Eye disease cases on the rise in Chitral

Report Zahiruddin

CHITRAL: The community ophthalmologist of the District Headquarters Hospital has said eye disease ‘trachoma’ is affecting the local population at an alarming rate.
Talking to this corerspondent here on Monday, Dr Faizul Mulk Jilani claimed that every fifth person in the district had contracted the disease.
According to the World Health Organisation, he said, the disease ranked second in eye diseases in the world and the poor nations were more vulnerable to it.
He said the infectious disease, which could lead to blindness, transmitted fast and in Chitral this happened due to its ‘peculiar’ social and cultural circumstances.
Dr Jilani said the disease became hard to be cured when reached a certain stage. He said the high occurrence of the disease in Chitral had been supported by a special survey and the record of the district hospital and it had been established that during summer, the infection spread more rapidly.
He said the disease encompassed five stages before it became incurable and the infected persons in Chitral were well within the safe stages of the disease. He said the WHO had formulated a strategy “SAFE” (surgery, antibiotic, face washing and environmental change) to combat the disease and it needed to be implemented in Chitral on emergency footings.--Dawn

Chitrali women have vast economic opportunities: Report

Report Zahiruddin


CHITRAL: A study reveals that there are enormous opportunities for women entrepreneurship in the district but the cultural barriers and lack of skills restricted them to do business.
Lack of integration, capacity and business environment were also enumerated as the reasons in the report, conducted by the Regional Women Empowerment Project of the AKRSP.
The report notes the huge information gap between the producers and the market which has minimised bargaining power of the producers. Although, Chitral is rich in resources along with the availability of relevant local skills, but the under-development of natural resources management is the main cause of the situation.
It also counts the absence of all-weather road from Chitral to other parts of the country and high transportation cost is inhibiting factors in the existing supply chain network.
“Transaction cost automatically increases in Chitral as one has to deal with a large number of small producers not organised under a single platform,” the report adds. The women of Chitral suffer due to lack of capacity to have perception of the market dimensions due to their inefficiencies while they find themselves in the chains of social bonds.
Describing the other hindrances, the report mentions the existence of bulk traders who control the flow of market information and buy the products from the consumers at minimum possible prices.
The report suggests that capacity-building is needed in almost all the identified sectors like poultry farming, honeybee keeping, handicrafts and kitchen gardening by applying plastic film or greenhouse technology due to the intense climatic conditions.
It suggests that a highly functional support market should be established and for this, the involvement of private sector must be ensured. The report cites example of fresh fruit sub-sector in Chitral where the overall production of apple, apricot, pears and other fruits have been increased in the last ten years. But the growers are still dependent on down country traders to buy their products at their farm gates and take away the produce in their own packaging.
The report strongly recommends proper mechanism for the flow of market information to the local producers to save them from the exploitation of tycoon.

Work on Yarkhun bridge begins again

DIZG/Mastuj: Work on the vital bridge linking the Yarkhun valley with other parts of Chitral has started for the fourth time.
Report say quite a large number of labourers mostly Pashtun have arrived at the site near Khotanlsht and started work on the reconstruction of the bridge which had collapsed in Aug 2006.
Earlier, three times work on the project was initiated but soon abandoned on one pretext or the other.

Chitral students body elects office-bearers

PESHAWAR: The Chitrali students studying in various educational institutions in Peshawar elected office-bearers for Chitral Students Welfare Association on Monday.A statement issued here on Monday said that a total of 758 students polled their votes in the annual elections wherein Iqbal Murtaza got 292 votes and was elected as president of the association. His rival candidates Ahmed obtained 176 votes and Qazi Faisal secured 180 votes.
Shaujaat Ali was elected as general secretary, Azhar Khaliq finance secretary, Irfan Aziz cultural secretary and Haq Nawz Khan as information secretary.
The body was formed at the Peshawar district level and Mehboob Azam was elected as Peshawar University campus president. Tariq Ibrahim was elected as patron and Mohammad Aftab as chairman of the association. These offices were created this year.
The newly-elected office-bearers pledged to solve the problems of students belonging to Chitral and raise their voice on every forum.
They said most of the students were facing residential problems and despite repeated efforts they were not accommodated in the hostels.
Most of the students, they said, belonged to poor families and couldn’t afford expenses of private residences.
They demanded of the government to provide residential facilities to the students.

Islam best solution to crises: speakers

Dawn


By Zar Alam Khan

ISLAMABAD: Speakers at a Seerat conference here stressed the need for finding solutions to the emerging challenges faced by the Muslims in the teachings of Islam and the life of Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him).

