MULTAN: About 500 families have been rendered homeless in Multan city during two hours of torrential rain on Tuesday last [July 1]. Ninety per cent of these families lived in the low lying areas of the city.

The Municipal Committee, Multan, has deman­ded financial aid of Rs one lakh from the Gov­ernment to help settlement of the displaced families. In this connection, the West Pakistan Relief Commissioner has been moved by Multan Muni­cipality for immediate arrangements of an expert engineer and three overseers to properly and successfully rectify the drainage system in the city.

For the present, these families have been given shelter in some of the local Municipal schools. Thousands of rupees have been collected as donations from the citizens and the fund is being used for procuring food and other necessities of life for the displaced persons. — Agency

[Meanwhile, as reported by our correspondent in Quetta,] President Yahya Khan said [July 4] that there was no such proposal at present for reorganisation of West Pakistan into four zones each headed by a Lieutenant Governor. The question, he pointed out, was being examined administratively. ... [He said] that he had not received as yet a report of the Decentralisation Committee, which visited smaller regions in the Province to elicit public opinion and discuss problems of the areas.

Published in Dawn, July 5th, 2019