The Parks and Horticulture Authority (PHA) has planted 42,000 saplings during the last 20 days as part of its trees planting campaign in the city.

According to a press release issued on Sunday, the members of the national and provincial assemblies also participated in the tree planting campaign.

Quaid-e-Azam International Hospital (QIH) has launched its first satellite clinic in the town.

The high-tech clinic is designed to cater for the current and future needs of the patients coming to the hospital, Dr Shaukat Ali Bangash, the QIH founder, said on Sunday.

He said three billion rupees had been allocated for the main hospital building, a hotel, multi-storey parking, offsite clinics in F-11 and F-8, auditorium and a mosque.

Rotary International (RI) has blamed government agencies concerned with vaccination efforts responsible for the failure to eradicate polio from the country, despite funding of $26 million in Pakistan by the agency and the United Nations to make the worldwide anti-polio drive successful, Daily Times was told on Sunday.

Contaminants in the city's water supply are a major cause of several infectious diseases, including cholera, typhoid, hepatitis, polio, cryptosporidiosis, ascariasis, and schistosomiasis, Daily Times learnt from health experts on Sunday.

Corroded pipelines: The experts said that human excreta had polluted the water supply in the city during the recent rains. "Corroded pipelines add to the misery of the citizens, mixing sewage and causing water-borne diseases,' they added.

The Punjab government will launch its Food Stamp Scheme across the province on Independence Day (today), said Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif on Wednesday.

Presiding over a high-level meeting, he said measures had been taken to provide assistance to deserving people through the scheme.

The Earthquake Reconstruction and Rehabilitation Authority (ERRA) has completed construction of 421,000 houses in the quake affected region, the authority chairman Altaf M. Salim said here on Wednesday.

Addressing a certificate distribution ceremony for the participants of ERRA Interns and Volunteers Programme (EIVP), Salim said the authority was actively working in 12 rehabilitation sectors where housing, education, health and livelihood were being given top priority.

The rains between Saturday night and Sunday morning have led to problems in many low-lying residential and commercial areas of the city. Approximately, 40 millimeters of rain were recorded, leading to the accumulation of rainwater in many localities.

Defective tube wells are causing water shortage in most parts of the city with the downtown being affected the worst. Apart from faulty tube wells, massive load shedding is a major cause for water shortage.

Tube well operators are often found absenting themselves from duty as they take it as a part-time job.

"At the time of power outage, tube well operators leave their offices and they come back after a delay. As a result, tube wells remain closed and no one could get water,' Abdul Waheed, a retired college teacher, told Daily Times.

The largest city of Pakistan is the most neglected mega-city in the world, in terms of urban public transport systems and the basic reason for this is the government's apathetic attitude towards the revival and expansion of the surface rail-based urban transport public system, the Karachi Circular Railway (KCR).

The residents of Kurri and adjoining villages on Wednesday welcomed the orders of Islamabad High Court (IHC), which stayed the execution of Kurri Landfill Project.

"We are happy that Islamabad High Court (IHC) has stayed the execution of the project and served notices on Capital Development Authority (CDA) chairman, chief commissioner and Pakistan Environmental Protection Agency (Pak-EPA) director general,' Shabbir Abbasi, a resident of Maloot Village told Daily Times.