SIALKOT: Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi is scheduled to arrive here on Monday (today).

Foreign Minister Khwaja Asif told the media that the premier will discuss matters of mutual interest with exporters during a meeting at the Sialkot Chamber of Commerce and Industry. The prime minister will also address a meeting of local parliamentarians and PML-N office-bearers at the minister’s residence.

TRAINS: Pakistan Railways has decided to run 14 trains between Sialkot-Pasrur and Sialkot-Sambrial-Wazirabad track in collaboration with a private company to utilise 14 stations on the way lying deserted for several years.

According to senior officials, the railways and private company would restore 14 deserted stations, including Sohawa, Begowala, Sambrial, Saahowala, Uggoki, Sialkot, Naseerabad, Gunnah Kalan, Alhar, Chawinda and Pasrur, besides establishing two flag stations at Adalatgarha and Talwara Mughalaan.

Each train would have eight bogies and be able to carry 1,800 passengers. These trains would start running from the Sialkot railway station from Jan 1. Elderly passengers and children under the age of 10 years would travel for free while students will get 50 per cent discount on the fare.

CYLINDER BLAST: Five people were injured in a gas cylinder explosion at a decanting shop in the congested Pulli Topkhana locality in the Cantt area on Sunday.

Shopkeeper Rasheed was refilling gas cylinders when one of them exploded, injuring him, Razzaq, Qasim, Zeeshan and Arif. Rescuers officials shifted the injured to Govt Allama Iqbal Memorial Teaching Hospital in critical condition.

MMA REVIVAL: Jamaat-i-Islami (JI) leader Fareed Piracha has claimed that the political alliance of religious parties, the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal (MMA), would become functional after an important joint meeting of the parties scheduled to be held in Lahore on Dec 13.

He claimed that the revival of MMA had become the need of the hour in the prevailing political scenario in the country. He said this while addressing a meeting of party workers at Pasrur.

Piracha condemned US President Donald Trump’s recent announcement on the status of Jerusalem and asked the government to take up this issue at all international forums effectively besides adopting a bold stance on it.

Addressing a Seerat Conference at Daska, Piracha said the JI would never allow anyone to amend the Khatm-i-Nabuwwat law, adding that the JI would continue its nationwide struggle against corruption and corrupt rulers.

Published in Dawn, December 11th, 2017