KOHAT: District council member Mian Shah Raza has demanded investigation by Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Ehtesab Commission into the use of substandard material and irregularities in the Rs976.64 million Kohat-Hangu highway project.

Talking to this scribe on phone on Sunday, Mr Raza, who lives in a village on the Hangu Road, said that due to weak compaction the road had developed wave-like bumps at various points.

Quoting experts, he said that this had occurred due use of less bitumen and asphalt or premix. He recalled that the local people had staged a protest against the contractor after which he was fined and the road was repaired. He alleged large-scale corruption in the road projects.

When contacted, Engineer Shakir of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Highway Authority said that due to opposition by a local tribe to the installation of weight point at Nasratkhel the overloaded Afghan transit vehicles bringing goods from Karachi had been causing damage to the newly-constructed Kohat-Hangu highway.

Councillor says the newly-built Rs976m road has developed bumps

The local tribe owning the collective land in Kohat has stopped erection of weight point for nearly a year for checking of overloaded vehicles despite enforcement of Section 4 by the administration.

He said that the truckers had been warned repeatedly, but even then they were bringing 100 tons load instead of the allowed limit of 38 tons.

He said that a proposal was under consideration to change the location of weight machine site from Nasratkhel village.

‘THIEF’ RESCUED: The special anti-riot and disorder management police rescued an alleged thief who was thrashed by a charged mob in Mohallah Pir Abdullah Shah on Sunday.

A police statement issued here said that Malik Shah of Junglekhel and his accomplice had stolen money from a ‘tandoor’, but were caught by the people.

Meanwhile, one of suspects started firing which resulted in injury to a passerby.

One of them escaped while the other was thrashed by the people who threatened to throw him in the ‘tandoor’.

However, the anti-riot police saved the suspect from the clutches of the people after SHO city Fayyaz Khan gave a strong assurance that no such robbery incident would occur in the area in future.

The police have registered robbery and attempted murder cases against the suspects.

Published in Dawn, September 11th, 2017