April 14, 2008	Monday	Rabi-us-Sani 7, 1429

RAHIM YAR KHAN, April 13: The local leaders of the Pakistan People’s Party and the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz have opposed the likely inclusion of Makhdoom Ahmad Mahmood, provincial president of the PML-F in the Punjab cabinet.

Talking to reporters after a press conference, PML-N leader Khwaja Muhammad Idrees said all five members of the National Assembly belonging to both PPP and PML-N had conveyed their reservations regarding Mahmood to their party chiefs. Quoting PPP MNA Mian Abdus Sattar, Idrees said MNAs Sattar, Maulana Hamid Kazmi, Makhdoom Shahabuddin, Chaudhry Javed Warraich and Sardar Arshad Leghari would meet PML-N President Shahbaz Sharif soon to brief him on people’s sentiments’ against Mahmood.

Earlier, at a press conference at the PML-N district secretariat, Idrees said the PML-F leader victimised PML-N workers when he was nazim of the district. Accompanied by PML-N leaders Sardar Azhar Khan Leghari, Zahoor Ahmad Gujjar, Chaudhry Mahmoodul Hassan, Abdul Rauf, Rana Ziaul Hassan, Asif Chaudhry and Arshad Gujjar, Idrees appealed to PPP and PML-N leaders to save people from the ‘remnants of dictatorship’.

Separately, local PPP representatives Barkat Bajwa and Syed Husnain Shah also opposed Mahmood’s likely inclusion in the Punjab cabinet.

PRINCIPAL: A meeting of people from all walks of life on Sunday praised the government for cancelling contract appointments.

However, the meeting, which had representatives of citizens, traders and lawyers, asked the government not to cancel the contract appointments of Shaikh Zayed Medical College Principal Dr Eice Muhammad and professors. They pleaded that the cancellation of appointments would cause problems for students and their parents because it would be difficult for the authorities to find their replacement. — Correspondent