MANSEHRA: Hundreds of workers of the Suki Kanari hydropower project on Tuesday announced that they would take to the streets today (Wednesday) against their company for violating the last month’s bilateral agreement.

“The company had agreed with us that it would not only restore over 900 workers, who had quarantined themselves due to coronavirus, but it would also pay them the five months withheld salaries. However, it has now breached the agreement,” labour union president Tahir Hussain Shah told reporters in Balakot area.

Mr Shah said the union’s general body had decided to demonstrate peacefully on Wednesday and if their demands were not met, they would block the Mansehra-Naran-Jalkhad Road for an undefined period.

“We [workers] met the Balakot assistant commissioner and handed over a copy of the agreement to him for necessary action, but no to avail. Now, we have decided to stage protests to claim rights,” he said.

The union leader said the prolonged non-payment of salary to workers had left their lives miserable.

Meanwhile, former forest minister Mohammad Ibrar Tanoli has alleged that federal minister Azam Khan Swati and his younger brother and MPA, Laiq Mohammad Khan, harboured land grabbers to occupy his commercial land in Galla Ghazikot area near here.

“The police have arrested my brother, nephew and other relatives at the behest of minister Azam Khan Swati and MPA Laiq Mohammad Khan,” Mr Tanoli told reporters here on Tuesday.

Accompanied by the Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Fazl leaders, he said he had secured the pre-arrest bail after armed men attempted to grab his land amid resistance by his family members.

“The police seized my licensed arms and thrashed my brother and nephews during the raid,” he said.

Published in Dawn, July 8th, 2020