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TOBA TEK SINGH, Nov 25: Raise in electricity tariff has been condemned by political leaders on Monday.
Former MPA Mian Rafiq said the raise would put further burden on farmers who used electricity for tubewells.
Pakistan Kissan Committee president Chaudhry Fateh Muhammad said people have rejected the PML-Q ticket holders for they would continue the steps which were being taken by the government on the directions of the World Bank and the IMF.
Punjab Millat Party chief organizer Qazi Ghiasuddin Janbaz said power rates were already high. He feared that the new raise would result in the decline in agricultural production while the industrial products rates would rise automatically.
PML-N central leader and former MNA M. Hamza termed the new raise a gift from the new government.
He said if the parliamentarians had no power to reject the raise, the Jamali government had no right to remain in power.
Meanwhile, PML-Q MNA Farhan Latif announced that he would move a bill for cut in power tariff in the coming session of the National Assembly.
He said he would also present the issue in the parliamentary party meeting because the raise would result in financial loss to farmers who were already facing great hardships due to price hike of various farm inputs.
WATER SHORTAGE: Farmers expressed concern over the shortage of irrigation water in the district and urged the Punjab governor to fulfil his promise made during his visit here about one-and-a-half-month ago.
They said both lower Gogera and lower Jhang branches often remain closed. Moreover, influential farmers breached canals and water channels as a result of which farmers of tail-end villages face shortage of water.
If the situation continued, farmers would be unable to sow wheat, they said.
TEACHERS’ STRIKE: The staff of the Government College for Woman and Government Municipal Degree College on Monday boycotted classes for half an hour against constitution of boards of governors and privatization of educational institutions.
INQUIRY BEGINS: Inquiry into the police torture case started here on Monday and the victim and the perpetrator appeared before the inquiry officer.
Faisalabad Government College lecturer Chaudhry Muhammad Shabbir told the inquiry officer that between the night of Nov 5 and 6, Nawan Lahore SHO Nasir Nawaz along with a police team came to the shop of his younger brother Usman in Chak 337 JB and arrested him. The SHO brought his brother to his house after torturing him. He forced his entry into his house and started torturing his father Bashir Ahmad and other younger brother Idrees.
Mr Shabbir said when he asked the SHO to stop, he slapped him in his face and misbehaved with his mother and sister. Later, the SHO took him, his father and brothers to police station where he undressed them, tortured them and lodged them in lock-up.
He said he and his family was tortured just to please their influential political opponents.
Complainant’s father Bashir Ahmad also endorsed the statement of his son and demanded that all the officials who tortured them without any justification should be sacked.
The statement of the SHO would be recorded on Tuesday.
