GUJRAT: The Lahore High Court has ordered the secretary of local government department to decide the matter of including rural areas into the limits of Gujrat Municipal Corporation after hearing both the parties while allowing a writ petition.

The court has also fixed Jan 29 as the date of hearing the matter in response to a writ petition filed by Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf MPA from Gujrat city Saleem Sarwar Jaura, also a parliamentary secretary for social welfare department, who had challenged the notification issued by Gujrat deputy commissioner and Gujranwala commissioner, the appellant authority against the demarcation of the local bodies.

Justice Shamas Mehmood Mirza of the LHC in an order referred the matter to the local government secretary asking him to hear both the parties -- the petitioner MPA and Gunjranwal commissioner and Gujrat DC.

Advocate Hammad Najeeb, who represented the petitioner, said the court had allowed the petition and directed the parties to appear before the local government secretary to further decide the matter.

However, he claimed that the court had declared the inclusion of rural areas into the limits of Gujrat MC as illegal and set aside the notification issued by the commisioner in this regard.

He said the petitioner had objected to the inclusion of 29 villages into the MC limits.

In an official statement issued here on Tuesday, the Gujrat local government deputy director said the court had referred the matter to the secretary to hear both the parties on Jan 29.

The department had earlier proposed the inclusion of at least 45 villages into the Gujrat MC limits during October 2019 demarcation which was later challenged before the commissioner.

However, the commissioner had excluded five villages from the said list but at the same time included five other villages into the MC limits, while accepting different petitions by the locals.

The local government department had included at least 128 villages into the limits of four municipalities of Gujrat Tehsil -- MCs of Gujrat city, Jalalpur Jattan, Kunjah and newly notified Mungowal during the demarcation which was a surprising move for the locals.

As many as 40 villages had been included into the Mungowal MC alone that was only a union council prior to being declared MC in the fresh delimitation.

MPA Jaura, who had contested July 2018 elections in a seat adjustment arrangement between the PTI and the PML-Q, has not been happy with what he terms dominance of the ruling party’s allies in administrative and other affairs of Gujrat.

Mr Jaura is the lone PTI MPA from Gujrat tehsil where his party had not pitched any candidate against the PML-Q on two National Assembly and three remaining Punjab Assembly seats.

QUACK: The health authorities on Wednesday sealed the clinic of a quack on Shadiwal Road.

Gujrat Deputy District Officer Health Syed Ghamkhawar Hussain inspected a clinic namely Qadri Clinic along Shadiwal Road and found a quack illegally prescribing and selling medicines to the patients. He immediately sealed the clinic and sent the matter to the Punjab Healthcare Commission (PHC) for further legal action against the quack.

Meanwhile, the district health department has launched a cleanliness drive in the public health facilities in Gujrat district in connection with the Clean and Green Pakistan Index (CGPI).

Dr Zahid Tanveer, chief executive officer health, said the heads of the public health facilities had been directed to ensure the proper dumping of the solid as well as hospital waste besides keeping the hospital clean. He said the children wards, labour rooms and other areas would be maintained.

Tree plantation and cutting of grass to beautify the front lawns of the health facilities had also been planned under the CGPI initiative. He said provision of clean drinking water would also be ensured.

Published in Dawn, January 23rd, 2020