PESHAWAR: Members of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly from Chitral district have threatened to boycott the Senate polls and start a protest campaign if the government failed to release funds for the Lowari Tunnel and keep it open for transportation for six hours daily. Addressing a news conference at the Peshawar Press Club, Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) MPAs Sardar Hussain and Salim Khan urged the federal and provincial governments to ensure release of funds to the construction company that has been working on the tunnel. They demanded the federal government to increase the funds and asked Chief Minister Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Pervez Khattak to ensure early release of Rs3 billion announced by him earlier. They said they would stop sitting in the assembly, boycott the Senate election and mobilise people to protest. They said due to the heavy snowfall, Lowari Top had been closed for all kinds of traffic and the tunnel was opened for only six hours for two days in a week. This was an injustice to dwellers of Chitral, they said. The legislators said the federal government was holding the provincial government responsible for releases of funds, which too has failed to issue funds to the company. Chief Minister Pervez Khattak had announced Rs3 billion for the tunnel, but even a single rupee could not be released.
