LOWER DIR: Dir Qaami Pasoon (DQP), a non-political organisation working for uplift of Dir, on Friday demanded of the government to take practical steps for initiating and completing development projects in the district.

Speaking at a press conference at Timergara Press Club, DQP representatives Akbar Khan, Ali Shah Mishwani, Umar Zada and others claimed that the government wanted to abandon the Dir expressway project that had a vital importance for the region.

They said that their public representatives had failed to fulfil their responsibilities in their respective constituencies.

They said Dir needed more funds from the government on the basis of population, backwardness and under-developed infrastructure. They demanded the provincial and federal governments to also include the Lower and Upper Dir districts in their annual development programmes.

“The first priority of Dir, Bajaur and Chitral is Chakdara-Dir-Chitral Expressway project which can connect the country with the world via Tajikistan,” Akbar Khan said.

They said they would set up a cell for budget tracking to inform the local communities about the facts. They said the changing situation in the region had made it mandatory to establish a separate administrative unit by bifurcating Malakand division.

The DQP leaders claimed it was impossible to manage the vast area and population administratively from Swat.

WATCHMAN KILLED: A watchman of the under-construction government girls’ degree college, Khall, identifiedas Farhad Ali, 64, of Charsadda was killed when unknown attackers opened fire on him at the college veranda late on Thursday night, residents and police said.

The deceased’s brother Mohammad Siad told police his brother had no enmity with anyone.

He said his brother along with another man Chaman Gul, a resident of Bandai Dir, was asleep when unknown attackers came and shot his brother dead. He said Mr Ali had been working in the college for the last two months. Khall police registered the caseand have started investigations.

Published in Dawn, July 10th, 2021