MANSEHRA: The tribesmen from Kolai area on Saturday staged a sit-in on the Palas Bridge blocking the only road linking Kolai-Palas with the rest of the province and demanded of Chief Minister Mahmood Khan to de-notify Sair Ghaziabad as the district headquarters.

“Our protest will continue till the entire district administration leaves Sair Ghaziabad and the chief minister announces restoration of Batara as the district headquarters of Kolai-Palas,” Ali Gohar Azad, a local elder, told the protesters who staged a sit-in on the Palas Bridge after marching all the way to Sair Ghaziabad from Kolai.

The protesters, who had started marching on Sair Ghaziabad on Friday morning, reached the Palas Bridge built on the Indus River on Saturday morning and blocked it to traffic.

Mr Azad said the protesters would not end the sit-in until their demand of annulling Sair Ghaziabad as the district headquarters was accepted.

“We want the chief minister to realise the sensitivity of the situation on the ground and restore Batara as the district headquarters of Kolai-Palas,” said Qazi Saifullah, another elder.

Ask govt to declare Batara as HQs of Kolai-Palas district

Meanwhile, Kolai-Palas deputy commissioner Tariq Khan and DPO Said Mukhtar Shah also held talks with the elders of Kolai to defuse tension, but these remained inconclusive till evening.

In 2017, former chief minister Pervez Khattak had given Kolai-Palas the status of a district and notified Batara as its headquarters.

INVESTMENT SOUGHT: Provincial minster for housing Dr Amjid Ali has invited expatriate Pakistanis to invest in real estate business in the province to enjoy tax relief and other incentives.

“The government has been following the prime minister’s vision to ensure provision of around 1.4 million houses to families who are without their own residential facilities across Khyber Pakhtunkhwa,” Dr Ali said while addressing the inaugural gathering of a private housing scheme here on Saturday.

He said the provincial government was giving incentives to the housing and construction industry in order to provide small and medium residences to the families and create employment opportunities.

“We have been focusing on the housing sector as almost 32 industries related with this sector will flourish in the province,” he said.

The minister said that a relief package had been announced for the housing sector to attract more and more investors to meet the target of required housing units as the government alone couldn’t provide housing facilities to those who did not have residential facility in the province.

“This scheme will provide houses to over 500 families on easy instalments,” Dr Ali said.

Published in Dawn, April 11th, 2021