LAYYAH: Two more people have succumbed to poisonous sweetmeats at the Jinnah Hospital Lahore, pushing the death toll up to 31.

The latest casualties include a 15-year old boy, Mujahid Hussain, son of Maqbool Hussain, a resident of 272 TDA village, who was shifted for treatment to the Jinnah Hospital, Lahore, where he died on Friday night and Muhammad Ashraf (20), who expired at the same facility on Sunday.

On Friday, during his visit to Chak 105 ML, where the tragic incident had occurred, Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf leader and former Punjab governor Chaudhry Sarwar offered condolence to the relatives of the victims.

Talking to the media, he said the deaths had exposed the “good governance” of the Punjab government.

He said instead of spending Rs200 billion on Orange Line train project in Lahore, the government should provide better health facilities to the citizens of Punjab.

MPA Shahab-ud-Din Khan of the PPP, who is also deputy parliamentary opposition leader, strongly condemned the health policies of Punjab government.

He said if a forensic lab had been established in Multan, the analysis reports of the poisonous sweetmeats would have been promptly available to the doctors and many lives could have been saved.

The Qul Khawani for the 12 members of Omer Hayat's family who fell victim to toxic sweets was held at Chak 105 ML.

Parliamentarians from the area, officers of district administration and a large number of people from all segments of society were present.

Published in Dawn, May 2nd, 2016