KOHAT: Adviser to the chief minister on information technology MPA Ziaullah Bangash has said that minister for local government and rural development Akbar Ayub Khan has given a go-ahead for purchase of trucks, containers and other cleaning machinery for the three tehsils of Kohat with the Provincial Finance Commission funds.

A meeting chaired by the minister was also attended by secretary local council board Khizar Hayat, tehsil municipal officers of Kohat, Lachi and Gumbat of the district and the adviser.

Whole machinery had been handed over to the Water Supply and Sanitation Company which took over from the tehsil municipal administration four years ago.

Talking to mediapersons after the meeting, Mr Bangash also said that the minister had approved a new scheme of development of city smart bazaars, which would be introduced in the next ADP for the betterment of urban markets.

The adviser suggested that a summary should be put forward for preparing a strategy for handing over the youth centre to be set up in Kohat to the youth department. He agreed to a proposal of the minister that the municipal administrations should focus on civic services as their primary function.

He said play lands, civic and sports, parks, machinery, smart bazaars and recreational facilities would be provided in all the three municipal administrations of Kohat district.

KCCI NEEDS OWN OFFICE: The Kohat Chamber of Commerce and Industry has denounced denial of land for construction of its own office to entertain foreign businessmen and launch training sessions for promotion of tax payment.

Vice-president of provincial business panel and former KCCI president Haji Rasheed Paracha said in a statement on Sunday they had contacts with many locals of foreign business organisations, but could not invite them to Kohat due to absence of office.

He said there was one-widow facility in other parts of the country at the chamber where there was a special desk of FBR. He said the lawmakers and the TMO here were not cooperating at all which was causing losses to the business community.

GANG BUSTED: The Kohat police busted an inter-provincial gang of robbers who had looted money at gunpoint from a bank branch in KDA Township last year.

DSP headquarters Ijaz Khan Abazai told a press briefing here the other day that the bank was looted on Dec 8, 2020 and the robbers had taken away Rs1.5 million.

The police nabbed the robbers from different localities and had recovered Rs275,000 from them. They were identified as Gulab, Raheem Dad, Zakir, Taj Ali and Tariq. They divulged during investigations that they also had accomplices in other provinces.

Published in Dawn, January 18th, 2021