G-B Assembly session: Mehdi Shah ‘protecting illegal appointments’

Lawmaker resents slow pace of work on the Attabad Lake spillways.

GILGIT:

Lawmakers in the Gilgit-Baltistan (G-B) Assembly on Thursday accusedG-B Chief Minister Mehdi Shah of blocking an inquiry against illegal appointments made in the police force. They demanded that all such appointments be annulled.

“The G-B police appointments made by the previous government were illegal, but ironically the chief minister is protecting them,” said the lawmakers during the G-B legislative assembly session.

Shah said the move was justified because an inquiry could leave several people unemployed.

Barrage of complaints

The issue of illegal appointments was not the only complaint on the table at the session. Shah assured the assembly that restoration of the Karakoram Highway (KKH) along the Attabad Lake spillway will start soon.

“We will be visiting China soon and the task of restoration of KKH will be given to a Chinese company,” Shah said as a lawmaker, Mutabiat Shah, voiced dissatisfaction over the slow pace of work on the lake that has cut off more than 25,000 people in the Gojal area.

The members of the assembly also expressed discontent over a delay in the regularisation of 33 doctors’ services in Gilgit.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 22^nd,  2011.