KARAK: The landowners have demanded of the government to shelve the plan to construct the proposed oil refinery on the site selected for it and offered to spare the barren land adjacent to the site for the purpose to save them from losing their only source of income.

The demand was made at a meeting attended by landowners of Farqiri Banda, Sanda Khurram and other localities on Saturday.

The participants said annual income from the lands, upon which the district administration had imposed section 4 for the construction of the oil refinery, was over Rs150 million.

The landowners said they had organised a protest in March this year against the decision of the district administration, but it used force to disperse them. They said they did not want any tension with the district administration and regretted that the Frontier Works Organisation had launched work on the project against the wishes of the locals.

They said they were poor people and could not sacrifice their fertile land for the refinery and would offer alternate barren land for the project. They resolved not to budge from their demand come what may.

RECONSTRUCTION OF ROAD SOUGHT: The people of Rehmatabad, Surdag and Latamber have demanded reconstruction of the dilapidated Karak-Bannu road without delay.

The demand was made at meeting of the local government representatives and elders on Saturday.

On the occasion, Karak tehsil nazim Haji Abdul Wahab, Latamber village nazim Ahmad Nawaz and social activist Abdur Rehman Khattak regretted that a large population of the areas used the road while going to the district headquarters and back. They said the bad condition of the road had failed to move the elected representatives.

They said the recent monsoon rains had further damaged the road and it was in urgent need of repair.

They said if the government did not start work on the road within two weeks then they would launch a protest movement after Eidul Azha.

Published in Dawn, August 19th, 2018