LAKKI MARWAT: Local elders have started efforts to make the district administration officials to resolve a dispute with traders.

On Monday, some cart vendors and shopkeepers manhandled additional assistant commissioner Mohammad Arif when he was leading an anti-encroachment operation on the main Lorry Adda in Lakki Marwat city.

After the incident, the shopkeepers also blocked the Bannu-Mianwali Road.

A group of elders comprising Lakki tehsil council chairman Shafqatullah Khan Khoidadkhel, PTI Lakki tehsil chapter president Dr Mohammad Iqbal, Liaqat Ali Khan, brother of MPA Johar Mohammad Khan, Misbahullah, Imranullah Begukhel of ANP and others met with the district administration officials.

They stressed resolving the issue through Pakhtun traditions.

“We want to bury the differences between the administration and traders,” said Mr Khoidadkhel.

Also on Tuesday, office-bearers of government employees’ organisations called on deputy commissioner Zeeshan Abdullah and showed anger over an unbecoming incident with an additional assistant commissioner.

All government employees’ coordination council chairman Saeed Akhtar and Anjaman-i-Patwarian and Qanoongoyan general secretary Tariq Iqbal condemned the incident as intolerable.

They asked the district administration and police officials to take the responsible vendors to task.

COMPENSATION PROMISED: Taking action on a complaint of a martyred policeman’s widow, Bannu Regional Police Officer Imran Shahid along with district police officer Ziauddin Ahmed visited his residence in Mastikhel area of Lakki on Tuesday.

The police officials met with the family members, including children of the deceased cop, and assured them that the department would leave no stone unturned for their welfare and betterment.

Naheed Bibi, widow of the martyred constable, Abdul Rehman, had sent a written complaint to the provincial police chief, stating her husband was martyred in a terrorist attack in Lakki Marwat on Sept 6, last year.

She said that she, her nine daughters and a twelve-year old son and parents of her late husband had been facing financial problems since his martyrdom. The widow said the family could not be compensated with the Shuhada package despite the lapse of six months.

A police official said after completing legal formalities, the case of Rehman along with 15 other martyred police officials was sent to the provincial government in January for Shuhada package approval.

Published in Dawn, March 5th, 2025