FAISALABAD: Home Minister Punjab Attaullah Tarar said that the government was striving hard to control crimes especially against women and children and in this connection zero tolerance policy was adopted to take the accused to task. He was talking to media persons on Friday night while visiting Allied Hospital Faisalabad where he also enquired about the health of two women Yasmin and Nitasha. Yasmin was admitted in the hospital after receiving severe burn injuries when her former husband Azam attacked her with acid over arranging second marriage after getting divorce from him. Similarly, Nitasha was admitted in the hospital when a youth set her on fire in Roshanwala after failure to sexually assault her. The minister directed the hospital administration to provide best treatment facilities to both females and said that the police had arrested the accused who would be taken to task shortly. He said that special teams were constituted in prosecution department so that cases of such incidents could be decided on top priority basis. He said that emergency committees had also been formed to control crimes against women and children. However, public cooperation was imperative to punish the criminals and in this connection, special awareness campaign was also being launched, he added. He said that the government was sincere and committed to provide maximum relief to the people. In this connection, now new tax was imposed in the budget 2022-23 rather record subsidy was provided to the general public. He said that present budget was pro-people in which Rs.250 billion was earmarked for public subsidy. “We have not only dragged the country out of crises but also put it on road to progress and prosperity”, he said, adding that the inflation rate was at 4% in 2018 but due to ill-conceived policies of PTI government this rate had jumped up to 11%. “However, now we have provided subsidy of Rs.200 billion on flour in Punjab whereas the volume of this subsidy was Rs.80 to 90 billion in KPK”, he added. He said that the government had presented historic budget for 120 million people in Punjab by providing subsidy on flour, fertilizers and public transport. Similarly, 30% increase was announced in the salaries and other allowances of government employees but the opposition was creating hindrance in the budget session only due to political grudge. He said that about 600 employees of Punjab assembly had domiciles of Gujrat and Chaudhary brothers recruited them during their tenure after violating rules and regulation. These people were creating hurdles in the budget session without any legal rhyme and reason. “We have been requesting the Speaker Punjab Assembly for 48 hours to convene budget session but he (Mr. Speaker) remained adamant to call Chief Secretary and IG Police Punjab first in addition to abolishing all cases registered against law violators during Long March”, he added. Responding to a question, the minister said that by-election would be held in a free, fair and transparent manner on July 17, 2022. In this connection, party ticket holders could launch electioneering according to election rules and regulations, he added. Member Provincial Assembly (MPA) Mian Ajmal Asif, Deputy Commissioner (DC) Faisalabad Lt. (retd) Sohail Ashraf, Regional Police Officer (RPO) Babar Sarfraz, City Police Officer (CPO) Syed Ali Nasir Rizvi, Vice Chancellor Faisalabad Medical University (FMU) Prof Dr Zafar Chaudhary, Medical Superintendent (MS) Allied Hospital Dr Muhammad Arshad Cheema, Assistant Commissioner (AC) City Sahibzada Muhammad Yousuf and others were also present on the occasion.