Seven held in Multan search operation

MULTAN: Police arrested seven suspects and recovered weapons during house-to-house search operation here on late Thursday night.

Police teams conducted bio-metric identification of 85 people of the areas of Rasheed Shah Gate, Chah Bhatti Wala, Janay Wala and Mouza Bangla and arrested seven outlaws on charges of Tenant Act violations, drug peddling and illegal weapon holding. The police teams also recovered illegal weapons during the search operation.

FAO assisting govt in formulating drought policy: Representative of Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) in Pakistan Ms Mina Dowlatchahi Friday said the FAO was assisting and working closely with the government to formulating a policy on drought at provincial level to help build resilience among drought-hit people to survive.

In a media briefing at the FAO Multan office on her maiden visit to the city, she expressed hope that the drought policy would soon be unveiled by the government. FAO project manager Faheem said the drought policy had already been formulated in Sindh to focus particularly on plight of residents of Tharparkar while the policy in Punjab was in the process to focus inhabitants of Cholistan desert in Punjab. Mina described tackling climate change and education modernisation as the top most challenges that Pakistan was facing these days. She said, the FAO was successfully executing ''Building Disaster Resilience in Pakistan'' (BDRP) programme, funded by the DFID, in Jhang, Muzaffargarh and Rajanpur that are most vulnerable to extreme events like floods.