Kohat Bar poll result declared invalid

Source Dawn


A day after declaring advocate Malik Iqbal elected unopposed as president of the Kohat District Bar Association, the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Bar Council (KPBC) on Tuesday revoked the election as invalid and called for fresh polls on March 5.

Malik Iqbal was declared the winner on Monday after the nomination papers of his lone rival advocate Abdur Rauf, who is also president of Kohat PPP, were rejected on the charges of corruption leveled against him by the former.

Senior lawyers, including Anwar Afandi, Kohat PML-N president, and Mr Rauf told Dawn that the KPBC member, advocate Swab Khan, who supervised the election, called for fresh polls after discovering that the objections to the nomination of Mr Rauf were baseless.

A fresh notification issued here set Feb 26 as the date for submission of nomination papers for contesting various offices of the Kohat District Bar Association.

Kohat refree Khurram Shahzad listed on FIFA refrees

The newly-listed FIFA Referee Khurram Shahzad will supervise a football match between Pakistan and Palestine at Lahore’s Punjab Stadium on March 1.

The Palestinian football team will play a four-match series in Pakistan.

Khurram Shahzad, 30, who was born in Kohat, got the honour of becoming a FIFA referee on January 1.

His assistants in the event will be Muhammad Ali Jr, Shafaat Habib and the 4th official will be Waheed Murad.

Khurram was one of the main referees in the Pakistan Premier League and PFF Leagues.

He supervised the Karachi Energy and Quetta Zorawar final at the Peoples Sports Complex on July 31, 2010 and was also voted the “Best SFL Referee.”

He was the Best Referee in National Under-14 Championship at Lahore 2007 and in the Inter-Club Women Championship a year later in Islamabad.

“Referees who have a FIFA badge are entitled to officiate at FIFA and AFC fixtures, both at club and international level. I hope that they will keep their fitness level and refereeing for the rest of the year.” Pakistan Football Federation (PFF)’s President Makhdoom Syed Faisal Saleh Hayat told APP.

“The work of these officials would be constantly monitored and the matches awarded to Khurram and Naseer are part of the monitoring and it is mandatory that each of them shows consistent high-level performance,” said Faisal.

“The quality of the game also plays a major role in the development of refereeing. No referee in the world can claim to be the best in the world. One can only become a good referee when one makes the least number of mistakes,” he added.

Taliban deny MOL, FC men killing in Kohat

Source Daily News


A militant commander on Saturday denied his group’s involvement in the killing and abduction of the employees of foreign oil and gas company and four personnel of the Frontier Constabulary (FC) from Darmalak area in Kohat district.

Talking to reporters by phone from an undisclosed location, militant commander of the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) Hangu chapter, Muhammad Nabi Hanafi said that neither he nor his group was involved in the abduction of the two employees of MOL Pakistan Oil and Gas Company and four FC men from Darmalak area in Lachi tehsil.

“I am not living in Ghorzandi area and have no links with militants arrested in the search operation by the security forces,” the commander said.

He condemned kidnapping of the soldiers and employees of the company and stressed that his group was not involved in such activities.

The MOL employees were on way to Kohat city from their workplace when militants ambushed them in Darmalak village on January 20. Four FC men and two MOL workers were killed in the attack while two others were kidnapped.

New gas found in Kohat

Source Daily Times

A new gas discovery was made after 4,800-metre deep drilling in Kohat, official sources said on Monday.


“The new gas discovery was made last week,” sources wishing not to be named, told Daily Times, adding that the discovery is likely to ease the country’s energy needs.

According to the sources, the discovery was made 18 kilometres inside the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province from its border with Punjab. “The well is situated in the Gumbhat area near the Khushalgarh Bridge,” the sources added.

The Hungary-based exploration company MOL has discovered the gas and hopes the discovery will provide the country with another huge energy reservoir to meet the growing energy needs.

Huge gas and oil discoveries were made in Kohat, Hangu and Karak districts and experts believe future exploration would also yield “good results” as a study shows such discoveries could be made in Dera Ismail Khan district in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and the Zhob district in the Balochistan province.

An American exploration company, the sources revealed, had made such an attempt in 1993 at the same place but failed to make the discovery. “The target for discovering gas was 3,400-metre deep drilling,” they said.

“However, the engineers continued the drilling when no discovery was likely at the 3,400-metre deep drilling. It was the most difficult exploration as the area lies close to a fault line.”


The country is getting gas and crude oil from the Tall Block and hopes are that the region is full of natural resources to meet the increased demand for energy.

“How big the reservoir at this well is will be measured soon. We hope it will serve the country’s needs for decades before we make more gas and oil discoveries,” MOL officials said.

Lt Gen Jahan Dad Khan Al shifa Trust founder passed away

Source Daily Nation

President Al-Shifa Trust Lt-Gen (R) Jahan Dad Khan passed away here on Sunday. He was 81.


Jahan Dad Khan was an architect and the founder of Al-Shifa Trust, which is now running four state-of-the-art hospitals in Rawalpindi, Sukkur, Kohat and Muzaffarabad (Azad Kashmir) providing free of cost quality eye care services to millions of deserving people.

Born at Malhoo village in Attock district in 1929, he led an illustrious career in Pakistan Army spanning over 33 years. He retired as lieutenant general in 1984 and served as a civilian governor of Sindh for four years.

