MANSEHRA: Two persons, including a driver at the Dasu hydropower project, were killed in separate road accidents here on Sunday, rescue officials said.

Rescue 1122 official Abdul Rehman told reporters that Sher Zaman, driver of a dumper truck carrying gravel to the Dasu dam site, was killed when the vehicle plunged into the River Indus in Upper Kohistan district.

He said the incident occurred at the dam site, adding flooding in the river was hampering the search for the body.

He said the dumper was pulled from the river with a shovel machine.

Meanwhile, another man died when a truck he was driving fell into a gorge in Lower Kohistan on Sunday, a rescue official said. He added the deceased, Ibrarul Haq, belonged to Mansehra. The official said the accident occurred due to over-speeding.

Also in the day, a man shot dead his elder brother in the jurisdiction of the Mansehra city police station.

The family members rushed the injured, Hasrat Khan, to the King Abdullah Teaching Hospital, where he succumbed to injuries.

The body was handed over to the family after completing the medico-legal formalities.

Sardar Bahadur, a brother of the deceased, got an FIR registered with the city police station against his brother, Mohsin Khan.

HAZARA PROVINCE: Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz’s central vice-president Sardar Mohammad Yusuf on Sunday said his party would soon table a resolution in the National Assembly seeking the province’s status for Hazara division.

“A standing committee of the lower house has finalised the draft resolution of Hazara province, which would shortly be tabled in the house after consultation with our partners in the governing alliance,” Mr Yusuf told reporters at the press club here.

Sardar Shahjehan Yusuf, an adviser to the prime minister and also the son of PML-N’s senior leader, was also present at the presser.

The PML-N senior vice-president said more federating units were needed for good governance and to effectively deal with political and economic challenges faced by the country.

“We are in contact with political parties and are optimistic the Hazara province’s resolution would be approved with a thumping majority,” he said.

Mr Yusuf, who also remained his party’s parliamentary leader in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly, said Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf was having no moral ground to demand elections in KP and Punjab as it had ‘deprived’ the people of both the federating units of their rights.

Published in Dawn, May 1st, 2023