Nasib Shah Shinwari
LANDIKOTAL: Political party leaders, tribesmen, elders and local transporters blocked Peshawar Torkham highway on Saturday in the Khyber area of Landikotal subdivision as a protest against the establishment of a toll plaza at Kata Kushta area on the highway.
The Jamat-e-Islam Landikotal senior leader Murad Hussain, Khyber transport union leader Haji Shakir Afridi and local elders criticized the local administration that before the establishment of the toll plaza on Pak Afghan high the government should announce a compensation package for tribal regions.
They said that before the merging, the political party leaders from Fata regions demanded the government declare Fata regions as a tax-free zone of Pakistan because the war against terrorism had already suffered the local’s businesses and common people.
Talking media, Murad Hussain, the Jamat-e-Islami Landikotal senior leader said they have constituted a committee to hold negotiations with the national highway authority officials but up to now their talks were not successful with the relevant department to reopen the road.
The JI leader said that before collecting tax through the toll plaza, the government should compensate the war-affected people of district Khyber and other regions of newly merged tribal regions.
He said and demanded that government should declare the newly merged areas as tax-free zones for the next 10 years.
