January 13, 2008	Sunday	Muharram 03, 1429

TOBA TEK SINGH, Jan 12: The local chapter of the All Pakistan Clerks Association (Apca) staged a sit-in outside the office of an education officer on Saturday against alleged corruption by the district accounts officer and his subordinates.

The protesting clerks, wearing black armbands, also observed a pen down strike for the second consecutive day.

Speaking to protesters outside the office of the district education officer (elementary), Apca’s local representative Malik Ghulam Ghaus said the accounts office staff was explicitly taking bribe to approve salaries and other bills.

He said the accounts officer was patronising his ‘corrupt’ staff instead of taking action against them.

He said Apca would continue its strike and protest till action against the accounts officer and his staff.

ARRESTED: Police have arrested a man in connection with his wife’s murder.

A Chuttiana police official said on Saturday that Ayesha of Chak 320-GB recently returned from England and wed Saeed of the same village because she was in love with him. Later, she got divorce from Saeed through a court on the pressure of her parents.

Police said this episode incited Saeed to avenge Ayesha. He overpowered her when she was on her way to her farm, strangled her to death and threw her body in fields.

Police said Saeed confessed to all his actions during an investigation.

Protest: Lawyers continued strike in Gojra and Kamalia after 11am on Saturday on the call of the Punjab and Pakistan bar councils.

In Toba, a district bar meeting passed a resolution, condemning a suicide attack on policemen outside the Lahore High Court.

The resolution said the attack proved the government had failed to protect its people. It demanded that President Pervez Musharraf step down and transfer the power to a national government.