Daily Times

A grand jirga under the banner of Tanzeem-e-Nujawanan-e-Qabail, pertaining to problems and resources of Landi Kotal was held here at Bacha Khan Chowk main bazaar on Sunday. The speakers criticized Members of Parliament for turning blinds eye towards problems being faced by the inhabitants of the area.

They threatened that if their demands were not met forthwith, they would formulate strategy to initiate indefinite agitation and protest against.

Beside candidates of main stream political parties for PK-105, a large number of political workers, tribal elders ,religious scholars, students and members of civil society were among the participants.

Speaking on the occasion, Chief of Tanzeem-e-Nujawanan-e-Qabail,Israr Shinwari,Malik Nadeem (Pakistan Peoples Party), Shahid Shinwari (Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf), Ali Rehman (Qaumi Watan Party), Shah Hussain Shinwari (Awami National Party), Murad Hussain (Jamat-e-Islami), Mirajuddin (Chairman Custom Clearing Agent Association, Torkham), Maulana Hazratullah and others were of the opinion that for the last seven decades, they had been deprived of all basic rights. Even after streamlining of the ex-tribal regions, they were surrounded by enormous problems. Under what law the tribes were being treated following the elimination of Frontier Crime Regulation(FCR)? The parties’ representatives wondered.

“Development works have been completely halted in the merged districts. However, the tribal youth are competent enough to get their rights”, they remarked.

They came hard on land grabbing policy of National Logistic Cell (NLC) in Torkham and said its anti-tribal policies as implemented in Torkham left thousands of locals jobless. They blamed that civil and forces officials,deployed in Khyber were involved in corruption and were least concerned with resolving miseries of masses.

In the prevailing modern era, the tribesmen had been deprived of 3G and 4G net facilities which was a step mother behavior to them by the state, they added. The speakers demanded that permission should be granted to Non Custom Paid (NCP)vehicles to move freely in Khyber district.