Daily Times

MANSEHRA: A grand jirga of Pattan have announced to end social boycott of the people of Palas after apex court upheld chief minster’s notification of Kohistan’s bifurcation into two districts.

“The jirga issued a decree of restoring our social links with people of Palas. Henceforth we allow them to use our soil to go to other parts of Kohistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa,” Sarzameen Khan, the parliamentary secretary of Industries told the jirga in Pattan on Saturday.

Local lawmakers, elders, Ulema and people from all walks of life attended the jirga. The Supreme Court in its decision on January 16 upheld Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government’s notification about bifurcation of Kohistan into Upper and Lower Kohistan districts.

The jirga was also attended by Advisor to Chief Minister Abdul Haq and prayer leader of central mosque in Pattan. Sarzameen Khan said that of Palas had opposed division of Kohistan into two districts, which caused resentment among the people of Pattan.

“Now all differences are over as verdict of apex court gives us our right and we would live together as two- tehsil of new Lower Kohistan district,” he said. Speaking on the occasion, Abdul Haq said the jirga had decided to end social boycott of the people of Palas as the bone of contention between people of the two tehsils had come to an end after the verdict of the apex court.

“We respect all tribes and people living in district and will follow this tradition in future too,” said Abdul Haq. “We are pleased to end social boycott of people of Palas and our goodwill gesture would bury our differences,” said Maulana Abdul Kareem.

On January 2016, a bench of the Peshawar High Court nullified the notification of bifurcation issued by CM, but people of Pattan led by Abdul Haq challenged the decision in apex court, which upheld the notification.