 11: Ride-hailing service Uber ceased its operations in five key cities, Karachi, Multan, Faisalabad, Peshawar and Islamabad.
Oct. 11: Pakistan and South Korea signed an MoU on Defence Cooperation.
Oct. 12: A Special Central Court acquitted PMSS and his son Hamza Shehbaz in the Rs16 billion money laundering case.
Oct. 12: The Judicial Commission of Pakistan (JCP) recommended confirmation of 11 additional judges of Lahore High Court (LHC) while dropping two judges.
Oct. 12: A ‘Pakistan Trade and Cultural Centre’ was inaugurated in the Bulgarian capital Sofia.
Oct. 12: PMSS had a meeting with the President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev in which the two sides renewed their commitment to intensify and deepen bilateral engagement in diverse areas of mutually beneficial cooperation.
Oct. 12: The federal cabinet approved the re-appointment of incumbent federal member in the Indus River System Authority (Irsa), Asjad Imtiaz Ali, for another term of three years, until October 24, 2025.
Oct. 13: Large swathes of the country, including Sindh, Balochistan and Punjab, experienced a major power breakdown.
Oct. 13: PMSS addressed the sixth summit of the Conference on International Confidence Building Measures in Asia (CICA) in the Kazakh capital, Astana.
Oct. 14: Multiple unidentified and decomposed human bodies were found on the roof of Nishtar Hospital Multan’s mortuary.
Oct. 14: Former chief justice of Balochistan High Court and the chief justice of the Federal Shariat Court, Justice Noor Muhammad Meskanzai, was killed in the Kharan area of Balochistan.
Oct. 14: CM Punjab approved upgradation of five cities to districts in the province.
Oct. 14: Pakistan defeated New Zealand to win the tri-series Twenty20.
Oct. 15: Pakistan summoned the US ambassador for an explanation on President Joe Biden’s ‘off-the-cuff’ remarks about the Pakistani nation and its nuclear weapons.
Oct. 15: Gulfam Joseph (Army) became the first Pakistan athlete (shooter) to qualify for the Paris Olympics 2024.

