NHA starts humiliating passengers at Lowari tunnel

CHITRAL, Jan 4: The passengers leaving for Peshawar via the Lowari tunnel on Saturday morning were humiliated by the NHA and the Korean company staff. The provincial government had announced that the tunnel would be opened for two full days on Jan 4 and 5. However, when the passengers reached the tunnel early on Saturday morning, they found that the NHA authorities had issued a notification for only three hours opening of the tunnel. Abdul Ghafar, a local journalist, who was travelling to Peshawar along with his family, told this correspondent from the Lowari tunnel on telephone that the staff of the Korean construction, SAMBU, did not open the tunnel for the passengers when they reached the portal at Chitral side at 7am. He said that the passengers had left Chitral when it was announced on behalf of chief minister that the tunnel will be opened at 6am on Saturday for 36 hours. But they were told that as per notification of NHA the tunnel will be opened at 12.30pm. “We felt as if we had been befooled like April fool day,” Mr. Ghaffar said, adding he heard children and women screaming with cold as they had arrived there early in the morning. He said that he counted more than one hundred fifty vehicles waiting for the opening of the tunnel in long queue and such was the case on the other portal of the tunnel. Meanwhile, the enraged people in Drosh town took out a protest procession and traveled to Chitral city on Saturday afternoon where a meeting was held. The speakers Qari Jamal Abdul Nasir, Haji Shafa, Farid Jan advocate, former district nazim Maghfirat Shah and MPA from Chitral Saleem Khan criticized the provincial government for its indifference to the pathetic condition of Chitralis after the closure of Lowari top road. They said that due to closure of the road for the last two weeks, the commodities of daily consumption have started running out in the market and the situation will turn for the worst. Later, they called on the deputy commissioner Chitral and told him about the gravity of the situation and warned him about its repercussions.–Zahiruddin]]>