SAHIWAL, Dec 1: The Punjab Evacuee Trust auctioned off 175 acres of agricultural land in 120 villages of Sahiwal and Pakpattan, which it did not own.

The Punjab secretary for colonies stopped the Trust from issuing allotment letters to the successful bidders when it was found out that the land actually belonged to the Punjab government.

The Trust had auctioned off the land at the rate of Rs300,000 to Rs1 million per acre and received one-fourth of the payment from the successful bidders. The auctions were held from March 3 to 8 and March 17 to 18 last year.

On behalf of the bidders, Rana Izhar Ahmed Khan has appealed to the authorities of the Evacuee Trust Department and the Punjab government to amicably resolve the dispute and give them their due proprietary rights.

He said the affected people would hold demonstrations before the CM House if the issue was not resolved soon.

Meanwhile, the Sahiwal district revenue officer has been asked by the highups to submit a detailed report in this regard.

PLF: Punjab People’s Lawyers Forum secretary-general Mohammad Hanif on Sunday announced that the forum had cancelled the membership of those PPP advocates who had joined the forward block.

Mr Hanif told reporters here that Rao Sikandar Iqbal and Chaudhry Naurez Shakoor Khan had violated the party discipline, for which the forum planned to lodge a case against them in the court of law.

SHOT DEAD: A labourer was shot dead by robbers when he put up resistance near Chak 94/6-R on Saturday night.