CHITRAL: Due to the negligence of the rulers and elected representatives, the people of Chitral are still forced to live a stone age life. The roads here are not fit for commuting and people are deprived of their basic rights. If I get a chance, I will change the map of Chitral.
These views were expressed by Senator Mohammad Talha Mehmood, a candidate for the NA-1 Chitral on the ticket of Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam, during his visit to different areas of Tahsil Torkho. The people of Veerkop, Shahgram and other areas accorded him a warm welcome. The JUI workers welcomed him outside the city and took him in a convoy to the public meeting place. On this occasion, Haji Shakeel, the candidate of provincial assembly constituency PK-1, former Amir Sher Karim Shah and other members of JUI were also present with him.
Addressing the public gathering, Senator Muhammad Talha Mehmood, said that when he travelled to upper Chitral, it seemed that the people here were still forced to live in the stone age. He said that there was no electricity, no potable clean drinking water and no good roads. It takes several hours to cover a few kilometers on this road and the vehicle is also so dirty that it is unrecognizable.
He said that Chitral is a tourist area where nature has created a lot but unfortunately due to the negligence of representatives elected from here in the past, the rulers have shown criminal negligence and ignored it.
Senator Talha said that after the success in the recent elections, he intended to open two hundred handicraft centers for the women here, as well as building roads, bridges and paths here.
Amir JUI upper Chitral Mulvi Sher Karim Shah expressed their views and criticized the elected representatives in the past. He said that Prince Iftharuddin and Maulana Abdul Akbar Chitrali were elected as members of the National Assembly twice, but they did nothing for Chitral. While Criticizing Abdul Akbar Chitrali, he said that he spent five years in the assembly and took his salary, but after taking the vote, he did not return to this area to know about issues of people but after the dissolution of the assembly, he pasted his name on sign board while inaugurating some roads.