CHITRAL: The civilian players of polo announced to boycott Shandur festival as a protest against the exclusion of legendary polo player Shahzada Sikandarul Mulk from the team and bypassing the selection committee by the district administration in selection of players.

Hundreds of polo players and fans took out a protest procession against the deputy commissioner here on Tuesday and demanded his immediate transfer from Chitral to make the festival a success.

Later on, president of district polo association Shahzada Sikandarul Mulk and members of selection committee including Zafar Ali Shah, Mohammad Azam, Faqir Mohammad, Nasiruddin and others addressed a press conference and said that the undue interference of administration in selection of players was not acceptable to them.

They alleged that the deputy commissioner was taking vengeance on the district polo association when it pressed hard the district administration for the rights of the civilian players whose allowance of last year were still unpaid along with a number of other perks and privileges, which they were entitled to.

They said that the selection of players for the Chitral teams to play in the Shandur festival disappointed the polo fans across the district and it was due to that reason that all the four teams of civilian players decided to boycott the event.

They said that polo association was sidelined by the district administration. They said that the free style polo was a part of Chitral’s culture which they had continued since the olden days and they would not like exclusion of civilians from the events of polo.

They said that the association also decided to file a writ petition in Peshawar High Court regarding the undue intervention of government departments in the affairs of polo.

On this occasion, the member of district council from Lot Koh also announced boycott of Shandur Festival by the people of his constituency.

PROJECT: A UNDP-funded project of Glacial Lake Outburst Flood (GLOF) risk reduction was launched here on Tuesday.

The project will prepare the vulnerable communities to mitigate the risks through disaster risk reduction management apart from early warning system and enhanced infrastructure.

The function was attended by the representatives of the vulnerable communities, civil society organisations, academia, members of provincial assembly and officials of different government departments.

Speaking on the occasion, the district nazim said that there was a design fault in the project that made its implementation next to impossible. He said that instead of learning a lesson from the first version of the project launched in the district four years ago, the second phase of the scheme was also infested with the defects.

The secretary to government for relief, Abid Majid, asked the project management to give due importance to the sentiments and wishes of the communities concerned and decrease the gap between the expectations of the public and the procedural framework.

Published in Dawn, July 3rd, 2019