MARCH 2019 worst cities for air pollution are in India,
CURRENT AFFAIRS: INTERNATIONAL
March 1: Pakistan handed the captured
Indian pilot Wing Commander Abhinandan
Varthaman over to the Indian authorities.
March 1: Add a 100 of career titles to Roger
Federer's staggering list of achievements in
tennis. The 20-time Grand Slam champion
became the second male tennis player to
win 100 tour-level tournament titles in the
professional era. Jimmy Connors is the other
male player to reach the milestone, and the
American ended his career on 109 titles.
March 2: The 13th South Asian Games will
be held in Nepal from December 1-10, 2019,
it was confirmed at the South Asian Olympic
Council Executive Board meeting in Bangkok
March 2: OIC of Foreign Minister
Conference held in UAE. On the first day,
Pakistan abandoned plenary OIC FM Section.
Pakistan delegation head and Ambassador
to Saudi Arabia Raja Ali Ejaz has offered to
host the 48th session of the OIC of foreign
ministers in Islamabad in 2021.
March 3: SpaceX’s new Dragon capsule
successfully docked on the International
Space Station by NASA.
March 04: Forbes announced Top 100
Billionaire 2019. Jeff Bezos remains the
world’s richest person, ahead of Bill Gates
and Warren Buffet, while far behind
President Donald Trump jumped 51 spots in
the ranking.
March 4: Gurugram in India was the most
polluted city in the world in 2018. Faisalabad
in Pakistan is ranked third with 130 (µg/m3),
with Lahore 10th. Dhaka in Bangladesh is
ranked 17th. Twenty-two of the world’s 30
according to a new report, with Delhi again
ranked the world’s most polluted capital.
The Greenpeace and AirVisual analysis of
air pollution readings from 3,000 cities
around the world.
March 6: Malaysia has ratified the Rome
Statute making it the 124th State party to
the International Criminal Court (ICC). Even
though Malaysia had helped to negotiate the
Rome Statute, it has been long been
reluctant to ratify it. Ratification after 20
years is seen as a welcome move.
March 7: The Scientists solve weighty matter
of Milky Way mass; the Astronomer said
they had accurately calculated the of the
Milky Way for the first time.
March 7: In a collaboration between NASA
and The European Space Agency’s Gaia
observation craft, a team of experts
calculated our galaxy to be around 1.5
trillion solar masses. Previous estimates put
the mass of the Milky Way ranging between
500 billion and 3 trillion times the mass of
the Sun.
March 8: International Women's Day
celebrated across the world. The day marked
the celebration of women’s achievements
and aims to further their rights and is
sponsored by the United Nations since
1975.
March 10: A 116-year-old Japanese woman
Kane Tanaka has been recognized by
Guinness World Records as the world's
oldest living person. The oldest person ever
whose age has been verified is the contested
case of Jeanne Calment (1875–1997) of
France, who died at the purported age of
122 years, 164 days.
March 12: Pakistan has been elected
deputy chairman of the PUIC's general body
on the first day on Monday of its four-day
conference being held in Rabat, Morocco.
The Parliamentary Union of OIC (PUIC) is
composed of parliaments of member states
of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation. It
was established in Iran on June 17, 1999,
with its head office situated in Tehran.
March 18: Afghanistan cricket team won the
first ever test match against Ireland.
March 19: The United Kingdom has
commemorated Professor Stephen
Hawking in a new 50p coin. The coin has
references to the late physicist’s pioneering
work on black hole. The coin has been
released by UK’s Royal Mint.
March 20: Maulana Nizam ul Haq Thanvi
was invited to the parliament by New
Zealand’s government to recite verses from
the Quran before the parliamentary session
as a gesture of solidarity with the Muslim
community. He was the member of the
Pakistani Thanvi family.
March 20: Kazakhstan has renamed its
capital Astana to Nursultan to honor
outgoing leader Nursultan Nazarbayev. Mr.
Tokayev was sworn in as new president
after Mr. Nazarbayev's surprise resignation.
March 22: Pakistan is among the top 20
gainers on the World Happiness index this
year, ranked at 67th place, a jump of eight
spots from last year's ranking at 75. Finland
was once again ranked as the happiest
country in the world.
March 24: Kenyan science teacher Peter
Tabichi wins $1m global award. A science
teacher from rural Kenya who donates most
of his salary to help poorer students has
been crowned the world’s best teacher and
awarded a $1m prize, beating 10,000
nominations from 179 countries.
March 26: US President Donald Trump
recognized the occupied Golan Heights as
Isreal territory- a dramatic shift from
decades of US policy. Isreal seized the
strategic land from Syria in the 1967 Middle
East War or Spring Arab six day War.
March 26: Pakistan government has
approved a proposal to establish a corridor
which would allow Hindu pilgrims from
India to visit Sharda Peeth in the region of
Azad Jammu Kashmir of Pakistan. Sharda
Peeth Corridor will be the second corridor to
be established after the Kartarpur Corridor
which provides access to Gurudwara Darbar
Sahib at Kartarpur in Pakistan.
