MANSEHRA: The residents of Oghi have threatened to block the main road to traffic for an indefinite period if the construction work on the tehsil headquarters hospital does not resume within a week. The work remains suspended since earlier this year.

“It is unfortunate that the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government had sanctioned an amount of Rs250 million for reconstruction of THQ hospital but didn’t release the money even after lapse of two years,” Khalid Iqbal, a local leader of Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf, told a press conference in Oghi on Sunday.

Accompanied by scores of people from different localities, Mr Iqbal said the previous PTI government had sanctioned funds and placed them in its annul development programme some two years ago, but the money was not released till date for reconstruction of the hospital.

“The hospital building is almost complete, but the contractor left the remaining work as government has not released funds for the work having already been done,” he said.

Mr Iqbal said over 500,000 people of Oghi had been without appropriate healthcare services since the hospital crumbled in the 2005 devastating earthquake.

He said the residents had met local MPA Nawabzada Fareed many times seeking his help for restart of construction work, but to no avail.

GIRL COMMITS SUICIDE: A young girl committed suicide by hanging herself with the ceiling fan at her residence in Mari Khankhel area on Saturday night.

The body of 17-year-girl was found hanging from ceiling fan by her family.

The mother of the deceased lodging FIR with police stated that when she went to call her daughter, she didn’t respond.

“When I did not get the response despite repeated knocks I had to break the door to her room and found her hanging from the ceiling fan of the room,” she said.

According to her mother, the victim committed suicide over unknown reasons.

The body was taken to King Abdullah Teaching Hospital, and later handed it over to family on completion of medico-legal formalities.

In another incident, four people sustained injuries when two motorcycles collided in Bajna area. The injured were shifted to hospital.

Published in Dawn, October 21st, 2019