Sept. 16: China’s President Xi Jinping met his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
Sept. 16: Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese leader Xi Jinping looked to rally Asian leaders behind a new “international order” as they met for a summit aimed at challenging Western influence.
Sept. 17: Kazakhstan’s president signed a law that limits presidential mandates to a single seven-year term.
Sept. 17: Kazakhstan reverted to the old name of the country’s capital Nur-Sultan, i.e. Astana.
Sept. 18: Two Argentine pairs were crowned winners of the world tango championships.
Sept. 18: At least 81 people were killed in clashes between Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan.
Sept. 18: Israeli archaeologists announced the “once-in-a-lifetime” discovery of a burial cave from the time of ancient Egyptian Pharaoh Rameses II.
Sept. 18: Saul “Canelo” Alvarez retained his undisputed super-middleweight world title defeating Gennady Golovkin.
Sept. 19: The royal family bade farewell to Queen Elizabeth II in an intimate ceremony inside the grounds of her beloved Windsor Castle.
Sept. 19: An American engineer Mark Frerichs, who had been detained in Afghanistan since 2020, was released by the Taliban in exchange for Bashar Noorzai, an ally who had spent 17 years in a US jail for heroin smuggling.
Sept. 19: Switzerland signed a contract to buy 36 US F-35 stealth fighter jets at a cost of more than six billion francs ($6.2 billion).
Sept. 19: Typhoon Nanmadol, one of the biggest storms to hit Japan in years, caused record rainfall in the west of the country.
Sept. 20: Russia and Ukraine agreed to swap 200 prisoners.
Sept. 20: King Willem-Alexander opened the Dutch parliament and announced an 18-billion-euro ($18-billion) package of support for citizens facing soaring energy prices.
Sept. 20: UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres opened the annual General Assembly session.
Sept. 20: A temporary ban on using saliva to shine cricket balls was made permanent by the International Cricket Council.
Sept. 21: US President Joe Biden in his speech to the UN General Assembly made a fervent call for extending help to Pakistan where floods have caused huge devastation.
Sept. 21: Habibullah Agha, a member of reclusive supreme leader Hibatullah Akhundzada’s inner circle, was named the new education minister of Afghanistan.
Sept. 21: President Vladimir Putin called up Russian military reservists, saying his promise to use all military means in Ukraine was “no bluff”.
Sept. 21: New York was declared the wealthiest city on the planet with 345,600 millionaires, including 737 centi-millionaires with wealth of USD 100 million or more and 59 billionaires in dollar terms.
Sept. 21: The Ballon d’Or organisers announced adding a humanitarian prize to this year’s ceremony: Socrates the elegant.
Sept. 22: Astronomers spotted a hot bubble of gas spinning clockwise around the black hole at the centre of our galaxy at “mind blowing” speeds.
Sept. 22: India’s Supreme Court told the government to rein in TV channels that were spreading hate.
Sept. 23: Hilary Mantel, the first British novelist to win the Booker Prize twice, died aged 70.
Sept. 23: Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid affirmed his support for Palestinian statehood at the UN General Assembly.
Sept. 23: Russia began referendums aimed at annexing four occupied regions of Ukraine.
Sept. 24: Russia toughened penalties for voluntary surrender and refusal to fight with up to 10 years’ imprisonment.
Sept. 24: German Chancellor Olaf Scholz visited Saudi Arabia and held talks with its Crown Prince at the start of a two-day Gulf tour.
Sept. 24: Roger Federer bowed out of the international tennis arena.
Sept. 25: The UAE agreed to an “energy security” deal with Germany to supply LNG and diesel.
Sept. 25: The UN Human Rights Committee ruled that Australia violated the rights of indigenous people by failing to adequately protect them against the effects of climate change, ordering Canberra to pay compensation.
Sept. 25: Australia’s Jack Miller powered to an emphatic victory at the Japanese MotoGP.
Sept. 25: Travis Smyth won the Asian Tour title.
Sept. 25: Kenyan great Eliud Kipchoge beat his own world marathon record by 30 seconds, running 2hr 01min 9sec in Berlin.
Sept. 25: North Korea fired a ballistic missile.
Sept. 26: The ‘International Telecommunication Union (ITU) Plenipotentiary Conference (PP 22)’ started in Romania.
Sept. 26: Giorgia Meloni’s Eurosceptic populist party Brothers of Italy, swept to victory in Italy’s general elections.
Sept. 26: Yusuf al-Qaradawi, a prominent Sunni scholar and spiritual leader of Egypt’s outlawed Muslim Brotherhood movement, died aged 96.
Sept. 26: President Putin granted Russian citizenship to US whistleblower Edward Snowden.
Sept. 26: South Korea and the United States began their first combined naval exercise near the peninsula in five years.
Sept. 26: The United States won the Presidents Cup for a ninth consecutive time.
Sept. 27: Saudi Arabia’s powerful crown prince Mohammed bin Salman was named prime minister, a post traditionally held by the king.
Sept. 27: Nasa’s DART spacecraft successfully slammed into a distant asteroid at hypersonic speed in the world`s first test of a planetary defense system, designed to prevent a potential doomsday meteorite collision with Earth.
Sept. 28: North Korea fired two short-range ballistic missiles, just days ahead of a visit to South Korea by US Vice President Kamala Harris.
Sept. 28: Italy’s Samantha Cristoforetti became the first European woman to take over command of the International Space Station. She is fifth woman and the first non-US woman to become commander since the role was created in 2000.
Sept. 28: India banned the Popular Front of India (PFI).
Sept. 29: North Korea fired two ballistic missiles, just hours after US Vice President Kamala Harris left South Korea.
Sept. 29: India’s Supreme Court ruled that all women could end their pregnancy up to 24 weeks from conception, abolishing restrictions placed on unmarried mothers.
Sept. 29: Germany extended a 200-billion-euro ($194-billion) shield to protect households and businesses from skyrocketing power costs.
Sept. 29: Doreen Bogdan-Martin was elected as the first woman secretary general of the International Telecommunication Union, which plays an important global role in setting the technical standards underlying mobile phones, television and the internet.
