CHAGAI: Mir Moham­mad Hashim Notezai, a member of the National Assembly from the Balochistan Natio­nal Party-Mengal (BNP-M), has urged the federal government to convert highways passing through Quetta, Karachi, Taftan and Chaman into dual carriageways to avoid traffic accidents.

In a statement on Saturday, Mr Notezai said that more people were dying in road accidents than in natural disasters, mainly due to the single carriageway highways in the province.

He said despite heavy traffic and frequent deadly accidents the federal government was not paying any attention to address this issue.

“Eight members of a Nushki-based family lost their lives on the Quetta-Taftan RCD highway in Kardagap area on Wednesday,” he said, adding such incidents were happening on a daily basis due to negligence of the federal government and the National Highways Authority.

Mr Notezai regretted that the government was constructing motorways in Punjab, but it was paying no attention to bad condition of highways in Balochistan. The federal government, he added, should at least covert single roads in Balochistan into dual carriageway highways.

He criticised the government for not resolving the core issues of the people of Balochistan.

Published in Dawn, March 28th, 2021