JHANG, June 19: A union council nazim and his five accomplices have been nominated in a theft case registered by the Qadirpur police station for uprooting and taking away signboards from the sites of two development projects.

The projects are being carried out under the Khushal Pakistan Programme in NA-86 constituency of Federal Kashmir Affairs Minister Faisal Saleh Hayat, an MNA.

UC No 82 (Maharwali) Nazim Iftikhar Khan Baloch and his five accomplices — Hakim Pawli, Mumtaz Khan, Ahmad Khan, Nasrullah Qazi and Alam Sher Awan — have been nominated on the statements of two eye-witnesses in the FIR lodged against them on June 15. An application was lodged by the Faisalabad PWD executive engineer.

The application alleged that some unknown miscreants took away the signboards installed at the sites of two development projects — Mandi Shah Jewna on the Hissam Road and Mandi Shah Jewna on the Husainabad Road.

The Xen urged the police to arrest the culprits and recover the stolen signboards.

Two residents of Mandi Shah Jewna, Abdul Ghafoor and Bashir Ahmad, appeared before the investigation officer and gave a written statement that on the night of June 3 they were returning from Shah Jewna town to Mandi Shah Jewna when they saw nazim Iftikhar Ahmad instructing his five accomplices to uproot the signboards and put them in his car.

The witnesses stated that they tried to persuade the nazim and his men to refrain from committing the crime,but they did not listen to them and took away the signboards.

They also threatened them with dire consequences. The police instituted a case against the suspects, but have yet to arrest them.