World

Politics

·Brexit: Boris Johnson hails ‘new era’ as UK leaves EU after 47 years

Boris Johnson has described Britain’s exit from the European Union after 47 years as the start of a new era of co-operation between a more confident Britain and its European neighbors. Britain ceased to be an EU member state at 11pm on 31^st January night, although it will continue to follow EU rules and enjoy most of the benefits of membership until the end of 2020. “If we can get this right I believe that with every month that goes by we will grow in confidence not just at home but abroad. And in our diplomacy, in our fight against climate change, in our campaigns for human rights or female education or free trade we will rediscover muscles that we have not used for decades, the power of independent thought and action,” he said.

·US Senate votes 51-49 against calling witnesses in Trump trial, clearing way for acquittal

The US senate voted by 51-49 against calling witnesses in the impeachment trial of Donald a Trump on 31^st January in a major setback for Democrats. However, a final vote on whether to remove the president from office was deferred. Despite Democratic hopes earlier this week that several Republicans would cross the aisle and vote to subpoena witnesses after damaging allegations by former national security advisor John Bolton surfaced, only two Republicans – Mitt Romney of Utah and Susan Collins of Maine- voted to call witnesses. Democrats has needed at least four Republicans to cross the aisle, but two key senators – Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Tennessee senator Lamar Alexander – announced that they would oppose the idea of calling witnesses ahead of the crunch vote. The development means that the impeachment trial is now approaching the end, with Mr. Trump expected to be acquitted.

·Shells and mortar fire exchanged between Hamas and Israel

An Israeli tank shelled a Hamas position in Gaza on 31^st January after three mortars were launched at Israel, as tensions continue following the release earlier this week of the United States’ Middle East peace plan. The exchange marked the third consecutive day of cross-border clashes. Relatively small-scale demonstrations took place in the West Bank, Gaza, in Jerusalem’s Old City and in Israeli Arab communities on Friday but so far the peace initiative, generally viewed as biased in favor of Israel, has failed to ignite passions on the Palestinian street.

• UAE cities become more affordable in 2020

Cities across the UAE are more economical now in 2020, as compared to the first-half of 2019, mainly due to deflation last year, as well as a fall in rentals, prices of groceries, lower cost of dining, and a strengthening of the Emirati dirham. According to data provider, Numbeo’s, latest figures, four emirates – Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Ajman, and Sharjah – saw their rankings falling in 2020 for the cost of living, in a comparative study of over 400 cities worldwide. Dubai, the region’s commercial, trade and logistics hub and the most expensive city in the UAE, saw its ranking declining from 114 to 152 in the cost of living index. Abu Dhabi fell from 150 to 186, while Sharjah dropped from 185 to 219 and Ajman from 201 to 243.

·Suleimani’s successor aims to drive US forces out of the Middle East

The same hawks in western capitals who welcomed the US’s assassination this month of Qassem Suleimani will also have felt vindicated by the elevation of his deputy the following day to lead the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Quds Force, which is responsible for covert operations outside Iran. Leaving to one side the law of unintended consequences, that vindication will have been based not just on the fact that an unusually dangerous and well-connected player had been removed from the Middle Eastern tinderbox, but, better still, that his successor, Esmail Qaani, was a known quantity.

·Passenger plane skids off runway and into street in Iran

An airliner carrying 150 passengers has skidded off a runway into a street next to an airport in the Iranian city of Mahshahr. No major injuries were reported after the plane apparently lost its landing gear in a hard landing.

• Kobe Bryant, one of the NBA’s all-time greatest players whose international stardom transcended basketball, was killed at age 41 on 26^th January in a helicopter crash near Los Angeles along with his 13-year-old daughter and seven others on board, officials said.

Bryant rocketed to fame as an 18-year-old rookie and played 20 years for the Los Angeles Lakers — 18 of them as an all-star — winning five NBA championships. His death sent shockwaves through the National Basketball Association, which he helped propel to global prominence, and stunned fans around the world.

