MANSEHRA: The people of Lower Kohistan district on Friday blocked the Karakoram Highway to protest Khyber Pakhtunkhwa health department’s failure to appoint doctors and paramedical staff in the district headquarters hospital.

The protesters staged a sit-in on the KKH in Pattan, the district headquarters, blocking it to vehicular traffic and causing inconvenience to commuters travelling between Gilgit-Baltistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa for hours.

“Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf government claims to have overhauled the health department, but the civil hospital here which was upgraded to district headquarters hospital some two years ago, is still without doctors and other staff,” Maulana Abdul Wadood, a protesters’ leader, told the gathering.

He said that there were no healthcare and treatment services in the entire district and patients, mostly pregnant women, were dying on way to hospitals in parts of Hazara division.

Another speaker, Maulana Gul Dad, said only degree college for boys was without teaching staff and students were compelled to move out of the district to get higher education. He said most of students were quitting education on completion of matriculation owing to poor financial status.

“People are without basic amenities and cannot meet high expenses incurred on education of their children in other cities,” said Gul Dad.

He said neither the deputy commissioner nor the district police officer were regularly staying in their offices, and asked the government to take notice, or they would block the KKH for an indefinite period.

MAN HELD WITH CHARAS: A man was killed and three others sustained critical injuries when a jeep plunged into a ravine in Garhi Habibullah on Friday.

The jeep was on way to Karnool from Garhi Habibullah when the driver while negotiating a sharp turn lost control over the steering.

The locals rushed to the scene and shifted the injured to the civil hospital where doctors pronounced Mohammad Miskeen dead. The three injured were referred to King Abdullah Teaching Hospital in Mansehra.

Also, Buttle police arrested a narcotics peddler and seized five kilogramme charas from his vehicle.

The contraband was being smuggled from Peshawar to Battagram. A police team led by SHO Malik Asif intercepted a car and seized charas and arrested Mohammad Raheem belonging to Peshawar.

Published in Dawn, February 23rd, 2019