MANSEHRA: Students of government high school, Batagram, on Tuesday blocked the Karakuram Highway to protest against the deputy commissioner’s surprise visit to the school during the ongoing matriculation examinations.

The angry students also marched on the road.

Mian Adil Iqbal, the deputy commissioner, told Dawn on contact that the students blocked the road after he confiscated cheating material from 45 of them during his visit to the school.

He said he had warned the students that if they found involved in cheating they would be punished under the law, but they defied his warning and continued to use unfair means, forcing him to take action.

The deputy commissioner said he also visited the degree college and a private school to discourage practice of cheating by students during the ongoing SSC examinations.

He said that the protesting students later met him in his office and apologised for their attitude.

COURT ISSUES STAY ORDER: A local court on Tuesday stayed further progress on various development projects worth Rs20 million which were recently awarded by the Mansehra municipal committee allegedly to blue eyed boys.

Fareed Khan, a local contractor, had moved the court of civil judge, Mansehra seeking cancellation of the tendering process of development projects alleging discrepancies and favouritism in award of contracts by the chief municipal officer and officer infrastructure.

The judge directed both the chief municipal officer and the officer infrastructure to appear before the court on April 1, the next date of hearing into the case.

POST VACANT: Residents of Gazikot Township have demanded of the government to fill the vacant post of the director of the Mansehra development Authority (MDA).Zamir Javed Yousufzai, the chairman of a committee constituted to protect rights of local people, told reporters that the post had been lying vacant for last many months due to which they had been facing different problems.

He said that heaps of garbage were scattered all around the township and streetlights were out of order.

Mr Yousufzai said MDA employees had also been without salaries for last couple of months.