SAHIWAL: The Punjab Auqaf Department plans to renovate and rehabilitate shrines in Punjab.

There are 550 shrines and religious places registered with the Auqaf Department that require the work.

Caretaker Provincial Minister for Zakat, Ushr and Religious Affairs Syed Azfar Ali Nasir told reporters at the shrine of Muhammad Paanah in Kameer on Tuesday that the department had categorised the repair and construction work after a physical examination of the shrines across Punjab.

The minister also visited the Sahiwal Teaching Hospital and the model bazaar. He met with a Pakistan Kisan Ittehad delegation, led by Chaudhry Rizwan, and assured them of the provision of fertilizer to farmers at authorized dealers’ points. Farmers complained about the shortage of urea fertilizer in the past two months.

Rana Maqsood, deputy director of agriculture, told Dawn the demand for urea fertiliser in February was 308,400 bags, whereas the supply was 32,780 bags. He said the main manufacturers of urea and DAP fertilisers had stopped or reduced production.

The minister promised farmers that urea and DAP supplies would be restored in two weeks.

A farmer from Qadirabad told Dawn the fertiliser supply was very low. He claimed that 100,000 bags were needed for the district of Sahiwal, but the supply was only 1,000 to 1,200 bags per day.

CONFISCATED: Up to 1,000kg of defective biscuits and confectionary items were confiscated during a raid on a warehouse on the Pakpattan-Sahiwal Road.

The biscuits were supposed to be delivered to Lahore and Sahiwal.

For the past year, the manufacturer has been delivering low-quality, unsanitary biscuits to hundreds of retail outlets, according to Ali Khurram, additional director of the Punjab Food Authority.

According to him, the owner was fined Rs50,000 for breaking food laws.

Officials raided Bake Master Food Industry and discovered a foul odour emanating from packed confectionary items.

Muhammad Shahzad, the owner, failed to produce a licence or any type of trading document. The storage space was filthy, with rodent droppings.

Officials from the PFA destroyed biscuits and other substances.

KILLED: A commission agent was killed late on Monday by two gunmen at Boat Stop on the Lahore-Multan highway.

Abdul Sattar was riding his motorcycle when he was stopped by two gunmen. When Sattar resisted, they stole Rs20,000 from him, shot him dead and fled. Sattar was transferred to the Sahiwal Teaching Hospital by Rescue 1122, where he was pronounced dead.

The Yousafwala police registered a murder case on the complaint of Abdul Gahfoor, brother of the deceased.

Published in Dawn, February 8th, 2023