BAHAWALPUR: Harvested wheat crop over seven acres in village 41/DB, about 25 kilometres from here, was damaged on Monday.

Police and Rescue 1122 sources claimed that out of the seven acres, the crop ready for threshing on five acres – worth millions of rupees -- was completed gutted.

Rescue 1122 officials claimed that they received a call from Dildar Hussain informing them of a fire in the wheat fields. They told Dawn that witnesses claimed the cause of fire could be a lit cigarette thrown by someone in the nearby fields, causing a fire that engulfed seven fields.

However, wheat tied in bundles on two acres was saved by the landowner and other people.

SEPARATE PROVINCE: Federal Minister for Education and Professional Training Baleeghur Rehman has claimed that the PML-N supported the restoration of Bahawalpur province.

Talking to a local traders’ forum here on Monday, Mr Rehman said his party had earlier got a resolution passed in the Punjab Assembly for the restoration of Bahawalpur province, adding that he did not agree with the establishment of any other province but Bahawalpur.

However, he also said: “We will have no objection if Multan and Dera Ghazi Khan were given the status of a full-fledged province.”

The minister claimed that Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) leader Shah Mahmood Qureshi had refused to support the demand of Bahawalpur province.

Meanwhile, the Pakistan Seraiki Party, at a consultative meeting presided over by its Deputy Chairman Allama Iqbal Waseem, thanked the Junoobi Punjab Suba Mahaz for supporting their demand for a Seraiki province.

Waseem claimed that this demand was shared by the 60 million people of Seraiki belt and the government should accept it. He added that with the creation of a south Punjab province, Pakistan would be further strengthened and the people of Seraiki region progress.

MNA’S GRIEVANCES: Disgruntled PML-N MNA Makhdoom Syed Ali Hassan Gillani has said that former prime minister Nawaz Sharif’s narrative of giving respect to vote was misleading.

Addressing a public meeting in his constituency’s Bangla Mastoi on Sunday, the lawmaker argued that instead of seeking respect for the vote, the voter should be granted respect and honour. He complained that the PML-N leadership had forgotten its loyal companions.

Published in Dawn, April 24th, 2018