Today’s top Pakistan current affairs November 04,2020 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
- IT minister makes 1st ever 5G experimental video call. The First-ever fastest 5G video call experiment has been carried out successfully in Pakistan
- No plan to shut down schools, colleges yet: education minister. The coronavirus situation in Pakistan isn’t serious enough to shut down schools yet, said Federal Education Minister Shafqat Mahmood.
- Bosnian President Calls on PM and FM. Chairman of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina Sefik Dzaferovic called on Prime Minister Imran Khan in Islamabad today
- Chaman passenger train to resume operations after nine months. The Railways department has decided to resume operations of the Chaman passenger train from November 10 onward.
- Hindu students protest over MCAT admission test clashing with Diwali. The Medical College Admission Tests 2020 will begin across Pakistan on November 15. Hindu students across the country have, however, demanded that the test date be changed as it is clashing with Diwali.
- West cannot play with the sentiments of Muslims: PM Khan. “Western countries must understand that they can not use freedom of speech to cause Muslims pain and hurt their sentiments,” said Prime Minister Imran Khan.
- 41 Pakistani prisoners brought back home from Sri Lanka. A special PIA flight brought back 41 Pakistani prisoners from Sri Lanka on Wednesday morning, confirmed the national carrier.
- Biden At 238 Electoral Votes, Trump At 213 – US media. President Donald Trump and Democratic challenger Joe Biden are battling it out for the White House, with polls closed across the United States — and the American people waiting for results in key battlegrounds still up for grabs.
- Gold prices fall by Rs500 per tola in domestic market. The per tola gold price witnessed a decrease of Rs500 to Rs113,600 in the domestic market on Wednesday
Spotlight by The NewsRun
1. COVID-19 IN PAKISTAN
- Pakistan reported 1,313 new cases and 18 deaths in the past 24 hours. Pakistan also conducted 26,565 tests in the span of 24 hours (P.S. this data was last updated on November 4 at 8:24am).
- Can Pakistan afford another lockdown? Prime Minister (PM) Imran Khan talked about a resurgence of COVID-19 cases with the federal cabinet and the National Coordination Committee (NCC). After being briefed, PM Khan said it’s important to be careful, but “the country cannot afford a lockdown again.” Instead of sweeping lockdowns across the country, PM Khan prefers ‘smart lockdowns’ that are localized to virus hotspots. He urged provinces to implement a “trace, test, and quarantine” strategy. He also wants hospitals to be prepared with critical care equipment. Basically, PM Khan doesn’t want virus prevention measures to negatively impact livelihoods and businesses.
2. How could the US election impact Pakistan?
What’s going on? Pakistani media is closely following the US presidential election. Mainstream media outlets like Dawn, The Express Tribune, and Geo are actively covering election updates. By the time this newsletter goes out, so much might have changed as more results come in. However, rather than trying to give live updates or projections that are rolling in every minute, we want to delve into what this US election means for Pakistan.
Firstly, here’s what you need to know about election night:
- The rules: Republican US President Donald Trump, and Democratic presidential nominee, former Vice President (VP) Joe Biden, each need 270 electoral votes to win. Republicans are the conservative political party, and Democrats are the liberal political party.
- What exactly are electoral votes? Each state gets a certain number of electoral college votes based on its population. There are a total of 538 votes, and a candidate needs 270 to win the presidency. Whichever candidate wins the highest number of votes in a state automatically gets all of that state’s electoral college votes. Basically, a candidate with more votes nationally could still lose without enough electoral votes (e.g. throwback to Hillary Clinton in 2016).
- Which states have the most electoral votes? California (55), Texas (38), Florida (29), New York (29), Illinois (20), Pennsylvania (20). You can find the number of electoral votes for other states here.
- Surge in early voting: Around 100 million Americans already voted early, which is double the number of early voters in 2016.
- The results: It’s unclear when we’ll know who won. Early mail-in voting due to COVID-19 might delay the vote count. Plus, President Trump dropped hints that he will take legal action to challenge the results instead of conceding to Biden. President Trump has been sounding the alarm on mail-in ballots, claiming this method of voting will cause more voter fraud.
Tell me more: Overall, President Trump’s administration has had a tough stance on Pakistan. For example, the Trump administration cut back military aid to Pakistan in 2018, claiming that Pakistan wasn’t doing enough to fight militants like the Taliban. In a tweet President Trump himself accused Pakistan of giving a safe haven to terrorists. A few months later during President Trump’s term, the US Defense Department suspended $300 million in funding to Pakistan. On the other hand, Biden reportedly views Pakistan as a strategic regional ally. Historically, Biden believes that an improved political and economic landscape in Pakistan can contribute to regional stability.
The bottom line: The outcome of this year’s presidential election is expected to impact US foreign policy in Pakistan.
3. US dollar falls to six-month low
The US dollar fell to a six-month low against the Pakistani rupee in the interbank market. Specifically, the rupee landed at around PKR 159.97 against the dollar, which means the rupee’s value increased.
Here are some reasons why this happened:
- Higher remittances: Remittances can be described as money sent or transferred to another party. In this case, overseas Pakistanis have been sending more money back home to their families in Pakistan.
- Exports: Higher earnings from exports ramped up the flow of money into Pakistan.
- Delayed debt repayment: G20 countries launched a debt suspension program to give some respite to poor countries like Pakistan during COVID-19. As a result, Pakistan was able to delay debt repayments worth $1.8 billion.
- Roshan Digital Accounts: As a part of the State Bank of Pakistan’s new initiative, non-resident Pakistanis can open digital accounts that accept deposits in US dollars or Pakistani rupees. More money is flowing into the country via this banking channel. The inflow of money is expected to increase after more overseas Pakistanis open Roshan accounts.
- Investments in property market: The govt’s amnesty scheme for the construction sector has reportedly increased investment opportunities in the property market. As a part of the amnesty scheme, builders or developers of housing societies won’t be grilled on their source of income. The construction sector is also being charged a fixed tax rate, instead of a regular income tax rate, which is a tax based on the amount of income.
MARKET RECAP
The benchmark KSE-100 index closed at 40,480.88 after rising 1,368.70 points (+3.50%) as of November 3, 2020.
