KOHAT: Parking of a large number of Afghan transit trade trailers on the left side of the single-lane Kohat-Peshawar highway keeps the traffic choked till the heavy vehicles start moving after the sunset.

The problem becomes acute when buses and vans coming from DI Khan, Lakki Marwat, Tank, Bannu, Orakzai, Kurram, Hangu and Waziristan districts take and disembark passengers.

The commuters demanded that an alternate route should be constructed for the heavy traffic.

The government had planned a 339-kilometre-long motorway, a part of CPEC between Peshawar and DI Khan covering Darra Adamkhel and other districts at a cost of Rs250 billion, but the mega project is being delayed unnecessarily.

“It will connect southern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa with rest of the country,” said an official of the National Highway Authority.

Another 123-kilometre-long dual carriage way starting from Kohat and ending at Gambela Bridge in Lakki Marwat was planned, but it excluded Darra to Peshawar routes, he added.

A traffic warden said hundreds of trailers started their journey from Karachi dry port for Afghanistan and after crossing the 11-kilomre-long hilly track between Darra and Kohat they were allowed to move onwards after evening.

He said the road was narrow and the huge trailers occupied most of the space, causing traffic mess.

Khalid Khan, a banker, regretted that there was no traffic warden or police official on the road to control traffic.

Commuter Khan Beg said due to rush a 60-kilometre distance took three hours to cover.

Meanwhile, state minister Shehryar Khan Afridi, MNA from Karak Shahid Khattak and MPA from Hangu Shakir Zahoor called on IGP Sanaullah Abbasi and asked him to sort out the issue. The police chief promised to find a way to the problem.

MAN HELD WITH 10KG HASHISH: Acting on a tip-off, the cantonment police arrested a young man and seized 10 kilogrammes of hashish being smuggled from Kaghazai to the Kohat city on Friday.

SHO Qismat Khan said the man, identified as Gul Nawaz, was trying to smuggle the contraband in a guava crate.

Meanwhile, the Jarma police on Friday arrested a four-member gang of thieves who looted four shops in Khwasi Banda on August 20.

They were named Arif, the gang leader, and his accomplices, Hashim, Abdus Salam and Hanif.

Also in the day, the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Food Safety and Halal Food Authority officials sealed two bakeries and a shop for unhygienic conditions and selling expired items, and fined the owners Rs25,000 each.

Published in Dawn, September 12th, 2020