LAKKI MARWAT, May 19: The district government has accelerated efforts for construction of a new building for the district prison near Tajazai, according to sources. District Nazim Humayun Saifullah Khan has sent the PC-I of the project for approval to the provincial government while 100 kanals of land have been allocated by the district government for the new building.

The new jail will accommodate 550 prisoners as compared to the old sub-jail which was constructed for only 36 inmates.

The sources said that funds had also been earmarked for the project in the annual development programme (ADP) for 2003-04, alleging that the chief minister transferred these funds for development works in his hometown Bannu.

The building of sub-jail is in deplorable conditions as a heavy flood in the Gambila river and subsequent torrential rains earlier this year had inundated it. All the inmates from the sub-jail had to be shifted to the Bannu and the Dera Ismail Khan prisons and the Karak sub-jail.

LAWYERS’ FORUM: Muhammad Yaqoob Khan and Abdul Samad Khan Begukhel were elected president and general secretary respectively of Muslim Lawyers Forum (Nawaz) for the year 2005 in a meeting on Wednesday.