Sept. 30: Women returned to Kuwait’s national assembly as the opposition won a majority in the Gulf’s only fully elected parliament.
Sept. 30: Russian President Vladimir Putin annexed four parts of Ukraine occupied by his army.
Sept. 30: The United States announced $810 million in new funding for Pacific Islands at a summit in Washington DC.
Sept. 30: The navies of South Korea, the United States and Japan staged trilateral anti-submarine exercises for the first time in five years.
Oct. 01: Burkina Faso witnessed its second coup this year when junior officers toppled a junta leader Paul-Henri Sandaogo Damiba.
Oct. 01: Germany’s Defence Minister Christine Lambrecht made a surprise visit to Ukraine.
Oct. 01: Russia’s Gazprom cut gas deliveries to Italy’s Eni, blaming a transport problem in Austria.
Oct. 01: Flamboyant Japanese professional wrestler-turned-politician Antonio Inoki died aged 79.
Oct. 01: United States crushed China to win their fourth straight women’s basketball World Cup and 11th overall.
Oct. 01: The Gas Interconnector Greece-Bulgaria (IGB), a 182-kilometre (113-mile) trans-boundary pipeline began pumping gas.
Oct. 02: At least 174 people died at an Indonesian football stadium when thousands of angry home fans invaded the pitch and police responded with tear gas that triggered a stampede.
Oct. 02: The defense ministers of the United States, Australia and Japan agreed to boost military cooperation in the face of China’s growing ambitions “to shape the world around it”.
Oct. 02: Nicaragua announced to deny entry to the ambassador appointed by the United States and sever diplomatic ties with the Netherlands.
Oct. 02: Yoshihito Nishioka won the Korea Open for his second ATP title.
Oct. 02: Red Bull’s Sergio Perez won a rain-affected Singapore Grand Prix.
Oct. 02: India clinched their first ever Twenty20 series against South Africa at home.
Oct. 04: The UAE’s first purpose-built Hindu temple opened in Dubai.
Oct. 04: Former German chancellor Angela Merkel won the United Nations refugee agency’s prestigious Nansen Award.
Oct. 04: The EU announced it will scale up its economic assistance of 30 million euros to the flood-affected people in Pakistan.
Oct. 04: Saudi Arabia was chosen to host the 2029 Asian Winter Games.
Oct. 05: Prolific writer and journalist Lee Yee, whose decades-long career saw him transform from a pro-Beijing leftist to a champion of Hong Kong’s young democracy activists, died.
Oct. 05: The 13-nation OPEC, which is headed by Saudi Arabia, and its 10 allies led by Russia agreed to reduce output by two million barrels per day from November.
Oct. 05: WTO lowered its global trade forecast for 2023 to 3.5 percent.
Oct. 05: Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov, an ally of President Vladimir Putin, was granted the top rank of Colonel General in Russia’s army.
Oct. 05: President Putin ordered his government to take over operations at Europe’s largest nuclear power station in the Russia-annexed region of Zaporizhzhia.
Oct. 06: North Korea fired two ballistic missiles, claiming that its recent blitz of sanctions-busting tests were necessary countermeasures against joint military drills by the United States and South Korea.
Oct. 06: The US Treasury placed a group of Myanmar arms dealers and their company Dynasty International on its sanctions blacklist.
Oct. 07: The US President signed a new policy on drone attacks against terrorists across the world.
Oct. 07: US and Philippine marines stormed a beach near a disputed rocky outcrop in the South China Sea as part of joint military drills involving more than 3,500 troops.
Oct. 07: US President Joe Biden’s administration released a new Arctic strategy.
Oct. 07: The UN Human Rights Council agreed to monitor the rights situation in Russia.
Oct. 08: A truck exploded on Russia’s bridge linking Crimea — a symbol of its annexation of the peninsula.
Oct. 08: New York City Mayor Eric Adams declared a state of emergency to address a “crisis situation” over an influx of migrants.
Oct. 08: The first minors were convicted under Hong Kong’s national security law.
Oct. 10: United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) urgently sought $65.8 million to help more than 650,000 refugees, mostly Afghan nationals, and members of their host communities affected by the recent devastating floods in Pakistan.
Oct. 10: Malaysia’s prime minister dissolved parliament to clear the way for snap elections.
Oct. 10: Harmanpreet Kaur became India’s first winner of the ICC Women’s Player of the Month.
Oct. 11: President Putin had a meeting with the Gulf state’s President Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan.
Oct. 11: The Palestinian group Hamas that rules Gaza revived relations with Syria.
Oct. 11: Nasa succeeded in deflecting an asteroid in a historic test of humanity´s ability to stop an incoming cosmic object from devastating life on Earth.
Oct. 11: India clinched their one-day series against South Africa.
Oct. 12: The UN General Assembly overwhelmingly voted to condemn Russia’s annexation of parts of Ukraine after Moscow vetoed a similar effort in the Security Council.
Oct. 12: The United States imposed visa restrictions against Taliban officials and other individuals ‘responsible for repressing Afghan women and girls’.
Oct. 13: The Biden administration released its US National Security Strategy 2022 which identifies China as ‘America’s most consequential geopolitical challenge’.
Oct. 13: Iraqi lawmakers elected Abdel Latif Rashid as the country’s new president, replacing Barham Saleh.
Oct. 13: Russia agreed to help residents leave a region it has “annexed”.
Oct. 13: An Indian Supreme Court panel failed to rule on a ban on hijabs in schools, referring the matter to the chief justice after a split decision.
Oct. 13: North Korea test-fired a short-range ballistic missile and flew nearly a dozen fighter jets close to the border with the South.
Oct. 13: The Modi government scrapped a rule granting voting rights to new residents of Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJ&K).
Oct. 14: Scottish actor Robbie Coltrane, who played Hagrid in the Harry Potter films, died aged 72.
Oct. 14: India successfully tested a ballistic missile fired from its first indigenous nuclear-powered submarine.
Oct. 15: Saudi Arabia announced $400 million in humanitarian aid for Ukraine.
Oct. 15: India won their seventh Women’s Asia Cup title, beating Sri Lanka in the final.
Oct. 15: Palestinian factions signed a reconciliation deal in Algiers, vowing to hold elections by next October.

