MANSEHRA: The National Highway Authority missed the Independence Day deadline to open the Shah Maqsood–Mansehra section of Hazara Motorway to traffic troubling people bound for upper parts of Hazara, Gilgit-Baltistan, and Azad Jammu and Kashmir.

Mohammad Nasir, a tourist from Rawalpindi, told reporters that he covered 35km distancefrom Havelian to Mansehra in more than three hours after remaining stuck in massive traffic jam on the Karakoram Highway.

“Had the motorway been opened as announced by the authorities, we would have covered the distance in 20 minutes only,” he said.

Commissioner of Hazara division Zaheerul Islam had announced in June this year that the Shah Maqsood-Mansehra section of Hazara Motorway would be inaugurated by Aug 14.

The traffic jams are common on the KKH from Havelian to Mansehra before, during and after Eid days.

The tourists bound for Kaghan valley, Nathiagali and other places remained stranded on the section.

Asim Shahzad, the president of Jamaat-i-Islami’s Youth Wing, said a group of his party’s workers met the NHA high-ups last month and learned about the motorway’s opening by Aug 14, but that assertion turned out to be false.

He demanded the early opening of the motorway to ease the people’s misery.

VENUE CHANGED: The Khyber Medical University has changed the entry test centre from Mansehra to the Ayub Medical Hospital, Abbottabad, and informed candidates by SMS and email.

The entry test for the province’s medical colleges is scheduled to be held on Aug 25. The youths with 70 per cent marks in FSc (medical) are eligible to sit the test.

The KMU said the venue was changed after some parents complained about lack of facilities at Mansehra test venue.

Published in Dawn, August 16th, 2019