In the mountainous north, the valley of Swat is known as Switzerland of Asia and one of the most beautiful and historically interesting valleys of Pakistan. In Swat, one witnesses colour, roses, picturesque hillsides, which are rich in history, and a spot, which is glorious for Pakistani traditions of love, peace and hospitality. Once this paradise on earth fell dark and turned into hell and yet another disaster, flood, brought chaos back to the valley last year in July.
It rained dogs and cats for several days and swathes of lands were flooded, forcing many people to flee to safer places on higher ground damaging the infrastructure of the area and 110 connecting bridges were washed away in the district cutting road links with rest of the country. Mingora Central GT Road Bridge was also washed away during the catastrophic flood last year, which left the city disconnected from rest of the country .Knowing the importance of it, the army laid an emergency steel bridge and took six months to construct it, which continues to deteriorate due to heavy traffic. It allows motorists to pass through from one way only causing severe miseries to the people, who start pouring in from outside the city and experience high traffic jam, which wastes the time of the people.
This shows the apathy of the corrupt and incompetent regime, which did not pay heed to this important issue and other problems of the masses in one and a half year. MNAs or MPAs are busy in looting the government exchequer and living a luxurious life with their families by settling them at Islamabad and Peshawar. The steel bridge laid by the army caused a lot of injuries and ailing people are also not allowed to travel on this bridge. On being contacted, Swat DCO Kamran Khan said that the bridge was under domain of the National Highway Authority (NHA). Neither any NHA engineer visited Swat to observe the condition of the bridge nor the department has any programme to re-build it again. The masses ask the provincial government and elected MNAs and MPAs of Swat that where they used the dollars meant for rehabilitation of Swat .They demanded the provincial government take immediate steps for reconstruction of Mingora Central Bridge in order to provide relief to the masses.
