TIMERGARA: Employees of the former Dir state on Tuesday announced to launch agitation against the district administration and provincial government if they failed to stop the workers of Shahabuddin Khan, son of late Nawab of Dir, from harassing their families.

In this regard, scores of former Dir state employees staged a demonstration in front of the Timergara Press Club. The demonstrators were led by ex-state employees’ association president Malik Abdul Sattar and Malik Sher Bahadar.

Later, speaking at a press conference, leaders of the ex-state employees complained that workers of the ‘Khan of Jandol’ along with local police were harassing their families.

They said the ex-state employees had performed their duties of securing borders of the state and settling disputes among people during the reign of Nawab of Dir Shah Jehan Khan.

“We performed duties like police, collectors, etc when the state was ruled by ‘Nawab of Dir’,” Mr Sattar said, adding that when the state was merged into Pakistan in 1969 some of the employees were given gratuity while others were granted lands on which they used to do agriculture.

Claim son, workers of late Nawab of Dir harassing them

They said that the predecessors of Nawab of Dir had filed a case with the federal land commission after 1970 claiming 2,144 acres. The commission decided the case in 1972 and entitled the Khan of Jandol under land reforms’ regulation (MLR) 1072, but did not touch the MLR 122 and 123 that related to ex-state employees.

They said that the workers of Khan of Jandol were now wrongly interpreting the case and courts’ decisions and had started harassing families of the employees. They threatened to bring families of the former state employees on the road if the administration and provincial government failed to stop their harassment.

Of the 6,000 former employees 3,300 were given gratuity and 2,700 land in recognition of their services. A total of 1,600 of them belonged only to Jandol sub-division of Dir Lower.

EID MILAN PARTY: The Jamaat-i-Islami Lower Dir chief Izazul Mulk Afkari on Tuesday asked the government officials and NGOs’ staffers to serve people of the district sincerely otherwise the party would take action against them.

He was speaking at an Eid Milan party arranged by the party at the residence of MNA Sahibzada Yaqub Khan. The gathering was also addressed by minister for finance Muzaffar Said, Lower Dir DDAC chairman Saeed Gul and others.

Mr Afkari said that there had been no cases of corruption against the JI lawmakers, which showed it was the only party that could end the menace of corruption from the country. Other speakers claimed that people of Dir had full confidence in JI and mandated it for resolution of their problems.

Published in Dawn, July 22nd, 2015

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