January 22, 2003	Wednesday	Ziqa’ad 18, 1423

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PESHAWAR, Jan 21: Thick fog blanketing Peshawar Valley for the last five days, has taken a heavy toll on public life, forcing the Civil Aviation Authority to suspend all operations from the Peshawar international airport and impelling the road users to adopt safety measures due to poor visibility to avert any mishap.

All international flights to and from Peshawar are being diverted to the Islamabad airport, while domestic flights from Peshawar have been cancelled altogether, officials said.

They confirmed that four international flights coming from different Gulf countries, GF-780, EK-634, NL-084 and PK-264, were diverted to Islamabad on Tuesday morning.

Authorities at air traffic control office said visibility had gone down to 500 meters in the surroundings of Peshawar airport, while the visibility required for landing is 1,500 metres. The persisting fog also disrupted chartered flights operation between Peshawar and Kabul.

The Pakistan International Airline (PIA) has also cancelled its Haj flights from Peshawar. The PIA operates daily two Haj flights between Peshawar and Jeddah.

According to the PIA, the company was suffering financial losses as it had to run 10 special coaches between  Peshawar and Islamabad for the transportation  of intending pilgrims and bringing passengers of international flights diverted to the federal capital.

The official said the company had to pay Rs 10,000 as fare to each coach for a day that made the entire operation time- consuming and very expensive.

The National Highway and Motorway Police have also established five briefing centres on Peshawar-Islamabad road to educate the motorists on safety measures in the densely foggy weather condition.

An official said five special points had been set up at different locations on Peshawar-Islamabad highway where traffic managers briefed road-users and directed drivers to keep fog- lights on and drive slow.

Some of the private transport companies had also suspended their night coach service between Peshawar and Lahore for the last three days due to poor visibility.

The continuous fog phenomena and cold weather have disturbed life and resulted in increasing cold-related diseases among old people and children in Swabi district, our correspondent adds.

The district civil hospital and private medical centres on Tuesday revealed that a number of children had fallen prey to cold-related diseases and majority of the minors have been suffering from pneumonia, respiratory problems and chronic cough.

Local doctors said the number of patients had increased.