March 10, 2007	Saturday	Safar 20, 1428

Please Visit our Sponsor (Ads open in separate window).

PESHAWAR, March 9: The residents of Daudzai area observed hunger strike on Friday to press the government to make the facility of gas available in their area.

The residents of Haryana, Nasapa Payan, Muslimabad and several other villages of Daudzai area sat in a camp for hunger strikers who were led by Haryana UC Nazim Malik Tehmash Khan.

Banners and placards, inscribed with slogans seeking immediate provision of gas, were hung at the camp. Nazims and councillors of other union councils also visited the camp to express solidarity with the hunger strikers.

Mr Tehmash told reporters on the occasion that they had been striving for eight years but to no avail.

“When the main gas pipeline was being laid up to Swat, we had launched a protest campaign, which continued for six months,” he said. “We had called off our protest on the assurance of Chief Minister Akram Khan Durrani who had himself visited us to hand out the assurance.”

The nazim said the people of 10 villages on the suburbs of Peshawar had been suffering due to differences between the provincial government and the centre. “We have nothing to do with their differences. We want gas, whether provided by the provincial government or the centre,” he said.

He said if the government failed to take note of their protest, they would go for a five-day hunger strike. Even if the government did not pay heed, they would launch a protest drive to continue till the acceptance of their demands, he warned.

MUTATION PROCESS: Describing the new process of property mutation as complicated, land owners in Latifabad have called upon the chief minister, chief secretary and provincial minister for revenue to restore the old one.

Addressing a news conference here on Friday, Malik Jahangir, Malik Sabir, Malik Hamid, Mukarram, Sikandar and others said the new system was troubling the people.

Under the new system, they said, the process of registration had been made compulsory, requiring one to visit different government offices several times, causing wastage of time and money. They called for removing confusion among the people by reinstating the old system.

WITHDRAWAL OF CASES: The activists of Islami Jamiat Talba (IJT) staged a protest demonstration outside the Peshawar Press Club on Friday, calling upon the administrations of the University of Peshawar and Islamia College to withdraw what they called fake cases against their colleagues and ensure their immediate release.

Led by the nazim of IJT’s university unit, the students gathered outside the press club and chanted slogans against the university administration.

The students alleged that the vice-chancellor had converted the university into a police state.

They said the students of Islamia College had arranged a Dars-i-Quran in the college. Police raided the venue, baton-charged the participants and arrested many of them, they said.

The university administration, they alleged, violated the orders of the provincial government which had lifted ban on the holding of Dars-i-Quran.