JI warns of protest against proposed tax

LOWER CHITRAL: The Jamaat-e-Islami local leaders and workers on Sunday opposed the government’s proposed plan to levy tax in the Chitral districts and announced to launch of a protest movement if the proposal was not shelved.

Speaking at a press conference, JI Lower Chitral district ameer Maulana Jamshed Ahmed, Maulana Sher Aziz, Maulana Rahmatullah, Wajeehuddin, Maulana Gulabuddin and other party workers said other political parties would be invited to join the drive, adding it would be launched next week and continue till the government scrapped the proposed tax plan. They said Chitral districts were still deprived of basic amenities and there was no justification for the imposition of any tax here.

The JI leaders said the successive past governments exempted the Malakand division from taxes and Chitral was a highly less-developed district of the division.

They said the Chitral districts were contributing to the exchequer as wood was produced here which was used in the construction industry along with hydel power generation and tourism but despite that, the region had been kept backward.

“There is no change in Chitral to date as far as the development process is concerned because no government ever bothered to develop these far-off districts,” said one of the speakers.

The JI leaders said they would have no objection to any levy but for that, the government should first carry out the development schemes in the district.