SWAT: The Residents of Bahrain, Swat, have asked the government to suspend Section 144 so they can rebuild the hotels, stores, and houses that were destroyed by the recent floods.
According to details, the protestors claimed that hotels, stores, houses, and other infrastructure in the Bahrain Bazaar had been destroyed by the floods of August 2022, however, they condemned the district administration’s imposition of Section 144, which forbade any construction along the Swat River.
“After meeting all legal requirements, we built hotels roughly 50 years ago, but today the government has deemed them illegal. Chief Minister Mahmood Khan and the Malakand division commissioner have increased the suffering of the flood-affected people by putting the restriction on reconstruction,” said a protestor.
The reports showed that the devastating floods destroyed approximately 300 shops and roughly 40 hotels, leaving about 7,000 people jobless.
Besides, they regretted that more than three months after the floods, the relevant departments were still unable to restore life and people are working on their own to make ends meet.
Furthermore, they stated that the chief minister also did not visit to console the people of Bahrain, which had suffered the most due to the floods.
The prominent leaders and traders of the area threatened that if the ban was not repealed, they would hold rallies in Peshawar and Islamabad while calling the imposition of Section 144 equivalent to the economic murder of the poor.
