Afghans asked to wind up businesses before Eid in Kohat

Afghan citizens living in the Kohat district have been issued a final warning to wind up their businesses, according to reports on Sunday.

Tehsil Nazim, Kohat, Taimoor Ali Khan has given the final warning to the Afghan nationals to wind up their business on handcarts and as shopkeepers in the bazaar till Eidul Fitr.

He had asked them to shift to data bazaar area of old jail ground during Ramazan, but ironically the local elders who had rented front places of their shops to them again come to their rescue. He also said that Afghans living in the area were a burden on the local resources of food, water and electricity.

These Afghan nationals have now been given time till coming Eid after which no foreigner would be allowed in the city. The Nazim claimed that he had strictly checked corruption and lavish spending in the tehsil municipal administration and vowed to continue his efforts against the commission mafia too.

Talking to Dawn on Saturday, Taimoor Khan said that it was for the first time in the TMA that during the visit of Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf chairman Imran Khan and Chief Minister Pervez Khattak the organisation’s total expenditure on arrangements amounted to only Rs12,000.

“I refused to give funds for the tents, coolers, tea or lunch during the visit whereas the communication and works department spent millions on carpeting the route of the dignitaries,” he said.

Taimoor Khan said that he had objected to the construction of entry gates around the city as part of the Rs1 billion Kohat beautification plan. He said that instead parks and hotels should be built to attract tourists.

“I have also told the commissioner that the idea of constructing 13-inch thick and eight feet high boundary walls around the graveyards is useless and would be a wastage of funds,” he said.

The tehsil Nazim said that the lawmakers should spend money on resolving real issues like shortage of drinking water and ensuring cleanliness in the city.

He lamented that the only park available to the people of the city for recreation had been turned into a debris of soil replacing the grass and Rs40 million were being spent on it just for making a jogging track, four latrines and a small waterfall.

“I have also stopped letting of 120 shops of a government market at throwaway rates to the people,” he claimed.

Answering a question, he said that the number of sweepers of TMA was the same as in 1950. He hoped that the Turkish company would take the charge of the cleanliness of the city soon.