MANSEHRA: The residents of Kaghan Valley on Sunday staged a sit-in against shortage of teachers and doctors at local schools and health facilities.

“The government earns huge revenue from tourism in Kaghan Valley but we are still without health and education services,” Maulana Sher Zaman, the prayer leader of the central mosque in Kaghan town, told protesters.

The locals staged sit-in on Mansehra-Naran-Jalkhad road, blocking it to all sorts of traffic for more than an hour. They raised slogans in support of their demands and against government.

“Ours is a seasonal station as government provides locals with health and education services hardly for four to five months but even then we are without teachers and doctors,” said Mr Zaman. He said that 23 posts of teachers at government higher secondary school for boys in Kaghan had been lying vacant for the last many years, adversely affecting students’ education.

“Same is the situation in government high school for girls in the area where 21 posts of teachers are lying vacant but government is yet to appoint faculty members,” he said.

Speaking on the occasion, Mohammad Khalid, a local elder, said that the only government health facility in Kaghan town had been facing shortage of doctors and paramedical staff for the last many years.

He said that schools and health facility provided services to locals from May to September and remained closed for rest of the year. He said that locals migrated to other areas in winter but government failed to provide quality services to them even for four to five months.

TRADERS: Traders in Oghi on Sunday demanded of tehsil municipal administration to solarise street lights systems in the city and its suburbs.

“Almost all street lights installed by TMA in the city and its suburbs have been out of order for the last many weeks, affecting business activities at night,” Waqar Ahmad, a trader leader, told journalists.

Flanked by a group of locals, he said that traders took up the issue of street lights with TMA repeatedly, but to no avail.

Published in Dawn, October 14th, 2024