Torghar residents to protest ‘transfer’ college funds to Swat

MANSEHRA: The people of Torghar have threatened to take to the streets if the chief minister didn’t withdraw his notification diverting the funds meant for the construction of a college to his native Swat district.

“The chief minister has cancelled the construction orders of a college in our district and shifted the funds to Swat district,” a local Maulana Safiullah Khattak, told reporters in Judbah on Wednesday.Flanked by a group of locals, he said that though Torghar, an erstwhile tribal belt that was given the status of a settled district through a presidential order in 2011, its people were still deprived of education and health facilities.“Would you believe there is not a single college in our entire district. We will not allow the chief minister to snatch our rights,” said Maulana Safiullah. He said that former chief minister Pervez Khattak had approved the construction of the college in Judbah in 2017. Safiullah said that people of Torghar would block the Karakoram Highway to traffic and move the apex court if the government did not withdraw the decision. “We have summoned an all parties conference on June 10, where we would formally announce our future line of action,” he said.