CHITRAL: The people intending to go to Saudi Arabia for performing Haj and Umra have demanded establishment of a biometric verification centre in Chitral to facilitate them in speedy issuance of visas.

They complained that for giving biometric thump impression they had to travel to Peshawar at great expense in order to be issued visa by the Saudi embassy.

The visa applicants told Dawn that Chitral should not be taken at par with the other districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa which were well-connected with the provincial capital by roads. They said for people of Chitral it took three days to reach Peshawar.

They said travel expenses incurred on their travel to Peshawar added to the overall expenditures on performance of Haj and Umra, which was not possible for the poor people.

They accused the federal ministry of religious affairs of ignoring the difficulties of the pilgrims from Chitral who travelled for 12 hours to reach Peshawar for fulfilling a requirement which could easily be arranged in the district.

They said the ministry was bound to carry out a proper survey for giving advice to the Saudi Embassy to open biometric verification centres on need basis as the Saudi authorities were unaware of the geography of Chitral. They said the local Nadra office could also be entrusted to carry out the process of biometric verification.

PREPAREDNESS FOR NATURAL DISASTERS: Speakers at the concluding ceremony of a five-day training on ‘preparedness for natural disasters’ the other day stressed the need for creating resilience among the vulnerable people in Chitral which is prone to a number of natural hazards.

Arranged by Aga Khan Agency for Habitat, the training programme was participated by the volunteers and councillors of Broze union council which had been severely hit by the flash floods in 2015.

The agency’s regional programme manager, Mohammad Karam, programme managers Amir Mohammad, Wali Mohammad, Nusrat Bibi and the community members expressed their views about the importance of the training on preparing the people vulnerable to natural disasters.

They said preparedness was important to save human lives in such situations. They said the organisation had so far trained over 36,000 local community members as a first responder with provision of over 90 stockpiles to effectively respond to disasters.

Published in Dawn, April 5th, 2019