LAHORE   -   The Punjab government will include im­portant projects like surgical city, tan­neries zone and new industrial estate in Sialkot in the annual development pro­gramme. This was disclosed by Deputy Commissioner Abdullah Khurram Niazi while addressing the under training of­ficers of the 35th mid career manage­ment course here on Wednesday. He said the population in four tehsils- Sialkot, Daska, Sambrial and Pasrur was more than 3.9 million; 70 percent of the popu­lation lives in rural areas, while 30 per­cent in urban areas. He said there were thousands of industrial units of surgical, sports, leather, rice in the district.

The DC said that first private air­port of the country was running suc­cessfully and AirSial was operating its flights successfully. He said that Iqbal Manzil, Sialkot Fort, Imam Sahib Tomb, Head Marala, Trinity Church, Shivala Teja Singh temple, Murray College, Lock Tower and Gora Jail were important places for tourism in the district. Abdul­lah Khurram Niazi said the Seerat Study Centre was being made more effective to keep the new generation aware of Uswa-e-Hasna. He said that there were 400,128 male and female students were studying in the educational institutions of the district, where the number of fe­male students was 55 percent, one gov­ernment and three private universities were working. The University of Applied Sciences project was under construction at Sambrial at a cost of Rs 17 billion, he added. The DC said that two tertiary care hospitals, Allama Iqbal Memorial Hos­pital and Sardar Begum Hospital were affiliated with Khawaja Safdar Medical College. He said that 5,000 new saplings were being planted in Sialkot to control environmental pollution. The head of delegation Samreen Zahra thanked the Deputy Commissioner and his team for their excellent guidance regarding Si­alkot district. Additional Deputy Com­missioner (ADC) Finance Syeda Amina Maududi, Additional Deputy Commis­sioner General (ADCG) Shahid Abbas, Assistant Commissioner (AC) Sufian Dilawar, CEO Dr. Ahmad Nasir, CEO Ed­ucation Tariq Rathore, Deputy Director Colleges Professor Shams, Deputy Di­rector (DD) Agriculture Extension Dr Sajjad Mehmood were also present