KOHAT: The residents of Waziro Kalay area here have demanded construction of primary and middle schools to facilitate their children get education near their doorstep.

Speaking at a meeting here on Friday, Maulana Asmatullah, Mohammad Siddique, Ayub Khan and others said every household had four to five children whose future was being ruined due to absence of a school in the populated locality.

They said their children had to travel about four miles daily to attend schools.

The participants lamented that former chief minister Pervez Khattak accompanied by adviser MPA Ziaullah Bangash and state minister Sheharyar Afridi had come to their area during the last election campaign and promised resolution of their problems, but to no effect.

They said the KP-81 constituency could become prosperous if oil and gas royalty was judiciously spent. They said the area had been denied all basic amenities like roads, gas, electricity, hospital, playgrounds and paved streets.

They condemned the lawmakers for only coming to the area when they needed votes.

The villagers said in 2016 former provincial law minister Imtiaz Shahid Qureshi had announced Rs2.5 million for construction of a road and Rs2.5 million for a primary school, but the projects had been lying under dust.

They also accused MPA Shahadad Khan of paying no attention towards resolution of their problems.

They regretted the elders who ran campaigns for the lawmakers to make them successful in elections had also been ignored.

The Waziro Kalay residents lamented that the election promises made by the PTI lawmakers had proved hollow slogans.

Published in Dawn, February 6th, 2021