CHITRAL: The president of Chitral Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CCCI), Sartaj Ahmed Khan, on Sunday rejected the results of the population census, saying it did not include about half of its population, with the result that Chitral was now being deprived of one of its two provincial assembly seats.

Addressing a press conference here, he alleged that the government had failed to make proper arrangements for conducting the census in Chitral and that the enumeration process was carried out in a haphazard manner. He said that about half a million population of Chitral was settled temporarily in different big cities of the country and Gilgit-Baltistan, and they were not included in the enumeration process which raised questions about authenticity of its results.

Mr Khan said that based on the population figures the Election Commission of Pakistan had proposed to shift one PA seat of Chitral to some other district. He said that Chitral was area-wise the largest district of the province and it would be an injustice to make an enormous area of 15,000 square kilometers of the district a single constituency. He warned that if the decision about proposed abolition of seat was not rescinded they would organise a long march on Islamabad and boycott next general elections.

POWER UNIT TEST: The first unit of Golen Gol hydropower station having 36MW capacity will be put to wet test by January 23, and the electricity will be provided to areas presently covered by Peshawar Electric Supply Company with over 16,000 consumers.

Project manager Engineer Javed Afridi told this scribe here on Sunday that the dry test of the unit had been carried out successfully and it would take about a week to put the unit into operation. Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi is expected to inaugurate the station by end of the month.

Meanwhile, MNA Shahzada Iftikharuddin told mediapersons that with the inauguration of the first unit the issue of power outages would be resolved in both the lower and upper parts of the district.

Published in Dawn, January 15th, 2018