new traffic rules in Kohat

New traffic rules in Kohat have made the lives of common people difficult. There used to be smooth traffic to Kohat city from the Pindi, Bannu, Hangu and KDA roads. Now the authorities concerned have decided to make stops for local passenger pick-ups at Bannu gate and Peshawar Chowk. These new stops are about a kilometre and a half away from Kohat city. Thus a commuter has to pay double fare. This is an unnecessary financial and physical burden on a poor person. Furthermore, these new stops create traffic congestion.

The second problem is that Peshawar Chowk is the site of two previous bomb blasts. Usually the space was less crowded. Now, because of this new stopover, there is a constant rush of passengers at this spot. This is very unsafe from a security point of view.

Muhammad Usman Ali

Kohat

KP govt to construct new building for Kohat hospital

Source The News

The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government on Tuesday decided to construct a new building for the Liaqat Memorial Hospital Kohat.

An official handout said that the decision was made at a meeting chaired by provincial Health Minister Shahram Tarakai.The meeting decided that the old building would be demolished as it was in a dilapidated condition. It was told that the existing building was beyond repair as it was built in 1952.  

The handout said that work on the construction of new building would be started in July this year and completed within next two years at an estimated cost of Rs400 million. It said that the Refugees Affected and Hosting Areas (RAHA) programme would provide financial assistance for the construction of new building.

Secretary Health Dr Jamal Yusuf, Director General Health, Dr Pervez Kamal, Commissioner Kohat Division, Musarrat Hussain and representatives of RAHA programme attended the meeting. The meeting was briefed in detail on the master plan of the new building.

Petty dispute: Three men gunned down

KOHAT: Three men were allegedly killed over a petty dispute in Jungle Khel on Sunday. A police spokesperson told the media the accused Yousaf Khan, Qasim, Asim and Wahid Khan are members of a group. They barged into the hujra of Muhammad Suleman and opened fire on Suleman, Muhammad Hassan and Habib. The accused managed to escape the scene after committing the crime. However, police registered an FIR and started investigation to find the culprits. Rafiullah, cousin of the deceased, told the police the two groups had a petty dispute a few days ago.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 14^th, 2016.

Gas royalty funds fail to bring change in Kohat

KOHAT: Kohat district has been receiving a big amount of oil and gas royalty every year, but no corresponding development could be seen in any sector.

District executive officer (finance) Wahidur Rehman Khattak told Dawn that Kohat district had been getting royalty since 2011 according to the ratio of production from the local oil and gas wells.

He said that in 2014-15 Kohat received over Rs61 million in royalty of which 50 per cent was given to the oil and gas producing constituency. Similarly, in 2013-14 the companies gave Rs41 million and so on.

Answering a question, he said that for unknown reasons no mega project could be started.

He admitted that condition of hospitals, roads and water and electricity supply schemes in Kohat had worsened over the years.

Though 50 per cent of the royalty goes to Shakardarra, condition of its hospital could not be improved.

The town has no water and voltage of electricity remains so low that the scheme for bringing water to the area from Indus River was abandoned several years ago.

An official said on condition of anonymity that the funds were being misused otherwise the royalty funds in addition to the annual share of Kohat from the provincial government could solve all major problems of the district.

Mr Khattak said that the royalty funds were released to contractors for the approved schemes, but unfortunately no development could be seen in the district.

Sources said that the companies had promised to reconstruct the hospital and road, but the lawmakers from the area were employing people of their constituencies and keeping mum about the development projects.

It may be recalled that the oil and gas companies had announced a mobile hospital for Shakardarra to reach the scattered population and establishment of a burns centre in Kohat. Residents said that the lawmakers never bothered to pressurise the companies to help resolve problems of their constituencies.

Published in Dawn, February 26th, 2016

Govt asked to resume train service to Kohat, Mardan, Khyber

Source Express Tribune

A civil society organisation has launched a campaign to press the federal government to resume train service to Kohat, Hangu, Mardan and the tribal areas so that people can benefit from the facility.

The activists of Karwan-e-Amal, a civil society group in Kohat, on Sunday staged a rally to ask the federal government to resume the train service to their district.“We have approached the political leaders, federal government officials and others concerned to resume this important service for the people of Kohat,” said Saleem Altaf, chairman of Karwan-e-Amal.

He added that the campaign would continue for a few weeks for which the political leadership and elders of Kohat have been taken into confidence.According to the elders of Kohat, infrastructure is already there in the shape of tracks, railway station and other facilities and only the federal minister for Railways needs to approve resumption of the cargo as well as passenger trains.

“This will benefit thousands of people of not only Kohat, but the entire southern districts and the tribal belt,” one of the elders said.

Hundreds of miles of railway tracks were built in the past up to Mardan, Dargai, Torkham in Khyber Agency and Kohat and Bannu in southern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. However, the tracks are not being used by any passenger and cargo train for the last several years. The government and the Pakistan Railways have lost interest in reviving the train service to any of these destinations.