National /MCQs

1. ______ represented Pakistan at the Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit in Samarkand, Uzbekistan.

(a) Bilawal Bhutto  (b) Arif Alvi

(c) Sherry Rehman (d) Shehbaz Sharif

2. On Sept. 18, the Saudi Fund for Development confirmed the rollover of ______ deposit for the SBP which was to mature on December 5, 2022.

(a) $1 billion          (b) $2 billion

(c) $3 billion          (d) $4 billion

3. On Sept. 19, the Punjab government appointed ____ the new Chairman of Muttahida Ulema Board.

(a) Tahir Ashrafi    (b) Hamid Raza

(c) Zawar Bahadur (d) Raghib Naeemi

4. The incumbent chairman of Punjab Quran Board is ______.

(a) Maulana Hanif Jallandari              (b) Sahibzada Hamid Raza

(c) Mufti Ahmad Ali                                (d) Pervaiz Elahi

5. On Sept. 20, Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari chaired a conference of young foreign ministers from different countries which was held in ______.

(a) Istanbul            (b) Karachi

(c) Berlin                (d) New York

6. Famous Hollywood actress who recently reached Pakistan and visited the flood-ravaged areas was ______.

(a) Cate Blanchett    (b) Nicole Kidman

(c) Angelina Jolie   (d) Emma Watson

7. On Sept. 20, ______ lifted their maiden National T20 title after beating Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in the final.

(a) Islamabad         (b) Sindh

(c) AJK                    (d) Punjab

8. On Sept. 21, ______ and Pakistan officially agreed on debt deferral amounting to about $160 million.

(a) Japan                (b) Germany

(c) France                (d) USA

9. On Sept. 22, Babar Azam and Mohammad Rizwan shared a record opening stand of ______ runs, against England.

(a) 203                   (b) 209

(c) 214                    (d) 221

10. On Sept. 22, the ADB approved a $100 million results-based loan to help strengthen the quality of secondary health care in ______.

(a) GB                    (b) KP

(c) Balochistan       (d) Punjab

11. On Sept. 22, Pakistan’s foreign secretary from 1988 to______, Dr Humayun Khan, passed away.

(a) 1989                 (b) 1990

 (c) 1992                 (d) 1993

12. On Sept. 22, Pakistan and Iraq agreed to start a ferry service between Basra and ______.

(a) Gwadar             (b) Quetta

(c) Pasni                 (d) Karachi

13. On _____, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif delivered his address to the 77th UNGA session.

(a) Sept. 23            (b) Sept. 25

(c) Sept. 26            (d) Sept. 28

14. On Sept. 24, the World Bank’s new Vice President for the South Asia Region, ______, concluded his first visit to Pakistan.

(a) Najy Benhassine      (b) Martin Raiser

(c) Naveed Baloch        (d) Naveed Elahi

15. On Sept. 25, Pakistan became the ______ team to play 200 T20 Internationals.

(a) First                  (b) Second

(c) Third                (d) Fourth

16. Pakistan played their first T20I against ______, on August 28, 2006.

(a) Australia          (b) India

(c) West Indies       (d) England

17. On Sept. 25, the ______ Assembly adopted a resolution unanimously calling upon the provincial government to plead with Islamabad to declare the Transgender Act of 2018 null and void.

