Posts Tagged ‘Sargodha’

Teacher torture case: Midhiana sent to jail

An Anti Terrorism Court (ATC) on Monday sent Mian Aslam Midhiana, former PPP lawmaker, to jail on judicial remand after he was declared by police a key accused in teacher torture case.
Midhiana was produced before the court in Sargodha on Monday where police submitted charge sheet against him. The ex PPP legislator had broken legs of a school teacher who had been raising voice against Midhiana …

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Teacher assault case: Former PPP MPA sent on one-day physical remand

SARGODHA: An anti-terrorism court in Sargodha sent Former Pakistan Peoples Party MPA Aslam Madhyana, involved in a case against him for torturing a school teacher and breaking both his legs, on a one-day physical remand on Wednesday.

Madhyana appeared before the court amid tightened security.

According to the police, Madhyana and his accomplices attacked 60-year-old school teacher Nafees Ahmad Khan in Sargodha.

Before appearing before the court, Madhyana spoke to the media at Chohang police station in Lahore. He said that he does not know the teacher and alleged that Nawaz and Shahbaz Sharif were trying to take “political revenge” from him by getting him involved in the case.

The Sargodha police, after arresting Madhyana had transferred him to a jail in his native village Mudh Ranjha.

His son, MPA Owais Aslam Madhyana, while defending his father, swore by a copy of the Holy Quran in his hands and said that his father was “innocent” and he was being involved in the case as a result of a conspiracy against him.

Back in Sargodha, Owais said that his father was not present at the time of the assault and that his only “crime” is that he is a party loyalist.

Madhyana was granted interim bail by the Lahore High Court  on March 5 and on Tuesday his lawyer asked the court for confirmation of the bail which was rejected by the LHC.

The Supreme Court has also taken suo motu notice of the incident and had sought a report from all four provincial chief secretaries about steps taken to protect civil servants. They have been asked to file the report by March 28.

Another civil servant assaulted: SC takes notice of Sargodha school teacher torture

A similar incident in Sargodha, Punjab, has now pushed the Supreme Court into investigating the widespread nature of such incidents. Taking suo motu action against the severe torture of a school teacher in Sargodha, the apex court has sought a report from the establishment secretary and all four provincial chief secretaries regarding measures taken to protect the lives, dignity and job security of civil servants.

The decision to take action was made during an SC hearing of Shah’s case on Monday, after she was disqualified from holding public office for two years by the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP). Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry observed that a school teacher had been subjected to physical torture by father of serving Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) MPA Awais Madhyana and ex-MPA himself, Aslam Madhyana. As a result of the assault, the teacher suffered two fractured legs and is currently undergoing treatment.

The chief justice directed the Punjab Inspector General of Police to investigate the matter personally and submit a report about the incident. He also directed him to inform the court as to whether Sargodha’s District Police Officer, Dr Rizwan, had been transferred to Gilgit-Baltistan, because he had intended to take action against Madhyana.

The provincial police chief will submit a report on the next date of hearing, March 28.

In addition, the court has also decided to take up a petition filed by District Management Group Officer Anita Turab regarding the protection of civil servants. Initially, the petition had been filed with regard to Waheeda Shah’s case. However, the court decided to now take it up as a constitutional petition rather than clubbing it with suo motu action against Shah.

In their line of duty

While seeking reports from the establishment secretary and others, the court asked them to suggest ways to protect the fundamental rights of civil servants.

“It is the considered opinion of this court that persons, who are in the civil service are bound to follow lawful orders,” the court observed, adding it had been noticed that whenever civil servants follow lawful orders, they face resistance from political quarters and are often humiliated through transfers and baseless disciplinary proceedings.

Shoulder promotion

Meanwhile, Mirpur Khas Deputy Inspector General of Police Ghulam Haider Jamali appeared before the court to provide updates on progress in the Shah case of assault. When the court has inquired about the status of Sub-Divisional Police Officer (SDPO) Syed Irfan Ali Shah, in whose presence the assault had taken place, Jamali failed to provide a satisfactory explanation. He did state, however, that the SDPO had only been appointed to the post because of a shortage of officers, although he had initially been an inspector.

The court order strictly forbade such “shoulder promotions” of an unconstitutional nature, stating that it expected all inspectors general of police and chief secretaries of provinces to demote officials who received shoulder promotions back to their original ranks, and to promote them purely on the basis of merit.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 13^th, 2012.

Irked lawyers storm University of Sargodha over CM’s ‘broken promise’

SARGODHA: Irked by the chief minister’s unfulfilled promise of building Sargodha High Court, the lawyers in the district tried to get their voices heard by storming the University of Sargodha at the laptop distribution ceremony on Wednesday.