March 27: Rahat Fatah Khan awarded
honorary degree by Oxford University for
the recognition of Pakistani music and
culture.
March 27: Algeria’s Army Chief General
Ahmed Gaid Salah called on Tuesday for
President Abdelaziz Bouteflika to be
declared unfit to govern, following weeks of
mass protests demanding the ailing leader
step down after two decades in power.
March 30: WWF-Pakistan joined more than
180 nations around the world on Saturday to
celebrate Earth Hour, the global movement
united by millions of people worldwide to
show their commitment to protecting the
planet.
March 30: Francis will be the second pope
to visit the Morocco country, after Pope St.
John Paul II went in 1985, as the first pope to
visit a Muslim country, at the invitation of
the state. Pope Francis and Morocco's King
Mohammed VI described Jerusalem as a
"symbol of peaceful coexistence" for
Christians, Jews and Muslims. Jerusalem was
"common patrimony of humanity and
especially the followers of three
monotheistic religions," the statement read.
CURRENT AFFAIRS: DOMESTIC
March 2: Pakistan’s annual inflation reached
more than four-year high of 8.2 percent in
February.
March 2: Pakistan’s premier wrestler
Mohammad Inam on Friday won Rustam-e-
Pakistan title, edging out Hamid Khan of
Multan in the final at the Iqbal Stadium,
Faisalabad.
March 3: Dr Tayyaba, PhD in astronomy,
made the nation proud by becoming the first
Pakistani woman to be selected for an
Antarctic research trip under the Homeward
Bound programme.
March: PM Imran Khan has approved
National Tariff Policy.
The objective of NTP are following:
 Is to improve competitiveness through
access to raw materials,
 Increase employment opportunities
by attracting investment through
transparent and predictable tariff
regime and remove anomalies in tariff
structure, and causing distortions.
Policy principles include:
 Tariff as a trade policy instrument,
 Reducing exemptions and
concessions,
 Cascading tariff structures with the
stage of processing of a product,
 Strategic protection to domestic
industry and competitive import
substitution
March 6: Punjab Minister for Information
and Culture Fayyaz Chohan resigned from
his post after his remarks against the Hindu
Community generated Controversy.
March 7: Quaid-i-Azam’s biographer
Wolpert dies. Author Stanely Wolpert,
popular in Pakistan for his book on Quaid-i-
Azam and Z.A Bhutto, died in California. He
was 91. A famous his book must read in
Pakistan is Jinnah of Pakistan published in
1982. It is among the best biographies of the
Quaid.
March 7: UNESCO has adopted Pakistan’s
‘Suri Jagek’ as Intangible Cultural Heritage.
Suri Jagek (observing the sun), traditional
meteorological and astronomical practice
based on the observation of the sun, moon
and stars in reference to the local
topography.
March 8: The Nanijing Medical University
(NMU) China, has established a
collaboration centre for global health at the
Khyber Medical University, Peshawar, in
order to help resolve major scientic issues in
the field of global health and jointly cultivate
innovative talents with international
perspective.
March 8: The Ministry of National Health
Services (NHS) removed the head of Drug
Regulatory Authority of Pakistan (DRAP). Dr.
Sheikh Akhter Hussain was removed over
the Fake Ph.D Degree.
March 12: The Federal Board of Revenue
(FBR) issued the Benami Transactions
(Prohibition) Rules 2019 on March 11. With
the implementation of the Benami Rules, the
Benami Transactions (Prohibition) Act 2017,
which was gazetted on Feb 17, 2017,
became force.
March 13: The country received $14.35
billion in foreign remittances during the first
eight months of the current fiscal year,
reported the State Bank of Pakistan.
March 13: Pakistan and Turkmenistan on
Tuesday signed a Host Government
Agreement (HGA) for implementation of up
to $8 billion Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-
Pakistan-India (TAPI) gas pipeline and
agreed to set up a working group to finalize
an agreement on transmission line of up to
1,000MW electricity.
March 14: The Supreme Court on Thursday
accepted Bahria Town Karachi's Rs. 460
billion offer for the lands it occupies in the
Malir district of Karachi and restrained the
National Accountability Bureau (NAB) from
filing references.
March 14: PPP’s Tanzeela Sheedi moved a
resolution, she said March 24 would mark
the death anniversary of General Hosh
Mohammad, better known as Hoshoo
Sheedi, who died while fighting the
marauding British forces at the place of
Dubbo in 1843.
March 14: Prime Minister Imran Khan
launched the new online visa system for
foreign tourists during a ceremony held in
Islamabad. According to Pakistan Tehreek-i-
Insaf's official Twitter account, the new e-
visa scheme will facilitate visitors from 175
countries.
March 15: Pakistan was the eighth largest
country with high prevalence of kidney
disease causing 20,000 death annually.
