BAHAWALPUR, May 7 The district food department has stopped supply of gunny bags to farmers who want to sell their produce to the government.

Earlier, gunny bags were given to farmers after they went through a lengthy and complicated procedure, but now the supply has been stopped and officials are telling the farmers to wait for second instalment of gunny bags that will be available after May 20.

The food department's fresh move has sent a wave of disappointment among farmers who have ample stocks of wheat either in their open fields or houses.

The ongoing wheat procurement campaign would end on May 30 and farmers would not be able to transport their wheat to procurement centres if they were given gunny bags after May 20.

In this situation, most farmers have decided to sell their wheat to middlemen though at throwaway prices.

IUB BOARD MEETING Islamia University Bahawalpur's board of advanced studies and research met here on Thursday with Vice-Chancellor Prof Dr Belal A. Khan in the chair and awarded PhD degrees to Hafiz Nasrullah Khan (Arabic), Mahboob Ali (Chemistry), Ayub Jajja (English), Ataur Rehman and Abdul Waheed (Islamic Studies), Muhammad Shehzad and Naveed Aqdus (Mass Communication), Ismat Zakia and Ghulam Akbar (Persian), Ghulam Murtaza (Pharmacy), Sikandar Hayat, Muhammad Naeem and Maqsood Ahmed (Physics) and Naeem Nabi (Urdu & Iqbaliat).

The board approved registration of 53 scholars for PhD programmes and six for M.Phil programmes.

ZAKAT COUNCIL The Punjab government has notified formation of Punjab Zakat Council with former Lahore High Court chief justice Allah Nawaz Khan as its chairman.