MULTAN, Dec 22: District Nazim Makhdoom Shah Mahmood Qureshi has been invited to deliver a lecture at the National Defence College, Islamabad, on Dec 24 (Monday).

He will be the first Nazim of the country to deliver lecture at the prestigious institute, says an official handout released here on Saturday.

The handout has no mention about the topic of the lecture but sources close to Mr Qureshi said that he will speak about the devolution plan and his experience in office of the District Nazim while dealing with bureaucracy and enormous public problems.

Mr Qureshi had been the district council chairman, provincial and federal minister in the past and the deputy secretary-general of the PPP.

At present, he is the most vocal supporter of the system of district government.

PHONE NUMBERS: As many as 3000 telephone numbers of Multan city will be digitalized between the night of December 23 and 24.

According to a PTCL press release issued on Saturday, flat rate numbers will also be digitalized.

Telephone numbers which start with the prefix of 40 will be replaced with the digits of 516; prefix 41 with 517; prefix 42 with 518 and prefix 43 with 519. The last three digits of the earlier five-digit non-digital telephone numbers will not be changed.

After the completion of this process, there will be no non-digital number in Multan with flat rate facility.

OFFICE-BEARERS: The Multan Union of Journalists (MUJ) has unanimously elected the following office-bearers for the year 2002.

President: Rasheed Arshad Saleem; senior vice-president: Naseer Raan; vice-president: Gohar Javed; general secretary: Nadeem Shah Kashmiri; joint secretary: Shakeel Haider; finance secretary: Zahid Habib Warsi.

Executive committee: Qamarul Haq Qamar, Raziuddin Razi, Masihullah Khan, Abdul Sattar Qamar, Shahzad Anwar, Tariq Qureshi, Parkash James, Azam Jehangir and Farooq Adeel.

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