PESHAWAR: The government contractors belonging to different tribal districts held a protest demonstration here on Sunday against the delay in payment of arrears and urged the government to ensure early payment to them otherwise they would stop work on various development schemes.

Holding banners and placards inscribed with their demands, the leaders of All Tribal Contractors, including Zahir Jan Afridi, Gul Ahmed, Mohammad Younus and Badshah Khan Afridi, said that the government had announced merger of Fata with Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, but the Fata Secretariat was still creating hurdles to solution of problems of the tribal people.

They demanded that the Fata Secretariat should immediately hand over all the affairs to the provincial administration so that the people could feel a real change and their problems were resolved. They said that the government had to pay millions of rupees to the construction firms for various completed development schemes, but the funds release had been delayed for unknown reasons.

“On the one hand the contractors are facing losses of millions of rupees, on the other the development projects will not be completed within the stipulated period which will affect the people in the militancy-hit tribal regions,” said Badshah Afridi.

“We will start a sit-in outside the Fata Secretariat if the arrears are not released during the current month,” he warned and urged the political parties to raise voice for the rights of people so that the ongoing development schemes could be completed.

Published in Dawn, June 25th, 2018