PESHAWAR: Strongly reacting to the death of 16 people in accident due to dilapidated condition of Mingora-Kalam road, the elders of upper Swat have threatened to stage a sit-in protest outside Parliament House in Islamabad if the National Highway Authority does not initiate reconstruction of the road within two weeks.

“NHA has got Rs2.5 billion from the Asian Development Bank for reconstruction of the road during the previous government, but despite that it failed to start the reconstruction work,” said Syed Jaffar Shah, MPA from upper Swat, while leading a group of elders from the area at a press conference in Peshawar Press Club on Wednesday.

Mr Shah said that the government of Saudi Arabia had also given a grant of Rs6.5 billion to the federal government for reconstruction of Chakdara-Fatehpur road, but work was not started despite the tall claims of the rulers.

He said that the previous provincial government had spent Rs140 million on the road after its destruction by 2010 floods, but only one track was constructed to restore the communication system.

“I have written to the prime minister, NHA high-ups, standing committees of the National Assembly and Senate and also moved a resolution in the provincial assembly for the reconstruction of the road, but to no avail,” the MPA lamented.

He said that if the government did not reconstruct the road the people would be unable to continue transportation as it was extremely risky and the killing of 18 people belonging to three families fully depicted the grave situation. He said that the people were ready to march on Islamabad to get the government’s attention.

Mr Shah recalled that former prime minister Yousuf Raza Gilani and Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif during their election campaign in Swat had promised to allocate sufficient funds for reconstruction of the road, but both failed to fulfill their promise.

He demanded of Chief Minister Pervez Khattak to immediately order reconstruction of the road so that besides other things the people could easily shift their patients to hospital. Rehmat Din Siddiqui, an elder, said that transportation of essential commodities had also become a major issue for the people in the absence of road.

Published in Dawn, May 29th, 2014