MANSEHRA: Residents on Monday threatened street agitation if the authorities didn’t immediately restore a dirt track, which was washed away in recent flash floods in Dubair Valley of Lower Kohistan district.
“Residents of Upper and Lower Dubair Valley are unable to shift patients to health facilities and bring food supplies to the region due to the destruction of the jeep-able track,” Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Fazl leader Salauddin Khan told reporters.
Leading a group of residents, he said excavators provided by the district administration were out of order, preventing the restoration of the track, built along a local stream.
“We approached the district administration to deploy new machinery to the area, but to no avail,” Mr Khan regretted.
“Wapda and the district administration had promised to station machinery in the area during the monsoon season to keep the track intact until a proper road was built, but to no effect.
The JUI-F leader asked Wapda to issue a warning before opening the spillway of the Dubair hydropower station’s reservoir, as several people had lost their lives in recent years due to the sudden opening of spillways.
GAS SUPPLY PROJECT: Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz leader and former MNA Captain retired Mohammad Safdar on Sunday said the federal government was providing gas to the Agror, Tanawal and Baffa-Pakhal areas under a Rs34 billion scheme.
“Our leader, Nawaz Sharif, firmly believes in bringing prosperity to people through development projects,” he said while speaking at a meeting held in the Pulrah area here.
Mr Safdar, who is also the son-in-law of former prime minister Nawaz Sharif, said: “With the supply of natural gas to forest-rich parts of the district, deforestation will decline significantly.”
He said women, children and elderly people in the Tarangri Sabir Shah area were falling victim to hepatitis C due to the absence of potable water.
Mr Safdar claimed that the PML-N’s popularity was rapidly increasing as it had secured eight seats in the Gilgit-Baltistan elections and had now ‘won’ the elections in Azad Jammu and Kashmir.
Published in Dawn, August 11th, 2026