The Khyber Train Safari from Peshawar to Landikotal in Khyber Agency used to be popular with local and foreign tourists but it was closed several years ago due to insecurity and other unspecified reasons. It ought to be revived now that the security situation has improved.

Thousands of kanals of land of the Pakistan Railways also hasn’t been utilised properly to benefit the public.

A number of elders have also asked for usage of the railway track in Mardan and Khyber Agency. There are reports that most of the properties of the Pakistan Railways have been occupied due to negligence of the department and the ministry. In Mardan, the railway station has been converted into a market.

Kidnapping for ransom : CTD arrests suspect in Kohat

KOHAT: The counter-terrorism department (CTD) has arrested a suspect who was allegedly involved in a kidnapping for ransom in Kohat. According to a handout issued by the department on Tuesday, the suspect was identified as Khushi Mohammad, who hailed from a village in Gujranwala. “He had abducted Fazal Mohammad, son of Khan Mohammad, on January 19,” read the handout. “After kidnapping Fazal, Khushi demanded Rs10 million as ransom for his release.” As per the document, CTD officials conducted a search operation in the area and managed to arrest the accused. Khushi has been shifted to an undisclosed location for interrogation. Further probe is underway

Published in The Express Tribune, March 2^nd, 2016.

Two Kohat Circle engineers suspended

source: Tribune

Two engineers of Kohat Circle have been suspended for using substandard material in development projects and negligently carrying out their duties. This was stated in a handout issued on Friday. Adviser to CM for Communication and Works Akbar Ayub Khan and C&W Secretary Muhammad Asif Khan took the decision after they noticed substandard material was being used in the construction of two playgrounds at Lachi and Babri Banda. They sought a report from the superintending engineer to this effect and discovered two engineers, Shakir Kamal and Saeedullah, had negligently performed their duties. Action will also be taken against the subdivisional officer in-charge.

Kohat news bites

Source Dawn

The rains continuing in Hangu and Orakzai Agency for five days have flooded the Kohat Toi natural stream and thus, inundating dozens of houses in Hafizabad area in Kohat.

Kohat Toi originates in Orakzai Agency.

The rain water damaged the people’s belongings and forced residents to move out.

According to locals, a former MNA had occupied Kohat Toi section in Hafizabad area before selling plots on it. Also, cultivation of orchards in its way shortened the natural stream’s width.

They, however, insisted their repeated requests to the administration for crackdown on encroachers fell on deaf ears.

The stream bursts its banks every year and flooding nearby areas.

The local residents demanded strict action against illegal sellers and buyers of land on the course of stream to ensure smooth flow of water.

They complained that no official or volunteers came to their help and therefore, they had to vacate houses on their own.

MAN KILLED: An elderly man died and another suffered injuries after lightning struck them in Kamalkhel area on Friday.

The deceased was Nabeel and the injured Samiullah.

Local police registered a case and began investigation.

MAN DROWNS: Noor Mohammad, 8, on Friday drowned in flood water in Kohat Toi.

The efforts of the local residents and divers to trace the body didn’t bear fruit.

The deceased belonged to Dhoda area in Kohat.

DEADLINE FOR SHOPKEEPERS: The local administration on Friday gave shopkeepers seven days to vacate a hospital’s occupied land in Hangu, saying if encroachment stays put, shopkeepers will face the music.

The deadline was set by assistant commissioner Farrukh Attique during a visit to the area along with additional assistant commissioner Hussain Bangash and officials of the tehsil municipal administration and education department.

Mr Attique examined the land record and found that three shops built in a corner of the Liaquat Memorial Hospital at Hangu Square were illegal and that the property belonged to the health department.

In 2011, the administration had asked shopkeepers in question to pay rent to the hospital but the latter refused to do so.

POLICE FORM COMMITTEE: The police on Friday formed a 16-strong committee for bridging the gap between the department and the people and controlling crime in Mansehra.

Former chief justice of the Peshawar High Court Syed Ibne Ali is the committee’s chairman and poet Shahid Zaman its secretary, while Dr Matiullah Shah, district khateeb Maulana Sharifullah, Azam Khan, Feroze Khan, Mohammad Shuja, former district nazim Haji Sardar Khan, Dr Haji Gul, Qamar Zaman Shinwari, Malik Fazl e Rabbi, Mohammad Anwar, Shafiullah Durrani, Mian Shah Raza, Syed Haji Mohammad and Syed Qasim Ali Shah will be its members.

The committee was set up at the office of district police officer Saleem Marwat.

Mr Marwat highlighted the committee’s role for peace and people’s welfare in the district and said members of the panel would sit in the Saddar police station next Monday.

He expressed the hope that the committee would help resolve the people’s minor problems at the police station level.

Drug addiction on the rise in Kohat

Source Dawn

The number of heroin addicts is increasing in Kohat with each passing day as the police have turned a blind eye to the drug pushing business in the suburbs of the city, the residents complain.

They said that drug addicts regularly gathered under a water tank near Sangerh Mohallah in Kohat city to take their daily dose.

Heroin addicts also regularly thronged a place behind the fertiliser plant on Rawalpindi Road close to Sheikhan and Darra Adamkhel every afternoon to purchase heroin, the residents alleged.

