SAHIWAL: At least 295,000 out-of-school children between four and nine years of age will be enrolled in Sahiwal division during the current year under the Universal Primary Education Enrollment (UPEE) campaign.

This was informed by Commissioner Sohail Shahzad while launching a “Parho Punjab Barho Punjab” campaign at Government Comprehensive High School here on Thursday.

The Punjab government is currently running a campaign to enroll out-of-school children under the UPEE programme in nine divisions of the province.

The process of enrollment campaign depends upon the data of the targeted children collected from surveys of different households.

The data says around 110,000 children between four and nine years of age are not enrolled in Sahiwal and Okara districts separately while 75,000 children are still out-of-school in the Pakpattan district.

The commissioner says every effort will be made to involve all stakeholders to enroll out-of-school children in nearby schools.

He says that teachers, politicians and parents are the main players who can make the campaign a success.

The commissioner has directed the district education department of three districts to make the campaign a role model for Punjab.

PML-N MNA Pir Syed Imran Shah told the gathering that the Punjab government was spending billions in the infrastructure development of public schools.

ARRESTED: The Harrapa police traced and arrested within six hours a suspect who allegedly raped a 12-year-old handicapped girl in village 3/10-L on Thursday.

DPO Muhammad Idrees told reporters that the girl had gone to nearby fields when the suspect got hold of her and raped her.

The victim girl informed her parents who reported the matter to Harrapa SHO Rasheed Ahmed.

SP Investigation Riffat Haider Bukhari said the SHO traced and arrested the suspect who confessed to having committed the crime. The victim girl was admitted to the DHQ Hospital for treatment and medical examination.

Police have registered a case against the suspect under Section 158/15.

LOOTED: Seven armed men looted cash, gold ornaments and other valuables worth Rs3 million from the house of a lawyer in Fateh Sher Colony here on Wednesday evening.

Reports said that three armed robbers stood at the main gate while the rest barged into the house, held lawyer Ashraf Batalvi and family members hostage and locked them in a room. They later collected cash and valuables and fled with the booty.

Published in Dawn, April 3rd, 2015

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