PESHAWAR: People of Chitral have expressed concern over the increase in PIA fare on the Chitral-Peshawar and -Islamabad route and decided to launch a protest campaign if their demand for cut in the fare is not accepted.

Speaking at a consultative meeting at Peshawar Press Club on Wednesday, the participants said that they had already moved the Peshawar High Court against PIA for the unprecedented increase in the fare.

The participants, including Mumtaz Ahmed advocate, Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf Chitral president Abdul Lateef, Tanzeem Tahafuz-i-Haqooq Chitral president Mohammad Jamil, Chitral Journalists Forum office-bearers and others, said that in the past the tickets were provided on subsidized rate, but now the concession had been stopped. They said that till 2012 the Peshawar-Chitral fare was Rs2,800 which was increased to Rs4,000 in 2013 and Rs7,705 recently. Also, fare on Chitral-Islamabad route had been increased to Rs9,000.

Abdul Lateef said that during the previous years there would be daily flight on the route, but now only two flights had been operated weekly and that too were subject to weather conditions. He said that sometimes the Chitral-Peshawar flight was diverted to Islamabad and the people had to hire taxis for Peshawar, thus spending additional money in a state of compulsion. He said that the Lowari tunnel was opened twice a week – on Saturdays and Sundays – for passenger vehicles and the people had to face hardships due to poor communication system to the far-flung district.

Published in Dawn, December 4th, 2014