Elders vow to oppose toll tax collection at KKH

MANSEHRA: Representatives of political parties, traders and civil society members on Saturday announced to launch protest against resumption of toll tax collection at the Karakoram Highway (KKH) by the National Highways Authority (NHA).

"We will not allow anybody to resume toll tax collection at Katain-da-Galla on KKH and also move the Supreme Court against it," Mufti Kifayatullah, the district head of Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl, told a grand jirga held here to decide the future strategy.

Former district nazim Sardar Said Ghulam lauded the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly for passing a unanimous resolution, seeking federal government’s intervention to scrap NHA plan to resume toll tax here.

"The toll tax collection was suspended almost 11 years ago after people stormed the toll tax point and a police inspector was killed in the ensuing riots," said Sardar Ghulam.

Speaking on the occasion, Fahad Habib, the general secretary of District Bar Association, said they would also move the Supreme Court of Pakistan against the NHA’s plan of resuming toll tax collection.