KOHAT: The Kohat Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KCCI) on Monday demanded smooth gas supply to the small industrial estate here and provision of foolproof security to the industrialists and their workers.

The chamber leaders made the demand during a meeting with the officials of the Small Industries Development Board, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

The board’s deputy general manager Fayyaz Khan told the meeting that they were working on a project to provide the investors with interest-free loans and attract more investors to the Kohat estate to generate unemployment for locals.

The industrialists included founding member of KCCI Rasheed Paracha, Moheet Khattak, Faheemullah, Mohammad Jamal, Mohammad Shakeel, Tahir, Malik Iqbal and others.

Deputy director of Kohat industrial estate Jehangir Khan, deputy commissioner Dr Azmatullah Wazir and district police officer Farhan Khan were also present.

KCCI former head Rasheed Paracha asked for cancellation of 12 to 14 plots illegally allotted to a single influential party in 1984.

He said a plot holder was bound to build a factory on the land within two years of the purchase, but in some cases plots were lying unused for years.

He also demanded cancelling ownership of more than one plots by one party.

APPOINTMENT: Local welfare bodies have resented the appointment of a grade-18 officer as the district health officer, Kohat, and demanded reversal of the decision and appointing a local doctor to the grade-20 post.

The demand was made by president of Junglekhel society Habib Shah, and Kohat welfare organisation chief Shah Nawaz while speaking at a meeting here on Monday.

They asked adviser to the chief minister, Rehmat Salam Khattak and former chief minister Akram Durrani to adjust the newly-posted district health officer Aleem Khattak in their home districts of Karak and Bannu.

They also asked former district nazim Seth Gohar Saifullah and city mayor Qari Sher Zaman of JUI-F not to toe the line of the party and fight for the rights of Kohat.

They also criticised city mayor Sher Zaman, and former MNA Shehryar Afridi for their criminal silence over the injustices being done to Kohat.

They warned the governor, who is also from the JUI-F, to cancel the DHO’s appointment, otherwise all the political parties from Kohat would stage protests.

Published in Dawn, May 16th, 2023