HARIPUR: The provincial government has not fulfilled the promises made with the people of two remote union councils here for voluntarily stopping opium cultivation even after the lapse of two decades.
Talking to mediapersons here on Friday, Khanzada Hayat Khan Tanoli Advocate, convener of Ghazi tehsil council, and Qari Noor Hussain Tanoli, Baitgali village council chairman, said they had met the deputy commissioner and the district police officer requesting the fulfillment of the promises made with elders in 1983.
They said that for centuries, the residents of Baitgali and Amazi union councils used to grow poppy as their primary source of income. “However, on international pressure the then government engaged the local elders, who convinced the growers to stop cultivating poppy. After long parleys held between the elders and the government officials an agreement was made offering certain incentives for the farmers against the poppy crop,” they said.
According to that agreement, they said that the people were promised free electricity supply, employment for youth both within and outside the country, job quota in Gadoon Amazai Industrial Estate and restoration of infrastructure such as roads. But unfortunately these promises could not be fulfilled even after lapse of 15 years, they lamented.
LG members say govt promised free electricity, jobs to residents of two remote UCs in 1983
Sharing the hardships of people, the local government representatives said that due to the absence of a fully-equipped healthcare facility in the area, patients suffered a lot, while poor condition of roads and school buildings reflected on the pathetic attitude of successive governments towards the residents of the two remote union councils of Haripur. They demanded that the federal and provincial governments ensure the implementation of the agreement.
LAID TO REST: Former chairman KP Services Tribunal and district and sessions judge Ahmed Sultan Tareen was laid to rest at his ancestral graveyard in Chohr Sharif village here.
He suffered cardiac arrest and was shifted to the CMH Peshawar where he breathed his last on Thursday morning, his family said. He was 62 and left behind a widow and a daughter to mourn.
Peshawar High Court Chief Justice Ishtiaq Ibrahim, Justice Ateeq Shah, judges of the lower judiciary from different parts of the province, former speaker Maj Retired Habibullah Khan, Opposition Leader in National Assembly Omar Ayub Khan, former MNA Raja Amir, former provincial minister Yousuf Ayub Khan, former chief minister Pir Sabir Shah, lawyers and local government representatives were prominent among those who attended the funeral prayers.
Published in Dawn, January 11th, 2025
