0
CHITRAL, June 24: People cheated by a fake overseas employment agent have urged the government to help them get their money back from the swindler and threatened to take extreme action if this is not done.
Speaking at a joint press conference here on Thursday, seven affected people, belonging to Reshun village, said that in 2001 Fazluddin, a resident of Drosh, introduced himself as an overseas employment agent and promised them if they deposited Rs0.2 million each he would send them to Dubai. They said they paid Rs1.8 million to the man but nothing happened after that.
They said Fazluddin went in hiding in Islamabad for two years and returned to his village last year but was refusing to return their money. Some of the victims said they had borrowed the money from banks and were now facing arrests due to non-payment of loan.
TRANSFER: Chitral Food Controller Mohammad Iqbal has been replaced by Rauf Aman, who has assumed charge of his office.
PROTEST: Clerks of different departments of the district government observed a token hunger strike and an hour long pen down strike to protest against curtailment of budget for non-salary components.
They alleged that after the devolution of power, the budget had been reduced and said that before the devolution, the amount under that head used to be RS43.4 million which had been decreased to Rs25 million.
They further alleged that it had happened due to incompetence of the district finance and planning department.
Rejecting the district finance committee award, they said that step-motherly treatment was meted out to Chitral district for which the EDO finance and planning was responsible.
The clerks also criticized the local MPAs, and said that they had failed to represent the district in the province.
