May 12, 2007	Saturday	Rabi-us-Sani 24, 1428

MIANWALI, May 11: The prisons DIGs of Faisalabad and Multan recovered narcotics, mobile phones, cash and cutters from prisoners during a surprise checking of the Central Jail here on Thursday night.

Faisalabad range DIG Kaukab Nadeem and Multan range DIG Mian Farooq along with their staff came to the prison at night and continued checking of prisoners till Friday morning. They reportedly took the charge of the jail by removing all the jail staff and visited every barrack to search prisoners in their presence. And, what they recovered after the search include more than five dozen mobile phones, a huge quantity of narcotics, including heroin, hashish and liquor, Rs400,000 in cash and cutters from prisoners including those in death cells.

A detailed report about the raid and recommendation for departmental action against superintendent Chaudhry Dastgir, deputy superintendents and others will be sent to high ups of prisons department, it is learnt.

When contacted, Multan DIG Mian Farooq said that was a routine search of the jail. The things recovered by the raiding team were a proof of maladministration, he added.

He said surprise searches were a part of a policy made by the prisons department. This year raids were conducted on Adiala (Rawalpindi), Bahawalpur, Lahore and Multan jails. The Mianwali jail was searched last night and only Gujranwala jail was left to be checked.

He said Mianwali jail fell under the administrative control of Faisalabad range and DIG Kaukab Nadeem was preparing a detailed report of the action and would send it to the high ups soon.

It may be recalled that the Mianwali jail was notorious for having gambling dens, open sale of narcotics, frequent use of mobile phones by the inmates.

LAWYERS STRIKE: Lawyers boycotted courts on Friday in protest against the attack on the residence of Supreme Court Bar Association president Munir Malik at Karachi on the call given by the Punjab Bar Council and demanded registration of case against the attackers.

Addressing the lawyers, District Bar Association president Rafiq Malik said the government was harassing Mr Malik to stop him from representing the Chief Justice of Pakistan.

The house unanimously demanded a judicial inquiry into the incident. Through a resolution, the house condemned torture on lawyers in Sahiwal.

The house resolved that the MQM rally was not justified on the day when the CJP was visiting Karachi.