Daily Times

Unidentified gunmen late on Thursday opened fire on famous qawal Sher Miandad and his son Obaid in a robbery in the jurisdiction of Madina Town police station. Both were injured and taken to hospital. Robbers escaped from the scene after managing to snatch Rs 2 lakh cash from them also.

Sher Miandad, a well-known Qawwal of the country, was returning with his son Obaid Miandad from a Urs ceremony at Chak No. 199 Gutwala in Faisalabad. On the way, unidentified armed men intercepted them. Over the resistance from Sher Miandad, armed robbers opened fire.

Resultantly, Sher Miandad was shot in the heart while his son Obaid was shot in the hand, injuring them severely.

As soon as the incident was reported, Rescue 1122 shifted the injured Qawal Sher Miandad and Obaid to the hospital.

Taking note of the incident, Punjab Chief Minister Sardar Usman Bazdar has sought a report from Regional Police Officer Rifat Mukhtar Raja who has directed CPO Faisalabad Sohail Ahmed Chaudhry to investigate the incident and submit a report.

Madina Town Police Station has registered a case of firing and robbery in the complaint of Obaid Miandad. According to Obaid, the accused are aged between 20 and 25 years.

Dr. Ishaq, Director Emergency, who provided medical aid to the injured Qawal Sher Miandad, said that Sher Miandad was shot in the chest from the right side, which affected his lungs and a tube was inserted in his place. While his son Obaid was shot in the hand on which he has also been provided medical aid. Later, he left the hospital at the request of the wife of the injured Sher Miandad. According to Sher Miandad’s family, both the injured were rushed to Lahore Hospital.

Population Growth: The Punjab government is taking a number of corrective and administrative measures to curb the rampant population growth, as the country’s development is possible only by maintaining a balance of resources and population. This was stated by Deputy Commissioner Muhammad Ali while presiding over the meeting of District Coordination Committee for Population Welfare. MPA Latif Nazar, Assistant Commissioner Sadar Umar Maqbool, DHO Dr. Bilal Ahmed, DDO Population Welfare Tayyaba Azam, Pir Siddique-ur-Rehman, Maulana Muhammad Hafeez, representatives of NGOs, Family Planning Association and others were present on the occasion. The Deputy Commissioner said that the scope of awareness programs should be further expanded to highlight the usefulness of small families in this regard, seminars and other informative programs should be organized at educational institutions and village level. He said that departmental performance should be further enhanced for the successful implementation of the Punjab Government Population Welfare Program.

He stressed the need for special assistance from the religious scholars and said that the Population Welfare Department should improve its performance. MPA Latif Nazar said that due to the rapidly growing population, poverty, ignorance, unemployment and other social problems cannot be solved, so there is a need to create a strong sense of belonging. He appreciated the steps taken by the government and said that the trend of implementation of population welfare programs should be increased for which departmental efforts should be intensified.The scholars said that social awareness should be created to maintain the health of the mother and child for which the scholars are rendering their services. DDO gave a briefing on the performance of the department and said that the series of informative lectures in educational institutions would be expanded. She said that guidance on family planning was also being provided to married couples at Family Health Clinics.

Inflation: Punjab Chief Minister Sardar Usman Bazdar has assigned responsibilities to provincial ministers, advisors and special assistants for controlling inflation, monitoring of prices of essential commodities and checking of Sahulatbazar. In this regard, Provincial Minister for Public Prosecution Ch. Zaheeruddin visited the Sahulat bazaars and checked the availability, quality and prices of essential commodities. Divisional Commissioner Ishrat Ali, Deputy Commissioner Muhammad Ali, MPA Firdous Rai, Assistant Commissioners Syed Ayub Bukhari and Umar Maqbool also accompanied him. Provincial Ministers visited Fair Price Shops including Kaleem Shaheed Park, Riaz Shahid Chowk and other Sahulat bazaars and checked the availability, quality of sugar, flour, fruits and vegetables, pulses, meat and other groceries. He clarified that Punjab Chief Minister Sardar Usman Bazdar was directly monitoring the prices of the items so there was no scope for overcharging. “Items are available in the markets at a lower price than the general market and the administrative machinery is mobilized to make the markets more accessible to the public,” he said. The provincial minister said that providing relief to the people was the agenda of the government and they would go to the utmost to control the prices. Talking to media persons, the provincial minister said that unjustified increase in prices of essential commodities would not be tolerated under any circumstances. He said that price control magistrates are active in general markets and bazaars.

The Divisional Commissioner said that 24 Sahulat Bazar in the district are fully functional where continuous monitoring is carried out to ensure supply of essential commodities to the consumers at discounted rates. He said that sugar is being sold at Rs 85 per kg in the bazaars while a 10 kg bag of flour is being sold at Rs 420 and a 20 kg bag at Rs 840, while the prices of other items are also lower than the normal market.The Deputy Commissioner said that 100 per cent implementation of price control mechanism as per government directives is being ensured and no one will be allowed to charge arbitrary prices. The provincial minister also inspected the fair price shops set up outside super stores on Narwala road. He also checked the process of selling items at fixed government rates and the quality of some items.