European group, EU DisinfoLab, has exposed over 200 ‘fake’ news outlets managed by an Indian network to influence the European Union and the United Nations with content critical of Pakistan. During the investigation, the DisinfoLab found that the news outlets were managed by Indian stakeholders, with ties to a large network of think tanks, NGOs, and companies from the Srivastava Group.
A recent report published by the World Economic Forum (WEF) has ranked Pakistan ranked 151 out of 153 countries on the Global Gender Gap Index Report 2020 index. The country has drastically slipped from 112 in 2006 to 151 in 2020 and only managed to surpass Iraq and Yemen. Among the seven South Asian countries included in the index, Pakistan charted at the very bottom.
Switzerland has rejected Pakistan’s request to provide five years old tax information under the Automatic Exchange of Information. The bank accounts’ information that Switzerland will share in September 2021, will pertain to the accounts positions for the calendar year 2020. Since Pakistan’s demand had no legal justification, the Swiss authorities have informed that they cannot provide any information before January 2019 period.
Pakistan has initiated talks with central Asian countries of Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan for electricity export during winter under the (Central Asia-South Asia) (CASA-1000) agreement. As per the agreement, Pakistan will import 1,000MW of electricity per day at 9.50 cents per unit in summer from May to October. A 750 kilometer-long high-voltage direct current (DC) transmission line between Pakistan and Tajikistan via Afghanistan will be built at a cost of $1.7 billion for this purpose.
United States-based luxury and lifestyle publication Conde Nast Traveler named Pakistan as the top holiday destination for travelers for the year 2020. The listing follows several positive reviews of the tourist attractions in the country by various travel bloggers, vloggers, magazines and adventure clubs. Pakistan has great tourism potential with a government willing to invest in the sector to boost economic growth and the world is finally realising it.
Irfan Mehsood, a martial arts athlete from Waziristan, Pakistan has made it to the Guinness Book of World Records after completing 48 one-leg elevated push ups in one minute while carrying a 60-pound backpack. He also broke the previous world record held by an Indian athlete with 34 reps in one minute. Guinness World Records has confirmed his entry via email. Its official website has also registered Irfan’s name as a new record holder.
In a major development, Switzerland will now share financial information with Pakistan which will help unearth the corrupt politicians’ foreign accounts. The Swiss parliament approved 18 more countries, including Oman, Nigeria, Azerbaijan etc. for automatic exchange of financial information (AEOI). Under this treaty, Switzerland will share the details of bank accounts held by their citizens in the country, as well as foreign citizens that have Swiss bank accounts.
Pakistan is ranked second last in the list of ‘world’s most reputable countries’ comprised of 54 countries by a U-S based data and insights company. Pakistan being at 53rd spot, just one above Iran and one beneath Saudi Arabia, also below India, Bangladesh and Nigeria. The rankings are based on the countries’ tourism, economy, people’s behaviour, exports, and investments.
As the year comes to an end, Google has released their top 10s for every field, revealing Naimal Khawar as the most Googled person of 2019. While cricket still remained the most searched topic in Pakistan, Hamza Ali Abbasi’s wife became the talk of the town after their nikkah. Naimal’s dress and overall look for the events made rounds on social media for weeks.
The auto sector continued its downward trajectory in sales in November 2019, with a decline of 44% in the first 5 months of the current financial year compared with last year. Overall, the auto-sector sold 49,110 units as compared to 87,897 units in the same period of last year. In this period, Toyota’s sales went from 24,119 units to 10,090 units and for Honda, they fell from 20,094 units to 5,885 units.