LOWER DIR: Local traders and transporters have demanded of the government and National Highway Authority to start repair work on the dilapidated Chakdara-Timergara Road.

Talking to mediapersons here, they said the road had developed numerous potholes. They said the NHA had emptied the potholes for repair of the road, but the work could not be started despite passage of several weeks.

The residents and transporters said that motorists, especially the tourists, were reluctant to drive on this key road that connected the Lower Dir, Upper Dir, Lower Chitral, Upper Chitral and Bajaur districts with rest of the country.

They said that nearly seven million people of these districts used this road, but they had to suffer due to its bad condition.

Transporters threaten wheal jam strike

“It is difficult for the tourists to drive smoothly on this road,” a tourist from Lahore told this correspondent in Timergara. He said the tourists from down districts had no knowledge of bad condition of the road and that was why they suffered hard during their tour.

The motorists said the emptied pits had further deteriorated the road condition. They demanded of the NHA authorities to start repair of the road without further delay. They threatened to observe wheel jam strike in the area if repair work on the road was not started within a week.

ANP CONVENTION: Addressing a party workers convention at Chakdara here the other day, Awami National Party central general secretary Mian Iftikhar Hussain said that China, Russia, Iran and Pakistan could play a vital role in the peace building process in Afghanistan. He said ANP was supporting the people of Afghanistan instead of a specific group.

Mr Hussain alleged that the parliament in Pakistan had become a rubber stamp while the country’s economy was being run on the dictation of the IMF and World Bank. He said the only solution to the current crises was free and transparent elections in the country. Party’s central vice-president Hussain Shah Yousafzai and district president MPA Haji Bahadar Khan also spoke on the occasion.

Published in Dawn, August 23rd, 2021