KP govt declares Kohistan, Shangla calamity-hit districts

MANSEHRA: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government has declared rain-affected Kohistan and Shangla as calamity-hit districts and announced to compensate the affected families in accordance with an already approved compensation formula.

“I am here on behalf of Chief Minister Pervez Khattak and announce Kohistan and Shangla to be the calamity devastated districts in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

The affected families will get compensation money in accordance with an already approved formula for such a situation,” stated Asad Qaiser, the speaker provincial assembly, while speaking at a public gathering in Dassu, the headquarters of Kohistan, on Friday.

The speaker, accompanied by chief minister’s advisors Abdul Haq, Abdul Munim Khan, PTI leader Zareen Gul Khan and MPA Shaukat Yousafzai, also took an aerial view of the affected areas in the district.

Qaiser said the KP government was aware of the devastation caused by recent rains in the district and was also utilising all available resources for rehabilitation of road and other infrastructures.

“We are with you and would never leave you alone in this critical time,” he told the gathering of locals.The speaker said successive governments had ignored Kohistan since the country came into being but added that now the PTI government would bring the underdeveloped district on a par with other developed areas.

He also announced that he would take up the rain-related damage of Kohistan at the floor of the provincial assembly.A former MPA Malik Qadam Khan and Hafizur Rehman told the gathering that Kohistan was the worst hit by recent rains in KP but the government didn’t take deaths and devastation as a serious matter.

They said over 23 people had been still buried under massive mass of earth in Kandia village for the last five days but government did nothing for their recovery so far.“We want the government to act promptly and recover bodies of the 23 people,” said Hafizur Rehman.