BAHAWALPUR: The 11th Cholistan Desert Jeep Rally was a show of sheer mismanagement with a lack of security arrangements, particularly at the jeep rally track on Sunday.

This was an observation of the participating drivers and visitors at the venue near the Derawar Fort, about 70km from here.

The track was intermittently encroached upon by the mobs of spectators who seemed uncontrollable by the few security guards of the private agencies while the police and law-enforcement agencies personnel could not be seen deployed around the track.

The overcrowding of the track forced the drivers to suspend the race on a number of occasions and even the motorcyclists were seen disturbing the drivers. Anybody could ply his vehicle on the track as there was no discipline and the officials of the police and sponsor, the Tourism Development Corporation of Punjab (TDCP), were not around to handle the situation.

As the rally was marred with mismanagement, the flag ceremony could neither be held at the starting point nor at the fixed time in the morning. Instead, the rally began with about an hour delay, about 40km off the starting point. This caused confusion among the drivers. Ninety seven divers in addition to two women drivers participated in the rally.

Later, the vehicular traffic also remained jammed for several hours on the roads leading to rally venue and none of the officials of the traffic police reached there to clear the roads.

TDCP general manager (in Lahore) Tanveer Jabbar‘s mobile phone was found switched off.

TDCP Bahawalpur regional manager Shahid Mahmood, when contacted, claimed the rally was properly managed. However, he admitted it was not possible to control the people on such a long track.

Bahawalpur Additional SP Murtaza, mainly responsible for security, did not respond to Dawn’s repeated telephone calls.

According to official results, in the B category, Muhammaf Jaffar Magsi, Jam Kamal Khan and Zain Mehmood Majid, won the first, second and third positions, respectively while in third category Syed Zaheerul Hassan, Raja Asim Rehman and Dr Noorul Hada obtained first, second and third position, respectively. The rally was won for the first time by Punjab’s Sahibzada Sultan who stood first in A category.

IUB CHAOS: Some of the position holders and alumni of the Islamia University Bahawalpur protested as they were not given medals in the convocation held for 2012-13 session on Monday.

It is learnt the number of medals was less as compared to the winners and the university management took back the medals from the students after awarding them to give the same to other remaining students.

This disturbed the position holders and created a fuss at the function.

They reportedly held a protest against the administration.

Minister of State for Education Baleeghur Rehman was the chief guest and Punjab Minister for Education Rana Mashhood the guest of honour.

IUB PRO Shehzad Khalid denied any protest by the students. He said the governor, after cancellation of his visit, had asked the minister of the state to preside over the convocation where the graduates of the session 2012-13 were awarded certificates while the position holders were awarded gold and silver medals.

Meanwhile, Rana Mashhood visited the Govt Comprehensive High School, Govt Sadiq Dane High School and Govt S.E. College Bahawalpur and checked security arrangements there.

Earlier, he inaugurated the administration block at the Government Sadiq Women University.

POLIO DRIVE: A three-day polio campaign was launched in tehsil Ahmedpur East for the children of nomads and those who had shifted there from other places.

According to health officials, during the drive 188,000 children would be administered polio drops for which total 390 health teams have been deployed.

Published in Dawn, February 16th, 2016