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Sunday, March 30, 2014

Senate body to consult stakeholders on oil refinery

The Senate standing committee on petroleum and natural resources on Tuesday formed a three-member subcommittee to take all stakeholders on board about the selection of the site for construction of oil refinery and related issues.
The committee met here at the Commissioner’s House with its chairman, Senator Mohammad Yousuf, in the chair.
The Oil and Gas Development Company Limited officials, deputy managing director of Sui Northern Gas Pipelines Limited, managing director of Pakistan State Oil, representative of Hungarian MOL Company, local MNA Sheharyar Afridi, adviser to chief minister Amjid Khan Afridi, MPA Ziaullah Bangash, deputy speaker in the provincial assembly Imtiaz Shahid Qureshi, Kohat division commissioner Syed Jalaluddin and MPA Shah Faisal from Hangu, other officials concerned were in attendance.
The subcommittee comprising Senators Nabi Bangash, Talah Mahmood and Usman Saifullah has been tasked with visiting all sites of oil and gas exploration companies for discussion on the companies’ shares in the stock market, welfare programmes in the region other than royalty, LPG quota and implementation of job quota for local people in the companies in line with the Supreme Court decision.
The chair said 13 tons of LPG plant had been installed but gas was being given to outsiders.
He ordered allocation of all gas quota to the local businessmen saying such a small quantity could not be exported outside the district.
The chair expelled the SNGPL deputy managing director from the hall because managing director failed to attend the meeting despite intimation.
He said very important decisions had been taken in the meeting for which presence of signing authority was indispensable.
The committee advised the companies especially the PSO not to create confusion about the site of the construction of oil refinery and start work on it without further delay after selecting the district and site.
Source Dawn

Rules violated in Kohat varsity appointments

The syndicate of the Kohat University of Science and Technology has appointed 30 PhDs as assistant professors after approval by the selection board against the rules.
The assistant professors, who had completed their PhDs, were appointed in BPS-19 under the old Basic Pay Scale (BPS) system of appointment instead of the current tenure track (TT) system after three-day marathon meeting of the syndicate held recently, according to sources.
Under the rules, once university or degree-awarding institution adopts the TT system for appointments, PhD degree holders can’t be appointed assistant professors under the old BPS system.
The sources said the registrar of the university working in BPS-18 was also promoted to BPS-19 by the selection board and appointed in BPS system as assistant professor.
They said the registrar had been working in BPS-18 for two years and was awarded BPS-19 suddenly though under the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa University Act, 2012, the registrar should be an experienced officer of BPS-19 or above.
The sources said the registrar was serving in BPS-18 against the rules.
They said the syndicate approved the agenda in two days without putting it before the members for review 10 days before holding the meeting under the laws.
When contacted, the public relations officer of the university claimed that all appointments in the university had been made in line with the rules.
He said the syndicate met a fortnight ago with the vice chancellor in the chair and professors, assistant professors, deans and associate professors, who were changed after every three years to ensure transparency in the appointments, in attendance.The PRO said the selection board of every faculty was separate and when a large number of appointments were to be made, two PhDs were made part of the board as experts of the relevant subjects.
He said the members of the selection board, too, were changed after every three years.
Meanwhile, the students have demanded the immediate lifting of ban on their assembly and the transfer of the vice chancellor.
Source Dawn

Crackdown on power thieves in Kohat on cards

Kohat divisional commissioner Syed Jamaluddin has said a crackdown would be launched against power thieves in Kohat, Hangu and Karak districts to minimise loadshedding time.
Chairing a meeting in his office on Friday, he constituted a joint working committee comprising army officers and bureaucrats to monitor the affairs of Wapda, and directed it to submit its report every fortnight for providing relief to consumers. The committee would comprise station commander, Kohat, deputy inspector general of Kohat region, deputy commissioners and district police officers of the three districts.
Mr Jamaluddin said Wapda meter readers were putting burden of power theft on the consumers who paid bills regularly, and directed that the practice should be stopped forthwith.
He said that Wapda officials were involved in power theft and directed action against such elements. Army’s station commander, Pesco executive engineer, sub-divisional officers of Kohat, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly deputy speaker Imtiaz Shahid Qureshi, MNA Shehyar Afridi and other relevant officials were in attendance.
Mr Jamaluddin said that prior to launching of the crackdown a campaign would be started across the Kohat division to make people aware that power theft led to increased loadshedding and power breakdowns.
The commissioner asked that the Wapda officials to provide a list of the consumers who had not been paying power bills since long.
He also directed that the practice of severing connections to those consumers who paid bills regularly should be done away with and that influential people who got off the hook for stealing electricity should be taken to the task.
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly deputy speaker Imtiaz Qureshi said Wapda was responsible for power theft due to inefficiency and corruption. MNA Shehyar Afridi said a transformer at Rawalpindi road grid station had been damaged months ago, but it was not repaired, which was causing fluctuation in voltage and unscheduled loadshedding.
Source Dawn

