KOHAT, April 14: The scheduled visit of President Pervez Musharraf to Kohat on April 16 to perform inauguration of the Kohat tunnel has been postponed due to security reasons.

Earlier, a visit of Begum Sehba Musharraf was also postponed last week after security agencies did not give clearance due to the continuing tension in the tribal areas, where two operations had been launched against anti-social elements and poppy cultivation.

The National Highway Authority, which had printed the invitation cards for April 16, had now invited Prime Minister Mir Zafarullah Jamali to inaugurate the tunnel on April 28.

Sources in the NHA said if the prime minister was not given clearance by the security agencies, then the NWFP Governor Syed Iftikhar Hussain Shah would be the chief guest on the occasion.

Lt-Gen Yousuf was to be pinned badges of the new colonel commandant of the Signals Corps whose headquarters is in Kohat.

Meanwhile, the tribesmen belonging to Darra Adamkhel have once again threatened that they would not allow the holding of the inauguration ceremony of the Kohat tunnel unless the NHA compensated them for excavating the mountain owned by them.