LOWER DIR: The district administration and the food department on Monday started procuring wheat from growers of Punjab.

District food controller Kashif Ihsan told reporters that wheat was being purchased at Rs3,900 per 40 kilogrammes.

He said so far 200 trucks loaded with wheat had reached the district from Punjab and other parts of the country.

He said deputy commissioner Wasil Khan had constituted a six-member procurement committee that checked the quality and quantity of wheat.

Mr Ihsan said the government started procuring wheat from local growers from May 15, while procurement from growers of Punjab started the other day.

He said 500 metric tonnes of wheat would be purchased from one farmer, and the payment would be made through cross-cheque to ensure transparency.

The food controller said substandard wheat would not be procured. “We will purchase only standard wheat at official rate,” he said, adding 7,000 metric tonnes of wheat would be procured in the district.

Meanwhile, wheat dealers on Monday complained the district administration was creating hurdles for them.

Irfanullah, a local grain merchant, alleged he bought quality wheat worth Rs12 million from farmers in Punjab, and brought it to Timergara in four trucks, but the district administration refused to procure it labelling the grain substandard. He demanded of the administration to make the process easy and transparent.

JUDICIAL INQUIRY: Social and political activists on Monday demanded judicial inquiry into the mysterious death of a seven-year-old girl at an orphanage-cum-seminary, and threatened to bring people onto the roads if the ‘killers’ were not arrested within next 48 hours.

Speaking at a press conference, PPP leader Mohammad Hanif Khan, PTI village council chairman Iftikhar Anjum, JI’s former district councillor Bakht Zarin, ANP’s Mohammad Saleem Advocate, Human Rights Commission of Pakistan representative Jehan Kabir and others alleged the girl was found dead at the seminary on May 17 in mysterious circumstances. They said the medical report and postmortem of the victim suggested sexual torture that needed an impartial inquiry.

The victim’s father, Sartaj was also present.

The police have arrested the seminary head Maulana Ziaul Haq Haidari, his son Abu Bakar and bodyguard, Sanaullah after the girl’s father lodged an FIR.

According to police sources, a high-level team led by SP investigations Rashid Ahmad has started probing the case.

Published in Dawn, May 28th, 2024