MANSEHRA: Transporters on Tuesday threatened to remove the toll tax plaza put up by the National Highway Authority on the Mansehra-Naran-Jalkhad Road in Balakot tehsil claiming the structure is illegal.

“If the administration doesn’t remove the illegal toll plaza within seven days, we [owners of public transport vehicles] will do it by ourselves,” Hazara Transporters Association president Jan Alam told reporters.

Accompanied by other association leaders, he said Mansehra was the only Khyber Pakhtunkhwa district, where the NHA collected toll.

He said Balakot tehsil had got tax exemption after being devastated by an earthquake in 2005, so the residents were opposed to toll collection.

Association general secretary Pervez Khan Swati said the transporters using Karakoram Highway paid toll in Khatain Da Galla area as well as at two points on the Hazara Expressway in Mansehra city, so the installation of the toll plaza was unjustified.

Meanwhile, the chairman and other members of tehsil councils in Mansehra district were sworn in on Tuesday.

District election commissioner Ishaq Khan Marwat administered the oath to local body representatives from Mansehra and Baffa-Pakhal tehsils.

Sheikh Mohammad Shafee, Ibrahim Shah and Sardar Shah Khan of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz took oath of the council chairman’s offices in Mansehra, Balakot and Baffa-Pakhal tehsils.

Mr Marwat administered the oath to Mr Shafee and Mr Sardar Shah and Election Officer 1 Mansehra Ahmad Junaid Wahidi to Mr Shah.

Oghi tehsil council members, including chairman Nawabzada Hassan of the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf, and those of Darband tehsil council, including chairman independent Dilbar Khan Tanoli, were sworn in by assistant commissioner Hasrat Khan in Oghi.

Published in Dawn, June 29th, 2022