Amraiz Khan
Punjab Governor Chaudhry Sarwar on Sunday announced 1,000 scholarships for the erstwhile Fata’s students after he met the protesters along with Deputy Chairman Senate Mirza Muhammad Afridi.
“We have accepted all demands of the protesting students,” the governor said while meeting the protestors and said that they were ready to bear the expense of the former Fata’s students.
He lauded the deputy chairman Senate, who remained in Lahore to address the issues faced by the students of his constituency.
“The students must be proud of how the deputy chairman strived for their demands,” he said.
Chaudhry Sarwar said that students from erstwhile Fata and Balochistan are the future of the country and the government is committed to bringing people from these areas to prominent positions.
“Both chairman and deputy chairman in Senate hail from these areas,” he said.
He lauded the chief ministers of Punjab and KPK who have agreed to assist the students and provide scholarships to them under the Ehsaas programme.
KP government will give free education to 4,000 children from these areas, he said adding that the FATA students will be able to get admissions to the Islamia university while they would also not be expelled from the Punjab varsities’ hostels.
Meanwhile, as coronavirus patients have been swarming into the city’s hospitals over the last few weeks, public and private hospitals in Lahore are now almost full to the capacity.
According to the latest data of patients, 95 percent of beds and 35 percent of ventilators allocated for coronavirus patients in public hospitals have been occupied.
Currently, 249 coronavirus patients are under treatment at Lahore’s Mayo Hospital and 66 of these patients are on the ventilators.
There is no more space for coronavirus patients at the Pakistan Kidney and Liver Institute (PKLI).
At least 30 patients are under treatment at the PKLI right now and eight of them are in a critical condition. Also, there is no space left for Covid-19 patients at the Shaikh Zayed Hospital in Lahore.
Goods worth millions reduced to ashes as fire swept a plastic factory in Gujranwala on Sunday.
The blaze, however, was brought under control after 13-hour hectic efforts of the firefighters.
The fire which suddenly broke out in the factory situated in Gujranwala Small Industry Estate-II quickly engulfed the whole factory.
It took Rescue officials the whole night to extinguish the fire.
Gujranwala Deputy Commissioner Sohail Khawaja said the rescuers faced difficulties in controlling the blaze due to the presence of petroleum, mechanical and plastic raw material in the factory.
Rescue Emergency Officer Syed Kamal Abid said 13 fire tenders, also called from Sialkot, Sheikhupura, Hafizabad and Gujrat, took part in the operation.
The blaze also caused damage to the factory building as its one portion was collapsed. Nearby buildings, however, escaped the brunt of the inferno.