MUZAFFARGARH, May 23: As the life has come to a standstill because of the mass-impounding of vehicles in Dera Ghazi Khan division, the lack of transport has created a shortage of food, milk, vegetables and yields supplied from the farms to markets. Police have impounded vehicles to take PML workers to Dera Ghazi Khan today where President Pervez Musharraf is due to address a public gathering on the invitation of former president Sardar Farooq Ahmed Khan Leghari.
Talking to Dawn, Vegetable Market dealers said that because of non-availability of transport they had been suffering a daily loss of Rs1 million for the last three days. They said fruits like water melon and melons whose life was short could not reach the market. Vegetables could not be supplied to the city from farms which resulted in increase of price of vegetables. Dealers said only those farmers who lived near the city had brought their crops to the market on tongas.
The city also faced shortage of milk and the people had to buy packed milk to meet their demand.
A dairy farm owner Malik Tassaduq Hussain said they could not supply milk to the city shop because they feared police would impound their tractor trolley.
If the food supply was hit by the shortage of transport, hospitals faced shortage of staff as half of the paramedic staff was absent and the emergency ward of the District Headquarters Hospital was without any staff.
A doctor on duty said the hospital had not received any patient in the last 12 hours and it was mainly due to lack of transport in the city. He said that on Tuesday a child suffering from gastroenteritis was brought to the hospital on Chingchi rickshaw and the family of the patient said they had to travel from a place 20 km from the hospital.
PROTEST: Round about 150 drivers of impounded vehicles took out a protest outside the Government Degree College, Muzaffargarh, against the administration and police for non-availability of food to them for two days.
Police have impounded 150 vehicles for the president’s rally in DG Khan.
They chanted slogans against police and demanded that they be provided food and place to sleep.
“We are unlucky because our vehicles have been impounded by police,” said a driver. He said he was carrying his family to Multan on his wagon for check up of his wife. Police stopped them near Jhang Road and got off the family and took him and his wagon to Sports Ground, he said. He said his family was now staying with some relatives in the city. He said his wife was a patient of arthritis and he got her to Multan for a therapy.
He said his wife might be suffering from pain but he himself was undergoing pains at the hands of the government. He said he owned two wagons and his other wagon had been impounded by Kotaddu police. He said once he got free from the police, he would sell his both wagons because these wagons had landed him in virtual police detention.
Dawn learnt the district administration had ordered all police stations to arrange 100 vehicles each for the rally and all station house officers had started raiding the houses of vehicle owners in rural areas.
EXAMINATIONS: The mass impounding of vehicles has affected the examinations of universities and colleges.
The candidates appearing for Allama Iqbal Open University examinations could not reach centre because of a lack of transport. Candidates for matriculation, FA, BA, MA and MBA are taking their semester examination. Superintendent of examination centre Riaz Hussain Gurmani said that on Tuesday a total of 343 candidates were to appear in the exams but only 200 were present.
He said the exam starts at 2pm but they had to start it at 3:15pm because candidates came late and even they kept coming until 5pm. On Wednesday, a total number of 389 candidates were to sit in the exams but only 243 could make to it. He said the candidates complained that they had reached the centre after travelling for four to seven hours. Students have demanded that the university give them papers when the president’s visit to DG Khan was over.
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