KARAK:TradersassociationofKarakdistricthas demanded provision of basic facilities and regretted that they are even buying drinking water in the city.

District president of the association Gul Razi Khan chaired a meeting of traders on Thursday. After the meeting, the association`s representative Iqbal Khattak told media persons that it expressed grave concern over the lacl< of basic facilities in the district headquarters. He claimed that the traders were forced to buy even drinl(ing water at Rs15 per cooler.

He regretted that there was no washroom, car park and other facilities in the markets of Karak city and the people particularly women were facing problems while visiting bazaars for buying household items. They demanded of TMA to force the market owners to provide the said facilities to people.

Mr Khattak said that the meeting also expressed concern over 20-hour loadshedding in the city and added that the business of traders was badly affected due to prolonged outages.

The meeting also criticised the Karak TMA for not ensuring cleanliness in the city. They also demanded a separate commercial power feeder and commercial gas connections for the traders to ensure uninterrupted power and gas supply in the bazaars.

JUDGE VISITS JAIL: District and session judge, Karak, Syed Kamal Hussain along with senior civil judge Rashid Rauf visited the Karak sub-jail and issued orders for release of a few prisoners involved in minor offences on the eve of Eidul Fitr.

They also asked the prison authorities to resolve the problems beingfacedbytheprisoners.

Meanwhile, district police officer, Karak, Mian Naseeb Jan imposed Section 144 on sale of firecrackers and toy guns for a month in the district.

A press statement issued from the DPO office here on Thursday said that firecrackers and toy guns were interrupting the peace of mind of people and asked the shopkeepers to avoid their sale in the larger public interest. Correspondent