HARIPUR: The Model Court Haripur has acquitted a QWP former MPA and his accomplices in the rocket attack case following their appearance in the court, Khursheed Azhar Advocate, the counsel for the former lawmaker, said on Sunday.

According to him, on August 26, 2013, an FIR was registered with Khalabat Township police, wherein complainant Zulfiqar Ahmed Khan had accused QWP former MPA Gohar Nawaz Khan, his relatives and accomplices of attacking his vehicle with rocket launcher near CNG Tarbela Road.

In the attack, a shopkeeper and a passerby were killed, however, the complainant survived the attack.

After remaining under trial for almost six years, the newly-established model court presided over by judge Khalid Mehmood pronounced the evidence insufficient and acquitted all the accused of the case.

The families of former lawmaker and complainant, Zulfiqar, who happened to be close relatives, had been in rivalry since 2008 elections and both sides have lost over half a dozen men to the feud, including former provincial minister Akhtar Nawaz Khan and former tehsil nazim Iftikhar Ahmed Khan.

TEACHERS SEEK PAY RAISE: Tanzeem-i-Asatiza Pakistan (TAP) has demanded of the government to give pay raise to teachers in the coming budget with the ratio of price hike as the disparity between their salary and the prices of kitchen items had made it difficult for them to make both ends meet.

The demand was made during a meeting of Haripur chapter of TAP chaired by its district president Amir Attique Siddiqui on Sunday.

The participants through unanimously adopted resolutions demanded that since the price hike in the kitchen items had made the life difficult for the salaried class, the government should increase the salary of teachers by a minimum Rs10,000. He said teaching allowance should also be given to them on the pattern of health department and judiciary.

The participants also demanded utility allowance, and stoppage of deduction of conveyance allowance from the salaries of teachers during vacations. The teachers’ body also demanded that subject specialist teachers should be given grade 17 and all the vacant posts in the education department should be filled.

Published in Dawn, May 13th, 2019