·Corona virus declared public health emergency by WHO. Death toll rises to 170 as US reports first case of human-to-human transmission

The World Health Organization (WHO) has declared an international public health emergency over the corona virus outbreak just hours before an evacuation flight to bring British nationals back to the UK is due to leave the Chinese city of Wuhan. Health experts made the announcement on 30^th January evening following a meeting of the WHO emergency committee in Geneva. It comes as about 150 UK citizens are due to be brought back from China on a flight leaving Wuhan city at 7am local time on 3ist January – 11pm 30^th January UK time.

·Rebel group kill dozens of people in DR Congo, as death toll climbs

Dozens of civilians have been brutally murdered in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo during an attack by a rebel group that may have links to Islamic State. The killings took place on 28^th January in Manzingi, in DRC’s Beni region. It is believed to have been carried out by the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), a militant group founded in Uganda in the 1990s which has been responsible for the deaths of more than 1,000 civilians since 2014. “It’s a very active rebel movement,” said Nelleke van de Walle, the deputy project director for Central Africa at the Crisis Group. “They target civilians in a very blunt way, they use machetes, knives, they have a very brutal way of killing the civilians and they don’t differentiate. They kill women, children, and men.”

• A Pakistani-American police officer has been selected to head the New York Police Department’s volunteer force.

Nasir Saleem, a 30-year-old veteran of the New York police, became the first Pakistani and Muslim to be appointed as the auxiliary deputy chief of the nearly 5,000-strong force. The volunteer force serves in the city’s neighborhoods as the “eyes and ears” of the regular police through foot, vehicle, and bicycle patrols. “It’s a great honor […] I am speechless. I dedicate my new title to Pakistan,” said Saleem speaking to reporters after taken the oath of office on Tuesday. Saleem was inducted into his new assignment at a ceremony where senior police officials and members of the Pakistani community were present. Captain Adeel Rana and Lt Zaigham Abbas, fellow Pakistani-American police officers, pinned badges on Saleem’s uniform. Taking to Twitter, the New York Police Department Chief of Patrol Fausto Pichardo stated that Saleem’s “28 years and 14,000 hours does not go unnoticed”.

Economy

·Oil prices rose on 31^st January following sharp losses this week, as the World Health Organization (WHO) came out against travel and trade restrictions in declaring a global emergency over the spread of a corona virus that originated in China last year.

Oil prices fell nearly four per cent through 30^th January this week — hitting three-month lows — before rebounding on 31^st January, with investors and traders worried over how the spread of the virus would impact demand for oil and its products. “WHO’s decision […] to oppose restricting travel and trades against China boosted market confidence, even though the organization declared a global health emergency,” said Margaret Yang, market analyst at CMC Markets. Brent crude futures were 68 cents higher at $58.97 a barrel by 7:38am (GMT), after falling 2.5pc in the previous session. Brent is still down 2.8pc for the week. United States West Texas Intermediate (WTI) futures were up by 70 cents to $52.84 a barrel. The contract fell 2.2pc on 30^th January and is now 2.5pc lower for the week. Both benchmarks rose by more than $1 earlier in the session.

GLOBAL INDICES AS OF 2nd February 2020

As compared to 26th January 2020  

Global indices as of 2nd February 2020
Name	Current Value	Prev Close
US MARKETS
NASDAQ (Jan 31)	9,150.94	9298.93
EUROPEAN MARKETS
FTSE (Jan 31)	7,286.01	7381.96
CAC (Jan 31)	5,806.34	5871.77
DAX (Jan 31)	12,981.97	13157.12
ASIAN MARKETS
SGX NIFTY (Feb 01)	11,943.00	11987.00
NIKKEI 225 (Jan 31)	23,205.18	22977.75
STRAITS TIMES (Jan 31)	3,153.73	3170.68
HANG SENG (Jan 31)	26,312.63	26449.13
TAIWAN WEIGHTED (Jan 31)	11,495.10	11421.74
KOSPI (Jan 31)	2,119.01	2148.00
SET COMPOSITE (Jan 31)	1,514.14	1523.99
JAKARTA COMPOSITE (Jan 31)	5,940.05	6057.60
SHANGHAI COMPOSITE (Jan 23)	2,976.53	3060.75

