Chitral villagers criticise appointment of non-locals

CHITRAL: Elders of Sheshi Koh village criticized the government for appointing non-locals in the health and forest departments in their area.

Addressing a press conference at Chitral Press Club on Monday, Haji Anzar Gul, former district councillor Haji Sher Muhammad, ex-village nazim Saifullah and others said that those who claimed to make appointments on merit had shattered the very foundation of the merit policy. They said that despite the ban, several appointments had been made by the government functionaries in the district.

Citing an example of the illegal appointment, they alleged that the district health officer had appointed one Shoaib Akhtar as Class-IV in the civil dispensary in Karas, adding that he belonged to Bamburet situated at a distance of 100 kilometres from the dispensary. “Let me ask the DHO if there was no one in Sheshi Koh to be appointed as a Class-IV employee?” he questioned.

Regarding the forest department, they said that their area had been ignored while there were 22 vacancies in the forest department where nine vacancies were allocated to Arandu. They said that other areas including Bamburet, Arsun and Ashrit had also been ignored, adding that people of Arandu were obliged by giving nine vacancies as the cutting of forest and smuggling of timbers to Afghanistan continued from the area.