They said Muslims had deviated from the golden path of their religion while the West had extensively studied and taken full benefits of the teachings of Islam.

The conference was organised by Chitral Development Forum (CDF) in connection with the ongoing celebrations on the completion of the first phase of Lowari Rail Tunnel at the International Islamic University (IIU) on Sunday evening.

Ulema, scholars, researchers and political leaders, mostly from the district of Chitral, dwelt at length on the causes behind degeneration in Muslim societies, saying deviation from the teachings of Islam was the main reason behind the troubles and crises in many Islamic countries.

Member National Assembly (MNA) from Chitral Shahzada Mohiuddin said the need for unity among the Muslims was direly needed today as never before, because the country was passing through a critical moment of its history. He regretted that ulema and religious leaders had not properly fulfilled their obligation of spreading the true message of Islam and themselves fallen into different factions.

He said progress and development of Chitral, especially in the post-Lowari Tunnel scenario, was linked with maintenance of the existing peace, tranquility and inter-community harmony and tolerance in the valley for which the local residents had to play their role irrespective of their religious and political affiliations. He also called upon the people of Chitral to preserve and protect their unique culture as well as landed property after the area opens up to the outside world.

NWFP Minister for Population Welfare Salim Khan said due to our weaknesses, anti-Islam forces had succeeded in their design of pitching Muslims against each other and tarnishing the image of the great religion.

He said people of Chitral had lived in peace and harmony through centuries and in the prevailing situation, the valley had become a model for other areas to follow. He stressed the need for maintaining the exemplary congenial atmosphere in the district particularly after the opening of the Lowari Tunnel.

Others who spoke on the occasion included Qazi Faiz Elahi, Dr Inamur Rehman, Prof Israruddin, Faridullah, Maulana Abdur Rahim, Maulana Khalilur Rehman, Amir Shah, Zaheeruddin Behram and Habibur Rehman.

Officials bypassing distt govt, says nazim

By Our Correspondent

CHITRAL: The district nazim and members of the district council were unanimous to register their displeasure over alleged illegal appointments in the education, health and agriculture departments.
Levelling allegations against the provincial government, they said that the district government was being ignored. They said that they were elected representatives of the district but the provincial government ignored them in all spheres of decisions which affected the public.
Addressing on the occasion, District Nazim Maghfirat Shah warned the government that the district government and members of the council would go to any extent to register their protest and to make their importance and significance felt. “I do not shrink from staging a sit-in against the provincial government for seizing and capturing the authorities of the district government,” the enraged nazim said.
He said that the executive officers of the local departments were seeking directions from the provincial government bypassing the district government. At the behest of the provincial government, he said, the outgoing EDO education created a new record of merit violations. He demanded of the government to cancel the appointments in the education, health and agriculture departments.
Through a resolution, moved by Sohrab Khan of Sheshi Koh union council, the house demanded of the government to initiate inquiry into the works and services department for the alleged substandard construction of road for the Sheshi Koh valley at a cost of Rs25 million.

BUS STANDS: The tehsil municipal administration (TMA) Chitral has launched a drive against the illegal bus stands in the city which caused public nuisance and created disturbance for the smooth flow of vehicular traffic, Tehsil Nazim Sartaj Ahmed Khan said.
He said that a spacious bus stand had been established with all necessary and modern facilities for the commuters and no one would be allowed to run bus stands in various corners of the city.
Mr Khan said that with the rapid expansion of city settlements, the traffic problems had assumed a new and challenging form for the people but the TMA had solved a good number of them despite its limited resources and financial crisis.--Dawn

If you don't like Malakand Division, go away: say JUI leadres

Report Bashir Hussain Azad, Chitral

Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam Chitral held a public gathering in fevour of Nizam-i-Adl regulation at the school football ground here on Friday. A large number of people from different walks of life participated in the gathering.

Speaking on the occasion, former MPA Maulana Jahangir said the people of Chitral appreciated the initiative of Nizam-i-Adl regulation taken by the present government and fully supported it.

Other speakers during the gathering condemned those elements who they said made rumours that Chitralis were not happy with Nizam-i-Adl regulation. They also added that the people of Chitral were happy to live in Malakand Division, adding those who don’t want to live in Malakand Division should migrate to some other areas. The speakers also criticized the female staff of local NGOs for not observing Purda and mixing with males in different public places.

Among the speakers were Maulana Bilinaz, Major (r) Ahmed Saeed, Qazi Nasim. Qari Jamal presented a poem in favour of Nizam-i-Adl regulation.