August 02, 2008	Saturday	Rajab 29, 1429

PESHAWAR, Aug 1: As the Frontier Corps decides to vacate the 76-year-old Ladha Fort in South Waziristan, it is dragging its feet on handing over the historic Balahisar Fort in Peshawar despite several requests by the NWFP government.

FC inspector-general Maj-Gen Mohammad Alam Khattak on Thursday announced that the fort was being vacated on the demand of local people and handed over to the civil administration for its conversion into a 20-bed hospital.

Built by the British in 1932, the fort located in the Ladha town, which is dominated by Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan chief Baitullah Mehsud, faced off 18 major attacks in January alone.

Mr Khattak insisted that the decision to vacate the fort was taken on the demand of the local people for better healthcare facilities and not under any threat from militants.

But some analysts believe that the decision could not have come at a bad time. It would among other things raise many eyebrows in the increasingly suspicious and critical US and also give a fillip to militants and further embolden them. “It has created negative vibes among the people who were being engaged in peace efforts in troubled tribal areas,” said one analyst.

“The vacation of Ladha Fort has created insecurity and doubts,” said a resident of the Ladha town. Mr Khattak was not available for comment when contacted on phone.

He on Thursday had given out three main reasons for vacating the fort. One, he said, the security environment had improved since the military operation early this year; two, that over the period it had been surrounded by buildings and three; on demands by locals to provide them with better healthcare facilities.

By the same yardstick however, the Frontier Corps has been dragging its feet and refusing to vacate the Balahisar Fort.

Situated in the heart of the Peshawar city, the fort built by Mogul king Zaheeruddin Babar in 1526 and later rebuilt by Hari Singh Nalwa with the help of French engineers in 1830s, is one of the main tourist highlights of the provincial capital. The NWFP government on several occasions approached the federal government and the GHQ to seek the vacation of the fort, but despite promises no action was taken.

The NWFP government, wanting to open the historic fort that provides a nice panoramic view of Peshawar, for public, also offered and later allotted a piece of land in the posh Hayatabad area to enable the FC to shift its headquarters. The fort remains the headquarters of the Frontier Corps since 1949.

The most recent such move was made in January 2008 by the Sarhad Tourism Corporation.

The STC had made a formal request to the provincial government to request the federal government to acquire the Balahisar Fort from the Frontier Corps and to open it up for tourists visiting the Frontier province capital. But like many attempts in the past the request fell on deaf ears.

“We wanted to acquire the Balahisar Fort and develop it as a tourist attraction, but we have not got any reply to our request made in January this year,” said Aqil Shah, provincial minister for tourism and culture.

This was not the first time that such a request was made, the STC had taken up the issue regarding the evacuation of the fort and opening it for tourists to promote urban tourism, but dropped it in August 2005 due to petty reasons apparently.

In 2001, then NWFP Governor Iftikhar Hussain Shah had directed the department to take up a case with the federal government that all forts presently in possession of the army/Frontier Corps should be handed over to the NWFP government for promotion of tourism. As a result, the FC HQs agreed to open the Balahisar Fort for visits by tourists on fixed days, but did not agree to vacate it.

The FC not only had refused to vacate the fort as it cited the absence of alternative accommodation reason for its physical occupation of the fort, but it also wanted to stay in the fort for it was a technical location for security of the lines communication.

Officials in the provincial government are of the view that the FC is not ready to vacate the fort spread on 25 acres despite taking 54 acres of land in Hayatabad as part of 100 acres required for its new headquarters.

The FC has been demanding an estimated cost of Rs779 million and allotment of the remaining 46 acres of land in Hayatabad to it.