TIMERGARA: Jamaat-i-Islami chief Senator Sirajul Haq said on Thursday that the federal government had failed to control power outages due to which industrial units were closed and foreign investors reluctant to invest in Pakistan.

Speaking at a press conference here after visiting the ongoing Koto hydropower project along with other party leaders, Mr Haq said that the project would generate 40 megawatts of electricity that would help reduce power shortage in the Lower and Upper Dir districts. The project would be completed before March 2018.

The JI chief said that the rivers flowing in parts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa had the potential to generate 40,000MW of electricity, but neither the federal government not its relevant departments were interested to start work in this direction. He said that foreign investment had declined tremendously in the country due to energy shortage.

He said that several industries had been closed down due to frequent power outages in the country. He said that the government should also consider Patrak in Upper Dir and Shago Kas in Lower Dir for construction of hydropower stations. He demanded of the government to replace the decades-old power transmission lines in Malakand division.

Says KP’s rivers have great potential to generate electricity

JUI-F CONVENTION: Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Fazl provincial chief Maulana Gul Naseeb said on Thursday that the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government had planned to take control of the mosques and seminaries by recruiting paid prayer leaders, but his party would not let it do so.

He was addressing a workers’ convention arranged by Jamiat Tulba Islam at Nasafa Talash here. Party’s deputy chief Senator Attaur Rehman and district chief Maulana Zahid Khan also spoke on the occasion. They asked the students to gain religious and contemporary knowledge of science and technology as both were necessary for them.

QUADRUPLETS: A mother of four daughters hailing from Haya Serai area of Maidan in Lower Dir district gave birth to quadruplets, all of them boys, at a private hospital in Timergara on Thursday.

Talking to this correspondent, district gynaecologist Dr Mussarat Shaukat said that the woman identified as wife of Imran of Haya Serai Maidan was referred to her by another private clinic due to her complicated pregnancy. She said that the condition of the mother and all her sons was normal and they would be discharged in a couple of days.

Published in Dawn, September 29th, 2017