Kidney Day is celebrated across the globe.
This year’s theme was “Kidney Health: for
everyone and everywhere”.
March 16: Brigadier (retd) Asad Munir,
former Member Estate Capital Development
Authority (CDA), has committed suicide.
March 15: Terror attack on mosques: At
least 50 people were killed and 50 wounded,
in a hate-filled terror attack targeting two
mosques in the New Zealand city of
Christchurch. The attacks began at the Al
Noor Mosque in the suburb of Riccarton,
and continued at the Linwood Islamic
Centre.
The suspect: The shooter, identified as 28-
year-old Australian citizen Brenton Harrison
Tarrant, has been charged with murder.
March 16: Peshawar High Court Chief Justice
Waqar Ahmed Seth inaugurated the first
child protection court at the Judicial
Complex.
March 18: Quetta Gladiator clinches the PSL
2019 title against Peshawar Zalmi.
Muhammad Husnain got the man of the
match in the final. Australian all-rounder
Shane Watson awarded Player of the
tournament.
March 20: State Bank of Pakistan has
decided to provide concessionary loans at an
interest rate of five per cent to special
persons. The Bank had allowed small
enterprise financing and credit guarantee
facility for special persons.
March 21: Gilgit-Baltistan residents are
celebrating the biggest spring festival of
Nauroz as the two-day traditional Tukhmrezi
festival kicked off in Yasin valley of Ghizer
district.
March 21: A district and sessions court
Lahore sentenced a Czech model Tereza
Hluskova to eight years and eight months in
prison for attempting to smuggle
contraband from Lahore to Abu Dhabi
Airport.
March 22: Senator Sirajul Haq, the current
emir of the Jammat-e-Islami Pakistan has
been re-elected to the top office of the party
for another five term.
March 21: Prominent intellectual, writer and
researcher Dr. Jamil Jalibi was nominted for
the Kamal-i-Funn Award. The Kamali-e-Funn
Award is the highest literacy award in the
field of literature and awarded in recognition
of a lifetime’s achievement.
March 21: The Malaysian premier will be
the chief guest at Pakistan Day Parade
(March 23rd). Pakistan is set to sign deals
worth US$900 million in telecoms,
information technology during a three-day
visit by Malaysian Prime Minister Tun Dr
Mahathir Mohamad. President Dr Arif Alvi
has conferred the country’s top civil award
— Nishan-e-Pakistan to PM.
March 23: Pakistan Day celebrated across
the country also known as Pakistan
resolution Day 1940. The 79th anniversary of
the adoption of a resolution by the All India
Muslim League on this in 1940 in Lahore.
March 23: The 88th death anniversary of
freedom fighter Bhagat Singh celebrated
across the sub-continent. A resolution was
also adopted demanding apology from the
British queen for the judicial murder of the
three freedom fighters and Jallianwala Bagh
massacre in 1919.
March 23: Renowned singer Shahnaz
Rahmatullah, popularly known as Shahnaz
Begum, passed away in Bangladesh at the
age of 67. She was known for her songs
Sohni Dharti Allah Rakhe and Jeevay
Jeevay Pakistan.
March 27: American riding haling company
Uber acquired the operation of Careem
and decided to operate independently. The
deal see Uber will pay $3.1bn.
March 26: Renowned mountaineer
Mohammad Ali Sadpara started his journey
to Nepal to attempt to summit 8,485-meter
high Makalu Peak, the fifth highest peak in
the world. Sadpara is the first Pakistani to
have climbed Nanga Parbat in winter on Feb
26, 2016 with Alex Txikon of Spain and
Simone Moro from Italy.
March 30: Prime Minister Imran Khan
inaugurated Lahore-Karachi train Jinnah
Express. Jinnah Express during its journey
would reportedly stop at three railway
stations — Khanewal, Rohri and Hyderabad.
The capacity of Jinnah Express is
approximately 650 passengers with single
fare for each passenger fixed at Rs 6,500.
March 30: The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP)
hiked the key discount rate by half a
percentage point, bringing it to 10.75 per
cent, while warning that the economy faced
continuing headwinds.
MARCH 2019: UN HOLIDAYS
1 March: Zero Discrimination Day [UNAIDS]
3 March: World Wildlife Day
8 March: International Women's Day
20 March: International Day of Happiness
20 March: French Language Day (French)
21 March: International Day for the
Elimination of Racial Discrimination
21 March: World Poetry Day
21 March: International Day of Nowruz
21 March: World Down Syndrome Day
21 March: International Day of Forests
22 March: World Water Day
23 March: World Meteorological Day
[WMO]
24 March: World Tuberculosis Day [WHO]
24 March: International Day for the Right to
the Truth concerning Gross Human Rights
Violations and for the Dignity of Victims.
25 March: International Day of
Remembrance of the Victims of Slavery and
the Transatlantic Slave Trade
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