BAHAWALPUR: More than 100 shops were sealed by a joint team of the district administration and the Pera force during a major anti-encroachment operation late on Monday night.

The late-night operation was carried out in Bahawalpur’s busy Farid Gate and Shahi Bazaar areas.

According to a district administration’s spokesperson, the shops were sealed on the orders of Bahawalpur Deputy Commissioner Syed Hassan Raza. He claimed that the action was taken after repeated warnings were issued to the shopkeepers for removing encroachments in front of their shops. He warned that strict action would continue against encroachers.

On the other hand, Bahawalpur Shahi Bazaar Anjuman-e-Tajran President Muhammad Sabir said that the administration had done injustice to the shopkeepers. He claimed that the shopkeepers had already removed encroachments from their shops.

He claimed that they had also sent CCTV footage of several shops, where there were no encroachments, to the administration. He demanded to deseal the shops so that they could earn their livelihood.

Dawn learnt that a day earlier, the DC along with Pera and administration officials conducted a surprise visit to the area and noticed some of the encroachments and this prompted the massive operation.

CLINIC SEALED: A private maternity clinic was sealed in Lodhran city on Tuesday for allegedly illegally running the health facility and quackery.

A raid was conducted by a joint team of the health department and police and booked the ‘doctor’ on the complaint of Lodhran Deputy District Health Officer (DDHO) Dr Asef Ali Rana.

According to the DDHO, a woman named Tasleam Bibi claimed that she was a former helper at the clinic belonging to one Ms Ansar. She told the health department that Ansar was running the clinic illegally and she was not a doctor. The caller alleged that Ansar had also beaten her.

On the complaint, the DDHO along with police raided the clinic and found a female patient who had been operated on and there were no qualified doctors at the clinic. The team also claimed to have recovered government-issued medicines at the clinic.

However, suspect Ansar had managed to escape. Police said that raids were being conducted for her arrest.

CONVICTED: A Bahawalpur district and sessions judge awarded three years of rigorous imprisonment (RI) along with a fine of Rs25 million to an accused for adulteration in allopathic medicines.

The court found Arshad Ali, proprietor of M/S Asli Sultani Dawakhana in Khanpur tehsil, to be guilty of the charges. The judge ordered that in case of default of payment of fine, the convict would have to undergo another six months of simple imprisonment.

According to the prosecution, a drug inspector, after a raid on his shop, found adulterated medicines and a case was registered against him.

BOOKED: The Uch Sharif Police booked six persons for allegedly distributing an objectionable video with sexual and obscene contents on social media.

According to the FIR, on the complaint of SI Muhammad Nawaz Sharif of Uch Sharif police, four nominated persons Ahsan, Nadeem alias Natti, Irfan, Umar and two unidentified men distributed a video on social media with objectionable, obscene and immoral scenes.

The police claimed that raids were being conducted for the arrest of the accused.

Published in Dawn, December 24th, 2025