TIMERGARA: Pakistan Peoples Party leader Qamar Zaman Kaira on Sunday said India was trying to sabotage the peace building efforts of Pakistan by rejecting the latter’s offer of bilateral meeting at the ministerial level at the UN.

He was speaking at a news conference here during his visit to the district where he met party leaders and also toured the scenic Kumrat valley in Upper Dir.

Terming the July 25 general election as rigged, Mr Kaira said all the opposition parties, including the PPP, had expressed reservations over the polls, but the PPP accepted the results for the continuation of democracy. He said the PPP wanted to give enough time to the government both inside and outside the parliament.

The PPP leader said Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf-led federal government won’t be able to implement its 100-day plan. Mr Kaira said opening of the Prime Minister House and Governor Houses to public could not solve people’s problems. He said Prime Minister Imran Khan had included in his cabinet ministers and advisers against whom NAB had initiated cases.

The PPP leader said his party would support good steps of the government. He dispelled the impression that the PPP had divided the opposition, saying his party was not an ally of any party.

MEDICAL HELP: The health department and the district administration finally took notice of the frequent deaths of children from a ‘mysterious’ fever in remote villages of Adenzai tehsil and dispatched a team of doctors, medicines and other facilities to the area on Sunday.

Rabia Bibi, 9, a resident of Barimkay village, died at the Hayatabad Medical Complex, Peshawar, on Sunday, residents told Dawn, saying the girl was referred to Peshawar a week ago due to severe fever.

Similarly, they said a 7th grader, Qari Usman, 13, of the same village died of mysterious fever at HMC on Saturday.

The residents said so far 13 people most of them children below 18 hailing from Barimkay, Shorshing and Bochaki villages of Adenzai had died of the fever during last three weeks.

Deputy commissioner Sarmad Saleem Akram, district health officer Dr Shaukat Ali, MPA Humayun Khan along with a team of doctors visited the area on Sunday and met with the affected families and checked the records of patients.

Dr Ali confirmed to Dawn that so far nine children had died of fever, saying, however, that one child died of meningitis, two of typhoid and record of four children showed they died of malaria. He said the history and records of casualties showed that each patient had different disease and there was no clustering of disease and no similar symptoms were found. He said the doctors’ team consulted 310 patients, 27 were screened for dengue and 51 for malaria with no positive results.

He said four of the recovered children had been diagnosed as malarial patients.

Published in Dawn, September 24th, 2018