CHITRAL: The members of district council have expressed their anguish over the proposed reduction of one provincial assembly seat from Chitral district.

They threatened that the people of Chitral would boycott the upcoming general elections if the seat was not given back to the district.

During the session of the council held here on Thursday with convener Maulana Abdul Shakoor in the chair, the members belonging to all the political parties were in unison to criticise the Election Commission of Pakistan for its proposed delimitation of the constituency.

They said that ECP made the decision on the basis of the results of census, which were too questionable because it did enlist more than 200,000 residents of Chitral as they were then not present in the district.

The council passed a resolution unanimously, demanding of ECP to restore the seat of provincial assembly from Chitral. The members also expressed concerns over the number of checkposts in the district.

Deputy Commissioner Irshad Sodhar assured the house that the number of checkposts in the district would be decreased in near future. He said that the checkposts would continue to check the smuggling of deodar timber, which was concealed within the oak woods.

District nazim Maghfirat Shah said that credit for peace and tranquility in Chitral went only to the people of the district so they should not be exasperated and vexed in the name of security.

He said that the district council was the representative body of the peaceful people of Chitral. “Any matter related to them should be put at the disposal of this house so that it can think and plan the things best suited to them,” he added.

DPO Mansoor Aman also briefed the house about the measures taken by the district police for curbing the menace of narcotics, regularising the vehicular traffic and bringing the police and public closer to each other during the past six months.

Maulana Jamshed Ahmed complained about the closure of leprosy centre, working on the premises of district headquarters hospital for the last three decades. He said that it left more than 350 leprosy patients in lurch.

Published in Dawn, March 16th, 2018