PESHAWAR, Aug 20: District Nazim Lower Dir Dr Mohammad Yaqoob Khan said here on Tuesday that the shifting of Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education from Swat to Chakdara was a matter of serious nature and could not be resolved through holding protest demonstrations and observing hunger-strike, rather, it required a positive attitude to sort out the issue.

In a statement, he said like people of Swat, all the people of six districts of Malakand and Bajaur Agency, too, had a right to be benefited equally from the board, and to make them scapegoat for serving the interests of a single district was not justified.

For the last about 14 years, he said, the board had been functioning in a rented building in Swat costing the national exchequer heavily.

If the board offices, he said, were shifted to Chakdara, a centrally located and easily accessible centre for all the people of Malakand division. The district government, he further said, was ready to sacrifice and provide 80 kanals of land, the already available 42-room building as well as four bungalows free of cost for housing the board’s offices.

Mohammad Yaqoob said despite the passage of 14 years no proper building had been arranged in Swat as yet for the board and the land acquired there at a cost of Rs9 million was far off from the city and if the board offices were shifted there it would further add to the hardships of the people of the region.—Bureau Report