04 October 2004	Monday	18 Shaban 1425

BAHAWALPUR, Oct 3: Minister of State for Sports and Youth Affairs Muhammad Ali Durrani has said the government will soon announce its youth policy.

Addressing the PML and his party workers here on Sunday, the minister said the government was working on to introduce a new political culture based on truth and decency.

He reiterated government's determination to develop the backward and under-developed areas and bring them on a par with those of the developed parts of the country. The president and the prime minister wanted to settle the irrigation water dispute among the provinces, he said and added, that the government was embarking on a plan aimed at constructing new dams to overcome the shortage of canal water.

During his meeting with PML district president and former MPA Chaudhry Muhammad Iqbal, Mr Durrani assured him that the government would give weight to its workers. Chaudhry Iqbal had complained that since the PML was not in power in the Bahawalpur district, the workers were being ignored in respect of their genuine problems.

Mr Durrani also met DCO Imran Ahmed and district Nazim Tariq Cheema, who informed him that the district government was executing a record number of uplift projects costing millions of rupees.

SCHOOLS: Punjab Education Minister Imran Masood has said the government intended to enact a law for proper functioning of private schools in the province.

Speaking at a dinner hosted in his honour by MPA Sitara Fayaz here on Saturday night, the minister said the government wanted to place a check on private institutions.

He said the government believed in merit policy and another batch of 38,000 teachers would be recruited in the province next year. He claimed that now the era of ghost schools had come to an end in the Punjab.

MURDERED: A man allegedly murdered his councillor wife on Sunday at Chak 105/D. Accused Sarfraz, who surrendered himself to police, forced his estranged wife to have relations with one Nasrullah but she refused.