[Current Affairs] August 19,2020 Top Pakistan Current Affairs for Entry Test Preparation

• Pakistan reported 613 new cases and 13 deaths in the past 24 hours. Pakistan also conducted 17,612 tests in the span of 24 hours (P.S. this data was last updated on August 19 at 9:41am).
• Pakistan’s drug regulator said ‘yes’ to the country’s first Phase 3 clinical trial for a potential COVID-19 vaccine, which is being developed by China’s CanSino Biologics (CanSino) and the Beijing Institute of Biotechnology. A target group of 10,000 participants will take part in the trial, which is scheduled to begin next month. The govt-run National Institute of Health (NIH) will lead the trial, along with pharmaceutical company AJM, CanSino’s local representative. Last month, CanSino said it’s in talks to launch Phase 3 trials in Saudi Arabia, Russia, Brazil, and Chile as well.

2. The ruling govt’s two-year report card

4. A new merger, and not the business kind

The Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), also called, the Pakistan Taliban, announced a merger with two splinter groups, Jamat-ul-Ahrar (JUA) and Hizb-ul Ahrar (HUA). This happened days after the army said anti-militant operations against armed groups have been successful. According to army spokesperson, Major General Babar Iftikhar, more than 18,000 terrorists have been killed since 2017. TTP is an armed Sunni group which has broken into many divisions. The US also marked TTP as a designated foreign terrorist organization. Over the past few years, US drone strikes killed several TTP leaders, leaving the group in disarray. Several TTP members reportedly took shelter in Afghanistan or fled to urban Pakistan. However, TTP’s reunion with JuA and HuA could set the stage for more splinter groups to unite.