KOHAT: Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf chief Imran Khan are likely to visit Kohat before Ramazan amid Panama leaks turmoil.

Mr Sharif would visit Kohat after 23 years. Earlier this month the PM’s visit had to be postponed as PTI had announced to stage a protest during it.

Talking to Dawn, former senator Abbas Afridi said that the prime minister would come to Kohat before Ramazan and announce Rs7 billion development projects for the district.

Imran Khan also announced on Saturday to visit Kohat on the invitation of former KP governor retired Lt-Gen Iftikhar Hussain Shah after he joined PTI. The former governor made the announcement to this effect in the presence of Chief Minister Pervez Khattak in Islamabad.

PML-N’s ex-senator says PM to announce Rs7 billion projects

Mr Shah has to his credit several development projects in the province, including removal of encroachments in Peshawar. He also ensured timely completion of the Kohat Friendship Tunnel.

Imran Khan has not addressed a public meeting in Kohat during the past 20 years of his political career though his party had won all the seats of National Assembly and KP Assembly from Kohat in the 2013 elections. He had given a lecture to the students of Kohat University of Science and Technology two months ago during a brief visit. However, Mr Khan takes keen interest in the affairs of Kohat which he displayed when he expelled MPA Amjid Afridi from the party after knowing that he had tried to form local government of PML-N and lobbied for it last year.

DISMISSED FROM SERVICE: The tehsil municipal officer has dismissed from service seven employees for their continued absence from duty.

TMO Mian Shafiqur Rehman in a notification ordered the dismissals of the sanitation section staffers who had been absent, but failed to respond to several notices.

He also suspended 15 employees for skipping duty and initiated departmental inquiry again them. He issued orders that every employee would get the salary himself from the accounts branch instead of their nominated persons.

Meanwhile, the encroachments and stalls removed recently from the narrow road and in congested Miankhel bazaar have resurfaced. The people said that due to the connivance of the TMA staff hand carts and temporary shops had again surfaced in the main bazaar, Miankhel bazaar, old jail road and old bus stand.

COMMUNITY CENTER: The residents of KDA Township have demanded renovation of the community center which was in a dilapidated condition for the past several years.

Kotal Welfare Organisation president Noor Islam told this correspondent that the centre was established with the money charged from them at the time of allotment of plots 30 years ago, but due to continuous neglect of the officials concerned it had lost its benefit. He said that the centre had not been whitewashed for last about a decade.

Published in Dawn, May 23rd, 2016