BAHAWALPUR, May 10: The Bahawalpur Chamber of Commerce and Industry and the Multan Chamber of Traders and Business Services have called upon the federal government to preserve the historic Derawar Fort in Cholistan.

A call to this effect was given at a joint meeting between the office-bearers of the two chambers at the BCCI office on Tuesday. The MCTBS delegation, led by its president Khwaja Muhammad Farooq, paid a visit to the Bahawalpur chamber and exchanged views with its office-bearers on matters of mutual concern.

The meeting also expressed grave concern over the ramshackle Derawar Fort. While drawing the attention of the government towards the fort’s poor condition, the two bodies urged the federal government to approach Unesco, the Pakistan Tourism Development Corporation and other departments concerned for the preservation of the great national heritage.

They said it was a painful that the historic building of the fort had ruined owing to neglect of the related institutions.

The meeting impressed upon the government and institutions connected with the preservation of historic and old buildings to come forward to undertake this urgent task.

The other matters which came under discussion were the banks’ mark-up on loans, enhancement of bank charges on different items, deduction fees from the clients’ accounts and the increase in the rates of export re-finance.

The meeting expressed concern over the increase of land commercialization fee. It was demanded that registration and transfer fee on the re-sale of industrial plots should not be recovered and the limit of cheque transactions under sales act (section No 73) be increased.

COURSE: A training course for university and college teachers began at the Islamia University Bahawalpur’s department of education on Tuesday. The course has been sponsored by the Higher Education Commission in collaboration with the university.