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THATTA, May 16: The adviser to the Sindh chief minister on home affairs and coordination, Aftab Ahmad Shaikh, during a surprise visit to the Sujawal police station on Friday released 11 illegally confined people.
Talking to this correspondent at the police station, the adviser said out of 17 people detained at the police station, 11 were illegally detained and one of them was a mentally ill person.
He said he had asked the Sindh IG to register an FIR against the DPO of Thatta and the TPO of Sujawal.
Mr Shaikh said that he would furnish a report on the worst condition of lockup of the police station.
FORESTS: The Sindh forest department will declare land lying at both sides of highways as protected forests under provisions of the Pakistan Forest Act 1927 so that tree chopping can be stopped.
This was said by the Sindh secretary for forest and wildlife, Shamsul Haq Memon, while talking to this correspondent on Friday.
He said at least 25 per cent of a country’s area was required to be under forests but in Sindh only eight per cent of the land was under cultivation.
He said prior to the independence, about 80 per cent of the country’s land was under riverine forests which declined to 69 per cent in 1960s and to 50 per cent in 1980s. Presently, in riverine forests, 85,000 hectares (35 per cent) were densely covered and 27,000 hectares (11 per cent) were sparsely covered with trees, he added.
He said the forest department would launch a plantation drive in September during which 600,000 saplings would be planted along 300 kilometres stretch of the Super Highway from Karachi to Moro.
