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All parties meeting on Lowari project held
By Zahiruddin
CHITRAL: The work stoppage on Lowari rail tunnel project has
sent severe shock waves across the Chitral valley as half the
million population of the district have attached too much
expectations with it for their progress and prosperity, the leaders
of different political parities said in the All Parties meeting
held here on Saturday. The meeting was presided over by district
nazim Maghfirat Shah and attended by Moulana Ghulam Muhammad of
Jamaat-e-Islami, Moulana Jahangir Khan of JUI, Muhammad Hakim
advocate of PPP, Syed Muzaffar Jan of ANP, Al-Haj Eidul Hussain of
PML-Q and Abdul Wali Khan advocate of PPP (Sherpao). The meeting
had been convened to discuss the stopping of work on the Lowari
tunnel project by the federal government on the pretext of security
reason. the leaders said that there was no immediate threat to the
workers of the Korean company working in the project and the
district government had given assurance of providing fool-proof
security on the site. They said that the work was stopped without
any consultation with the district government and the Korean
workers were removed from the site. Expressing their fear, the
political leaders said that the project has been shelved for ever
due to the financial crunch which is not acceptable to the people
of Chitral for which they have been waiting for decades. The
situation is quite peaceful in Chitral and Upper district districts
and there was no immediate danger to the workers in the site, they
said. “The project is a matter of life and death for the people of
Chitral and they will never accept the cruel decision of consigning
to cold storage”, they warned and said that the peaceful atmosphere
prevailing in the district will be disturbed if work is not
restarted forthwith. They asked the elected representatives from
the area including the MNA and the MPAs to play their role to force
the government to resume work on the project and fully represent
the aspirations of their electorates.
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10 day training for women trainers concluded
By Zahiruddin
CHITRAL: To achieve the economic emancipation of women in
Chitral, a 10-day training workshop was arranged for the master
trainers during which they were imparted extensive training to
enable the women folk to exploit the locally available resources
for income generation. The workshop was held under the auspices of
Regional Women Empowerment Project (RWEP) of AKRSP in which more
than thirty women participated. Addressing the participants, the
project manager of RWEP, Imtiaz Ahmed said that training on natural
resource management will open new venues of self-employment for the
women in the rural areas. He said that there are numerous
opportunities for the rural women to gain economic self-reliance by
utilizing the natural resources which otherwise goes waste. Mr.
Ahmed stressed on the master trainers to travel to the distant
villages to train their fellow women so as to enable them to earn
their livelihood in an upright way. He said that the poverty is
being enumerated as one of the reasons for the rising number of
suicide among the women folk in the district and by achieving the
goal of economic independence, the number of suicide can be
arrested effectively. He said that cottage industry of woolen
products, honey- bee keeping, poultry farming, cultivation of
vegetables on commercial scale, processing of fruits and mushroom
culture have tremendous potentials for women. He advised the master
trainers to show their commitment to the cause of poverty
alleviation among the women folk in this backward district where
the weaker sex has been striving hard for their sustenance. Mr.
Ahmed said that RWEP is not only providing training opportunities
to women but also assisting them to launch small enterprises in the
village level. He claimed that a good number of women have been
enabled by RWEP to earn their livelihood. He said that the master
trainers have also been trained on how to impart training to the
illiterate women folk in the rural areas in a simple and lucid
manner while stress has been laid on practical exercise. Mr. Ahmed
lauded the efforts of a women organization based in upper Chitral
named Chinar Art and Crafts Centre Mastuj for its achievements in
promoting cottage industry which has provided employment to
hundreds of women. He said that the handicrafts of Chitrali women
applauded on national level Islamabad recently during its
exhibition of its products.
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one person died in a jeep accident
By our correspondent
CHITRAL: One minor boy Najiur Rahman died and his brother
and sister sustained serious injuries when a jeep plunged into a
ravine at Kosht village here on Sunday afternoon. Police sources
said that the jeep was coming to Kosht village from Gohkir when it
met accident while turning a sharp turn. The injured have been
removed to tehisl hospital in precarious condition. The driver of
the vehicle Habibur Rahman of Gohkir village also sustained
injuries.
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