MANSEHRA: Nazimeen Ittehad, a body of nazims of village and neighbourhood councils, has threatened to launch a protest campaign if the provincial government doesn’t start reconstruction of the Oghi tehsil hospital immediately.

“People are deprived of health facilities since the tehsil hospital was destroyed in the 2005 earthquake as the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government suspended construction of this important health project some six months ago,” Khalid Hussain, president of Nazimeen Ittehad, told a press conference in Oghi on Sunday. He said the project was launched at a cost of Rs250 million.

Flanked by the body’s general secretary Ghulam Mohammad, Mr Hussain said the contractor had left the work after digging the land.

“If the government doesn’t start construction on the hospital within a week, we will block Oghi-Mansehra road for an indefinite period,” said Mr Hussain.

On the occasion, Ghulam Mohammad said Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf government should take strict legal action against those responsible for suspension of construction work on the hospital.

“Patients, including women and children, are taken to other parts of Hazara for treatment because of non-availability of health facility in Oghi,” said Mr Mohammad.

SEVEN INJURED ON ROAD: Seven people, including three women, sustained critical injuries when a roadside tree fell on three moving vehicles on Karakoram Highway in Dodial area on Sunday.

The traffic remained suspended until excavators removed the tree from the road.

The injured were taken to King Abdullah Teaching Hospital where condition of two of them was stated to be serious.

As a result of tree collapse, power pylons also fell to the ground disconnecting electricity to the entire area.

Published in Dawn, August 20th, 2018