Chitral’s hoteliers seek payment of ‘quarantine bills’ of Rs34m
Peshawar
March 7, 2021
PESHAWAR: The Chitral Association for Mountain Area Tourism (CAMAT) chairman Shahzada Iftikhar Uddin has appealed to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Mahmood Khan to clear the ‘quarantine bills’ that the government owes to Chitral’s 60 hotels pending since July 2020.
In a statement, he complained that the inordinate delay in paying the Rs34 million bills of 60 hotels used by the district administration Lower Chitral for five months as quarantine facilities during Covid-19 has bankrupted the hotel industry. “To add insult to injury the hoteliers were forced to even pay the utility expenses such as electricity, gas, security and management salaries while the facilities remained under government use,” he added.
He directed officials of the energy and power department to finalise arrangements for the purpose.
The chief minister disclosed it during a briefing on the Balakot hydropower project, according to a statement issued here.
The meeting was attended by adviser to the chief minister on energy and power Himayatullah Khan, energy and power secretary Zubair Khan, chief executive officer of Pakhtunkhwa Energy Development Organisation Mohammad Naeem Khan and other relevant officials.
Officials informed Mr Mahmood about the progress on the project and said the project contract had been awarded, while agreement would be signed with the contractor soon.
They said the 300MW power project was being set up on the Kunhar River in Mansehra district with the assistance of the Asian Development Bank at an estimated cost of Rs85 billion.
I noticed Taimur Khan Jhagra on Twitter in 2018. The electoral success of Imran Khan’s party Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) in the general elections of 2018 resulted in the PTI coming into power in the centre and the provinces of Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Minister of finance in the government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Jhagra with his impeccable linguistic, argumentation and persuasion skills was a rarity–he still is–in terms of his stark honesty vis-à-vis expectations versus reality, the paradigm in which his party re-formed government in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
In his tweets and his responses to people who asked him hard questions or harshly criticised his government even at its nascent stage, Jhagra’s calmness and patience were visible in his carefully posted words. He answered, he debated, he presented facts and figures, he pushed his point with empirical evidence, he was open to feedback and suggestions. And he worked.
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Mahmood Khan chairs the second meeting here on developmental schemes and people’s issues in Malakand division on Saturday. Photo courtesy KPK updates Twitter
PESHAWAR: Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Mahmood Khan on Saturday decided to set up a commission headed by a senior member of the board of revenue to look into the issues, especially the people’s grievances, about land settlement process in Malakand division.
Chairing the second meeting here on developmental schemes and people’s issues in Malakand division, the chief minister said the commission would make workable recommendations to the government on the matter.