[Current Affairs] February 10, 2021 Top Pakistan Current Affairs for PPSC Test Preparation

3. Provincial law minister resigns over leaked video

Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) member, and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) Law Minister, Sultan Muhammad Khan, resigned over his alleged appearance in a video from 2018. According to Dawn, the leaked video shows some parliamentarians with stacks of cash before the 2018 Senate elections. The blurry video shows clips of people either sitting near or counting a pile of brick-shaped objects wrapped in paper. While commenting on the video, Prime Minister (PM) Imran Khan said it shows “the shameful way politicians buy and sell votes in the Senate.” Planning Minister Asad Umar claimed the people in the video are KP provincial assembly members “taking money to sell their vote.” Some unanswered questions: Who recorded the video, who leaked the video, and why did it suddenly emerge nearly three years later?

• In related news: PM Khan’s PTI govt is pushing for an open ballot system in this year’s Senate election. This is a method in which people vote openly, and not in secret. While the govt thinks an open ballot system will prevent horse trading, opposition parties want to keep the secret ballot system. Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Chairman, Bilawal Bhutto, accused the govt of “violating the sanctity of the secret ballot.”

• Now what? KP’s Chief Minister posted a photo on Twitter, which he claims is Khan’s hand-written resignation. In the letter, Khan wrote: “I feel it’s my duty and obligation to withdraw from the cabinet and offer my resignation…I am also confident that InshAllah justice will be done and I will be able to clear my name.”

• Backstory: In a very literal sense, horse trading is the buying and selling of horses. However, in politics, “horse trading” refers to political vote trading (i.e. giving money or some kind of bribe to get votes). In 2018, PTI expelled 20 of its members in the KP provincial assembly. They were found guilty of accepting PKR 50 million each to vote for certain candidates during the Senate elections.

4. Feeling out of this world

You might have noticed #ArabsToMars trending in Pakistan. Pakistanis are congratulating the United Arab Emirates (UAE) for its latest accomplishment in space. The Emirates Mars mission, named the Hope Probe, entered Mars’ orbit at 7:42pm Tuesday UAE time. The probe also sent a signal back to Earth. The UAE is reportedly the first Arab country to reach Mars. The Hope Probe will spend one “Martian year” (i.e. 687 Earth days) studying and collecting data on the red planet’s atmosphere.