Eight remanded in police custody

LAHORE: An anti-terrorism court Wednesday granted seven days physical remand of eight people allegedly involved in a hit-and-run incident which killed a police constable in Defence area on New Year’s Eve.

The police produced the accused including Muhammad Saeed, Mustafa Ahmad and six others before the court and sought their physical remand to carry out investigation. The court granted remand of the accused, directing the police to produce them again by January 10 along with investigation report till that date. As per an FIR of the case, constables Hussain and Qasim posted on duty near Cavalry Chowk signaled a speeding car to stop on New Year’s Eve, but it instead ended up hitting the two constables and critically injuring them.

The driver of the vehicle fled after the incident, leaving the car behind. Constable Hussain lost his life while being taken to the hospital, while Qasim received multiple injuries and is admitted to Lahore General Hospital. According to the police, there were two persons in the car when the incident occurred. Later, police took eight suspects in custody.

Verdict reserved: Justice Jawad Hassan of Lahore High Court on Wednesday reserved verdict on a petition seeking appointment of a visually-impaired person as district public prosecutor in grade-18. Petitioner Umar Tufail submitted that he had passed the written test and even qualified the interview but even then he was not recruited on the special persons quota. He said that he had already made a request to Punjab chief secretary for his recruitment but so far no decision was made.

He requested that the directions be issued for his appointment as district public prosecutor. Properties reclaimed: With the efforts of Overseas Pakistanis Commission (OPC) Punjab, 30 properties of expatriate Pakistanis worth Rs320 million have been reclaimed during last week.

Overseas Pakistanis Commission Vice-Chairperson Shaheen Khalid Butt and Commissioner Afzaal Bhatti said this in the weekly meeting of OPC officials here on Wednesday. Public Facilitation Committee Chairman Sajid Chaudhary, Coordinator Haji Muhammad Nawaz, DG Syed Javed Iqbal Bokhari, Additional DG Agha Yousaf, Directors Asad Naeem, Raja Zubair and other senior officers attended the meeting.

Shaheen and Afzaal said the reclaimed properties were situated at Lahore, Kasur, Sheikhupura, Faisalabad, Rawalpindi and Toba Tek Singh districts. OPC with the help of relevant District Overseas Pakistanis Committees (DOPC) reclaimed the properties and handed over to their owners. Shaheen and Afzaal said on the special instructions of the Punjab Chief Minister, OPC is vigorously resolving issues of expatriates.