KOHAT, Sept 20: The new fruit and vegetable market was opened on Thursday after the Peshawar High Court decided a case in favour of its private owners.

After hearing arguments in the case, a division bench of the PHC, headed by Justice Fasihul Mulk, decided that fruit and vegetable markets could be operated by private owners.

The tehsil municipal administration (TMA) had constructed a vegetable market in 2008 five kilometres away from the city centre. However, it had been refusing to grant permission to a similar market in private sector.

Owner of the market, Shahbaz Gul Shinwari, had filed a case in the high court for operating the market, which was decided in his favour on Thursday.

Mr Shinwari said that the TMA-run market was incomplete and far from the city. He said that most of the retailers did not like it because they had to spend more to hire vehicles to go and return from the place.

FAKE BEVERAGES: The Saddar police raided a factory preparing fake beverages and arrested one accused from Kalochanna area here on Thursday.

An official said that following a tip-off the police raided the factory, arrested one Mohammad Akbar and confiscated material used in preparation of fake beverages. The police have registered a case against the accused.

Meanwhile, farmers of five villages of Kohat have reconstructed parts of an irrigation canal on self-help basis. The canal irrigating fields of Sherkot, Chakarkot Bala, Spina Warai and Alizai was damaged at few places by flashflood earlier this month.

After delay in its reconstruction by the government department concerned, the farmers decided to repair parts of the channel on their own. They constituted a committee for the purpose and completed the work in a week.