MANSEHRA: The Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf’s federal and provincial governments have failed to address the issues being faced by the residents of Balakot and its adjoining areas in accordance with the apex court ruling given by then chief justice Mian Saqib Nisar in January 2019.

This was stated by Shiraz Mehmood Qureshi, a social activist on whose writ petition the apex court had issued the ruling, while talking to mediapersons here on Sunday.

“The Supreme Court had ordered both the federal and provincial governments to remove hurdles to the Rs13 billion New Balakot City housing project and rebuild the infrastructure destroyed in 2005 earthquake. However, nothing practical has been done on the ground despite passage of 20 months since the verdict,” he said.

He said that then chief justice, who had officially visited Balakot along with two apex court judges in 2018, had ordered the federal government to release Rs1 billion for the development of NBC housing project, but that amount had not been released as yet.

Residents decide to launch agitation against government

Meanwhile, the residents of Balakot in a meeting decided to launch an agitation against the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf governments in the centre and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

The meeting, which was attended among others by Balakot traders body president Javed Iqbal and local elders Mohammad Maroof, Mian Ashraf and Tahir Khan, decided to come onto streets if the government didn’t release the allotment letters to over 5,000 surviving families who were still living in prefabricated shelters.

ACTION AGAINST RAFTING: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa culture, tourism and youth affairs department in a joint operation with Kaghan Development Authority confiscated three boats of an operator for violating the ban on rafting in Kunhar River on Sunday.

A statement issued by the department said the operation was launched as rafting was a dangerous sport and couldn’t be practised in a river like Kunhar.

It said the operators were stopped from rafting in the Kunhar River in Naran as it could put the rafters’ lives in danger.

DROWNED: A tourist from Peshawar drowned in the Kunhar River near Balakot on Sunday.

Mohammad Junaid from Sarban area of Peshawar had come to Kaghan valley along with his friends and slipped into the river while taking pictures. The Rescue 1122 has started an operation to recover the body. Another tourist, identified as Shoaibul Hassan from Nankana Sahib (Punjab), had drowned the other day in Malkandi area of Kaghan valley. Search for his body was still underway in the Kunhar River.

Published in Dawn, August 17th, 2020