GUJRANWALA: Federal Minister for Railways Khwaja Saad Rafiq told a press conference on Saturday the PPP government had signed the Iran-Pakistan Pipeline only for political gains at home and spent millions of rupees on it uselessly.

He said the government was resolving the energy crisis with the help of China and Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif was due in China in the first week of November to sign agreements.

He said Chinese companies would invest in Pakistan under the foreign direct investment arrangements.

He said the PML-N and the PPP had struggled for 30 years to strengthen democracy and putting the country on the path of progress and prosperity, but the fast bowler (Imran Khan) would take 20 years to explain his anti-democracy demos.

He advised the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf to end its sit-in following Dr Tahirul Qadri and play a democratic role of opposition.

BODY: Dhulley police recovered on Saturday the body of a man of Bonair district who was murdered by his relative seven months ago in Gujranwala.

Deceased Juma Gul and suspect Zakhail were brother-in-law to each other and had been residing in the Dhulley area for the last two years.

Zakhail killed and buried him in the kitchen of his house. On the report of his father-in-law, police raided the house and recovered the body. The suspect was still at large.

HEALTH: Health officials declared Gujranwala free from polio, dengue and ebola on Saturday.

Executive District Officer of health Dr Sakhawat Ali told a press briefing 1,717 teams surveyed the seven towns of the Gujranwala district and administered polio drops to 870,000 children.

The teams completed fumigation and found not even a single case of polio, dengue and ebola in the towns. He said ebola was a dangerous disease while Gujranwala District Headquarters experts were trying to find a medicine to cure its patients the world over.

REMAND: Judicial Magistrate Muhammad Asif granted a 14-day judicial remand on Saturday to former Arts Council resident director Atiqur Rehman in a corruption case.

SUMMONED: The additional district and sessions court judge summoned on Saturday the Aroop station house officer (SHO) in an illegal confinement case.

Saleema Bibi moved the court and pleaded the Aroop police picked her son, Zahid Nadim, from his house and detained him without any case. The court fielded a bailiff who raided the police station and got rescued him.

Additional Sessions Judge Muhammad Zahid Ghazanvi summoned the SHO along with the record on Monday (tomorrow).

ACTION: Special price control magistrate Shabir Husain Butt arrested 25 shopkeepers for overcharging their customers and sent them to jail under the Price Control Act 3/7 on Saturday.

He also fined Rs542,000 to several shopkeepers.

Published in Dawn, October 26th, 2014