(a) Sindh                (b) Punjab

(c) KP                     (d) Balochistan

18. The current Federal Minister for IT and Telecommunication is ______.

(a) Mohsin Ranjha        (b) Asad Mehmood

(c) Amin Ul Haque      (d) Miftah Ismail

19. On Sept. 26, in a press conference alongside FM Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced another ______ for food security assistance to Pakistan.

 (a) $9 million        (b) $10 million

 (c) $50 million      (d) $100 million

20. Senior PMLN leader Ishaq Dar was administered oath as a member of the Senate of Pakistan on ______.

(a) Sept. 27            (b) Sept. 28

(c) Sept. 29             (d) Sept. 30

21. The largest private university in the province of Sindh is ______.

(a) Aga Khan University      (b) Habib University

(c) Hamdard University       (d) Iqra University

22. Pakistan recently appointed _____ its new ambassador to France.

(a) Sohail Ahmad                     (b) Jauhar Saleem

(c) Asim Iftikhar Ahmad       (d) Abdul Hafeez Chaudhary

23. On ______, The IHC acquitted PMLN Vice President Maryam Nawaz and her husband Captain (R) Safdar in the Avenfield Reference.

(a) Sept. 28            (b) Sept. 29

(c) Sept. 30            (d) Oct. 01

24. On Sept. 30, the ______ rolled over an agreement to suspend service payments on $132 million of Pakistan’s debt.

(a) United States    (b) IMF

(c) World Bank        (d) United Kingdom

25. The incumbent leader of the House in the Senate of Pakistan is ______.

(a) Ishaq Dar                  (b) Raza Rabbani

(b) Azam Nazir Tarar       (d) Syed Yusuf Raza Gilani

26. On Oct. 02, Pakistani athlete ______ won gold medal at Albania Open Taekwondo Championship.

(a) Fahad Alam      (b) Sinan Ashfaq

(c) Shah Hussain    (d) Ali Hamid

27. On Oct. 03, the Islamabad High Court directed the government to notify ______ as convener of the commission that had been constituted to prevent harassment of Baloch students.

(a) Sardar Akhtar Mengal           (b) Dr Abdul Malik Baloch

(c) Yar Muhammad Rind               (d) Hamid Mir

28. On Oct. 05, PM Shehbaz Sharif appointed former FBR chairman Tariq Bajwa, who also served as ______, his special assistant.

(a) President IBA          (b) President NBP

(c) Chairman SECP       (d) Governor SBP

29. President Arif Alvi addressed the joint sitting of both the houses of parliament to kick off the Fifth Parliamentary Year of the National Assembly, on ______.

(a) Oct. 06              (b) Oct. 07

(c) Oct. 08              (d) Oct. 09

30. On Oct. 07, ______ retained the National Women Basketball Championship title.

(a) Pak Army          (b) Wapda

(c) Punjab              (d) Sindh

31. On Oct. 08, Annalena Baerbock, the Foreign Minister of ______, called for the United Nations’ role to solve the Kashmir dispute, probably the firat European leader to do so.

(a) Denmark          (b) Norway

(c) Germany           (d) Italy

32. On Oct. 10, Muhammad Kamran Khan Tessori took oath as the ______ Governor of Sindh province.

(a) 24th                  (b) 30th

(c) 33rd                  (d) 34th

33. On ______, the United Nations Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP-27) appointed PM Shehbaz Sharof as the vice-chair of the conference.

(a) Oct. 06              (b) Oct. 08

(c) Oct. 09              (d) Oct. 10

34. On Oct. 10, Pakistan’s ______ was crowned the ICC Men’s Player of the Month for September 2022.

(a) Naseem Shah    (b) Babar Azam

(c) M. Rizwan         (d) Haris Rauf

35. On Oct. 11, ______ Major Generals of Pakistan Army were promoted to the rank of Lieutenant General.

(a) 10                     (b) 12

(c) 14                     (d) 16

36. On Oct. 11, Pakistan and ______ signed an MoU on Defence Cooperation.

(a) Russia              (b) Iran

(c) China               (d) South Korea

37. The incumbent federal member in the Indus River System Authority (Irsa) is ______.

(a) Zahid H. Junejo      (b) Zahid Abbas

(c) Amjad Saeed          (d) Asjad Imtiaz Ali

38. On Oct. 13, PM Shehbaz Sharif addressed the sixth summit of the Conference on International Confidence Building Measures in Asia (CICA), which was held in the Kazakh capital, ______.