He established Al-Shifa Trust in 1985 and remained its president till his death. He is survived by a son and a daughter.

Recipient of the Hilal-e-Imtiaz (Military), Sitara-e-Bisalat and Hilal-e-Imtiaz (Civil) awards, many international awards were also conferred on him for his outstanding contribution to prevent blindness at national and international level. He also served as chairman of the Pakistan Red Crescent Society and founded Attock Education Trust.

Buried at Al-Shifa Trust, Lt-Gen (R) Jahan Dad will remain in the hearts of millions of his beneficiaries.

The Qul of the deceased will be held at Al-Shifa Trust Eye Hospital, Rawalpindi mosque at 3:30 pm on Tuesday (tomorrow). The Al-Shifa Board of Trustees had already nominated Lt-Gen (R) Hamid Javaid as his successor. An intellectual having vast national and international experience with an outstanding career in the Pakistan Army, he has taken over as president of the Trust.

Militant held in Hangu

The police claimed to have arrested a militant and seized five threatening letters from his possession at Jawazra checkpoint on Friday. Talking to reporters, SHO Islam Din said the police stopped a passenger coach at Jawazra checkpoint during a routine checking.


The police during body search recovered threatening letters from a man identified as Attiqur Rehman, resident of Kaghazo area in Kohat district. “Five letters were recovered from him, which were written to five separate persons to pay Rs1.5 each,” the SHO said, adding that the identity of the persons could not be disclosed. He said the suspected person had links with the militants.

Meanwhile, a banned outfit claimed responsibility for the killing of father, nephew and guard of the former union council nazim Pir Amir Faisal on January 23. The group through leaflets circulated in the area said that the former nazim Pir Amir Faisal was still on the hit-list for running non-governmental organisation in the district. It warned those running the NGOs in the district would meet the same fate.

Four bullet riddled bodies found in Karak

daily dawn

In the first incident of its kind in the district, four bullet-riddled bodies were found in Kunghara area here on Saturday.

Sources said that the victims were killed on charges of spying for foreign countries. All of the four were blindfolded and handcuffed, they added.

“Letters were also found in the pockets of deceased. The letters say that all those, who are spying for the secret agencies of Israel and India, will meet the same fate,” police said.

Police added that they took the bodies in their possession when got information about their presence in Kunghara area. “It seems that the unidentified persons have been killed somewhere else and their bodies thrown here,” they added.

Police said that empty bullets were also found with the bodies. The bodies were shifted to hospital for postmortem. Doctors at the hospital said that the victims were killed on Friday night. “No visible marks of violence could be seen on the bodies,” they added.

The identity of the victims could not be ascertained, however, Karak police registered a case against unidentified persons and started investigation

Twin suicide attacks: Kohat Tunnel re-opens following blast

Source Express Tribune

Kohat Tunnel, closed following two bomb blasts that ripped through it on Friday, was reopened for 24 hours on Saturday evening.


Commissioner Kohat division Khalid Khan Umerzai told The Express Tribune that the tunnel was opened for passenger vehicles for around 24 hours. Cargo vehicles, however, will not be allowed to pass through the tunnel.

At least five people were killed and 19 others injured when two explosives-laden trucks were detonated by suicide bombers, one inside the tunnel and the other at its entrance. The attackers had entered the tunnel from the Darra Adamkhel side, Umerzai said.

Local sources said that the two attacks that occurred at 12:30am on Saturday, badly damaged the Pak-Japan Friendship Tunnel, which links the southern districts of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa with Peshawar.

They said that the first blast occurred some 600 metres inside the tunnel when a Bedford truck was detonated by a suicide attacker.

The second truck, an oil tanker, was detonated on the checkpost outside the tunnel, unmanned at the time.

According to Bomb Disposal Unit (BDU) officials’ estimate, the two trucks carried at least 1,000 kilograms of explosives. Twelve vehicles, including cars, were caught in the blast and destroyed.

“We have sent the material we collected to forensic labs for further analysis,” a BDU official said.

The blast left a three-foot-deep and 18-foot-wide crater inside the tunnel. The electricity, drainage and exhaust systems of the tunnel were also damaged.

The dead include two women Khatma Bibi and Taliba Bibi, residents of Nasapa in Karak district, Badshah Rehman from North Waziristan, and an Afghan refugee. The last person was not identified till last reports came in.

The injured were shifted to the Kohat and Peshawar hospitals following the blasts and senior civilian and military officials rushed to the scene and closed the tunnel for all kinds of traffic.

Kohat Tunnel, also known as Pak-Japan Friendship Tunnel, is Pakistan’s longest road tunnel and the second longest tunnel after the Khojak Tunnel and is situated on Indus Highway. The Rs5 billion tunnel was opened to traffic in June 2003.

This is second time in the past few years that militants have targeted the tunnel. Earlier during Operation Eagle Swoop in January 2007, Taliban militants captured the tunnel and detonated explosives-laden vehicles inside it.

Following that attack, traffic was not allowed to pass through the tunnel at night. The tunnel was reopened to traffic at night only two months back.

kohat tunnel closed

kohat tunnel has been closed due to bomb blast in the tunnel. Due to this blast four people were killed in vehicle carrying expolsives.