TOBA TEK SINGH, Sept 16: Returning officer Nadeem Gulzar cast away an objection of PML-N district secretary-general and candidate for district nazim slot Rana Muhammad Anwar against Chaudhry Abdul Sattar, the candidate backed by the ruling party.

Rana Anwar had filed the objection that Chaudhry Sattar’s matriculation degree was fake.

Counsel for Chaudhry Sattar pleaded that his client had passed his matric examination in 1941 from the Government High School, Jullundar (India). At that time, they said the Punjab University would also conduct examinations in Jullundar.

They further said that entries of additional subjects and grades were not parts of certificates before partition. The RO reserved the decision and later announced it in the afternoon that papers of Chaudhry Sattar were correct.

The RO also accepted nomination papers of former district nazim Chaudhry Muhammad Ashfaq and also rejected an objection raised against him by naib nazim-elect Kamran Zafar advocate. He objected that Ashfaq was not eligible to contest elections because he was the Punjab PML vice-president.

The same RO rejected the nomination papers of former tehsil nazim Chaudhry Muhammad Rafiq, the candidate for the kissan district council seat, on the ground that he possessed more than five acres of farmland.

Meanwhile, nomination papers of all tehsil nazim candidates were also accepted by other returning officers.

Operation: The operation against a gang of dacoits launched last month in the forest on both sides of the Ravi near Kamalia will continue till the elimination of all of its members.

At a press conference here on Wednesday, DPO Akhtar Laleka said police parties present outside the forest arrested two more dacoits, Asif and Shahid, on Tuesday night. They were injured in an encounter a week ago.

He claimed that another gang member, Fakhar alias Fakhri Shah, was arrested from Landhi, Karachi. He had fled to Karachi after being injured by police in a shootout.

The police operation had secured hundreds of thousands of villagers around the forest who were always afraid of the rising incidents of dacoity.