KOHAT: Leaders of Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Fazl said at a protest demonstration against price hike here on Thursday that hoarded wheat was being smuggled to Afghanistan under the patronage of what they called the ‘corrupt’ Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government.

They alleged that the government had created artificial shortage of wheat and flour. They said that after 10 years of its rule the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf had got no roadmap and failed to feel the pulse of the poor people.

A large number of party workers from the whole district participated in the protest against the provincial government and the record inflation. The protesters were addressed by city mayor Qari Sher Zaman, acting JUI-F district chief Maulana Sardar Ali, provincial leader and former district nazim Seth Gohar Saifullah Bangash, Hamid Mehmood and others.

Gohar Saifullah said that when he was coming to Kohat city for aprotest he saw women who had blocked the Hangu road. He said he took them to the utility stores outlet and got them flour.

The protesters demanded the administration to form monitoring committees at the village council level for ensuring flour supply to the deserving people.

They criticised the government for violating the oath they had taken to serve the people honestly. They claimed that after getting billions of royalty of oil and gas and National Finance Commission awards the provincial government had been claiming that it had no money to pay salaries and restart projects which had hit snags since 2020.

FIRST FEMALE OFFICER: The Pesco Kohat got the first female officer at its Rawalpindi road grid station here on Thursday.

Ms Kiran took charge of her new assignment as regional engineer after the transfer of her predecessor, SDO Mohammad Bashir, to Ustarzai subdivision.

Earlier, she had been serving at Shahi Bagh grid station in Peshawar.

Published in Dawn, January 13th, 2023