CHITRAL, May 9: A large number of Chitralis, residing in other districts of the country, who usually returned home after removal of snow and opening of the land route by the end of May, have not come back to cast their votes.
Lutfullah, the manager in the city bus stand, said more than one hundred passenger coaches arrived from Peshawar and the twin cities of Islamabad and Rawalpindi on the day when the Lowari tunnel was opened for passengers.
The number normally remained fifteen to twenty, he said, adding that many passengers also traveled to Chitral by cars and other private transport.
One Rahman Shah, a daily wage worker in the bus stand, said most of those returned were students studying in the religious seminaries in different cities specially in Peshawar, Lahore and Karachi.
Due to the limited number of employment opportunities in the district, the local people leave their villages every year with the advent of summer season to find employment as raw labourers and return after five to six months and it will raise the turn out rate of voters in the election.
One Raqeeb Shah of Yarkhun valley who had reached here from Rawalpindi with a group of thirteen villagers, said that they hastened by three weeks in returning to their home due to the general elections.
Having spent more than five months in the city working in different construction sites, he said that they had came here with a urge to change the destiny of their valley which is devoid of basic facilities of life including road.
A political activist Saifullha Jan, said that the influx of the students of deeni madressa will benefit the religious parties specially Jamiat Ulama-e-Islam.– Zahiruddin
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