KOHAT: Disappointed with the performance of the local lawmakers, activists of Qaumi Tehreek and local bodies’ representatives raised the people’s unsolved problems at a jirga held at the press club here on Monday.

The participants lamented that hospitals and schools were short of staff and in dilapidated condition, but the MPs didn’t do anything practically.

Kohat District Nazim Maulana Niaz Mohammad, tehsil nazim Malik Taimoor, Qaumi Watan Party, Kohat president Mehmood ul Islam, PTI district president Hamaayun Chacha, Qaumi Tehreek president Ameer Khan Afridi and councillors attended the jirga.

The speakers said the people had been fed up with the lawmakers because despite getting billions of rupees in oil and gas royalty annually in addition to provincial funds no mega project could even be conceived for the district.

They alleged that the MNA from Kohat had permanently shifted to Islamabad and only came to the district to attend his family functions. They said the people didn’t know where the money was being spent because roads were in a shambles; sanitation was poor; there was no gas pressure; and loadshedding was rampant in the severe cold weather. They said oil and gas companies were not fulfilling their promises made with the people.

On the occasion, Qaumi Tehreek president Ameer Afridi said the MPs had no concern about restarting the suspended rail service in the district. He demanded that work on the oil refinery should be started at the earliest; women and children hospital be reconstructed and KDA divisional hospital be provided machinery, staff and other facilities.

He expressed anger over absence of medicines in the emergencies of the hospitals. He also demanded that non-locals should not be provided jobs in the Kohat district government.

He urged the deputy commissioner to provide details about the beautification plan of the divisional headquarters, Kohat, for which Rs1 billion had been earmarked and more than Rs260 million had already been released.

Ameer Afridi demanded that unnecessary restrictions on people’s entry into the cantonment should be lifted.

Published in Dawn, January 26th, 2016