KOHAT: The political and social circles have expressed disappointment over the ‘fruitless’ visit of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Governor Iqbal Zafar Jhagra to the district as he did not announce any development project during his public meeting here.

President of all Tajir action committee, Haji Abid, termed the governor’s visit mere puppet show, and observed that although the governor was aware of the many problems of the area he did not announce a single scheme for them.

He said former district nazim Engr Malik Asad, who is the governor’s relative, had invited Mr Jhagra to the district only to prove his political clout.

He said though the governor was told that the people had been observing strike for last three months demanding restoration of abandoned railcar service with Rawalpindi and construction of oil refinery in Kohat, but he gave any specific timeframe in that regard.

Chairman of Karwan-i-Ammal, Saleem Altaf, who along with several social and political activists had been staging a peaceful protest at the railway station, mentioned that the governor during a meeting had assured that the railcar track would be rehabilitated to its original position from Rawalpindi up to Thall, but he didn’t mention the project during his visit.

Former senator and state minister for industries, Abbas Khan Afridi, who joined PML-N after quitting PPP, told Dawn that these two projects and many others would be sanctioned by Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif during his rescheduled visit to Kohat on May 30.

POWER OUTAGES PROTESTED: Political activists and traders on Tuesday observed a shutter down and wheel-jam strike against excessive loadshedding of electricity in Thall tehsil.

Leaders of Thall Qaumi Ittehad, ANP, PTI, PPP, JUI, JI and councillors participated in the protest.

The protesters chanted slogans against Pesco for carrying out loadshedding of 18 to 20 hours daily.

They lamented that when the power supply was restored for a few hours the voltage was so low that essential electronic gadgets could not be run. They said the problem had been persisting for past one decade but no attention was being paid to the grave situation by the government.

Later, Colonel Naeem of Frontier Corps and DSP Mohammad Subhan held negotiations with the protesting leaders and assured the loadshedding problem would be resolved within two days, after which the protesters dispersed. They, however, gave a two-day deadline for ending the excessive power outages, after which they would again stage protests.

Published in Dawn, May 18th, 2016