TOBA TEK SINGH: On the call of the Pakistan Medical Association (PMA), outpatient departments of all government and private hospitals remained closed on Monday in Khanewal district.

Dr Muhammad Zahid, Khanewal district PMA president, said the strike was in response to the provincial minister’s insulting behaviour and the transfer of doctors without allegations or inquiry.

He said that on June 1, provincial minister for primary and secondary health care Khwaja Imran Nazir had visited Kabirwala THQ hospital after the death of five children due to measles and he not only insulted doctors but also transferred a number of doctors without any allegations against them and without any inquiry. He said doctors would attend to emergency patients, and the strike will continue until the transfers are canceled.

Also, Jhang PMA president Dr Asif Raza Khan warned that if the minister does not regret his behavior and cancel the transfer of Kabirwala doctors, all doctors in Jhang will wear black armbands as a protest on Tuesday. Also, Kabirwala police arrested quack Muhammad Afzal, who had treated five children who died of measles.

Khanewal Deputy Commissioner Muhammad Ali Bukhari visited Kabirwala THQ hospital, where 24 children are being treated for measles. Six have been discharged, and the others are stable.

FIRE: Garments and cloth worth millions of rupees were reduced to ashes, and machinery was also burnt after a fire broke out at AQ Garments factory on Jhang Road near the airport in Faisalabad on Monday.

Rescue 1122 claimed that the fire was controlled by 12 fire tenders and was caused by an electric short circuit.

Also, in a separate incident, three buffaloes were burnt alive, and a cattle shed was gutted after a fire broke out on Monday in a cattle farm in Chuttiana area Chak 303-GB.

Farmer Muhammad Jamil said an employee had set fire to the roof’s wooden branches to fill coals in a huqqa, but the fire spread, reducing the shed and its contents to ashes.

MURDER: Two motorcyclists gunned down Malik Imran Afzal in the district courts complex near the CPO office at Faisalabad on Monday.

A court naib qasid and a passerby were also injured and shifted to Allied hospital.

The police said the deceased, a resident of Thikriwala, had come to see his under arrest murder case accused brother Malik Adnan. Later police followed the attackers - Shehroz and Abid.

PTI CASES: Faisalabad Anti-Terrorism Court judge Raja Shahid Zameer adjourned the hearing of cases against Opposition Leader in the National Assembly Omar Ayub on Monday until June 24.

Mr Ayub is accused in four FIRs registered on May 9, 2023, regarding his involvement in riots after Imran Khan’s arrest.

He appeared before the court and was also accompanied by Senator Shibli Faraz and lawyer Babar Awan.

Published in Dawn, June 4th, 2024