GUJRAT: A fire erupted on Monday in makeshift shops at the Model Bazaar on GT Road, reducing to ashes clothes, blankets, shoes and other valuables worth more than Rs10 million.

Police said the fire broke out due to short circuit whereas the district government declined to comment, saying the cause of the blaze could not be ascertained so far.

Reports said as many as 40 shops were hit by the blaze, damaging clothes, blankets, shoes and other valuables.

Lorry Adda police did not register a case, saying that no affected person filed a complaint with them.

The affected traders said the government should probe the matter as a fire had erupted eight months ago as well.

They suspected that some land mafia might be involved in the incident to get the place vacated from the occupants who were paying a monthly rent to the district government.

PERVAIZ: PML-Q leader Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi has condemned the killing of Daska bar association officials by police, saying Punjab government`s brutal policies had, once again, caused loss of human life as had happened in the killing of Pakistan Awami Tehreek`sworkers.

Talking to reporters after visiting the burnt shops at the Gujrat Model Bazaar along GT Road on Monday, he asked if the maintenance of law and order was the responsibility of the army and the Rangers what were the provincial government and its departments doing.

Mr Elahi expressed sympathy with lawyers, saying the Shahbaz government could never give any benefit to people of the province and it had failed on all fronts.

Expressing solidarity with the affected traders, he termed the fire incident a negligence of the authorities concerned that had never visited the site where the valuables worth millions of rupees had beenreducedto ashes.

The PML-Q leader demanded the government compensate the traders so that they could restarttheir businesses.

Meanwhile, talking to a farmers` delegation that called on him at his residence here, Pervaiz Elahi said wheat farmers were suffering losses in procurement drive where they were forced to sell their produce at Rs1,000 to Rs1,100 per maund. He said the rulers should refrain from economic murder of the farmers and restore facilities, incentives and agriculture policies of his tenure.