KOHAT: More than 100 contract employees of the Kohat Friendship tunnel demonstrated outside the press club here on Monday against delay in payment of July salary.

The protesters walked to the Martyrs Square where they held a public gathering, carrying placards inscribed with their demands. They chanted slogans against the National Highway Authority, saying after agitation they were paid the June salary in first week of August, but the July salary was still pending.

They said they had been working on contract for last 16 years, but the NHA had not regularised their services.

An official of NHA, Shahid Nadeem, said the workers would be paid salary on August 8, clarifying that under the agreement, the services of contract employees could not be made permanent.

POPULATION CONTROL: Speakers at a seminar on Monday expressed concern over unprecedented population growth against scarce resources and termed it a scourge behind increasing poverty.

The seminar on concept of gap in birth and population control in Islam was attended by district population welfare officer Ghulam Fareed Khan, deputy director population welfare Bashir Mohammad, and Islamic scholars Qari Mohammad Tufail, Mufti Naeem, Dr Niaz Ahmed and others.

Mr Fareed called for a plausible solution to controlling the population as nearly half of the population was living below the poverty line.

Qari Tufail said Muslims turned towards Quran and Sunnah of Muhammad (PBUH) for their guidance and success in grave situations and solutions could be found for every problem.

Bashir Mohammad said Islam was not restricted to only worships but was a collective system, a whole civilisation and culture.

POWER BREAKDOWN: The residents of Kohat and Hangu suffered power breakdown on Sunday night after a pylon of 132KV transmission line fell in the mountains of Darra Adamkhel.

SDO grids Altaf Khan told Dawn on Monday afternoon that power supply had been restored to 90 per cent areas of the region. But in fact, the main bazaar and half of the city remained without electricity till 5pm.

The people could not sleep the whole Sunday night, while the businessmen experienced a lot of trouble on Monday in the scorching heat.

ILLEGAL CATTLE MARKETS RAZED: The administration on Monday demolished illegal cattle markets along the Hangu Highway and arrested four people.

Additional assistant commissioner Tahir Ali accompanied by tehsil municipal administration staff raided the illegal markets in Mohammadzai and Nasratkhel areas and uprooted the tents. Their owners were fined and sent to jail.

Published in Dawn, August 6th, 2019