KHYBER: The tehsil chairman and four of his local government members were briefly held by police in Landi Kotal after the court of a senior civil judge in Jamrud revoked the bail before arrest that had been granted to him on Friday.

Minutes after being arrested by the police, Shah Khald Shinwari and other local government leaders Yad Wazir, Haji Khan, Haji Sher, and Attaullah went to the local magistrate court in Landi Kotal to request bail.

Following a fight between the accused tehsil chairman and Nadra employees in Landi Kotal over the barring of some local people’ CNICs, the National Database and Registration Authority filed a formal complaint against the tehsil chairman and his associates on October 7.

Representatives of the local government charged that the Nadra centre employees had overreached themselves by illegally preventing some local citizens whose credentials had been properly validated by the office of the tehsil chairman from obtaining their CNICs.

Additionally, they said that the management and a few employees were extremely impolite to local applicants, and that some of them even demanded bribes from them.

Reacting sharply to the brief arrest of the tehsil chairman and his colleagues, civil society activists in a sizable number held a protest demonstration.

They chanted slogans against the Nadra officials and demanded a transparent inquiry into the alleged misconduct of some of the officials. The demonstrators dispersedpeacefully after the grant of bail to the arrested men by the local magistrate.

Published in Dawn, November 9th, 2024