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GUJRANWALA, Jan 30: The local chamber of commerce and industry and Gujranwala Pharmaceutical Distributors Group expressed their serious concern over the rising incidents of dacoity and robbery.
In a meeting here on Thursday, chamber senior vice-president Haji Ehsanullah Chughtai and pharmaceutical group president Chaudhry Shafqat said that robbers had looted several cash vans of medicine dealers during the last two years. But the police could not trace out the culprits in the teeth of registering scores of robbery cases.
They threatened that dealers would stop supplying medicines to medical stores and civil hospitals if solid steps were not taken in curbing the robbery incidents.
They demanded that police patrolling should be intensified on roads to provide protection to the lives and properties of the people.
MEETS: The local district bar association delegation headed by its president Muhammad Ilyas Rehan called on Lahore High Court Chief Justice Iftikhar Hussain Chaudhry in his office on Thursday and exchanged views regarding the welfare of lawyers and other issues.
The chief justice assured the delegation that he would cooperate with the bar for the supremacy of law. He also assured the bar president for the early release of funds for the incomplete civil court complex.
Bar secretary-general Muhammad Saeed Bhutta and former bar president Farrukh Mahmood Sulehria were also present on the occasion.
ARREST WARRANTS: The Banking Court No 1, Gujranwala, on Thursday issued arrest warrants for about a dozen defaulters, including noted industrialists and landlords.
The judge also directed the police to produce them before court on next hearing.
As per reports, the defaulters of Sialkot, Gujrat, Mandi Bahauddin and Gujranwala had borrowed Rs2.8 million from various bank branches.
TOLL: The transporters of Wazirabad, Ghakhar, Ahmad Nagar, Sodara and Dhaunkel have threatened to go on strike against the levy of toll tax on public transport vehicles plying on GT Road.
In a statement on Thursday, the transporters criticized Wazirabad Tehsil Nazim Shaukat Manzoor Cheema for imposing Rs20 toll tax on every private transport vehicle plying on GT Road.
They alleged that the Tehsil Nazim awarded the contract for toll collection to his ‘henchmen’ without holding an open auction which was illegal.
Meanwhile, district council deputy opposition leader and Sodara Union Council Nazim Zia Noor alleged on Thursday that the Tehsil Nazim awarded the contract to his ‘henchman’ for Rs800,000 per annum without the council approval.
Talking to newsmen, he claimed the toll collection contract could have been auctioned for Rs2.5 million through an open auction.
He alleged that the Wazirabad Tehsil Nazim got an approved D-class wagon stand cancelled and declared it municipal stand with the connivance of ‘adda’ managers for collection of the illegal toll tax from transporters.
He urged the Punjab chief minister to intervene and order cancellation of the contract.
