MANSEHRA: Travel agents and traders have warned they will stage protests and observe a complete shutdown strike next Friday if the government doesn’t abandon the new biometric verification system for the intending Haj and Umrah pilgrims.

The warning was issued during a rally taken out by the Mansehra Travel Agents Association here on Friday.

Association president Amir Faheem said under the new system, the people wanting to go to Saudi Arabia to perform Haj or Umrah would have to go to designated centres in Karachi, Lahore and Islamabad for fingerprint verification.

He said such people from KP and Gilgit-Baltistan would have to visit Islamabad for the purpose, which would stress them out by costing lots of money and wasting time.

“This fingerprint verification will deprive lots of people of pilgrimage and therefore, we want the immediate end to it. And if that doesn’t happen, we along with traders will agitate and observe a shutter down strike in the district next Friday,” Mansehra Travel Agents Association president Amir Faheem told a rally staged here on Friday.

The rally was taken out from outside the Markazi Masjid to the press club’s building with the participants holding banners and placards and shouting slogans against the federal government.

Trader Ijaz Ahmad told protesters that local trader community supported travel agents against the new biometric verification system for Saudi Arabia pilgrimage and would observe a shutter down strike if the system wasn’t ended. The association leaders later addressed a news conference.

FUNDS OKAYED: The district development advisory committee on Friday approved Rs590 million for five provincial assembly constituencies of Mansehra district.

The funds’ approval was made during a meeting chaired by DDAC chairman and MPA Wajiuzzaman Khan and attended by MPA Sardar Zahoor, heads of government departments and representatives of local bodies.

The participants examined work on development schemes and asked contractors to meet deadlines.

The DDAC chairman asked the relevant departments to immediately start work on the projects for which the funds were approved.

He said Rs60 million had been approved for PK-53 and PK-54 each, Rs190 million for PK-56, Rs120 million for KP-55 and Rs170 million for PK-57.

Mr Wajiuzzaman asked lawmakers to monitor the execution of projects in their respective constituencies.

RALLY: The Sunni Ittehad activists on Friday took out a rally demanding the enforcement of Islamic laws in the country.

The participants marched from outside the Markazi Masjid on Abbottabad Road to Khatm-i-Nabuwat Chowk shouting slogans in support of the enforcement of Islamic laws.

They criticised the federal government for trying to remove Khatm-i-Nabuwat clause from the election law and demanded enforcement of Islamic laws in the country.

Published in Dawn, November 4th, 2017