FAISALABAD, Nov 5: The Punjab government has directed all the district coordination officers and Nazims to foil at any cost the attempts of religious and trade bodies to make the Nov 9 strike a success.
Sources told this correspondent on Monday that the regional transport authorities and traffic police high-ups had also been directed to persuade the leaders of transport unions and leading transporters in their respective areas not to observe the wheel-jam strike.
“District police chiefs have also been directed to make foolproof arrangements for protecting the lives and properties of the people who will not observe strike,” sources said.
No leader of a religious or a trade body has so far met any government official. However, government officials were seen pressurizing the transporters for not observing the strike on Nov 9.
Meanwhile, different transporters and traders’ associations of Faisalabad have rejected the strike call for Nov 9.
The announcement was made at a meeting held in the local Circuit House under the chairmanship of district Nazim Zahid Nazir. DCO Iqbal Ahmad Raja, SSP Tasaddaq Husain and representatives of different trader unions, traders and business associations were also present on the occasion.
Nazim Zahid Nazir said the district government would provide full protection to those who wished to bring their transport on roads or carry out their business activities.
The DCO and the SSP said no one would be allowed to disrupt peace and tranquillity in the district on Nov 9.
Transporters Rana Amanullah Khan, Wali Muhammad, Khizar Hayat, Mian Mumtaz, Rao Ehsan and leaders of different traders and business associations Farrukh Hasan Khwaja, Munawwar A. Shaikh, Tallat Saleem, Rana Ikramullah, Shahid Naseem Maghun, Suhail Saeed and Mujeeb Mustafa also attended the meeting.
Meanwhile, leaders of religious parties have appealed to the transporters and traders to observe a complete strike to “prove that they are true Muslims”.
In separate statements, Jamaat-i-Islami district amir Sardar Zafar Husain, Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam central amir Sahibzada Fazal Karim and local office-bearers of the Defence of Afghan Council Pakistan urged all the people to join hands to foil the anti-Islam designs of the US and its allies.
The JI also held a rally in the city to protest against the detention of Qazi Husain Ahmad.
The participants in the rally demanded early release of the Qazi.
TWO KILLED: A banker and his friend were shot dead over an old enmity in Chak No 202 RB on Monday.
Muslim Commercial Bank officer Nazir Ahmed was sitting with his friends outside his house when Irshad and his accomplices opened fire. Nazir and Liaquat sustained serious wounds and died on way to hospital.
Nishatabad police registered a case against the accused who were at large.
FOUND DEAD: A man was found strangled from his house in Guru Nanakpura on Sunday night.
Gulberg police said Sikandar Iqbal, 70, was sleeping in a room of his rented house in Guru Nanakpura, when some unidentified men strangled him. Sikandar was a resident of Multan.