MANSEHRA: Federal minister for religious affairs and interfaith harmony Sardar Mohammad Yousaf on Sunday said the federal government would soon launch the second phase of Hazara motorway.

“Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif will soon visit Mansehra to inaugurate the second phase of motorway and other mega development projects,” he told a public meeting in Chaterplan area here.

The minister said the prime minister would also inaugurate work on the first women’s university in Mansehra paperwork on which was almost complete.

He said natural gas would be supplied to the areas in the district.

Yousaf said gas pipelines with large diameters were being laid from Abbottabad to Mansehra and once the exercise was complete, gas would be supplied to the areas, which had no gas supply.

Minister says first women’s university in Mansehra also on the cards

“Gas will be supplied first to Jabba and Shinkiari and later to Balakot, Ghari Habibulah, Oghi and Battle,” he said.

The minister said work on 220KV grid station was in full swing and once the project was complete, the issues of loadshedding and low voltage in Mansehra, Abbottabad and Muzzafarabad would be addressed.

He said the prime minister wanted to put Hazara division on the way to development and that was why mega projects had been planned for it.

Yousaf said the PTI government in the province had failed to deliver.

“The PTI, which had come to power with the slogan of changing the people’s lot, is miserably failed to address issues and challenges facing the people in the province,” he said.

The minister said the federal government was striving for the early rehabilitation of the Oct 26 earthquake victims.

He said distribution of compensation to disaster-hit families was underway.

ACCIDENT CLAIMS LIFE: A woman was killed and 11 people suffered injuries in a road accident near Oghi on Monday.

Relatives of Shah Rehman were on the way to Sarigorai from Tooddoga to fix the wedding day of a family member when their passenger jeep skidded off the road and plunged into the ravine.

The accident occurred after the driver lost control of the deep while negotiating a sharp turn in Talian area.

The local people retrieved the deceased and injured before shifting them to a nearby hospital.

Three of the injured were later referred to the Ayub Medical Complex, Abbottabad, over critical condition.

The Oghi police registered an FIR and began investigation to ascertain the exact cause of the accident.

Meanwhile, the five people, who had died in an accident in Jabori on Sunday, were laid to rest on Monday.

Funeral prayers for the deceased were offered in Sindi area, where local people showed up in large numbers.

At least five people were killed and 12 were injured when a jeep had fallen into a deep ravine in Jabori on Sunday.

Published in Dawn, November 10th, 2015