 

Global indices as of 26th January 2020
Name	Current Value	Prev. Close
US MARKETS
NASDAQ (Jan 24)	9,314.91	9402.48
EUROPEAN MARKETS
FTSE (Jan 24)	7,585.98	7507.67
CAC (Jan 24)	6,024.26	5971.79
DAX (Jan 24)	13,576.68	13388.42
ASIAN MARKETS
SGX NIFTY (Jan 25)	12,229.00	12272.50
NIKKEI 225 (Jan 24)	23,827.18	23795.44
STRAITS TIMES (Jan 24)	3,240.02	3234.56
HANG SENG (Jan 24)	27,949.64	27909.12
TAIWAN WEIGHTED (Jan 20)	12,118.71	12090.29
KOSPI (Jan 23)	2,246.13	2267.25
SET COMPOSITE (Jan 24)	1,569.55	1573.70
JAKARTA COMPOSITE (Jan 24)	6,244.11	6249.21
SHANGHAI COMPOSITE (Jan 23)	2,976.53	3060.75

Pakistan

Politics

• Taking exception to financial losses incurred by the railways, a Supreme Court bench headed by the chief justice of Pakistan on 27^th January observed that no department in the country was more corrupt than Pakistan Railways.

The bench comprising CJP Gulzar Ahmed, Justice Ijaz-ul-Ahsan and Justice Sajjad Ali Shah summoned federal Railways Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed, railways secretary and chief operating officer of Pakistan Railways to appear before the court on Tuesday (today) in a case pertaining to the losses incurred by the organization. Without naming anyone, the chief justice noted that the person overseeing the affairs of the department was unable to manage the ministry properly and that the entire railways had been politicized. He regretted that every railway passenger was putting his life in danger as the railway stations, tracks and several signals were not in order

• PRIME Minister Imran has reportedly said an ‘organized mafia’ is spreading negativity and crippling positive administrative changes in the country and that he is well aware who this mafia is.

Meeting with party members in Lahore, the prime minister said his party would take no pressure and Usman Buzdar would continue to work as the chief minister of Punjab. He was also emphatic in saying the chief secretary and IG police would work as a team with the chief minister. The prime minister’s visit to Lahore came at a time when there is a growing perception that Usman Buzdar’s government is failing to perform and is suffering from political instability. Recent grumblings from key allies like the PML-Q have fanned the flames of dissension within the Punjab coalition ranks. The prime minister was expected to resolve these issues through personal intervention and take decisions aimed at stopping the plunging fortunes of the Buzdar government. Instead, however, the prime minister decided to blame ‘mafias’ for all the troubles that his government is facing in Punjab. He did not deem it necessary to elaborate on who these mafias are, how they are so effective in creating problems plaguing the Buzdar government and why they have not been stopped from making such mischief. In fact, the prime minister did not even specify if he had any plans to counter these ‘mafias’ and, in the absence of such a plan, how would these troubles swirling around his chief minister disappear? The only substantive announcement that we heard was that Buzdar would stay in office and that the political disconnect between the elected representatives and the bureaucracy would be eliminated. These are pious words, but words alone are clearly insufficient to solve the governance quagmire in Punjab.

• As many as 72 victims of dog-bite from Thull, Garhi Khero, Jacobabad and Dera Murad Jamali, Baluchistan, have been reported at the Jacobabad Institute of Medical Sciences (JIMS) and received anti-rabies vaccine over the past couple of days.

Sources in JIMS said that 34 persons including the elderly, teenage and minor boys and girls who were bitten by dogs were first brought to Jacobabad Civil Hospital but were soon shifted to the JIMS due to unavailability of anti-rabies vaccination at the hospital.

