TOBA TEK SINGH: Scores of villagers staged a protest and blocked traffic near Gandaswala Chowk on the Tandlianwala-Kanjwani-Mamukanjan Road after a speeding truck crushed a man early on Tuesday morning.

The man identified as Khushi Muhammad (35) of Chak 401 GB, was leaving a mosque after offering the Fajar prayers. The protesters put his body on the road and demanded immediate arrest of the truck driver. The driver had fled from the scene in his vehicle after the accident.

The Tandlianwala Saddar police SHO held talks with the protesters and assured them that the driver would be arrested at the earliest, over which they ended their protest.

CONVICTED: Faisalabad Special Court Judge Shamshad Ali Rana handed down four-year imprisonment along with a fine of Rs300,000 to a human trafficker.

An FIA official said that convict Attaullah had extorted Rs900,000 from two youths in 2015 for sending them to Spain on work visas, but he did not fulfill his promise.

UAF: Punjab governor as chancellor of the University of Agriculture Faisalabad (UAF) has appointed Prof Dr Ghulam Murtaza as the faculty of agriculture dean for a period of three years.

Dr Murtaza is a Professor of Soil, Water and Environmental Chemistry at UAF. He has been listed among the world’s top two percent of highly cited scientists in rankings based on Stanford and Science Direct data.

Separately, a meeting of the regional agriculture forum, central Punjab, chaired by UAF VC Dr Zulfiqar Ali, discussed a range of issues concerning agricultural research, technology transfer and climate resilience.

The meeting discussed wheat, cotton, rice, sugarcane and other crops.

Dr Zulfiqar said the challenges confronting agriculture could not be addressed without greater collaboration among universities, research organisations, government departments, extension services, farmers and industry.

The participants discussed the need to promote climate-smart agriculture to improve farm productivity while protecting natural resources and strengthening farmers’ livelihoods.

They emphasised that closer interaction between scientists and farming communities could help ensure that research priorities were aligned with the problems being faced in the field.

Dr Ghulam Murtaza, Dr Babar Shahbaz, Dr Ahmad Sattar, Dr Kashif Saleemi, Dr Bushra Sadia, Dr Rao Sabir, Dr Muhammad Aslam, progressive grower Syed Faisal Hassan Shah, Punjab Agriculture Director Khalid Mehmood and Dr Khurram Zia were also present.

Published in Dawn, September 30th, 2026