RAWALPINDI: The district administration on Thursday found dengue mosquito larvae in a cinema house and two food outlets in Jinnah Park and imposed a fine of Rs400,000, giving warning to adopt anti-dengue standard operating procedures (SOPs) within a week.

In a sudden move, the audience in the cinema hall ‘Cinepax’ were shocked when the movie was stopped by the cinema administration who claimed that the cinema house was being raided by tax authorities.

The cinema administration told the audience that all the tickets would be returned on August 2 (Friday) and asked them to evacuate the premises.

“I was watching movie ‘The Glassworker’ when the administration stopped the movie in the middle. Some workers entered in the hall and asked to vacate the hall immediately. It was shocking for everyone but later, the administration informed the audience that the hall was sealed by tax department,” said one of the movie-watchers Mohammad Ahmed.

According to the visitors, only the cinema was sealed and unsealead while the food outlets were neither vacated nor sealed.

Suprisingly, a senior official of the excise and taxation department said that no team of the excise and taxation department visited Jinnah Park or the surrounding area on Thursday and said that they sealed commercial outlets after issuing notices.

When contacted, Assistant Commissioner Almas Sabeeh confirmed that it was infact the district administration team who visited Jinnah Park to check Cinepax, Pappasallis and KFC under in its ongoing anti-dengue campaign.

Mr Sabeeh said that a Rs100,000 fine was imposed on Cinepax while a Rs150,000 fine was imposed on each of the two food outlets for not adopting anti-dengue measures. He said that cinema house was sealed after finding dengue larvae and later unsealed after the cinema administration submitted the fine.

He said that a warning was issued to the outlets to adopt anti-dengue measures and that the district administration will re-check its implementation after one week.

Published in Dawn, August 2nd, 2024