The lawyers, before the arrival of Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif, broke into the University of Sargodha by breaching security and took hold of the stage.

A security guard was also injured during the protest.

The lawyers stated that the chief minister had promised to build a separate high court for the district for the convenience of the citizens, and had said that he will forward the summary to the Punjab governor for approval. They claimed, that the summary had not been sent since the past two years.

The lawyers ended their protest after the university as well as the district administration assured them that the chief minister will negotiate with them after arriving at the university.

Later after the protest faded off, Sharif arrived at the university for the laptop distribution ceremony.

While addressing the students, he said that the laptops were being given to the students on the basis of merit.

Sharif said that Iqbal and Quaid’s Pakistan could only be formed if the rich and poor are treated equally in terms of education. “In the last two years, 74,000 teachers have been recruited in the colleges of Punjab.”

He said that the teachers were also hired on merit and that there were no political recruitments.

Remembering Shahbaz Bhatti: ‘He inspired minorities to peacefully take back their rights’

They had gathered at the Jinnah Convention Centre on Tuesday for a vigil that was organised by the All Pakistan Minority Alliance (APMA).

Remembering the former minorities’ minister who was shot dead in sector I-8 last year, APMA Sargodha Youth Coordinator Farrukh Tanveer Chaudry called him a “revolutionary, who at a time when Pakistanis thought their actions can’t bring any change gave everyone hope”. Chaudhry added, “He proved by example that conviction is a powerful tool for revolution.”

Reverend Captain Munawar from Lahore noted that Christians have always been treated as second-class citizens, even though they have worked hard and tried their best towards achieving success for Pakistan. He said, “Christians fought in both wars between India and Pakistan, were active in opening the first colleges (FC College Lahore and Gordon College Rawalpindi), have been long associated with healthcare, and literally clean the streets of Pakistan.” Munawar further said that a Christian has never been found to be associated with terrorist acts in the country, but they still remain disempowered and on the fringe of society.

Participants showed approval that Shahbaz’s brother Paul has taken over as chairman and is fulfilling the void left by Shahbaz’s untimely death. Paul Bhatti said, “With Shahbaz’s death, the community felt abandoned and rudderless. We have tried to pick up from where he left off to continue his mission.”

He added, “At the beginning, I did not think I could succeed him and was very concerned, but now the concerns are fading away and I am increasingly aware of the importance of this duty.”

While talking about the ceremony, Ruby Naeem John told The Express Tribune, “I have never attended such a demonstration before and I think the speakers are very right in demanding that we move out of our comfort zone and peacefully elect leaders who can communicate our needs.”

John, a teacher at St Mary’s Academy in Lalazaar, spoke on the importance of education for empowerment especially if the youth are to become the leaders of tomorrow.

Fittingly, one of the Shabaz Bhatti Foundation’s main objectives is to fight poverty by promoting education and contributing to interfaith dialogue. Paul Bhatti also shared that a vocational school bearing his brother’s name is in the works.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 7^th, 2012.

61 NADRA employees sacked over protests

Around 18 employees were fired from Lahore, 11 from Sargodha, 10 from Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, nine from Islamabad, six from Balochistan, five from Sukkur and two from other areas.

The director general of NADRA’s Sindh chapter, Zahid Hussain, confirmed the terminations, but denied that anyone from Sindh was fired over the protests. He said those sacked from the Sindh offices were already facing disciplinary action, claiming that their inquiries were already under process. “The rest will be regularised in 15 days,” he added.

A committee was also set up to go over the employees’ demands and is due to meet on February 28. “But the employees have to realize that these things take time,” said Hussain, adding, “We have submitted our proposal to the government.”

Hussain said that NADRA provides essential services to the country. “Making unions and creating disturbances in service have no room here.” Referring to the NADRA Employees Welfare Association, he said those involved with unions were terminated.

Meanwhile, the protests continued for a third consecutive day and all offices of the NADRA Provincial Headquarters (PHQ) Islamabad remained closed.  The employees gathered at the Parade Lane in front of the parliament house on Wednesday for a sit-in until their demands are met.

The president of the association, Raza Khan Swati, said that the protests will continue till the chief secretary handed over the notification for the regularisation of all employees with the endorsement of the Prime Minister.

“We made NADRA what it is today and now we are rewarded with termination letters,” said Malik Sajid Awan, the vice president of the employees association. “We have not committed any sin we are demanding our rights.”

