KOHAT, June 9: Pandemonium marred the meeting of the Kohat town council when members chanted slogans against the city administration and locked up the offices of the audit and accounts department after the staff concerned was forced out of the premises.

Enraged members, including Haji Waris Khan, Haji Iftikhar and Fareed Khan, earlier staged a boycott of the session demanding strict action against the accounts and audit officers for not sanctioning bills of the employees appointed by members of the council.

They alleged that the accounts department was paying salaries to those employees who did not attend duty. Similarly, they alleged that the TMA engineering department had embezzled millions of rupees but the inquiry committee which was assigned the task to probe into the corruption charges had not taken any action against any official.

A press release issued here on Wednesday said that a meeting held under the chairmanship of Town Nazim Haji Sarfraz expressed anguish over the non-consideration of their resolutions by TMA officials.

He asked the district nazim Malik Asad to intervene and punish corrupt officials of the TMA otherwise their boycott of the town council meetings would continue.

The meeting took strong exception to the fact that the TMA intentionally kept town members in the dark about various projects and payment of bills because the officials were involved in extorting money from contractors.

Opinion

Editorial

Sustainable path?
13 Jun, 2026

Sustainable path?

THE FY27 budget is the first clear signal that the government is ready to transition from stabilisation to growth ...
Prioritising education
13 Jun, 2026

Prioritising education

THOUGH the improvement in the country’s literacy rate may be slight, as highlighted by the Economic Survey, it ...
Poverty’s rise
13 Jun, 2026

Poverty’s rise

AS attention turns to the government’s plans for the coming fiscal year, one set of figures deserves particular...
A difficult story
Updated 12 Jun, 2026

A difficult story

Unless productivity becomes the dominant target of economic policy, Pakistan will continue to oscillate between crises and fragile recovery.
Rough waters
12 Jun, 2026

Rough waters

AMONGST the key potential triggers for fresh conflict in South Asia is water. The Indian state is behaving in an...
Politicised football
12 Jun, 2026

Politicised football

ALMOST three-and-half years since Lionel Messi led Argentina to FIFA World Cup glory, the latest edition of...