MULTAN, March 18: As many as 5,753 students have been trained in 16 vocational training institutes (VTIs) in Punjab during four year.

This was stated by Punjab Vocational Training Council (PVTC) General Manager while addressing at the Multan VTI’s first convocation here on Monday.

He said 82 per cent of those trained had been employed in different sectors, indicating the quality of skills imparted in these centres.

Despite distribution of zakat funds, no marked reduction in poverty was discerned in the past, he added. In 1998, he said the Punjab government introduced the idea of utilization of Zakat funds for poverty alleviation by providing demand-driven skills to the needy for their rehabilitation, adding 16 VTIs were established in as many cities in the Punjab at a cost of Rs82 million.

The trainees would earn respectable money by working in various technical professions, the GM hoped.

He said Nazims of every union council would be convinced to refer the needy children to VTIs so that the productive skills of the people might increase and this would give birth to a welfare state.

Industrialists would also be persuaded to offer employment to the trainees of the institutions, he said.

He urged the district government to provide funds to the local VTI to help it achieve its objective. girls recovered: Muzaffarabad police on Monday arrested an accused and also recovered two girls from his custody who were kidnapped some three months ago.

Police said Muhammad Nawaz had visited his friend Abdul Hameed’s house in December last at Mhedipur Colony. Two days later, he took Hameed’s sisters Farzana and Rukhsana to a ‘peer’ in Sahiwal from where he took them to Karachi. The girls told police that Nawaz had kept them locked in a house in Karachi and also disgraced them.

A case has been registered against Nawaz.

CLUBBED TO DEATH: A man was clubbed to death on Sunday night over a minor issue at Lothar Wala.