LOWER DIR: Lawmakers from Lower Dir district have pledged to make collective efforts for making functional Timergara Medical College (TMC) so that classes at the much-awaited college can be started at least from the next session.

In this regard a meeting was held in Timergara with Deputy Commissioner Mohammad Arif Khan in the chair. Pakistan Tahreek Insaf MNAs Bashir Khanand Syed Mahboob Shah, MPAs Malik Shafiullah, Azam Khan, the special assistant to chief minister on prisons, MPA Humayun Khan, representative of MPA Ubaidur Rehman, Khall tehsil chairman Ashfaqur Rahim, Balambat tehsil chairman Shakir Shuiab, Adenzai tehsil chairman Fairoz Shah, TMC Principal Prof Dr Samiullah, Timergara hospital medical superintendent Dr Ali Asghar, TMC admin Dr Waqar Alam, executive engineers Pesco of communication and works and representatives of Young Doctors Association attended the meeting.

The TMC principal briefed the participants about the land for the college hostel, solarisation of the building, repair work, installation of power transformer, available facilities as per the requirementsof Pakistan Medical and Dental Council and handing over of equipment purchased for the college and other issues.

The meeting directed the former project director to provide the record of equipment purchased for the college. The stakeholders will meet once in a month to regularly review the progress.

The lawmakers promised to raise the issue of funds with the provincial authorities.

Meanwhile, the chairman of district development advisory committee, MPA Ubaidur Rehman, told local journalists in Munda that he had submitted a call attention notice in provincial assembly about alleged irregularities in TMC.

He said that TMCwas approved 10 years ago, but classes were notstarted there. He said that equipments worth Rs1.4 billion were purchased for the college in the absence of technical experts and half of the items were not present there.

STRIKE: The employees of different government departments observed a complete pen-down strike and boycotted duty here on Thursday for the second consecutive day to protest the proposed pension reforms.

The strike was held on the call of All Government Employees Grand Alliance (Agega). All Pakistan Clerks Association (Apca) district president Sehat Jan along with Alamgir Khan and drivers association district president Muzzamil Shah visited various offices and asked employees to observe strike.