MUZAFFARGARH: Eight students were injured when a school van collided with an oncoming vehicle at Multan’s Bund Bosan Road due to fog on Tuesday morning.

Rescue officials and locals took the students out of the van and shifted them to the Nishtar Hospital. The injured students were: Ammar, Nadeem, Ramzan, Ameer, Jawairia, Anees Fatima, Amna and Awais. Doctors said three of the students had their legs fractured while the others had minor injuries and were treated. Ammar was in a critical condition due to face injuries.

MDA OPERATION: A Multan Development Agency (MDA) enforcement team has foiled a bid to illegally occupy a plot on ​Water Works Road opposite fish market.

The enforcement team, on the orders of MDA Director General Qaiser Saleem, removed the goods from the plot and got the possession of the property. Director Enforcement Mohsin Raza led the operation and Assistant Director Enforcement Afaq Ahmed Bhatti and a squad and police personnel accompanied him.

An attempt to occupy this plot was made earlier also which the MDA administration thwarted by sealing the constructed room.

EXEN ARRESTED: The Anti-Corruption Establishment (ACE), Muzaffargarh, on Tuesday arrested the executive engineer irrigation, Store and Workshop division, for his involvement in illegal recruitment of tubewell operators in 2019 and 2020.

A team arrested EXEN Parvaiz Awan after the Lahore High Court’s Multan Bench dismissed his bail plea.

Circle Officer Anti-Corruption Waseem Khan Leghari said that on the direction of the higher authorities, action was taken after a chief minister’s inspection team conducted a probe and pointed out illegal recruitments and regularisation of work-charge employees at Store and Workshop division, Muzaffargarh.

The department also probed the matter by forming a three-member committee on Oct 16, 2019 and it also pointed out large-scale illegal recruitments of work-change employees.

More than 300 work-charge employees were recruited in 2019 and later they moved court for salaries. The secretary irrigation department Punjab took action and suspended the then EXEN irrigation, Chaudhry Mohammad Athar, and also suspended the work-charge employees.

The case was sent to the Anti-Corruption Department and NAB and FIA also are conducting probes.

Published in Dawn, January 19th, 2022