LAHORE, March 15: Punjab Law Minister Rana Sanaullah has said the political cells of Special Branch and IB should be closed like that of ISI because they pollute politicians as well as politics.

He said the Punjab government would establish Lahore High Court benches in Sahiwal, Faisalabad and Sargodha and a summary to the effect was being moved to the chief minister. In the second phase, he said, LHC benches would be established in Dera Ghazi Khan and Gujranwala.

Answering a question, the law minister said the government needed to appoint seasoned educationists and academics as vice chancellors of public sector universities and added that the government would maintain 65 years of age criteria for the appointment of vice chancellors. "The government will make legislation to clarify, if there is any ambiguity in the law regarding appointment of vice chancellors," he said.

The law minister said Younus Habib was a puppet in the hands of President Asif Ali Zardari. He said Interior Minister Rehman Malik was a liar.

Earlier, the law minister inaugurated the book fair along with vice-chancellor Prof Dr Mujahid Kamran and Punjab Education Foundation Chairman Raja Anwar. Heads of various departments, faculty members and a large number of students were present on the occasion.

Mr Sanaullah congratulated the vice chancellor for successfully organising the book fair and added that he was happy to see up to 50 per cent discount on the books and such activities should continue for promotion of knowledge in society.

VC Prof Kamran said education was the only solution to all problems being faced by the country and books were the source of knowledge.

The law minister and the vice chancellor visited various stalls and purchased some books. An exclusive addition to the book fair was "Fahm-i-Seerat" exhibition in which huge models of Masjid-i-Nabvi and Ghazva-i-Badr were placed at IER for visitors.

As many as 150 renowned publishers, booksellers, IT companies and career-counselling centres have established their stalls and are selling local and foreign books with 10 to 50 per cent discount.

On the first day, a large number of students, children, political, religious and social leaders, renowned journalists, doctors, lawyers and people from every segment of life visited the event. The students, while talking to media persons, said they were able to find a large variety of books at discount.

The book fair will continue till Saturday (tomorrow) from 9am to 7pm.