Garbage recycling plant in Kohat soon

he Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government has approved a project to establish a garbage recycling plant in Kohat at a cost of Rs40 million.
District development advisory committee chairman MPA Ziaullah Bangash said this while speaking at a ceremony of handing over keys of two tractors with trolleys to the tehsil municipal administration, Kohat, here on Sunday. He hoped that with the provision of the tractors the TMA’s performance would improve to timely remove the garbage and keep the city clean.
He said that Minister for Local Bodies Inayatullah Khan had approved the tractors during his visit to the district. He said that the minister had also set aside more funds for such projects.
Chief municipal officer Mohammad Shoaib and Kohat district president of Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf Hamayun Pehlwan were also present on the occasion.
Sources said that a big amount of funds allocated earlier for Solid Waste Management Project had gone down the drain. The provincial urban development board had purchased 80 kanals on Bannu road for the project, but it could not take off.
The plan was to collect garbage from the whole city and recycle it for making fertiliser. The provincial government had also appointed full staff and paid them salaries for many years though the project was never executed.
Similarly, Rs120 million released by the Asian Development Bank in 1992 for improvement of sanitation system and construction of natural fertiliser recycling plants had been rendered useless. Sources said that the treatment plant completed with a cost of Rs25 million was never made operational even for a single time during past 12 years.
The aim was to keep the city clean by upgrading the existing system to cope with problems created by increasing population for next 15 years.

Source Dawn

Kohat to have power transformer repair facility

The government will set up a workshop for repair of power transformers in Kohat district, meeting a longstanding demand of the local people.
This was announced by MNA Shehryar Afridi while launching a cleanliness drive here the other day.
District development committee chairman MPA Ziaullah Bangash, chief municipal officer Mohammad Shoeb, PTI and JI workers were also present on the occasion.
Speaking at the ceremony, Mr Afridi and Mr Bangash warned the TMA workers, especially sweepers, of strict action if they didn’t stop absenting from duties.
Mr Afridi said that due to absence of workshop for repair of power transformers people had to pay extra money from their own pockets at the private workshops. He added that Wapda officials charged Rs9,000 to Rs20,000 for repairing a faulty feeder.
Mr Afridi said that people had been demanding establishment of such a workshop in Kohat region to facilitate people of Kurram and Orakzai Agencies, Karak, Hangu and FR Kohat.
The lawmaker said that though actual cost of repair of a power feeder was much lower, Wapda staff charged people heavily.
Mr Afridi also directed the executive officer of the communication and works department to start repair of dilapidated roads in Kohat city.
Source Dawn

Police operation against outlaws in Kohat

Police have arrested 2,231 alleged outlaws from different areas of Kohat district during their two-week campaign against anti-social elements and recovered weapons and explosives.
ASP Mansoor Aman told mediapersons on Friday that they had arrested nine proclaimed offenders and 222 alleged outlaws from different parts of the district and recovered weapons, drugs and explosives from their possession.
The seizure included 31 kilogrammes of explosive material, seven Kalashnikovs, one Kalakov, 37 pistols, nine shotguns, seven rifles, a hand grenade and 34 kilogrammes of hashish.
Mr Aman said that the police were interrogating the arrested persons to know about their plans.
Also, the police raided a house in Togh Bala village and arrested five alleged gamblers and took into custody the stake money of Rs26,900. The police registered a case and have sent them to prison on the court orders.
Source Dawn

Booksellers warned to remove hate material from shops

 The administration has set one week deadline for booksellers to voluntarily remove material spreading sectarian hatred in the society after which a crackdown will be carried out on those selling such literature.
Additional assistant commissioner Nisar Hussain, Iqrar Ali and Iftikhar Ahmed chaired a meeting of booksellers of the city and told them that in the light of orders by the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government they had been asked to take stern legal action and curb the sale of hate material.
The orders shall be applicable to the CD shop owners who sell Jehadi material to people and brainwash them. They requested the booksellers and CD shop owners to inform them about the sources of such material so that the menace could be weeded out from society.
They said that the government had imposed a ban on sale of such material. They said that the society was already divided among various sects and it was need of the time to promote harmony and brotherhood.
They warned that after one week the shops violating the orders would be sealed and the owners would be arrested under the law.
The booksellers present at the meeting promised to help the government in identification of people spreading hatred and remove all the controversial material from their shops.

