KOHAT: The local political and social activists on Monday joined the protest of the Kohat Medical College students against the college administration and police for ordering them to vacate all the private hostels over security reasons.

The leaders warned that if the order was not withdrawn then they would stage a sit-in at the Martyr’s Square against the college administration.

However, the college administration is of the opinion that it cannot provide security to each and every hostel after the police declared them as vulnerable to terrorist attacks.

The president of Kohat Qaumi Tehrik Ameer Khan Afridi, PTI district president Hamayun Chacha and Rashid Bokhari while speaking to the protesting students vowed to fight for their rights.

They passed four resolutions demanding transfer of the college principal, handing over of the medical college to health department, and solution to the problem of hostels and ensuring students’ security.

Meanwhile, a spokesman of the district police told Dawn that the order was not specifically for the students of the medical college but for the students studying at the Kohat University and all other colleges as well.

PPP CONVENTION: Pakistan People’s Party leaders have assured the party workers that their grievances would be redressed and they would not be neglected in the future.

They were speaking at a divisional convention of the party workers at the hujra of local leader Syed Mahtabul Hassan here on Monday.

The PPP leaders admitted that the workers were neglected in the past. They said that their point of view would be accommodated in the party’s decisions in future.

The speakers included former provincial minister Liaquat Shabab, former MNA Syed Zulqarnain Shah, divisional president Pir Dilawar Shah, former minister Syed Qalbe Hassan, district president Malik Iqbal advocate. Workers from Hangu, Karak, Kurram and Orakzai Agencies were in attendance.

The PPP leaders said that the party lost the last elections due to their (leaders’) policy of reconciliation with the Awami National Party.

On the occasion, Mr Shabab said that the workers were not given proper attention in the past due to various reasons and the party chairman Bilwal Bhutto Zardari had acknowledged the mistake and promised not to repeat it in future.

The workers would be given their due status in the party, he added.

The PPP leader said Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf’s claim about upholding merit in appointments had been exposed after the disclosure of illegal recruitments in the police department.

Published in Dawn, February 24th, 2015

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