MANSEHRA: Workers of the Suki Kanari hydropower project haven’t been allowed by their company to leave the project site here for around one year in the name of high coronavirus incidence, claim family members.

They demanded of the district administration to help end that restriction.

Relatives of the workers led by Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Youth Assembly member Shabbir Hussain Shah informed deputy commissioner Adnan Khan Bhittani about the issue during a meeting here on Monday.

Their relatives meet DC who promises early resolution of issue

Mr Shah later told reporters that the coronavirus-induced restrictions had been lifted across the country, so stopping the Suki Kanari project workers from visiting their families in the name of infection control was unjustified.

He said many workers, who left for their homes to see families, were laid off, so others didn’t follow the suit due to job insecurity.

The Youth Assembly’s member said he and other delegates met the deputy commissioner and informed him of the issue.

He said the DC promised the early resolution of the matter and tasked the assistant commissioner of Balakot with taking it up with the Chinese company to address the workers’ grievances.

ACCIDENT: A minor girl was run over and killed by a speeding pickup van in Malokra area of Oghi tehsil on Monday.

Her elder sister suffered critical injuries in the accident.

The van hit the two as they were returning home after buying goods from a local market.

The passersby shifted them to the Oghi civil hospital, where the doctors pronounced one of them aged five dead and referred the other aged 10 to the Ayub Medical Complex, Abbottabad, due to critical condition.

The people held driver Mohammad Sohail and handed him over to the police, who shifted him to the local police station for investigation.

Meanwhile, traders in Oghi area on Monday demanded of the Peshawar Electric Supply Company to stop the prolonged, unscheduled loadshedding in the name of maintenance.

Trader Saif Rehman told reporters that the Pesco suspended electricity from 8am to 4pm every alternate day and thus, badly hitting commercial activities.

He said the traders had already suffered a lot due to the coronavirus restrictions, so the prolonged power outages should end immediately.

Published in Dawn, February 15th, 2022