MIANWALI, July 5: Punjab Minister for Zakat and Ushr Nadeem Kamran Malik said on Tuesday that Mianwali district would be exempted from electricity loadshedding.He was talking to newsmen at the Canal Rest House after meeting a 15-member delegation of the Tehrik-i-Huqooq-i-Mianwali which had organised a protest march against loadshedding in the district on Monday. Two protesters were killed in clashes with police.
The tehrik says that Mianwali produces 1,000MW of electricity from its three power plants in Chashma, whereas it requires only 100MW.
Mr Kamran Malik said Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif had set up a committee and asked it to submit a report to him about the Mianwali incident.He said the provincial government had requested the Chief Justice of Lahore High Court to hold an inquiry into the matter.
During the meeting with the minister, tehrik leaders demanded immediate transfer of District Coordination Officer Tariq Mehmood and District Police Officer Waqas Nazir and withdrawal of cases registered against protesters.The minister said he would recommend to the chief minister to transfer the two officers.
He assured the tehrik leaders that people responsible for the loss of lives would be severely dealt with. The judicial inquiry would look into the issue of registration of FIRs against the two officers, he added.
He said compensation would be paid to the families of the deceased and the injured and no arrest would be made on the basis of FIR registered against protesters.
He urged tehrik leaders to withdraw their call for another march on July 20.
Tehrik leaders Haji Khurshid Anwar Khan and Haji Falak Sher Awami described the meeting with the minister as satisfactory and withdrew their call for another march. But they warned that if the Punjab government did not honour its promises the tehrik would launch another protest.
A complete strike was observed in the district on Tuesday in protest against police violence. Lawyers in Mianwali, Piplan and Isakhel also went on strike.After the funeral of Khadim Hussain and Mehr Khan, who were killed on Monday, thousands of people blocked traffic on the Mianwali-Kalabagh road for a couple of hours by burning tyres. They chanted slogans against the government, the DPO and DCO.