The area is situated in the limits of Saddar police station.

The police were unable to clear the area from armed drug peddlers, who had been selling drugs to hundreds of addicts in the settled area for the last several decades, they said.

The residents of the city demanded of the authorities to take concrete steps to eradicate drug addiction and clear the area of drug pushers.

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

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.

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.

12 killed in Kohat blast, several wounded

Source Dawn

An explosion on Hangu road near Police Lines area in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa's Kohat district on Sunday killed at least 12 people and injured several others, DawnNews reported.

According to latest reports from rescue sources, two more victims of today's blast died, while under treatment at the Lady reading Hospital, bringing the total death-toll of the incident to 12.

Earlier, district police chief Salim Khan Marwat talking to AFP said “After getting the latest reports from the hospitals where the dead bodies and injured were taken, we can now confirm that 10 people have been killed and 14 others are injured.”

Security and rescue teams rushed to the site of explosion which was heard across a long distance.

Inspector General of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa police, Nasir Khan Durrani, said that the blast took place near a passenger vehicle at Peshawar chowk on Hangu road.

Rejecting the notion that the blast was carried out by a suicide bomber, he said that it appeared to have been carried out using a planted device.

Durrani further said that according to initial reports, five kilograms of explosives were used in the blast which were planted in a wooden crate placed on the roadside.

The explosives were detonated as a passenger wagon reached Peshawar chowk injuring the occupants of the vehicle and the driver of a rickshaw parked nearby.

The victims were shifted to Liaquat Memorial Hospital whereas security personnel cordoned off the area. The Bomb Disposal Squad had also reached the blast site.

Further details of the attack and nature of the blast were not known till the filing of this report.

French aid agency"ACTED" staffer wounded in firing near Kohat

Source Express Tribune

Gunman on a motorcycle fired on a vehicle being used by French aid organisation ACTED on Tuesday in troubled northwestern Pakistan, wounding the driver, police said.

The attack took place at Jarma, a low-income neighbourhood on the outskirts of the garrison town of Kohat, where thousands of displaced tribesmen from the Khyber and Orakzai tribal district as well as Afghan refugees are living.

District police chief Saleem Khan Marwat said staff from ACTED (Agency for Technical Cooperation and Development) were fired at by a man who fled on a motorcycle.

There were two staff members, both Pakistanis, and a driver in the vehicle and the driver was shot in the arm. His condition is stable at hospital, Marwat said.

An official of the NGO in Pakistan confirmed the details of the attack.

ACTED was working to improve sanitation and hygiene for displaced families.

Nobody has claimed responsibility for the attack.

Foreign-funded NGOs are viewed with particular suspicion in Pakistan after the arrest of a Pakistani doctor who helped the CIA find Osama bin Laden through a fake vaccination campaign.

Minister orders free surgery of Hindu girl

Health Minister Shaukat Yousafzai on Friday directed the chief executive of the District Headquarters Hospital in Kohat to carry out free of cost surgery of a Hindu girl, sources said.Thhe minister received complaints from the people at the CM Complaint Cell where one of the complainants, Madan Lal, requested the minister for the free treatment of his daughter, Bareet Lal, who was suffering from abdominal tumor. The minister directed the chief executive of the hospital in Kohat to carry out her free of cost surgery at the earliest.The chief executive had contacted the father of the Hindu girl and informed him that the surgery of his daughter would be carried out on Monday.

Source The News

Commercial plazas replace guava orchards in Kohat

Source Oman Tribune

The guava orchards which once surrounded the whole Kohat city in northwest Pakistan and its outskirts are diminishing fast to give way to commercial plazas, depriving the area of the much-needed greenery and fresh air.

The worst-affected locality in the city is Jarwanda which had guava orchards for hundreds of years.

Similarly, guava orchards along the Bannu bypass, Hangu road and Dhodha would once provide a patch of cold breeze in hot summer to the city dwellers and travellers. But these have now been replaced by buildings, as several housing societies are active in the area.

However, guava fruit is still served to guests and regarded as part of lunch. Guava is a specialty of Kohat.

The guava tree takes about five years to grow and start giving fruit while the growers have to wait till then for return of their investment.

But now they could erect a commercial plaza within a year and start monetary returns because of the commercialisation on Kohat-Thall highway and other major roads passing through thick guava orchards. The guava orchards once occupied thousands of acres of land in Kohat, but entrepreneurs never thought to establish a profitable juice plant. The country spends a huge amount of money on importing guava juice, but locally produced fruits are rotting due to ancient techniques of preserving the fruit, which has a shelf life of five hours in winter.

The bureaucracy and politicians never bothered to invite officials from the forestry department or especially the department created for guava research to increase its output and lure the investors to construct the juice industry. There are still hundred-years-old guava orchards near Tanda Dam the most famous of which are located in Kaghazai area whose fruit is being sold in Peshawar and Rawalpindi for Rs150 per kilogramme.

The prices of guava orchards have jumped from a few thousand rupees to millions due to their high income in famous areas which produced apple-like sweet fruit.