SARGODHA: Farmers and thresher manufacturers have been facing difficulties due to unprecedented demand as the wheat harvesting season begins amid prolonged loadshedding and government’s orders to close businesses by 8pm.
Talking to Dawn, thresher manufacturers said that productivity of their factories were being severely affected due to unannounced and prolonged loadshedding during the day, while the government’s orders to close businesses early had made the situation even worse. They claimed that they used to complete most of their production during the night, but due to the current restrictions, it had become almost impossible to fulfill orders on time.
Mirza Muhammad Azhar, the owner of a thresher manufacturing factory, said that they received a lot of orders, but due to the unavailability of electricity and the ban on working at night had increased their difficulties manifold. He said that if the current situation persists, timely supply of threshers would not be possible, which would severely affect wheat harvesting potentially leading to a wheat crisis.
Chaudhry Mohsin, a progressive farmer of Sargodha, also expressed similar concerns and said that they were already worried about inflation, weather conditions and rising agricultural costs, and now the unavailability of threshers was creating more difficulties for them.
Factory owners and farmers have appealed to the Punjab government that special permission be given to the thresher manufacturers to continue production during the night and complete pending orders on time.
LAWYERS STRIKE: Sargodha District Bar Association (DBA) President Rameez Farooka announced that lawyers’ strike will continue for an indefinite period against the police for allegedly registering fake FIRs against lawyers and their relatives.
He alleged that police, despite confirming suicide of an employee of a lawyer, registered a murder case against the lawyer and his brothers. He claimed the DBA office-bearers had surrendered the accused to the police and demanded that they should be released in the case.
In another case, he claimed a lawyer and his uncle had been involved in a case of forgery and criminal breach of trust without any justification. In yet another incident, he claimed that valuables were stolen from the office of a lawyer when he was in the court, but the police had not visited the site despite lodging a complaint of theft with the Cantt Police a couple of months ago.
Meanwhile, a police spokesperson said that SP investigation was personally supervising these cases on merit. He claimed the Cantt Police was doing its utmost to control theft and advised the lawyers to hire the services of private guards. He further added that police had traced drug addicts who were involved in the locality.
Published in Dawn, April 12th, 2026
