CHITRAL: MNA Shahzada Iftikharud Din has warned that the coming monsoon will cause further devastation in the valleys where flood-hit bridges and roads are yet to be rebuilt.

Addressing a press conference here on Monday, he criticised the provincial government for failure to rehabilitate the infrastructures of roads, bridges and irrigation channels in Chitral.

He said 20 valleys remained cut off from rest of the district by road as bridges and roads connecting them were washed away by flash floods and glacial lakes outburst floods, last year.

He said the prime minister had announced Rs500 million for rehabilitation of the damaged communication infrastructure, but the provincial government had done little in that regard.

“I approached the government time and again with the request to realise the intensity of the problem, but to no avail,” he lamented.

Shahzada Iftikhar asked the Jamaat-i-Islami chief to prevail upon the provincial government to allocate funds for rehabilitation of infrastructures in Chitral.

LANGUAGES MOOT CONCLUDES: The seventh Khyber Pakhtunkhwa languages conference concluded here the other day with the pledge to make efforts for promotion of native languages and cultures of Chitral.

The conference was titled, ‘pledge to promote all languages and cultures of Chitral’. The moot was combined effort of Gandhara Hindko Board, Gandhara Hindko Academy and Anjuman Tarraqi-i-Khowar.

Literati representing various languages spoken in Chitral turned up at the event to highlight the importance of respective languages and cultures. A total of 15 papers were read pertaining to various languages of Chitral, -- the biggest district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa constituting 20 per cent of the total area of the province.

An all-languages poetry session was arranged in the third session. Folk music of the respective languages was also part of the moot.

MNA Shehzada Iftikharuddin said Chitral was home to 14 languages, and of these Khowar was the most widely spoken one, being the language of estimated one million people.

Published in Dawn, May 31st, 2016