KARAK: The residents of Kurd Upper, Kurd Lower and Showanki areas on Tuesday demanded the setting up of a police checkpost to secure the lives and properties of the people from criminal gangs.

Talking to mediapersons here, Said Nawaz, Ali Jan, Ghafoor Khan and others said due to lack of a police checkpost criminals had established a safe haven in the region after sneaking into the mountainous belt from the Punjab province.

The locals said their cattle were taken away on numerous occasions, adding the bordering areas were totally neglected by the Karak police.

They said that the unarmed people could not challenge the criminals’ gangs without the help of police.

They demanded of the district police officer to issue directives for establishment of a checkpost on the Kurd-Mianwali Road to prevent the criminals from sneaking into the bordering region.

ROYALTY FUNDS: Orbal Tehreek, a local rights organisation, has demanded the direct distribution of the oil and gas royalty funds among the people instead of through the elected representatives.

Talking to mediapersons on Tuesday, the rights body’s president Qadir Shireen Advocate and Eng Ghaniur Rehman also demanded that misuse of such funds should be stopped.

They said royalty funds needed to be spent on development of the areas where oil and gas reserves had been discovered. They asked the people to support the Orbal Tehreek to secure their rights.

Published in Dawn, March 18th, 2020