Today’s top Pakistan current affairs March 31, 2021 with download link available in pdf. These are the latest breaking news about Pakistan which will be helpful for aspirants in test preparation of current affairs, Pakistan affairs, General knowledge for NTS, PPSC, CSS, FPSC, KPPSC, SPSC, BPSC, AJKPSC, OTS, PTS, and other Govt Jobs, exams & MDCAT, ECAT Entry test preparation.
One Liner
- Pakistan’s First Electric Bus Launched. Sindh Transport Minister Syed Owais Shah launched on Tuesday Pakistan’s first electric bus in Karachi.
- Sugar, Cotton Import From India Allowed. Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) on Wednesday allowed private sector to import sugar as well as cotton from neighboring India.
- Govt To Reduce Petrol Prices By Rs 1.50: Hammad Azhar. Federal Minister for Finance Hammad Azhar has announced that the government will decrease petroleum prices by Rs 1. 50 for coming 15 days.
- Mosques Will Remain Open During The Holy Month Of Ramadan. Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Religious Harmony Maulana Tahir Ashrafi has said Pakistan’s relations have tremendously improved with the Arab countries under the leadership of Prime Minister Imran Khan.
- OGRA Reduces LPG Prices By Rs 14. Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (OGRA) has notified a reduction in the prices of Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) in the country for the month of April 2021, hours after the finance minister announced lowering fuel prices.
- Pakistan Receives 500,000 Doses of Sinopham Vaccine. Pakistan received first tranche 0.5 million anti-corona vaccine purchased from China at the Nur Khan Airbase in Rawalpindi.
- Gold price drops Rs2,800 in Pakistan. The gold price dropped by another Rs2,800 in Pakistan on Wednesday, according to rates shared by the All Sindh Saraf Jewelers Association. A tola of gold now costs Rs102,900.
- Dollar drops below Rs153 as Pakistan achieves Euro bond target. The US dollar was traded for as low as Rs151.50 in the interbank market as Pakistan achieved the target of selling Euro bonds worth $2.5 billion Wednesday. The dollar rate stood at Rs152.8 by the end of the day.
Spotlight by The NewsRun
1. COVID-19 IN PAKISTAN
- 24-hour count: Pakistan reported 4,084 new cases and 100 deaths in 24 hours. Pakistan also conducted 46,269 tests in the span of 24 hours (P.S. this data was last updated on March 30 at 7:16am).
- Alleged COVID-19 vaccination line cutting: Federal Minister for Housing, Tariq Bashir Cheema, is being accused of using his political influence to get his family members vaccinated, even the ones who aren’t eligible. Video clips that emerged on social media allegedly show health workers vaccinating several people gathered in someone’s home. Someone who is presumably Cheema’s relative shared the video on Instagram. However, Cheema denied the allegations against him, and claimed a team from the University of Health Sciences came to his home to administer a booster shot of a trial vaccine. So far, the govt is only vaccinating health workers and people above the age of 60. The registration process for people above the age of 50 started yesterday.
- How is the Prime Minister feeling? Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Senator, Faisal Javed Khan, said Prime Minister (PM) Imran Khan has “fully recovered.” PM Khan tested positive for COVID-19 on March 20 and reportedly had mild symptoms. However, it’s unclear if PM Khan took another COVID-19 test and received a ‘negative’ result.
- Outgoing Finance Minister tests positive for COVID-19: It’s been a rough week for Dr. Abdul Hafeez Shaikh, who was recently removed from his position as Finance Minister. Yesterday, incoming Finance Minister, Hammad Azhar, tweeted that Shaikh tested positive for COVID-19. Azhar is the guy replacing Shaikh.
- Accelerating COVID-19 deaths: Pakistan recorded its highest single-day death toll since December 2020. Punjab had the most COVID-19 related deaths, followed by Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (KP), Sindh, Islamabad, Pakistan-administered Kashmir, and Balochistan.
2. Pakistan and India “want peaceful relations”
What’s going on? In the not-so-distant past, we could have never imagined PM Khan and Indian PM, Narendra Modi, saying anything nice to each other. Now, they’re becoming pen pals.
The details: PM Modi wrote a letter to PM Khan to congratulate him on the country’s annual Pakistan Day. PM Khan recently replied and thanked PM Modi for his letter. Both leaders reportedly called for peaceful relations between Pakistan and India. PM Khan reportedly said he hopes to resolve the Kashmir dispute as well, which is the primary issue between both countries. In his letter, PM Modi said “an environment of trust, devoid of terror and hostility is imperative.”
The context: The territorial dispute over Kashmir has been raging since 1947, when Pakistan gained independence from India, and India became independent from Britain. According to the Council on Foreign Relations, Pakistan and India have fought two major wars over Kashmir – one in 1947, and the other in 1965. Both countries claim Kashmir in full, but only control parts of it. Despite a ceasefire in 2003, both countries often exchanged fire across the Line of Control, a militarized border that divides Kashmir between Pakistan and India. In a recent development, Pakistan and India agreed to a ceasefire (again). This latest ceasefire is supposed to be a “renewed commitment.”
The bottom line: The cordial exchange of letters between PM Khan and PM Modi is a sign of easing tensions between Pakistan and India.
3. State Bank receives $500 million from the IMF
Pakistan received the third portion of the International Monetary Fund’s (IMFs) $6 billion loan. In a tweet, the State Bank said it got $498.7 million to be exact. On March 25, the IMF agreed to release the third loan disbursement to Pakistan after approving some delayed reviews of the country’s fiscal and revenue reforms. Pakistan’s govt agreed to some proposed reforms, like hiking up electricity prices, imposing additional taxes, and granting more independence to the central bank (P.S. more autonomy for a central bank means more independence from the govt – there are conflicting feelings about this right now). The IMF already gave Pakistan $1.45 billion in two previous rounds.
[dkpdf-button]