MIANWALI: Hundreds of residents of Kaloor Sharif, Isakhel tehsil of the district, on Thursday forcibly stopped the construction work on China-Pakistan Economic Corridor road in protest against the CPEC Authority’s decision not to build an interchange on Mianwali-Bannu road that was announced by ex-premier Shahid Khaqan Abbasi during the last PML-N government.

The 96-kilometre portion of the CPEC route’s packages II&III will pass through Mianwali and Isakhel tehsils. The package- II includes 51km portion of the route falling in Isakhel teshsil and package-III 45km in Mianwali tehsil.

The land for the construction of both the portions of the CPEC route in both tehsils has already been acquisitioned and the road construction work is in progress in the area.

Former PM Abassi, during his visit to the district, had announced in a public meeting that an interchange had been approved at Kaloor Sharif which would facilitate the movement of people and goods to and from 12 cities and hundreds of surrounding villages.

However, according to protesters, to their utter dismay, they had been in formed by the project officer that the promised interchange at Kaloor Sharif was not included in the final construction plan.

On knowing about the change in the plan, hundreds of locals gathered at the project site and forced the workers and engineers to stop the road construction work.

An official supervising the construction work held talks with the protesters and tried to pacify them by assuring that he would convey their demand to authorities concerned, butto no avail.

Local social workers–Mohammad Amir and Inayatullah Gorayia– in their speeches on the occasion vowed to continue the protest till acceptance of their demand.

Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf leader from Isakhel Jamal Ahsan Khan, arriving at the site, assured the protesters that he would himself take up the issue with Prime Minister Imran Khan seeking his nod for inclusion of the interchange in the plan again. Following the assurance, the protesters dispersed for the time being, pledging they won’t allow resumption of the road construction work unless their demand was accepted by the government.

Later, Jamal Khan told Dawn that the protesters were justified as the initial notification issued by the ex-PM Abbassi contained the interchange at Kaloor Sharif, but unfortunately now it seemed that the plan had been changed.

He said that he would seek appointment with the PM Khan as soon as possible and apprise him of the situation. He was optimistic that the PM would accept the people’s demand.

The project in charge could not be contacted for his version.

Published in Dawn, August 28th, 2020