0
GUJRANWALA, Oct 10: Panicked by rumours of financial institutions’ possible collapse, a local trader on Friday withdrew Rs5.5 million and 70 tola gold from a bank but ended up losing his savings to robbers.
Muhammad Arif told Dawn that he withdrew the money in the afternoon. When he reached his house in Urdu Bazaar, two masked gunmen stormed in and took away the cash and gold.
Meanwhile, investors are withdrawing their deposits from local banks and investing the same in gold and dollars.A local jewellery market trader said that people were buying gold considering it a safe investment in the prevailing economic scenario.
Some people were also shifting their money from foreign currency accounts to savings accounts due to reports that foreign currency accounts and lockers might be freezed by the government.
DPS REFUSED FUNDS: The city district council on Friday rejected the treasury’s suggestion on the provision of Rs40 million to the Divisional Public School (DPS) from the citizens community board funds.
At a meeting here, with District Naib Nazim Jamal Hasan Manj, the district council said the school was meant for the rich and not for the poor.
Opposition leader in the council Taufiq Ahmad Butt and other union council nazims, including many from the treasury benches, said the council could not allocate 50 per cent of the city district council’s budget for the “school of the rich”.
Some members proposed that money should be equally distributed to all schools in the district for furniture and other amenities. They accused the government of cutting their powers through bureaucracy and giving their development funds to parliamentarians.
OFFENDER KILLED: An offender was killed in an ‘encounter’ with police in Ghakkhar Town early on Friday morning.
Police say two motorcyclists were signalled to stop at a picket at Canal Bridge on Bagrian Road, but they opened fire at the policemen. The policemen retaliated and killed motorcyclist Sohail Arshad. However, his accomplice fled.
Besides the stolen motorcycle, police found two magazines of Kalashnikovs, a 30 bore pistol and 30 rounds on Arshad’s body.
Police claim Arshad was wanted for dozens of robberies, murders, kidnap for ransom and other crimes. He killed his cousin Asghar for stopping him from extorting illegal tax from people a few months ago. He murdered three women in Nazimabad locality of Wazirabad a few years ago. Police have already arrested his mother Zarina and brother-in-law Naseer in criminal cases.
BUS ROBBERY: Police on Friday registered a case against the driver, conductor and helper of a minibus whose passengers were looted by highwaymen on their way to Lahore.
Four robbers disguised as passengers boarded the minibus from Aimanabad, threw the driver aside after a few minutes, took control of the steering and took the bus to Bhoper Kalan near Tetley on Sheikhupura Road. They robbed the passengers of cash, gold ornaments, cell phones and other valuables worth Rs500,000 and fled.
Tetley police have arrested driver Iftikhar Ahmad, conductor Ghulam Haider and helper Gulfam on the complaint of minibus owner Muhammad Riaz.
NOTICE: As many as 25 employees of the Health Department were served show cause notices for “inefficiency and absence from duty” on Friday.
Health Department teams visited various state-run hospitals and rural health centres in remote areas to check attendance and performance of the staff. During the visit, health officials found vaccinators, CDC supervisors, medical technicians, sanitary inspectors and computer operators absent from duty. The officials submitted a report on the situation to Executive District Officer for Health Dr Nisar Ahmad and he served show cause notices on 25 employees. He said inefficient employees of the Health Department would be dismissed from service if they failed to improve.—Correspondent
