LAHORE, May 9: The Punjab cabinet on Wednesday decided to pull out traffic wardens from Lahore roads and give them another two-week training in view of their dissatisfactory performance during the trial period.

The cabinet, which met under Chief Minister Pervaiz Elahi, also allowed closure of all business centres in the province at 9pm instead of the 8pm deadline earlier given by the federal government.

Official sources said the cabinet earlier held an in-camera session in which it discussed the plan to make the president’s May 12 rally a success. Arrangements for the rally and the PML activists’ full participation in it were finalised in the session, they claimed.

Regarding extension to the closing hours of business centres in Punjab, sources said, it was granted in view of the reluctance by the businessmen to follow the deadline given by the federal government. The cabinet thought that it was better to give one-hour relaxation to the traders instead of facing resistance by them which the government could not afford, they added.

The chief minister said the decision had been taken in consultation with the traders. Medical stores, hospitals, clinics, bakeries and hotels would be exempted from the condition.

He said all the government departments would switch off airconditioners for one hour every day to save electricity, directing the chief secretary to adopt measures in this regard.

He said the two-week additional training of the wardens would further improve traffic management in five big cities in the province.

The cabinet also decided to amend the rent control laws to protect the rights of landlords and tenants. It was meant to legally bound tenants to vacate the rented premises after the lapse of the rent period instead of approaching courts for extensions. The related bill would be tabled in the next session of the Punjab Assembly for adoption.

The chief minister said a law would also be made to ensure provision of basic facilities in buildings.

Earlier, the chief minister said world financial institutions would further provide assistance to Punjab in view of the success of its reform programme. By retiring the federal government’s costly Rs18 billion loans, the provincial government was saving an annual Rs8.25 billion which were being used for development activities.