MINGORA: Over 36,000 drivers of Malakand region have been waiting for printing of their driving licences for last eight months, urging the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government to immediately issue them their licences.

According to the Malakand regional police, over 36,000 driving licences of the region are pending with regional printing centre, Peshawar. Of these licences, 12,300 belong to Swat district, 4,500 Buner district, 3,400 Shangla district, 4,000 Upper Dir, 9,000 Lower Dir and 3,000 driving licences to Chitral district.

Local people awaiting issuance of their licences complained that they had been facing problems while driving on different routes of the country.

`Every time I go to Peshawar or Islamabad the police trouble me due to unavailability of driving licence. I show them the receipt, but they say it is eight months old and impose fine on me,` said Akram Khan, a passenger van driver in Mingora.

Many people who have applied for the driving licence said that they had fulfilled all the requirements, including payment of fee, but the licence issuing department had kept them on wait for months now.

`I go to the office for driving licence every month, but return disappointed as for the last eight months I hear the same reply that the licences are lying pending for printing in Peshawar,` said Mohammad Imran, a resident of Saidu Sharif.

The affected drivers showed surprise over the unavailability of printing material in the regional printing centre.

They have demanded of the provincial government to immediately issue them their licences.

When contacted, Swat district police officer Mohammad Ijaz said that the issue existed not only in Swat, but in the entire province.

`Purchase of the printing material is a centralised procedure. Once we get the printing material the licences will be printed and issued to the applicants,` he said.

KILLED: One person was killed and another injured when roof of a house caved in at Bara Bandai area of Kabal tehsil on Tuesday.

Police said that roof of the house collapsed when labourers were working on it, leaving two labourers Niaz Ali and Hakim Khan critically injured. They said that Niaz All later succumbed to his injuries in a hospital.