DC Kohat becomes bone of contention between fed, KP governments

PM’s public meeting on Oct 28

PESHAWAR: The provincial Establishment Department has yet to accept the request of the Establishment Division, Islamabad, to surrender the services of Deputy Commissioner Kohat, Zahir Shah.

An official source in the provincial bureaucracy said the Establishment Division had sought sparability of Deputy Commissioner Kohat apparently as disciplinary action against the officer for “his failure” to control the activists of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), who staged a demonstration to disrupt the address of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif at the public meeting in Kohat on October 28.

The prime minister visited Kohat on October 28 to address a public meeting on the invitation of former PML-N lawmaker Abbas Afridi. The PTI local leadership, including Members National Assembly Shahryar Afridi and Member Provincial Assembly Ziaullah Bangash led a few hundred party activists to stage a demonstration on the occasion of the PM’s public meeting.

The PTI was reportedly given permission to hold protest in a place some one kilometer away from the venue of the prime minister’s public meeting and the local police was directed to control them if they sought to get closer to the venue.

However, at the time of address of the prime minister, the PTI activists managed to get close to the public gathering venue and started chanting slogans and pelting stones at the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) workers. The local PML-N leadership complained to the prime minister against the police and district administration for “refraining” from stopping the PTI workers to come close to the venue.

The Establishment Division, on the directives of the federal government, on Friday asked the provincial government to surrender the services of Deputy Commissioner Kohat, the official source said.

The source added that the federal government, meanwhile, under the Efficiency and Disciplinary (E&D) Rules has also constituted a two-member committee comprising Secretary Home and Tribal Affairs Shakeel Qadir and Deputy Inspector General (DIG), Hazara range, Saeed Khan Wazir to initiate an inquiry against the Deputy Commissioner Kohat.