Afghan Wireless Communications Company (AWCC) inaugurated its seventh sales and services center in Kandahar city this week, amid an increasing number of customers.

AWCC officials said they are trying to increase and improve their telecommunication services to the residents of the southwest region and with the additional sales and service center, they will be able to assist more customers.

“This move is not limited to Kandahar, but we have also increased the number of customer service centers in Helmand, Uruzgan and Zabul provinces, and we will increase them in the future as well in order to take care of people’s needs,” said Sayed Noor Ahmad Shah Agha, head of AWCC in southwest Afghanistan.

Local authorities in Kandahar also expressed their satisfaction with the opening of the new AWCC branch in Kandahar city.

“Ninety-nine percent of people use AWCC SIM cards. The remaining one percent use other networks. My request to the authorities is to provide more facilities for the people,” said Mirza Mohammad Zahid, head of the human resources department of Kandahar governor’s office.

The provincial directorate of communications in Kandahar noted that AWCC has now covered all districts of Kandahar.

“The only district left was the remote district of Registan. Alhamdulillah, the people there now also benefit from telecommunication services,” said Noorullah Nouri, provincial director communications in Kandahar.

AWCC is the only company that covers all provinces in Afghanistan with telecommunication and internet services.

Pakistan’s former prime minister Imran Khan said on Saturday he expected to be arrested as he headed to court on graft charges, after days of legal wrangling and pitched battles between his supporters and police.

The 70-year-old former cricket star has been tangled in a slew of court cases, a frequent hazard for opposition figures in Pakistan’s mudslinging politics, AFP reported.

“I am going to the Islamabad court right now. I want to tell you all that they have made a plan to arrest me,” he said in a video message from the motorway, claiming he was the target of a plot to stop him from standing in elections due by October.

“The point of their attack on my house was not to present me before the Islamabad court. The purpose was to put me in jail.”

Khan was ousted in a no-confidence motion last year and has been pressuring the fragile coalition government which replaced him to hold early elections.

Earlier this week Khan’s supporters fought pitched battles with police sent to arrest him in the eastern city of Lahore after he failed to appear in court, citing security concerns.

Authorities were later stood down after a flurry of court hearings and Khan’s promise to appear in the capital on Saturday.

Some 4,000 security officials including elite police commandos, anti-terrorism squads and paramilitary rangers have been deployed around Islamabad with hospitals put on high alert, AFP reported.

Police meanwhile raided his house in a plush Lahore neighbourhood after blocking nearby roads and suspending mobile services in the area.

The case has been brought by the Election Commission of Pakistan which has accused Khan of not declaring gifts received during his time as premier, or the profit made from selling them.

At least 10 people, including children and women, were killed and three injured in a fire incident early Friday morning in the Seri area of Pattan, the district headquarters of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Lower Kohistan, Dawn reported. 

Lower Kohistan Rescue 1122 spokesperson, Farman Ali, said that the fire erupted in a wooden house due to an electric short circuit in the early hours of Friday when the residents were asleep.

As a result, the house’s roof collapsed, leading to the deaths of 10 family members and leaving three others injured. Ali further said that until the residents woke up, the entire house had been engulfed in fire.

The rescue official said that as it was dark when rescue efforts were underway, and they faced difficulties in retrieving the bodies and the injured.

“However, their bodies have been recovered and the three injured have been shifted to Pattan’s Rural Health Centre,” Ali added.

He further said that eight buffalos also perished in the incident as the fire was on a “huge scale” and locals had taken part in the rescue efforts as well.