RAWALPINDI: Deputy Commissioner Mohammad Ali on Saturday lifted ban on entry of vehicles in Murree with conditions.

According to a notification, a maximum of 8,000 vehicles per day shall be allowed to enter Murree from all entry points in normal weather conditions. This limit shall not be applicable to the residents of Murree and Azad Jammu and Kashmir, official and Pak Army vehicles.

The Chief Traffic Officer, Rawalpindi shall devise a system to ensure that the traffic does not exceed the prescribed limit and shall intimate well in time.

No entry shall be allowed between 5pm and 5am except for emergency services, vehicles carrying Petroleum products/Liquified Petroleum Gas (LPG) and food items.

Executive Engineer Mechanical Machinery, and Chief Traffic Police Office will have effective coordination with Pakistan Meteorological Department to set up, maintain, review and upgrade mechanism for early warnings to regulate traffic.

The Rawalpindi City Police Officer and Chief Traffic Officer along with National Highways & Motorway Police shall depute adequate police personnel for accurate count of incoming/outgoing vehicles and maintain a database of the net traffic count.

On the other hand, the committee on Murree tragedy completed its investigations on Saturday after recording the statements of the people survived in the incident. It went back to Lahore to sum up the report to present it to Punjab Chief Minister Usman Buzdar.

On the directive of the Punjab Chief Minister Usman Buzdar, the committee was formed to probe the incident. The committee was tasked to finalise the report and submit it to chief minister within seven days.

The committee was headed by Punjab Home Department Additional Chief Secretary Zafar Nasarullah and other members are Punjab Secretary Food Ali Sarfraz, Secretary Agriculture Asad Gillani and Additional Inspector General Police Farooq Mazhar.

A senior official of Punjab government told Dawn that the committee spent two days in Murree and recorded the statements of district administration, provincial departments and all the police and traffic police as well as the locals.

Published in Dawn, January 16th, 2022