SAHIWAL: So far, 52,920 farmers out of the total 60,032 in Sahiwal division have received cheques under the Kissan Relief Package.

This was stated by Commissioner Azmat Mahmood during a cheque distribution ceremony at Jinnah Hall on Wednesday.

Sahiwal District Coordination Officer (DCO) Asif Iqbal and the DCO of Pakpattan were also present on the occasion.

On complaints of some farmers, the commissioner took notice of a technical problem emerging while getting the cheques encashed. One of the major problems was difference in the beneficiary farmers’ names on land ownership documents and cheques issued by the National Bank of Pakistan and records of the National Database and Registration Authority, while identity card numbers were same.

Due to the technical problems, a lot of farmers’ payments got delayed.

Data revealed that out of the 20,273 farmers in Sahiwal district, 16,868 had received the cheques; 23,807 out of 25,089 in Pakpattan district; and 12,244 out of 14,670 in Okara district.

GANGS: The district police claim to have arrested around 300 alleged criminals belonging to 81 gangs and valuables such as motorcycles, cars, mobile phones, cash, gold, tractors, cattle, cars and other looted material worth up to Rs200 million recovered during 2015.

These gangs were involved in murder, robbery, dacoity, cattle lifting and other street crimes. This was stated by District Police Officer (DPO) Baqir Raza while talking to the media at his office on Wednesday.

He revealed police had nabbed 338 proclaimed offenders and 3,707 absconders. Police also recovered 37 Kalashnikovs, 42 rifles, 147 guns, 35 revolvers, 849 pistols and 47 carbines from the arrested suspects.

The DPO said police also recovered 2kg opium, 324kg hashish and 14,955 bottles of alcohol.

ZAB: The district chapter of PPP celebrated the birth anniversary of party founder Zulfikar Ali Bhutto on Wednesday.

The event was attended by several supporters and district office-bearers, including Divisional Coordinator Ghulam Farid Kathia, District President Muhammad Zaki Chaudhry, Ali Nawaz Bhatti and many local councillors.

Chaudhry said those who said PPP was finished in Punjab were living in a fool’s paradise. He said the PPP has had support of the masses for 36 years and it was difficult to die in Punjab. He assured the workers the party was not concentrating on Sindh but reestablishing roots in here too.

Published in Dawn, January 7th, 2016