KOHAT: Chairman of the district development advisory committee MPA Ziaullah Bangash has said Rs370 million have been allocated in the budget for long-awaited widening of the Shah Faisal Gate Road.

He said the road would be widened from the Kutchery Chowk to the Shaheen Plaza to rid the people of traffic jams.

He said the traffic mess had been created because of influx of IDPs from the tribal districts, who mostly drove pick-up vans and rickshaws.

In a statement issued here on Monday, he said demarcation of shops to be removed from the area had been completed years ago, but due to paucity of funds the project was being delayed.

BIRTH ANNIVERSARY: Speaking at functions to mark the 68th birth anniversary of late prime minister Benazir Bhutto on Monday, Pakistan Peoples Party local leaders and workers stressed that country needed her philosophy and thinking to become a true democratic state.

They vowed to follow in the footsteps of the martyred leader who sacrificed her life for the country and democracy.

A function was held in Ustarzai at the residence of former chief justice of Peshawar High Court Syed Ibne Ali.

PPP provincial deputy finance secretary Dr Zulfiqar Shah, Kohat district president Abdur Rauf Advocate, divisional president Nadir Khattak, and others were present.

Another function was held at the hujra of Senator Shamim Afridi and MPA Amjid Afridi at Azeem Bagh.

The participants also cut a cake and offered Fateha for the departed soul.

In a separate development, the assistant commissioner, Lower Orakzai, said on Monday that five tribesmen had been arrested from Khwaja Khizar forest for secretly cutting the precious trees, and confiscated 500 maund of logs.

In a statement, he said the arrests were made during a raid.

“I have asked the forest department to shift the wood to the Kalaya headquarters and take further necessary action against the tribesmen under the law,” he said.

Also on Monday, the police recovered four stolen cars from a house in posh KDA Township.

District police officer Sohail Khalid said SHO Javed Khan raided a house in Sector 6 and seized four cars. The owner of the house and ring leader of carjackers, Zahid Afridi, managed to escape.

Published in Dawn, June 22nd, 2021