CHARSADDA: Employees of the tehsil municipal administration staged a demonstration at Farooq Azam Chowk here on Wednesday against alleged firing on the TMA’s anti-encroachment staff by the supporters of Qaumi Watan Party district chairman and former candidate for NA-25 Qaiser Jamal.

A verbal altercation took place between TMA anti-encroachment staff and Mr Jamal when the former attempted to remove posters and flags of QWP.

The TMA officials said according to instructions of the election commission, the encroachment staff was engaged in removal of posters and billboards of election candidates in Tehsil Bazaar Charsadda when the QWP leader came there and tried to stop them from doing so. They said he and his men also opened fire on the staff near the AG office on Peshawar Road, and also misbehaved with the TMA staff The city police also lodged a report against Mr Jamal on the complaint of tehsil municipal officer Waqas Ali.

However, Mr Jamal alleged the TMA encroachment staffers were tearing the posters of the party leader Aftab Ahmed Sherpao and provincial chairman Sikandar Hayat Sherpao, forcing the workers to stop them from doing so.

He said he told the TMA staffers that QWP workers would remove the posters themselves, on which the municipal employees behaved inappropriately with them and resorted to abusive language. He denied his men opened fire on TMA workers.

JAILED: Additional district and sessions judge/model court Abdul Hasan Mohmand awarded life imprisonment and a fine of Rs0.5 million to a drug dealer after finding him guilty of the offence here on Wednesday.

Hazrat Hussain, a resident of Bara area of Khyber district, was arrested from a truck carrying 36 kilogrammes of drugs on Dec 2, 2022.

Published in Dawn, February 15th, 2024