Draft of bill to declare The Mall red zone presented in court

Lahore:The Punjab government on Tuesday presented the draft of a bill for legislation to declare The Mall a red zone.

A provincial law officer appeared before the court of Justice Jawad Hassan and stated that the bill would be tabled before Punjab assembly after holding public hearings on it and it would become a law in one month. After going through the draft of the bill, the court disposed of the petition. The law officer pointed out that punishment up to five years imprisonment and fine up to one million rupees has been suggested in the bill on violation. Advocate Azhar Siddique had questioned the failure of the government to make legislation to declare The Mall a red zone despite a ban imposed on holding protests and sit-ins on the place. Under the proposed law, the Punjab government would be empowered to declare a specific area as red zone and public gatherings, rallies and sit-ins would be banned. Places would be earmarked for public gatherings, etc.

Police performance: Deputy Inspector General of Police (Operations Wing) Lahore Ashfaq Khan has said that Lahore Police is striving hard to protect citizens from the dangers of coronavirus as well as curb culprits to control crime in the City. Lahore Police (Operations Wing) issued the facts and figures regarding its performance during the month of November. According to the report as many as 137 accused of 63 gangs were arrested and an amount of over 85 lakh rupees was recovered from the gang members which was handed over to the actual heirs. During the grand operation against illegal weapons, Lahore Police arrested 531 criminals and recovered 50 rifles, five Kalashnikov, 25 guns, 434 revolvers and pistols as well as thousands of bullets from their possession. One kg and 320 grams heroin, more than 121kgs of charas, 80 grams of ice, five kgs of opium and 4767 liters of liquor were recovered from the arrested 569 accused. Moreover, an amount of rupees two lakhs and 86 thousands was recovered from 279 accused during crackdown against gambling. Lahore Police also arrested 126 criminals during its action against brothels’ in the city. Moreover 350 Proclaimed Offenders of A&B categories in cases of theft, cheque dishonor fraud and other crimes were arrested along with 370 court absconders. As many as 999 criminals were also arrested for the violation of One Wheeling, Kite Flying, Aerial Firing, Begging, Price Control, Rental and Loudspeaker Acts.