Hundreds of industrial workers, traders and industrialists besieged the GEPCO offices in Shahabpura Sialkot, continuing their anti-load shedding protest for hird consecutive day in Sialkot. They staged demonstration near the Small Industrial Estate Sialkot and kept the main Shahabpura Road blocked for half an hour by burning the tyres as a protest against the unending prolonged power outages in Sialkot. They also staged a sit-in and blocked the road by parking long containers on the road.
They were carrying banners and placards and chanting anti government slogans. The traffic on all link roads also remained blocked for about three hours, due to which, the general public suffered a lot. The affected workers and industrialists said the prolonged power outages had badly affected the industrial production in export-oriented Sialkot city and added that hundreds of the workers and labourers were being rendered jobless by the factory owners. The business community urged the federal government to exempt Sialkot city from the load shedding to boost the Sialkot industries.
‘PPP FAILED IN EVERY SPHERE OF LIFE’: Markazi Anjuman-e-Tajiran Sialkot President Mehar Ghulam Mujtaba has said that Pakistan Peoples’ Party (PPP) government has miserably failed in every sphere of life. While talking to journalists, he said the PPP government was targeting Punjab and taking the political revenge from the people by stopping the supply of electricity and Sui gas to Punjab.
He added that the unending price hike, unemployment, poverty, very day hike in petroleum prices, uncontrolled terrorism and growing lawlessness had made the life of a common man very hard besides forcing the poor people to commit suicide or to sell their children. He said the alarming situation should also be a point of grave concern and an eye opener for the incumbent rulers.
POLICE SEARCHING FOR DEAD YOUTH’S relatives: The Daska police were searching the relatives of the Daska tehsil-based Pakistani youth Muhammad Shabir who was stated to be dead at an Indian jail a few days ago.
The police officials remained busy in making announcement through loud speakers in Daska tehsil’s almost all the urban and rural areas but remained unable to find out the relatives. Senior police officials told journalists that the Punjab home secretary had faxed a message to Sialkot District Police Officer (DPO) Bilal Sadique Kamiyana on May 03 that a Daska tehsil-based Pakistani Muhammad Shabir was expired there in an Indian jail, asking the DPO to ensure the early search of the relatives of the deceased for collecting the dead body.
SOLAR ENERGY IN SURGICAL INDUSTRY DEMANDED: Sialkot-based surgical instruments manufacturers and exporters have stressed the promotion of solar energy in surgical industry of Sialkot, saying that it was the high time that every one should play pivotal role in saving and flourishing Sialkot’s surgical industry which was in dire need of meeting the global trade challenges under the World Trade Organisation (WTO) regime. The surgical industry of Sialkot has a huge potential of increasing its exports globally and exploring and capturing the new international trade markets.
Surgical Instruments Manufacturers Association (SIMA) of Pakistan has also sought the early proper governmental patronage for promoting the Sialkot-made surgical instruments and the easy access of Sialkot-based surgical instruments manufacturers and exporters to the international markets. According to SIMA Chairman Waqar Ameen, more than one century old surgical industry of Sialkot was in dire need of modernisation and adopting the positive steps for advanced standers of international marketing and brand developing could help save the surgical industry’s “titanic” from sinking.
He said both of these sectors (own brand developing and international marketing) were still ignored by the local manufacturers and exporters due to the alleged slackness of governmental institutes meant for promoting the trade and enhancing the national exports. The SIMA chairman added that surgical exports from Sialkot-Pakistan were showing the declining trend due to some unavoidable energy crisis, rising mark up ratio by the banks and unending non-availability of the skilled labour force to surgical industry.
ACE COMPLETES PROBE AGAINST FINANCIAL BUNGLING: The Anti Corruption Establishment (ACE) Sialkot has completed a probe against alleged financial bungling and irregularities in the Government Girls’ Higher Secondary School Sialkot Cantt. The probe was conducted under the supervision of ACE Sialkot Deputy Director Maqsud Lone who was also the inquiry officer in this regard. During the inquiry, the school teachers told the ACE probing team that accused principal of the school collected Rs 850 per student as fine from the school’s 9th class students for the BISE registration fee and accumulated Rs 45, 000 illegally as there was no late fee by the government in this regard.
The ACE officials said Principal Hajra Sarwat also embezzled thousands of rupees by preparing fake bank challan forms for admissions of the students of 9th and 10th classes. The school teachers and parents of the students submitted their affidavits before the ACE probing team regarding the said corruption of the principal and clerical staff.
