SAHIWAL: Qaboola police on Wednesday night booked six people, including two organisers, for betting on dog fight at Budhan Shah village, Pakpattan tehsil, and arrested two of them.

Police have registered FIR 54/20 for violating different sections of the Punjab Prevention of Gambling Ordinance 1978 and the Pakistan Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act - 1890 on the the complaint of Qaboola SI Abid Hussain.

The SI told Dawn on phone that police received information that Shahzad Shah and Gohar Zaman, resident of Budhan Shah, arranged a dog fight in floodlights. Police learnt that many dog owners brought their animals for gambling. A team raided the spot and found two dog fighting while many owners of animals managed their escape.

Those who were booked included Shahzad Shah, Gohar Zaman, organisers, Muhammad Zulfikar, a resident of Tibi Lal Baig, Muhammad Shahid, Manzoor alias Jhora and Muhammad Naveed of Kalay Pathan. Police arrested two of them - Zulfikar and Shahid - and captured two injured dogs.

HOSPITALS: Around 8.322 million patients were provided treatment at OPDs of 368 public health facilities last year in Sahiwal division. Of them, 1.428m were treated in emergency services while 258,600 admitted to different wards of the hospitals.

The health facilities include basic health units, rural health centres, tehsil and district headquarters hospitals.

Director Health Services Sadiq Saleem giving a briefing here at Commissioner Office on Thursday said medical staff did 29,500 surgeries and handled 81,000 deliveries at public health centres. “There is a shortage of specialised doctors at rural and urban health centres.”

Dr Sadiq said as part of operation against quacks, 1,300 private medical centres and clinics were inspected out of which 311 were sealed.

He said 351 [medical negligence] cases were sent to Punjab Healthcare Commission and 15 people were booked for showing medical negligence.

Dr Sadiq said drug inspectors visited 3,525 medical stores and imposed fine totalling Rs31.5 million on different stores for having fake, spurious or expired drugs. He said the health department was facing paucity of funds and there is a need to improve financial resources of public health centres.

The commissioner assured him that he would write to higher authorities for appointment of specialised doctors at public health facilities and provision of more funds.

Published in Dawn, January 31st, 2020