FAISALABAD, April 1: A schoolteacher, her husband and a one-year-old daughter were kidnapped on Saturday by armed men to take revenge of elopement of a girl with a youth of teacher’s family in Kukarwala village of Union Council 149, Dijkot.

Nafeesa, who had eloped with her lover Naveed a couple of years back, was forced to return due to the pressure on youth’s family by panchayat. However, the girl again left the house with his alleged husband a few months ago which infuriated her relatives.

On Saturday, gunmen in two cars intercepted Noor Ahmed, cousin of Naveed, and abducted him along with his wife Nadeema Malik and one-year-old daughter Amina. They shifted the kidnapped family to some unknown place and reportedly threatened to kill them if the family of Naveed did not return Nafeesa.

Dijkot SHO Rana Umer Draz said that some vital information about abductors had been received and the accused would be rounded up within 24 hours.

He confirmed the report that the elopement incident was behind the kidnap of the family of three.

NHA: National Highway Authority chairman Maj-Gen Farrukh Jawed has said the country had been sustaining a loss of Rs90 billion annually due to laxity in enforcement of the National Roads Safety Ordinance, 2002.

He was speaking at the Faisalabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry (FCCI) here on Saturday.

He said due to strong policies of the NHA the loss had been reduced from Rs190 billion to Rs90 billion. However, there was a lot of room to improve the situation for which both the vehicle owners and the government agencies would have to play their role.

He said a National Trade Corridor had been planned to convert the country into a hub of economic activity by providing durable, safe and secure roads network at an estimated cost of around $10 billion. This gigantic project would be completed within 10 years for which consultation was in progress with a number of international developer agencies.

He said the total length of roads was 260,000 kilometres of which the length of motorways was 457 kilometres and highways was 9,518 kilometres. Around 95 per cent traffic of freight vehicles passed through highways and motorways.

He said Pakistan had embarked on gigantic projects of highways construction to link with Central Asian states. After completion of these projects, Pakistan’s trade with neighbouring countries and Asian states would increase manifold.

Gen Farrukh said the construction of 75-kilometre road from Torkham to Jalalabad was being constructed for which Pakistan has granted a loan of $1 million.

About the Motorway-4 between Faisalabad and Khanewal, he said the work on 184-kilometres-long stretch was expected to start within six months.

“We have not yet decided that it will be undertaken on the basis of BOT or Public Private Partnership. We are still working to decide that if M-4 should be of four or six lanes.”

He said technical alignment of this road has been finalised and work for the demarcation of the land has been started. The project is expected to be completed within four years, he added.

He said immediate measures to check overloading would have adverse impact on exports and imports and assured that FCCI recommendations would be forwarded to the Ministry of Communication for necessary remedial measures.

FCCI president Mian Hanif highlighted the importance of roads and said Faisalabad Industrial Estate Development and Management Company has decided to set up an industrial city along M-3 to exploit the potentials of this motorway.