Iftikhar Ali Magsi, the general secretary of the employees association at Sindh, received his termination letter on Wednesday. However, he said that the termination letters were not as important as the regularisation of all the contract employees.

Around 14,700 employees were hired on contract under the NADRA Ordinance 2000, according to the employees union. Making the jobs permanent would require a long process of legislation because the ordinance itself will have to be amended.

Earlier, the employees had rejected a notification issued by the chairman of the authority which extended the contracts of all employees till their retirement. The protestors said they would not be entitled to any pension if they retire as contract employees after working for a lifetime for the authority. They vowed not to return to work until their demands are met. (With additional reporting by Umer Nangiana)

Published in The Express Tribune, February 23^rd, 2012.

CSS exams to start from 25th

islamabad
Competitive examination of Central Superior Services (CSS) 2012 will be conducted from Feb 25 till March 10 at different centres in the country. Examination centres will be established at Abbottabad, Bahawalpur, Dera Ghazi Khan, DI Khan, Larkana, Multan, Muzaffarabad, Okara, Peshawar, Quetta, Rawalpindi, Sargodha, Sialkot and Sukkur.

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Change not far, predicts Imran

Farhat Abbas
SARGODHA – Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf chief Imran Khan appeared resolute in bringing about his promised revolution as he sought to hit back at the critics of his fast-growing party, reiterating he will take “two wickets on one ball” – an allusion he makes to predict defeat of the two major political players, PPP and PML-N.
“Change is not far, it’s …

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New parties don’t have concrete plans: Gilani

SARGODHA – Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani has said new political parties do not have any concrete programme and manifesto.
Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) being an ideological party has the roots in the masses and derives its strength from them, he said. Despite all the efforts of dictators to finish PPP, the party was still intact and vibrant with the strength of the workers and masses, …

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Sargodha’s political ship to keel over in PTI ocean

LAHORE – In a fresh wave of inclusions into the party, PTI is going to take some notable political figures belonging to Sargodha district into its wings on January 22, TheNation has learnt.
Sources in the PTI, privy to the developments regarding the expected inclusions from the North Punjab city, told this correspondent on Wednesday that members of the Piracha, Qureshi, Lak, Jaspal, …

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Nawaz vows to establish ‘a new Pakistan’

Chief of his own faction Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz Muhammad Ex Prime minister Mian Nawaz Sharifhas said that he had always talked about Pakistan’s progress. Addressing a public gathering in Sargodha on Wednesday, the former prime minister said people who were deceiving country’s youth were in the ground. The PML-N chief said that “a military dictator had wasted 10 precious years of his and …

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Seven killed, 17 injured in pileup of vehicles due to dense fog in Sargodha

At least seven people were killed and 17 others injured in multiple collision of vehicles due to dense fog here in Sargodha on Sunday.
According to police, due to zero visibility caused by dense fog, three vans and a truck collided at Ajnala Road near Sargodha.
As a result of accident five people died on the spot and 18 others sustained wounds. The deceased and injured included women and …

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CNG stations closed for third day in Faisalabad, Bahawalpur

 CNG stations in Faisalabad and Bahawalpur regions remained closed for the third consecutive day on Saturday.
The stations were closed following the gas load management program in the two regions while they were opened in Sindh after 24 hours closure. Areas affected by the gas closure include Sargodha, Jhang, Mianwali, Chiniot, Faisalabad, Bahawalnagar, Rahim Yar Khan and Lodhran. CNG supply …

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Dacoity bid foiled

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OUR STAFF REPORTER
LAHORE – Punjab Highway Patrol foiled a road dacoity after facing a brief encounter with a dacoit gang on Friday.
PHP team Ahmad Saleem Shaheed, Sargodha received information from a car driver coming from Sargodha that some unknown accused were committing dacoity on national highway at…

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Dengue claims six more lives in Punjab

Apart from Lahore, the number of dengue cases is increasing in Faisalabad, Bahawalpur, Sargodha and Taxila.

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Via DAWN.com

Punjab rulers racing for corruption: Awan

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SARGODHA – Pakistan People’s Party leader and former law minister Babar Awan has said that PPP always solved problems by evolving consensus on issues and did not believe in autocracy.
He expressed these views while addressing a public meeting outside the Sargodha Press Club on Wednesday night.
Babar said PPP’s…

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At least 3 killed, 40 kids injured in Sargodha accidents

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At least three persons died and 40 school-going kids sustained injuries in two road accidents here in Sargodha on Monday.
According to details, three persons were riding on a motorcycle when they hit a speeding truck near Commerce College. All the three motorcyclists were killed on the spot while the…

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