Section-144 imposed in Punjab.

Byline: Mubashir Hassan

LAHORE -- The Punjab government has enforced section-144 in the province to prohibit public gathering and hoarding of stuff like hand sanitisers and masks etc.

There will be complete ban on opening of educational institutes, marriage halls, holding of exams and religious and public gatherings. In-house marriage functions, will, however, be allowed to facilitate the public.

Decision to this effect was taken at a meeting chaired by Punjab Chief Secretary Major (r) Azam Suleman Khan. Provincial Health Minister Dr Yasmin Rashid, Additional Chief Secretary Home Momin Agha, IG Police Shoaib Dastgir, secretaries of health and food departments, commissioner Lahore and Bahawalpur attended the meeting. All other divisional commissioners, deputy commissioners, regional police officers and district police officers joined the meeting through video conferencing.

Additional Chief Secretary Home Momin Agha told the meeting that section-144 has been imposed for three weeks across the province to prohibit hoarding and profiteering of hand sanitizers, opening of all private and public educational institutes, marriage/banquet halls and marquees, holding of examinations, religious congregation, public gatherings and sports festivals.

The Chief Secretary directed that all educational institutes would be kept closed and presence of teaching staff there would not be allowed as well. The meeting decided to close all parks, zoos and recreational places for public. It was also decided that buses, which brought pilgrims from Iran and other areas, would be disinfected, relatives of pilgrims would be given awareness about precautionary measures through videos and help of Ulema would be sought for this purpose.

All the divisional commissioners were asked to allocate one hospital in each division for medical treatment of coronavirus patients and make arrangements for quarantine and isolation there.

Dr Yasmin Rashid suggested providing...