KOHAT: The business, political and social circles have demanded construction of a motorway along the Kohat-Parachinar trade route to connect Pakistan with the Central Asian Republics.

They also called for converting the Kohat small industrial estate into a special economic zone.

Chairman of Parachinar reforms committee Attaullah Ghilgi, president of Kohat Chamber of Commerce and Industry Rasheed Paracaha, former MPA Syed Qalbe Hassan, chairman of Kachai village council Bilal Bangash and others made the demand while speaking at a meeting held here the other day.

They lamented that former military ruler Gen retried Pervez Musharraf had announced constructing motorway along the route, but the idea was dropped for unknown reasons.

They said motorways were constructed in the northern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, but the southern region was ignored.

They said trade activity had never stopped with Afghanistan by road even during wars and now memoranda of understanding were being signed to promote trade with CARs. Therefore, they said a motorway would serve the purpose.

BODY FOUND: The body of a young man was found in the Sawa Lakh graveyard on Friday night.

SHO city Hamayun Khan said the body bore bullet marks.

A brother of the victim, identified as Saqib of Gahri Mawaz Khan area, later registered an FIR against their rivals, Fazale Haq and his son, Waqarul Haq. The police later arrested them.

POWER OUTAGES: The residents have complained about frequent suspension of electricity supply to Kohat in the name of repairs at the Rawalpindi Road grid station, compounding their miseries in hot weather.

They said power suspensions disrupted business activities. They added last week Pesco had notified disconnecting electricity supply from 8am to 5pm twice for carrying out repairs at the grid situation. However, they said hide and seek of electricity continued even during the night.

Local Pesco officials said the overloaded grid station often developed faults, necessitating repairs.

Published in Dawn, March 20th, 2022