(a) Dushanbe         (b) Almaty

(c) Astana              (d) Turkistan

39. On Oct. 14, former chief justice of ______ High Court and the chief justice of the Federal Shariat Court, Justice Noor Muhammad Meskanzai, was killed.

(a) Islamabad        (b) Balochistan

(c) Peshawar          (d) Sindh

40. On Oct. 15, Gulfam Joseph of ______ became the first Pakistan athlete (shooter) to qualify for the Paris Olympics 2024.

(a) Army                (b) Wapda

(c) Punjab              (d) Sindh

International MCQs

1. On Sept. 17, ______ president signed a law that limits presidential mandates to a single 7-year term.

(a) Kazakhstan’s     (b) China’s

(c) India’s                 (d) Russia’s

2. On Sept. 17, Kazakhstan reverted to the old name of the country’s capital Nur-Sultan, which was______.

(a) Turkistan           (b) Astana

(c) Dushanbe          (d) Almaty

3. On ______, the British royal family bade farewell to Queen Elizabeth II inside the grounds of her beloved Windsor Castle.

(a) Sept. 17            (b) Sept. 18

(c) Sept. 19           (d) Sept. 20

4. On Sept. 19, an American engineer Mark Frerichs was released by the Taliban in exchange for ______.

(a) Zabihullah Noorzai                 (b) Mullah Muhammad Yaqoob

(c) Hamdullah Stanikzai               (d) Bashar Noorzai

5. On Sept. 19, ______ signed a contract to buy 36 US F-35 stealth fighter jets at a cost of more than $6.2 billion.

(a) South Korea          (b) Taiwan

(c) Ukraine                  (d) Switzerland

6. King Willem-Alexander is the monarch of ______.

(a) Belgium             (b) Norway

(c) Netherlands      (d) Denmark

7. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres opened the annual General Assembly session on ______.

(a) Sept. 20            (b) Sept. 21

(c) Sept. 22             (d) Sept. 23

8. On Sept. 21, ______ was declared the wealthiest city on the planet with 345,600 millionaires, including 737 centi-millionaires

(a) Beijing              (b) New York

(c) Davos                (d) Los Angeles

9. On ______, President Vladimir Putin called up Russian military reservists.

(a) Sept. 21            (b) Sept. 22

(c) Sept. 23             (d) Sept. 24

10. The Ballon d’Or organisers added ______ a humanitarian prize to this year’s ceremony.

(a) Maradona the genius            (b) Socrates the elegant

(c) Marie-Antoinette Award       (d) Mia Hamm the speediest

11. On Sept. 23, Hilary Mantel, the first ______ novelist to win the Booker Prize twice, died aged 70.

(a) Australian        (b) Canadian

(c) British             (d) Indian

12. Swiss star Roger Federer bowed out of the international tennis arena on ______.

(a) Sept. 21            (b) Sept. 22

(c) Sept. 23            (d) Sept. 24

13. On Sept. 25, the UAE agreed to an “energy security” deal with ______ to supply LNG and diesel.

(a) Germany           (b) Norway

(c) Italy                    (d) France

14. On Sept. 25, the UN Human Rights Committee ruled that ______ violated the rights of indigenous people by failing to adequately protect them against the effects of climate change.

(a) Australia          (b) Canada

(c) Mauritius          (d) New Zealand

15. On Sept. 26, the ‘International Telecommunication Union Plenipotentiary Conference’ started in ______.

(a) Italy                  (b) Romania

(c) Belgium            (d) France

16. On Sept. 26, Giorgia Meloni’s Eurosceptic populist party swept to victory in ______ general elections.

(a) Italy’s                (b) Iceland’s

(c) Greece’s             (d) Norway’s

17. On Sept. 26, Yusuf al-Qaradawi, a prominent Sunni scholar and spiritual leader of ______ Muslim Brotherhood movement, died.

(a) Libya’s               (b) Tunisia’s

(c) Egypt’s              (d) Syria’s

18. On Sept. 26, ______ and the United States began their first combined naval exercise near the Korean peninsula in five years.

