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KOHAT, May 29: The town council Kohat has demanded royalty from the income to be generated from the Kohat tunnel and decided to exempt local transporters from toll tax.
The council session, held on Tuesday, presided over by Haji Misal Khan, made the demand through a resolution which was passed unanimously.
The meeting also decided to give all the tube wells in the jurisdiction of the municipal committee on contract, purchase a new water tanker and distribute Zakat among the destitute belonging to Sherkot from the local Baitul Maal office.
The members demanded of the government to appoint grade one to grade nine employees in the tunnel from Kohat and expressed anguish over appointments made from outside the district.
The members rejected the application to pass the telephone bill of district Naib Nazim Haji Sardar Khan amounting to Rs 57,000.
On the demand made by members, tehsil municipal officer Malik Ejaz informed the house that the MC was not able to employ more staff and asked them to follow the rules and regulations in this regard. He said more staff would be hired when funds would be available.
OPENING: The opening of Kohat Tunnel has once again been rescheduled and now the ceremony in this connection will be held on June 10 instead of June 14, said National Highway Authority sources on Wednesday.
According to the earlier schedule, Prime Minister Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali was to perform the opening ceremony, but now President Pervez Musharraf will be the chief guest on the occasion.
This is the fifth time since March that the opening of the tunnel has been rescheduled due to various reasons.
The president will also meet tribal elders and announce major projects for the area, the sources said.
PROTEST: Local traders held a protest meeting to condemn the fresh wave of strikes by kidnappers in the area on Monday.
The meeting held at Bano Market demanded immediate recovery of two boys, including the son of an office-bearer of the local markets association.
The boys, Shakir and Abid had gone to Shekhan village at a semi-tribal area near Darra Adamkhel on Friday to meet their friends where kidnappers detained them and were demanding huge sum of ransom from the families for their release.
The SSP, Abid Ali when contacted said the police were trying to recover the victims.
This was the sixth incident of kidnapping during last two months.
