Early allotment of plots to quake affectees sought

MANSEHRA: The survivors of the red zone have demanded the Commissioner Hazara to ensure an early allotment of plots in the New Balakot City Housing Project.

“Chief Minister Mahmood Khan has assured a delegation that met with him in Peshawar earlier this month that the commissioner would ensure the plots’ allotment but to no avail,” Maroof Khan, a member of delegation, told a press conference in Balakot on Wednesday. Flanked by the other members of the delegation, he said that the then president Pervez Musharraf had performed the groundbreaking of the mega housing project in 2007 but it still seemed in the doldrums.

“This housing project was estimated to be completed at a cost of Rs13 billion in 2012 but now its cost has almost doubled but it is yet to be completed,” Khan said. Speaking on the occasion, Haider Khan said that the chief minister should have ordered the commissioner of plots’ allotments to survivor families but he instead asked them to consult him.

“We want both federal and provincial governments to enforce the Supreme Court’s ruling and release an amount of Rs1 billion for an immediate development of the roads and other infrastructure,” he said.

JUIF Lawyers Forum: Fahad Habib Tanoli and Shafiqur Rehman have been selected as president and general secretary, respectively, of the Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Fazl Lawyers’ Forum.