• Two Pakistan Army soldiers were martyred on 30^th January during an intelligence-based operation (IBO) on a terrorist hideout in Dattakhel, North Waziristan, according to a statement issued by the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR).

“Five terrorists were killed during the exchange of fire,” the statement added. The martyred soldiers were identified as Sepoys Muhammad Shamim and Asad Khan.

• Prime Minister Imran Khan on 31^st January said that Pakistan never saw the scale of progress it should have seen because the underprivileged “were left behind” to serve an elitist agenda.

“Neither did we provide them quality education, nor build good hospitals for them. We didn’t care for their health or ensure the provision of food. “No country that has only served its elite ever progressed,” said the premier, while addressing the launch ceremony of the Ehsaas Kafaalat Program for poor women, in Islamabad. According to Radio Pakistan, under the program, a stipend of Rs2, 000 per month will be paid “to the most deserving and poorest women across the country through a digital payment system based on transparent mechanism”.

• As many as 108 women fell victim to ‘honor killings’ in Sind over the past year, according to a police report released on Friday.

The report, compiled by the police, recorded statistics from January 31, 2019 to January 30, 2020. According to the report, 126 people, who were suspected of being involved in the ‘honor killings’, had been arrested. Challans of 81 cases pertaining to ‘honor killings’ were presented in courts while 32 are still being investigated. The courts are hearing 73 cases of the crime, while three have been thrown out.

Economy

• The Asian Development Bank (ADB) will help the Punjab government to design comprehensive investment and public service delivery plans in preparation for upcoming urban development projects in seven districts of the province.

The $15 million loan for ‘Punjab Urban Development Projects’ announced by the ADB on Thursday will finance the preparation of comprehensive master plans for upstream project pipeline development, detailed engineering designs, operational business plans for priority investments, and support procurement readiness for the ensuing projects. The project readiness financing loan will fund the preparation of spatial master plans for proposed projects in the cities of Bahawalpur, Dera Ghazi Khan, Multan, Muzaffargarh, Rahim Yar Khan, Rawalpindi, and Sargodha, a press release issued by the bank said.

• With around 40 per cent increase in Pakistan’s public debt and liabilities in 15 months, the government on Friday conceded major violations of the Fiscal Responsibility and Debt Limitation Act (FRDLA) for massively exceeding debt acquisition limits.

In its debt policy statement laid before the parliament, the ministry of finance noted that total debt and liabilities that stood at Rs29.879 trillion at the end of the fiscal year 2018 crossed Rs41.489tr at the end of Septem­ber 2019, showing an increase of Rs11.6tr or 39pc. At the end of the fiscal year 2019, the total debt and liabilities were reported to have increased by about 35pc or Rs10.344tr to touch Rs40.223tr.

F.C Exchange Rates of PKR as of 2nd February 2020 as compared to 26th January 2020
Countries	PKR rate as of 26th January 2020	PKR rate as of   2nd February  2020
U.S.A. $	155.30	154.70
U.K. Pounds	204.0	204.00
Euro	172.50	171.50
Japan Yen	1.41	1.43
Saudi Arabia Rial	41.45	41.35
U.A.E. Dirham	42.45	42.30

Pakistan Stock Exchange Indices

As of 2^nd February 2020 As Compared

To 26^th January 2020

Position as of 2nd February  2020
Symbols	KSE100 Index	PSX-KMI All Shares Index
Advance 116 (Cur)	Current 41630.94	Current 19560.82
Decline 211 (High)	High 42137.40	High 19819.27
Unchanged 15 (Low)	Low 41558.74	Low 19536.40
Total Change 342	-272.56	-138.95

Position as of 26th January 2020
Symbols	KSE100 Index	PSX-KMI All Shares Index
Advance 168 (Cur)	Current 42633.03	Current 19995.40
Decline 148 (High)	High 42707.43	High 20048.95
Unchanged 22 (Low)	Low 42250.56	Low 19804.87
Total change 338	126.08	81.79