BAHAWALPUR: PPP Divisional President Mian Nawazish Ali Pirzada has appealed to the Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) to take suo motu notice of the oil tanker fire tragedy.

At a press conference flanked by District President ex-MPA Shah Rukh Malik, General Secretary Irshad Siroya and others, Pirzada, who is also president of Lahore High Court Bar Association, requested LHC Chief Justice Syed Mansoor Ali Shah to form a judicial commission for an inquiry into the incident.

He claimed that for an hour or so none of the personnel of National Highway and Motorway Police or the administration reached the spot to stop villagers from collecting petrol.

He demanded resignation of the chief minister and regretted that the Punjab government ignored Bahawalpur, where burn unit could not be set up despite approval during the previous years.

Pirzada demanded that the government give due share to Bahawalpur from its resources and out of National Finance Commission (NFC) Award for the development of the area.

The PPP divisional president also opposed the outsourcing of Bahawalpur blood bank to Indus Hospital, Karachi, and alleged that rulers were out to take financial benefits out of it.

Published in Dawn, June 29th, 2017