M. Pervez Lal[/caption] The agonies of the people started in July 2015 when torrential rains followed by flash floods played havoc in all parts of Chitral. Besides public and private properties in the flood-hit areas, people lost their meager sources of income such as standing crops, fruit trees and cattle. Besides, there were a severe shortage of drinking and irrigation water as all the canals and channels were washed away. While the affected people were still reeling under the impact of the devastating rains and floods, the Oct 26, 2015, broke their remaining strength by bringing more destruction and chaos. In the meantime, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif paid successive visits to Chitral along with the provincial government authorities, including the chief minister, and promised to reconstruct rehabilitate the damaged infrastructure. He also announced to pay compensation to people whose houses were damaged in the floods and the quake. Besides, the prime minister announced that small agricultural loans taken by the farmers amounting up to Rs500,000 be waived. The people took a sigh of relief. However, as time passed the prime minister’s promise to waive the loans could not materialized. Some sort of conspiracy seemed at work here otherwise in the past too on many occasions such promises were promptly implemented. Now instead of getting their loans waived, the residents of Chitral are being chased by the bank official as well as the police with the warning of being jailed if they did not clear the dues. Talking to ChitralToday, Tehreek Huqooq-e-Awam Upper Chitral information secretary Muhammad Pervez Lal blamed the MNA Chitral for his failure to get the notification of the loan waiver issued after the announcement of the prime minister. He said over 150 people had submitted copies of their national identity cards to him seeking a joint strategy against the bank officials who were harassing them for not paying loans they had taken from the ZTBL and the MiroFinance Bank. He said that in early 2016, the MNA had informed the people of upper Chitral at a public gathering in Mastuj that he had managed to get the State Bank notification issued for the waiver of the ZTBL loan and would also soon get the loans of MicroFinance Bank written off. The MNA had even old the people that if the government did not issue the notification for the waiver of the MicroFinance Bank loans he would pay them from his own pockets. Mr Pervez said that by keeping the matter hanging for over two years, the government as well as the elected representatives of Chitral were testing the patience of the farmers who have been facing miseries due to the calamities and were now being harassed by the bank officials. He warned that if the matter was kept lingered and not resolved, the people would launch agitation and in case of any untoward incident the authorities would be held responsible.]]>
