September 11, 2008	Thursday	Ramazan 10, 1429

TAXILA, Sept 10: The Punjab government has given magisterial powers to revenue staff to monitor commodity prices and impose fine on profiteers.

Sources said the step was aimed to control escalating prices of daily-use items during Ramazan. The Punjab home department through a notification on September 4 delegated these powers to the district officers to enable them to check the prices of food items under Section 14-A of the Criminal Procedure Code 1898.

Under the new arrangements, tehsildars and naib tehsildars have been given the powers of first class magistrate for the sole purpose of trying people on offences related to price control. Earlier, there was only one deputy district officer (revenue) who also worked as a price control magistrate and it was physically impossible for them to visit each market. The designated officials are now authorised to conduct raids and hold on-the-spot trials in their respective areas.

It may be noted that the magisterial powers of the officials were slashed under the local government ordinance.

Women robbers’gang busted: A sensitive agency has busted a gang of women outlaws involved in a number of robberies and arrested seven persons including its ring leader and her husband.

Sources said during interrogation the members of the ‘Pholan Devi’ gang told the investigators that they had deprived women passengers in public transport of gold ornaments and other valuables. They used to enter houses on various pretexts and overpowered the female occupants, in case there was no male member in the house, and looted cash and other valuables.

They also revealed that some police officials of Wah Cantt were hands in glove with them and got their due share regularly.

Those who were arrested have been identified as Gulshan alias Pholan Devi, her husband Rab Nawaz, Sadia Bibi, Nazma, Kiran, Miraj Bibi and Tahira. They confessed to committing many crimes in various localities of Taxila, Wah Cantt and Hassanabdal.