MUZAFFARGARH: The district administration has decided to set up a children park on the stated land that was retrieved from an MPA belonging to the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) some days back.

About 10 kanal state land worth Rs500m on Jail Road near the DC Office was allegedly occupied MPA Sardar Abdul Hai Khan Dasti. The land was once allocated to the defunct Anjuman Islamia to build an orphanage with the help of the earlier district administration.

When Deputy Commissioner retired Capt Samiullah Farooq learnt about the land grabbing by the MPA, he sent Tehsildar Mustafa Raheem Khar with his staff to retrieve it on Tuesday.

The team, led by Farooq, went to the site, stopped the construction and destroyed the wall that was constructed by the MPA’s men on Monday night.

The land was allocated for the Anjuman Islamia many decades back but the organisation later got defunct and this land was transferred to the district government.

Sources said the MPA asked his men to construct the boundary wall for occupying it.

The local people and former MNA Jamshed Ahmad Dasti contacted the police and the deputy commissioner but both did not give much response. He later recorded a video message and condemned the incident.

Talking to the media, he alleged the MPA was occupying the state land with the help of the district administration and police while he appealed to the Supreme Court to take action against him.

On Tuesday, DC retired Capt Samiullah Farooq took action and retrieved the land.

The sources said that after the action taken by the authorities, the MPA’s men had again started gathering at the site in the evening. They said the MPA claimed that it was his land because the chairman of Anjuman Islamia was his father.

kidnapped: An unidentified woman kidnapped an 18-day-old baby boy from the Jatoi Tehsil Headquarters Hospital, while the police registered a kidnap case against her on Friday.

Complainant Muhammed Bilal said he came to the hospital with his wife to get his newborn son vaccinated. The suspect introduced them as a staffer and took the baby to a room where she asked them to wait. After some time, when she did not come out of the room, they contacted other staffers to find out the whereabouts of the woman and their baby.

The hospital immediately alerted the police, which visited the spot and recorded their statements.

The police said efforts were being made to trace the kidnapper and rescue the baby.

Bilal said the woman was wearing a dupatta which nurses wear, and she was seen talking with other people at the hospital.

He said the first impression she left was of a hospital staffer. Later, the people said she was asking them for information about the hospital.

Bilal demanded the chief minister and the inspector general of police to order recovery of his son.

Police sources said a gang of kidnappers had been active in south Punjab areas, which target newborn babies in hospitals and schoolchildren.

Published in Dawn, October 15th, 2022