03 January 2004	Saturday	10 Ziqa'ad 1424

RAWALPINDI, Jan 2: Pakistan Post has entered into a serious row with various military authorities here, as the latter have refused to allow the former to merge its eight postal units located in various military buildings in the Cantonment areas, Dawn has reliably learnt.

According to sources, the director general of Pakistan Post, Agha Masud Hasan, had directed merger of eight postal units, located in various military buildings in the Cantonment area few days back. These units were running into losses for the last few years, they said.

Mr Hasan had also issued a notification under which the Post had to shift its furniture and other equipment from those units by Thursday. However, the military authorities did not allow the Post to shift its equipment and insisted that those units must remain in action as they were needed.

The units are located in the buildings of Cantonment Military Accounts, 510 Army Centre workshop, Central Ordinance Depot, Division Headquarters (Ministry of Defence), 502 Army Central Workshop, Army Medical College, EME College and Gracy Lines.

These units have been merged into the post offices located at Sadar Bazaar, Chaklala Cantonment, Kutchery, Log Area (Marir Hasan), Lal Kurti, R A Bazaar, Koh Noor Colony and Chaklala Air Field.

According to sources, the officials of Pakistan Post had also tried to merge these units last year but the military authorities created the same hurdles. The sources said the decision had been taken to provide maximum services to the consumers under one roof.