MANSEHRA: The district and sessions judge on Monday visited the site of the New Balakot City housing project as part of inquiry into the alleged embezzlement in financial assistance offered by the international community to the 2005 earthquake survivors.

Judge Mohammad Zeb Khan was appointed the inquiry officer for the purpose by the Supreme Court chief justice on a suo motu notice of an application filed by social activist Shiraz Mehmood Qureshi about the funds embezzlement.

Besides asking the sessions judge to examine work on the New Balakot City housing project and reconstruction of King Abdullah Teaching Hospital in Mansehra, the CJ has also sought the relevant records from the authorities.

Judge Mohammad Zeb Khan was accompanied by social activist Qureshi, assistant commissioner Abdul Rehman and representatives of police and communication and works department during the visit. The relevant official, retired brigadier Zafar, briefed visitors about the current status of work on the New Balakot City Housing project. The judge asked him about delay in the project’s execution and the money spent on it.

He said he would meet earthquake survivors, local government representatives and public and media representatives on April 9 at the district courts and know about their grievances regarding funds embezzlement and other complaints.

IHK KILLINGS FLAYED: Jamaat-i-Islami, Azad Jammu and Kashmir, chief Noorul Bari on Monday condemned the killings of Kashmiris by the Indian Army and said the government should take up the matter at the United Nations for necessary action.

“If the international community doesn’t take notice of India-held Kashmir killings, we will take up arms and cross the Line of Control to protect Kashmiris,” he told a news conference at the Mansehra Press Club.

He criticised the federal government for not highlighting the brutalities of the Indian Army at the United Nations. Also in the day, the civil society took to the streets to condemn the killings of Kashmiris and offered their funeral prayers in absentia.

Shouting slogans against the Indian Army and government, they protesters took out rallies in different parts of the city and its suburbs before converging on Khatm-i-Nabuwat Chowk. They also set the effigies of the Indian prime minister on fire.

Published in Dawn, April 3rd, 2018