Today’s top Pakistan current affairs October 05,2020 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
- Dr Waqar Masood appointed SAPM on Revenue. Dr. Waqar Masood Khan has been appointed as Special Assistant of the Prime Minister for Revenue.
- PM Imran Turns 68 Today. Prime Minister Imran Khan has turned 68 today.
- Crackdown continues against Karachi businesses violating SOPs as COVID-19 cases surge.
- Azerbaijan wants Turkey part of future Caucasus peace process. Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev said in an interview Monday on the Turkish state broadcaster that Turkey must be involved in the peace process for the Nagorno-Karabakh region after a potential future ceasefire.
- Bird strike incidents: CAA to deploy bird shooters near airports. In a bid to control birds’ activity around airports of Pakistan, the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) has decided to hire the services of bird shooters
- Flour prices hiked up to Rs2 per kilogram in Lahore.
- Cotton price increases to Rs9,500 per maund.
- Quaid-i-Azam University postpones affiliate college exams. Quaid-i-Azam University in Islamabad has postponed exams for its BA, BSc and BComm programmes at affiliated colleges.
Spotlight by The NewsRun
1. COVID-19 IN PAKISTAN
- Pakistan reported 644 new cases and 4 deaths in the past 24 hours. Pakistan also conducted 33,725 tests in the span of 24 hours (P.S. this data was last updated on October 05 at 8:54am).
- Restaurants and wedding halls in Pakistan are reportedly becoming COVID-19 hotspots after reopening. These were among the last venues to reopen after lockdowns. Restaurants opened in August, and wedding halls opened last month. Doctors are worried about rising infections in parts of Sindh, especially Karachi. Karachi has already started sealing specific neighborhoods with virus clusters.
- PM Khan urged people to wear face masks in public to avoid a surge in COVID-19 cases. He is worried about a second wave now that we’re heading into winter. PM Khan is suggesting that spikes in COVID-19 cases are seasonal, but it’s still unclear if infection rates peak when it’s cold and drop when it’s warm.
2. PM Khan wishes President Trump a speedy recovery
What’s going on? President Trump’s health became headline news on October 2, when he tweeted about testing positive for COVID-19. His tweet showed up close to 1am EST on Friday. His wife, First Lady Melania Trump, also has the virus. PM Khan wished President Trump and the First Lady a speedy recovery.
The details: 16 hours after announcing he had tested positive, President Trump was airlifted via a helicopter to the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center.
Tell me more: Here are some recent developments regarding President Trump’s health status. His doctors are reportedly raising more questions and giving fewer answers:
- President Trump is being given a five-day course of the anti-viral drug, remdesivir, which has shortened the recovery time for some COVID-19 patients. He has also been given the steroid, dexamethasone, which is considered standard care for someone who needs oxygen.
- On Saturday October 3, Chief of Staff Mark Meadows said President Trump had a fever on Friday morning, and his oxygen level dropped rapidly. However, he added that the President made “unbelievable improvements” since then.
- On Saturday, President Trump’s physician, Navy Cmdr Dr. Sean Conley, released a memo stating that the President had made progress, but isn’t out of the woods yet.
- On Saturday, President Trump tweeted a video of himself from Walter Reed. Even though the President seemed to be breathing and talking normally in the video, details about how severe his symptoms have been are unclear. The White House also released photos of him working from the hospital.
- During a second medical briefing on Sunday October 4, Dr. Conley reportedly failed to answer basic questions about President Trump’s condition. For example, Dr. Conley didn’t specify how much the President’s blood oxygen level actually dropped. He also didn’t provide details on what X-rays or CT scans have shown, or whether the President’s lungs have been damaged.
- During the second medical briefing, Dr. Conley admitted that he didn’t mention alarming drops in President Trump’s oxygen levels during a previous news conference on Saturday, because he wanted to “reflect the upbeat attitude” that the team and the President had about his condition.
- During the second medical briefing, Dr. Conley admitted (for the first time) that President Trump was given supplemental oxygen on Friday at the White House, and had a high fever. He also said the President’s oxygen levels dropped on Saturday, but wasn’t sure if he was given a second round of supplemental oxygen. “I’d have to check with the nursing staff,” he said.
- Overall, Dr. Conley said President Trump is doing well and responding to treatment. They’re hoping he’ll be discharged on Monday (i.e. today).
The context: A COVID-19 outbreak at the White House likely began at President Trump’s Rose Garden event on September 26, where he announced his nomination of Judge Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court. Top White House aides and allies, cabinet members, and Republican lawmakers were there. Most of the guests were not wearing masks or practicing social distancing. At least seven event attendees, including President Trump and the First Lady, tested positive for the virus.
The bottom line: President Trump tested positive after downplaying the severity of the virus, which has killed more than 207,000 people in the US. He is taking a break from the campaign trail for an unspecified amount of time, less than a month before the Presidential Election on November 3.
3. TV channels banned from airing motorway rape news
Investigating Officer, Zulfiqar Cheema, filed an application with the Anti-Terrorism Court (ATC) in Lahore to request a ban on media coverage of the motorway rape case. According to Cheema, media coverage has been reckless, and would “damage” collected evidence, though he doesn’t specify how exactly. He also said media reports are hindering the prime suspect’s arrest.
- The ATC’s response: The court said ‘done’ and ordered the Pakistan Electronic Media Authority (PEMRA) to take action. The presiding ATC judge believes media coverage could undermine evidence the prosecution tries to collect from an upcoming identification parade (i.e. a line of people who stand next to each other while someone tries to identify the person who committed a crime). The ATC judge also claimed that media coverage will disgrace the “victim” and “his” family, since the offence is related to sex (P.S. we are directly quoting the court’s order. It’s unclear if it meant to say “his,” or if that was a typo and should have said “her,” since the person who survived rape in this case was a woman).
- PEMRA’s notification: After the court’s order, PEMRA ordered satellite TV channels (i.e. news and current affairs) to stop airing content about the motorway rape case going forward.
- Public response: People on social media are accusing PEMRA of censoring news about the motorway rape case. Others claim the media has been careful about protecting the survivor’s identity, so concerns about anyone being “disgraced” are uncalled for.
- Backstory: Last month, two robbers raped a woman at gunpoint on the motorway. She was traveling from Lahore to Gujranwala with her children. Her car ran out of fuel while she was crossing the toll plaza on the Lahore-Sialkot motorway. Capital City Police Officer in Lahore, Umar Sheikh, suggested that her own actions got her into trouble. He questioned why she left the house late at night, drove alone with her kids, didn’t check the petrol in her car, and didn’t take a more populated route called GT road.
MARKET RECAP
The benchmark KSE-100 index closed at 40,070.83 after dropping 606.09 points (-1.49%) as of October 2, 2020.
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