MANSEHRA: A jirga of various tribes of Kolai on Wednesday announced to march on Sair Ghaziabad on Friday (tomorrow) if the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government did not withdraw the notification declaring it as the district headquarters of Kolai Palas.

“The provincial government had declared Batara area as the district headquarters of Kolai Palas when it bifurcated Kohistan into three districts in 2017, but Chief Minister Mahmood Khan annulled that decision in 2019 and notified Sair Ghaziabad as its new headquarters, which is unacceptable to us,” former tehsil nazim Haji Amir Zada told the jirga held in Kolai area of the district.

The jirga, attended by different tribes of Kolai area, announced that it would not only march on Sair Ghaziabad, the district headquarters of Kolai Palas, but would also expel the deputy commissioner and heads of public sector departments.

“Former chief minister Pervez Khattak had declared Batara as the centre of the new district, but Mahmood Khan annulled his decision and notified Sair Ghaziabad as the new district headquarters in 2019 on the request of local MPA Mufti Obaidullah,” said Amir Zada.

Another local elder, Mohammad Iqbal, said that MPAs from Kohistan Didar Khan and Mufti Abdul Ghafar Shah had refused to decide the fate of the district headquarters after tribes of Palas didn’t accept them as mediators.

Threaten to hold protest march tomorrow

“Chief Minister Mahmood Khan has recently constituted a committee of two local lawmakers to settle this issue amicably, but they refused the mediation offer after Palas tribes refused to accept them,” said Mr Iqbal.

15 INJURED IN ACCIDENT: As many as 15 people were injured when a pickup van plunged into a ravine in Chair area here on Wednesday.

The van carrying participants of a wedding party was on way to Mansehra from Chair area when the driver lost control at a sharp turn and it plunged into a ravine.

The local people shifted the injured to King Abdullah Teaching Hospital where doctors referred five of them to Ayub Medical Complex Hospital in Abbottabad.

Published in Dawn, April 8th, 2021