(a) Philippines       (b) South Korea

(c) Japan                (d) Taiwan

19. On Sept. 27, Saudi Arabia’s powerful crown prince Mohammed bin Salman was named the country’s______.

(a) King                    (b) Foreign Minister

(c) Prime Minister  (d) Supreme Leader

20. On Sept. 27, Nasa’s ______ spacecraft slammed into a distant asteroid at hypersonic speed in the world’s first test of a planetary defence system.

(a) ARCTAS           (b) THEMIS

(c) ARTEMIS           (d) DART

21. On Sept. 28, ______ Samantha Cristoforetti became the first European woman to take over command of the International Space Station.

(a) Germany’s        (b) Portugal’s

(c) France’s            (d) Italy’s

22. On Sept. 29, Doreen Bogdan-Martin of ______ was elected as the first woman secretary general of the International Telecommunication Union.

(a) Switzerland      (b) Moldova

(c) USA                  (d) UK

23. The International Telecommunication Union, , which plays an important global role in setting the technical standards underlying mobile phones, television and the internet, is headquartered in ______.

(a) Cairo                 (b) Geneva

(c) Rome                (d) Bonn

24. On ______, Russian President Vladimir Putin annexed four parts of Ukraine occupied by his army.

(a) Sept. 30           (b) Oct. 01

(c) Oct. 02              (d) Oct. 03

25. Japanese professional wrestler-turned-politician Antonio Inoki died on ______.

(a) Oct. 01              (b) Oct. 02

(c) Oct. 03              (d) Oct. 04

26. On Oct. 01, the United States crushed ______ to win their fourth straight women’s basketball World Cup and 11th overall.

(a) Australia          (b) China

(c) Canada             (d) France

27. On ______, the UAE’s first purpose-built Hindu temple opened in Dubai.

(a) Oct. 03              (b) Oct. 04

(c) Oct. 05              (d) Oct. 06

28. On Oct. 04, former German chancellor ______ won the United Nations refugee agency’s prestigious Nansen Award.

(a) Helmut Schmidt               (b) Helmut Kohl

(c) Gerhard Schröder             (d) Angela Merkel

29. On Oct. 04, ______ was chosen to host the 2029 Asian Winter Games.

(a) Turkmenistan         (b) South Korea

(c) China                      (d) Saudi Arabia

30. On ______, President Joe Biden’s administration released a new Arctic strategy.

(a) Oct. 02              (b) Oct. 05

(c) Oct. 07              (d) Oct. 09

31. On Oct. 10, ______ became India’s first winner of the ICC Women’s Player of the Month.

(a) Mansi Joshi                          (b) Harmanpreet Kaur

(c) Deepti Sharma                     (d) Smriti Mandhana

32. On Oct. 11, the Palestinian group Hamas that rules Gaza revived relations with ______.

(a) Syria                 (b) Lebanon

(c) Egypt                (d) Jordan

33. On ______, the UN General Assembly overwhelmingly voted to condemn Russia’s annexation of parts of Ukraine after Moscow vetoed a similar effort in the Security Council.

(a) Oct. 12           (b) Oct. 13

(c) Oct. 14            (d) Oct. 15

34. The Biden administration released its US National Security Strategy 2022 on ______.

(a) Oct. 12             (b) Oct. 13

(c) Oct. 14              (d) Oct. 15

35. On Oct. 13, ______ lawmakers elected Abdel Latif Rashid as the country’s new president, replacing Barham Saleh.

(a) Yemeni              (b) Bangladeshi

(c) Iraqi                  (d) Sudan’s

36. On Oct. 15, ______ announced $400 million in humanitarian aid for Ukraine.

(a) India                 (b) UAE

(c) Turkey              (d) Saudi Arabia

37. On Oct. 15, India won their seventh Women’s Asia Cup title, beating ______ in the final.

(a) Bangladesh       (b) Pakistan

(c) UAE                  (d) Sri Lanka

38. The 13-nation bloc OPEC is headed by ______.

(a) UAE                    (b) Venezuela

(c) Saudi Arabia     (d) Russia

39. The winners of the third Twenty20 World Cup, which was held in the West Indies, were ______.

(a) South Africa     (b) England

(c) West Indies       (d) India

40. Annie Ernaux, the winner of 2022 Nobel Prize in literature, is an author from ______.

(a) UK ‎                   (b) Australia

(c) USA                  (d) France