Source Dawn

Would-be suicide bomber held

The police on Friday claimed to have arrested a would-be-suicide bomber in Nusratkhel area in Kohat district.They said the police barricaded a road and signaled a passenger van to stop. Upon search, the police arrested a would-be-suicide bomber, Amjad Noor.The personnel of the bomb disposal unit removed the suicide vest weighing up to 13 kilogram and defused it, they said.The police shifted the bomber to an unknown location for further interrogation. Sources said the security forces had launched search for his three other accomplices.

Source The News

Tuesday, March 11, 2014

CM approves dental college for Kohat


Source The News

Chief Minister Pervez Khattak has approved the establishment of a full-fledged dental college in Kohat and directed the authorities for arranging the required funds and building for the purpose.

The Institute of Dental Sciences would be established under the Khyber Medical University and will be equipped with all the required facilities of dentistry. It will be a teaching institute and will cater to the dental treatment needs of people from Parachinar, Miranshah, other parts of Fata and the vicinities of Attock and Nizampur.

The high-level meeting, that approved the decision, was held at the Chief Minister’s Secretariat presided over by the chief minister. It was attended by Minister for Health Shaukat Ali Yousafzai, Khyber Medical University Vice-Chancellor Prof Dr Mohammad Hafeezullah, Controller Dr Fazal Mehmood, Secretary Higher Education Farah Hamid, Special Secretary Health Akbar Khan and other relevant quarters of finance and law departments.

Seven die in Kohat road accident



At least seven people including two women died and 10 others got injured when their van and a loaded truck collided here at Gumbat area on Friday.
According to details, a passengers van (LES-2680) was on its way to Rawalpindi from Kohat when it collided with a truck (DIK-2125) on the Kohat-Rawalpindi Road here at Gumbat area of Kohat district. Seven persons died and 10 others sustained injuries. The injured were shifted to District Headquarters Hospital Kohat and Peshawar.
Two of the dead were identified as Zaman, driver, and Jehangir Khan. The cause of the accident was unknown till filing of this report. Rescue teams rushed to site following the incident and shifted the injured. Some of the injured are reportedly to be in critical condition. The truck driver has been arrested by police and is being interrogated.

Source THE NATION

Thursday, March 6, 2014

Arrest of ASWJ activists protested in Hangu


Source The News

 The activists of Ahle Sunnat Wal Jamaat (ASWJ) on Tuesday staged protest against the arrest of their colleagues.

The angry protesters blocked the Hangu-Kohat road for traffic for two hours and chanted slogans against the officials.Speaking on the occasion, the protesters led by Mufti Imran, Shad Muhammad Shinwari and others accused the police of harassing the ASWJ leaders. They alleged five cops of the Hangu Police Station had insulted ASWJ leader Mufti Imran. They asked the government to transfer the officials involved in manhandling the leader within three days.

The police claimed to have launched a crackdown against suspected persons in the Hangu town and adjoining areas. However, the ASWJ leaders claimed that their party activists had been arrested in the crackdown.

They warned of launching a protest campaign if the district administration continued, what they said was, harassing their party activists. They threatened to block the Hangu-Kohat road permanently if action was not taken against the corrupt officials in the district.

Leishmaniasis cases seen rising in Kohat


Source The News

The provincial government has failed to control leishmaniasis disease found in over 1,000 persons, including women and children, in the suburbs of Kohat city, sources said.

The sources said leishmaniasis had affected over 1,000 people mostly women and children in Barh, Jabbi and other areas for the last three months but the health authorities were keeping quiet over the issue.

Despite several attempts, District Health Officer Habibur Rehman did not attend the call as he had been in Peshawar for the last one week. When contacted, Assistant Commissioner Farrukh Attique said that he had discussed the issue with the DHO and asked him to take prompt action and send medical teams to the affected areas for vaccination. Meanwhile, Additional Assistant Commissioner Fakhr Khan said that he had informed the Health Department about the epidemic long before, but had received no response so far.