GUJRANWALA: Up to 350 people tested positive for coronavirus in Gujranwala on Saturday.

Deputy Commissioner Sohail Ashraf has urged business people and the public to follow SOPs regarding Covid-19 as the violators would be punished.

He also held a meeting with the stakeholders and local administrative officers and formed committees for the monitoring of SOP enforcement.

The deputy commissioner said the government could defeat the third wave of the pandemic with the help of stakeholders.

He elaborated that the government and divisional administration’s primary responsibility was to save the people from the virus and to continue business activities within Covid-19 SOPs.

The deputy commissioner expressed his concerns over a surge in cases of coronavirus, violation of SOPs, and increasing death cases.

The Covid-19 cases began increasing in the district by the end of February and now the average per day number of cases is 50.

ACE: The Anti-Corruption Establishment (ACE) arrested on Saturday a naib qasid of the metropolitan corporation for taking a bribe and seized tainted currency notes from him.

On the directions of Punjab ACE Director-General Muhammad Gohar Nafees and Regional Direction Rai Naeemullah Bhatti, Circle Officer Muhammad Iqbal Ojala raided with the judicial magistrate and arrested Naib Qasid Ahmad Raza while taking the bribe and recovered Rs85,000 from him.

GMC: Up to 105 security guards of the Gujranwala Medical College (GMC) went on strike over nonpayment of their salary by the security company for the last three months.

According to sources, the GMC hired guards from the ‘National Police Foundation Services’ for the security of the college.

The GMC has released cheques for their salaries but the security company has not passed on the amount to guards.

The GMC administration said they had told the security company to make the payment otherwise the contract would be canceled.

Published in Dawn, March 14th, 2021