CHITRAL: The people, including lawyers, have demanded of the government to rename Lower Chitral district as Chitral and that of Upper Chitral as Mastuj to help preserve the heritage and culture of the region guaranteed in the country’s constitution.

The lawyers argue that bifurcation of Chitral in November, last year, into Lower Chitral and Upper Chitral districts, was not in line with the wishes of the people of respective areas.

In a letter addressed to the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa chief secretary, a senior lawyer from Mastuj town, Mohammad Yousuf, said that in 1895 when the English Army invaded Chitral, it comprised two princely states namely Chitral and Mastuj which were unified under a single command till 1947 when both were declared two districts of the state. And in 1969, the two districts were again unified as Chitral district.

Rejecting the name of Upper Chitral, he contended that the books of history, the folklores and even folk songs carried the name of Mastuj making the residents sentimentally attached to it.

He said Mastuj was a household name as the name of the main tehsil in the new district was also Mastuj, adding the attachment of the residents with the name was gauged from the fact that the teams of polo and football at tehsil level were named Mastuj team when they competed in district tournaments.

The district bar association recently passed a resolution demanding renaming of Lower Chitral district as Chitral, to not only save the government from the hassle of replacing the old name from its record and its people from going through the ordeal of changing their identity cards and other documents to incorporate the new name.

Abdul Wali Khan Abid, a member of KP Bar Council, said that retention of Chitral as the name of the newly-carved district was unavoidable on many grounds, ranging from academics to law, culture, history and administration.

Another senior lawyer, Barrister Fahad Sultan, has asked the Lower Chitral deputy commissioner to approach the relevant quarters in the provincial government in that regard.

In a letter to the DC, he complained that the people of Chitral were proud of their heritage and culture and their feelings had been hurt by the change in the name of the district.

When contacted, Lower Chitral DC Khurshid Alam Mehsud admitted that people were not ready to accept the new name.

He said letters received from different quarters, including the lawyers, had been sent to the board of revenue for further action in that regard. He said the people’s demand was genuine.

Published in Dawn, May 7th, 2019