SUKKUR: Leader of the Opposition in the National Assembly Syed Khurshid Ahmed Shah on Monday laid the foundation stone of the DC secretariat on the premises of the deputy commission’s office. The secretariat is being constructed at an estimated cost of Rs650 million.Speaking to the district administration and building department officials present at the stone-laying ceremony, Mr Shah directed them to ensure the standard and quality of work in the construction of the secretariat. “The entrance must be impressive and fantastic,” he said.

He also asked them to ensure timely completion of the work.He was informed that the ground-plus-one secretariat building would also have a basement.During a meeting with senior district officials at the DC office, Mr Shah handed over documents of his one-acre piece of land in the Salehpat area to DC Raheem Bukhsh Maitlo for the construction of assistant commissioner’s office. He asked the Sukkur DC and Salehpat assistant commissioner to take measures to retrieve 200 acres of government property in Salehpat by getting all illegal occupants removed from the land and its surrounding areas. He said that all fake allotments concerning the property be cancelled.

During the same visit, Khurshid Shah handed over an amount of Rs500,000 to a trader, Altaf Memon, which was recovered by police from armed robbers, who had looted him a few days ago.

Law and order

Later, speaking to the media, Mr Shah expressed his satisfaction over law and order in Sukkur district and appreciated performance of police.

In reply to a question, he said that separate control rooms had been established in Sukkur and Rohri to ensure peace during Muharram and safety and security of participants in mourning processions. He noted that monitoring of processions on the 5th to 10th of Muharram would this time be done at local level. He said monitoring arrangements were made at the Old Sukkur and A-Section police stations.

Sukkur SSP Amjad Shaikh gave details of the security and monitoring arrangements, and said the control rooms were hooked to the main one established at the DC office. He said that drone and CCTV cameras would also be used for the monitoring of processions.

Published in Dawn, September 26th, 2017