BAHAWALPUR: Two passenger coaches of the Lahore-bound Karakoram Express were damaged by a fire they caught while passing through the Kalanchwala railway station before dawn on Wednesday.

There was no casualty in the incident which took place about 40 kilometres from here near Mubarikpur on the Lahore-Karachi track. A Rescue 1122 team helped the passengers get down safely.

Rescue 1122 in-charge officer Asif Rahim said he received an emergency call around 3am on Wednesday from the railway officials of Kalanchwala and sent four firefighting vehicles to the station.

They put out the flames after a few hours.As the damaged coaches could not be rolled down on the track, he said, the teams detached them from the train. He suspected a short-circuit to be the cause of the fire.

VOTE RECOUNT: An election tribunal headed by retired district and sessions judge Chaudhry Abdul Hafeez has ordered recount of votes in 50 polling stations of PP-240.

Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz’s MPA Shamoon Badshah Qaisrani was declared successful in the by-election against the Pakistan Peoples Party’s Khwaja Daud Sulemani.

The tribunal gave the verdict on the petition filed by Khwaja Daud. It said recount of votes in 50 polling stations located in three union councils namely, Tamman Qaisrani, Kot Qaisrani and Lakhani of PP-240 should be held.

It appointed a commission comprising retired D&SJ Mahar Ijaz Ali to carry out the recount procedure and submit its report by the next date of hearing on Sept 5.

METAL STRING: District and Sessions Judge Muhammad Rashid Qamar on Wednesday ordered action against manufacturers and sellers of metal string being used in kite flying.

Presiding over a monthly meeting of the District Justice Criminal Coordination Committee here, he said action against those in the trade of metal string was necessitated to save precious lives of people.

He also sought a campaign to be launched against a wheelie and registration of cases against illegal blood banks.

Published in Dawn, August 28th, 2014