KHAR: The much-delayed annual sports festival featuring private schools began here on Tuesday.

The opening ceremony of the tournament was held at the Bajaur Sports Complex attended by elders, sports fans, students and teachers of private schools, social and political activists.

The festival was inaugurated by All Private Schools Association, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa president Fazal Raziq.

On the occasion, Mr Raziq said sports activities were vital to keep the students fit. He criticised the government for not supporting the private schools in arranging such festivals. He was of the view that there were thousands of private schools in the province which played key role in promoting education, but the government did not provide any funds to them to organise sporting events.

On the occasion, all Bajaur private schools association president Bahadar Said highlighted the objectives of the festival, saying the annual sports festival had been organised for last several years to promote healthy and positive activities among the students.

A group of students performed traditional music and dance, drawing applause from the spectators.

THREATS TO JOURNALIST CONDEMNED: Journalists in Bajaur tribal district on Tuesday expressed grave concern over threats being hurled to a local reporter by unknown people for highlighting alleged corruption in a road project.

They expressed the concern at a meeting held at the Bajaur Press Club.

The participants said some persons phoned a reporter, Gul Kareem Khan, on Monday and warned him against highlighting the use of low quality material in a road project in Barang area.

They said the reporter had recorded the call made from unknown persons, which was also played during the meeting.

The participants condemned the threats to their colleague by ‘influential persons’ for performing his professional duties.

They termed the threats an attempt to pressurise the local journalists to not raise the ‘wrongdoings’ being committed in public welfare schemes.

They asked the officials of district administration and police to trace the people responsible for hurling threats to the reporter.

Published in Dawn, November 27th, 2019