BAHAWALPUR-Punjab Law Minister Rana Sanaullah Khan has said that peace march would be held on 9th of Muharram at all the district headquarters in the province.
The peace marches would be participated by elected representatives, high ups of the local district administration, members of peace committees, religious and social notables which would inspect the security arrangements for the central Azadari procession, he added.
Peace march would ensure the participation of all the stakeholders who would pass through the routes of the Azadari processions which would further enhance religious harmony, beef up security arrangements and spread message of hope and peace, he noted.
He was presiding over a meeting of divisional peace committee members, officials and elected representatives of Bahawalpur division at Circuit House Bahawalpur.
“For promoting peace, interfaith harmony and constructive endeavours of Ulema and religious scholars are highly appreciable. It is a strong testimony of their missionary zeal to ensure sustainable peace and harmony in the society,” Sanaullah said.
He further said that some couple of years ago, peace committee Bahawalpur has taken an initiative to formulate a permanent committee comprising religious scholars.
“Now Peace Committee’s initiative has been adopted as a role model which would serve as a vanguard of peace and harmony for the central processions in all the districts which would boost harmony and brotherhood. Sanaullah further said that there had been significant reduction in the incidence of terrorism through the glorious sacrifices of police and security agencies.
“Instead of acknowledging Punjab government’s exemplary achievements and giving due credit to its leadership, some elements are spreading baseless rumors about government’s sincerity and commitment in this regard. But the people of Punjab have rejected their baseless allegations,” he maintained.
He said that to wipe out terrorism, the role of facilitators must be decimated through active and effective vigilance on the movement of strangers at the community level. He urged the citizens to immediately inform the police about the presence and movements of strangers in their neighborhood.
He paid rich tributes to the outstanding services of the members of the peace committee, and said that government was fully committed to empowering them to review the forth schedule, ban on entry and gagging of various persons to further boost peace and harmony.
The meeting was addressed by Allama Mudassir Abbas Naqvi, Molana Mufti Irshad, Khawaja Idrees, Allama Riaz Ahmad Awaisi who assured their complete cooperation for promoting peace.
Later, a meeting was held to review the security arrangements for Muharram in Bahawalpur Division.
Bahawalpur Commissioner Saqib Zafar said that all the arrangements have been finalised to extend municipal services and security cover to 156 Azadari processions and 1,410 Azadari Majalis in the three districts of Bahawalpur Division. He further said that alternative arrangements to supply un-interrupted electricity have also been made for Majalis and processions.
He maintained that to extend emergency medical aid all medical facilities along with their ambulances would remain in operation. He further said that 100 beds at Bahawal Victoria Hospital, 50 beds at Shaikh Zaid Hospital Rahim Yar Khan, 30 beds at all the DHQs and 10 beds at all the THQs have also been reserved.
Acting RPO Gohar Mushtaq Bhutta said that to extend security cover to the processions a special contingent of 4,515 police officials would perform their duties during Muharram.
Inspector General of Police Mushtaq Ahmad Sukhera urged the police officials to further enhance the process of watch and ward and remove the black papers from the vehicles. He further said to beef up security arrangements 2 platoon of Pak Army would also be deployed during Aashura.