These cool resort offices

THE shifting of district government offices to summer resort Fort Munro, 85km from DG Khan, has created hardships for the common man besides affecting official work.

The British rulers established the hill resort in the Sulaiman range to spend summer season. They would shift their offices to Fort Munro every summer for a month as the scorching heat made it difficult for them to perform their duty. The arrangements were justifiable in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries as British who had come from cold climate of the United Kingdom could not bear the heat of summer. Now, when offices are air-conditioned, district nazim Maqsood Khan Leghari and district coordination officer Iram Bukhari have shifted their offices to Fort Munro in legacy of the British creating difficulties for the public. All executive district officers and other staff have to travel to the resort for meetings and their absence from offices brings official work at a halt.

Police and border military police (BMP) officials have failed to provide required security to foreigners, including Chinese, working in sensitive areas of the district where sympathies for Baloch insurgents run high among the people in this area of south Paunjab.

Sources say secret security agencies have also expressed their dissatisfaction over security arrangements by the BMP and district police.

Thirty Chinese engineers are working on an oil and gas exploration project in Rojhan and they have hired private security guards for their security.

In Dhodak in the tehsil tribal area, over a dozen Chinese are working on oil and gas exploration projects. The BMP of the tribal area is sole responsible for their security.

Many foreigners are working on the extension plant of the DG Cement factory.

A few days ago, unidentified men ambushed a police check-post near Taunsa Barrage and robbed the police of wireless sets and guns. After the incident, police abolished check posts near the barrage and in the Dera Ghazi Khan city to avoid ‘facing the wrath of robbers again’, instead of increasing security measures. District police officer Inkasar Khan says police will soon arrest the culprits.

On June 29, a Chinese camp established for oil and gas exploration in the area of Zindapir, the tribal area of DG Khan, was assaulted by the tribesmen in the presence of BMP officials. The tribesmen demand jobs in the ongoing project of oil and gas exploration.

The BMP duty officer called extra troops to control the situation but the BMP commandant was not available to send reinforcements as he was in Fort Munro. The BMP line officer sent extra contingency to defuse the situation. But the tribesmen vacated the camp after the project management assured them of providing jobs.