SHEIKHUPURA, Dec 3: National Assembly Speaker Chaudhry Ameer Husain said on Saturday the democratic process in the country was going in the right direction. “The political institutions are functioning democratically,” he told journalists at the wedding ceremony of MNA Khurram Munawar Manjh.

Incumbent and former federal and provincial ministers, MNAs and MPAs were prominent among the participants.

Meanwhile, Federal Railways Minister Mian Shamim Haider told newsmen that work on the double railway track between Lahore and Faisalabad and Lahore and Gujranwala, requiring Rs5 billion, would take off soon. The rundown track between Lahore and Shorkot and Sangla Hill and Wazirabad would be replaced.

To check thefts and accidents in trains and stations, he said, a new communication system would be introduced. Closed-circuit televisions would be installed on railway station, he added.

He said the railways had returned to the government a Rs4.5 billion subsidy and it had happened for the first time in the organization’s history.

shot dead: Two persons, one of them robber, were shot dead and two others injured in different incidents here on Saturday.

Reports said nine dacoits barged into landlord Khalid Pervez’s house and after locking the inmates in a room, started collecting cash and valuables. Meanwhile, Khalid’s brother Younis, who was sleeping in another room, woke up and put up resistance. The intruders shot him down and escaped with valuables worth hundreds of thousands of rupees.

A robber was shot dead by the firing of his accomplice during a strike near Kot Yaqoob in the Saddar police station precinct.

A truck (JT-8127), laden with rice, was on its way to Gujranwala when four armed men stopped it near Kot Yaqoob. Conductor Shahjahan offered resistance, which prompted the robbers to open fire that claimed the life of one of them. Shahjahan suffered injuries and was removed to hospital.

Near Chak No 10 on the Sharqpur Road, local grain market rice dealer Yaseen was shot at and injured by five highwaymen.

He was taken to the Mayo Hospital in critical condition.