SWABI: A weekly fair was launched in Gandaf area of the mountainous Gadoon Amazai region here on Sunday to provide basic commodities of life to the people at concessional rates.

Topi tehsil council chairman Rahim Jadoon, former provincial food minister Ghafoor Khan Jadoon, president of Gadoon Industrial Association Fazal Rahim Jadoon, president Topi bar association Changaiz Khan and officials of tehsil municipal administration were present at the inaugural ceremony.

Addressing the ceremony, Rahim Jadoon said they were grateful to the Gandaf people for providing the land for holding the fair. He said the fair would be held on every Sunday, providing an opportunity to people of Gadoon region and workers of the industrial estate to purchase different commodities at concessional prices amid high inflation.

“This is the contribution we are making to provide the people with a chance to buy commodities at their doorstep,” he said, adding residents of 85 villages of Gadoon region could visit the fair to purchase goods at fair prices. He said a cattle market would also be part of the Sunday fair.

When contacted, TMA officials told Dawn that the fair would be a source of income for the municipal body, besides facilitating the people and workers of Gadoon estate.

CASE HEARING: Former adviser to the chief minister on industry Abdul Karim would appear in Peshawar High Court on Monday (today) in a corruption case, PTI’s former MPA Rangaiz Khan and other leaders said here on Sunday.

They said Mr Karim had approached the high court after his bail application was rejected by a local court.

Mr Karim has been behind bars for over a month and a half in a case relating to appointment of a peon in a government school in his constituency during the tenure of the PTI government.

The peon was appointed in government primary school in Tordher by the education department by relaxing his age on the directives of the secretary education on Mr Karim’s request.

Anwar Haqdad, former PTI district president, said an FIR was registered against Mr Karim by Anti-Corruption Establishment in the aforementioned case.

He was arrested on July 4 from Anti-Terrorism Court, Mardan, after his pre-arrest bail plea was rejected in a case registered against PTI leaders and workers for blocking the Islamabad-Peshawar Motorway and setting on fire two toll plazas at the Swabi Interchange on May 9 as they were protesting against the arrest of former prime minister Imran Khan.

Published in Dawn, August 21st, 2023