TIMERGARA: Members of the acting council of Dir Qaumi Pasoon (DQP) on Monday called on the residents of Lower Dir to join hands for realising their genuine rights.

People of Lower Dir had formed DQP, a rights’ body consisting of social and political activists immediately after announcement of the provincial budget as no mega project for Lower and Upper Dir was announced.

Talking to journalists in Balambat, the DQP members, including Jehan Alam Yousafzai, Umar Zada, Ali Shah Mishwani, Shafiqur Rahman, Malik Farooq Iqbal and others, criticised the government for allegedly dropping Chakdara-Chitral Road project from China-Pakistan Economic Corridor and naming the motorway as Swat Motorway instead of Malakand or Dir motorway.

They announced that the DQP would arrange a daylong sit-in at Chakdara interchange on July 21 for the rights of Dir people and appealed to the citizens to come to the venue in large numbers.

PROPAGANDA AGAINST POLIO: Assistant commissioner, Timergara, Mohammad Shah Jamil Khan on Monday urged the village council secretaries to help end negative propaganda against polio vaccine and convince the people of their respective village councils to fully cooperate with officials of the health department to make the upcoming anti-polio drive a success.

He was speaking at a meeting in Balambat.

“It was not the responsibility of health officials only but we will have to collectively work to make Pakistan a polio-free country,” he stressed.

FUNERAL PRAYERS: The body of a policeman, who drowned in the Panjkora River eight days ago, was brought to Lower Dir on Monday, police said. They said the body of Ahmad Khan, 32, was found in Charsadda. Funeral prayers of the deceased were offered at the Timergara police lines.

District police officer Arif Shahbaz Wazir, SP investigations Arbab Shafiullah, DSP Habibullah, traffic in-charge Shad Mohammad and others attended the last rituals of the late cop.

Published in Dawn, July 16th, 2019