PESHAWAR: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government has decided to give its ‘underutilised’ buildings in the merged tribal districts to the police department on need basis.

According to a presentation made during a recent meeting of the provincial task force on merged areas and available with Dawn, a survey by the administrations has identified 121 underutilised buildings in five tribal districts and 64 of them are located in North Waziristan, 27 in Bajaur, 18 in South Waziristan, eight in Kurram and four in Mohmand.

However, no such building was found in Khyber and Orakzai tribal districts.

During the meeting, the task force decided that the police department would take over underutilised buildings on need basis, while the rest might be utilised by other departments.

Task force asks dept to issue notifications for the purpose

It asked the home and tribal affairs department to issue notifications regarding those buildings.

The documents show that 26,487 khasadars and Levies personnel in the tribal districts have been absorbed into the police department and that those personnel are 89 per cent of the total strength of levies and khasadar men in the entire region.

Also, the police department has purchased Rs2 billion equipment for their personnel in tribal districts, while 73 police stations and 54 police posts have been made functional across the region.

Besides, 17,139 personnel have also been trained in different aspects of policing.

The documents reveal that the administration of South Waziristan tribal district has provided space for the establishment of the counter-terrorism department offices in the area as a stopgap measure.

The provincial working and development party approved Rs844 million for the purpose in Sept this year.

Regarding the alternate dispute resolution mechanisms in the merged tribal districts, the documents showed the mechanism was fully functional in all seven tribal districts formally known as Fata.

According to them, the ADR committee in Bajaur tribal district has since its establishment resolved 13 cases.

Also, the Khyber ADR panels resolved four cases, Kurram’s one, Mohmand’s four and North Waziristan’s 13.

However, the ADR committees of Orakzai and South Waziristan tribal districts have not resolved any case since their establishment.

The documents declared that a memorandum of understanding had been signed between the planning and development department and the USAID regarding the land settlement process.

In addition, settlement offices have been set up at all seven subdivisions of the erstwhile Fata, while recruitment and training of settlement staff has been completed and the employees have been deployed to their field offices.

Also, a land settlement awareness campaign has been launched.

The documents show that state land has been offered in Khar, Lower Kurram and Dara Adamkhel areas for setting up service delivery centres, while the mines and mineral department is in the process of moving a summary to the chief minister for the mutation of two kanals of land. In addition, land identification and acquisition for the establishment of service delivery centres is in progress for Hassankhel, Bannu Wazir and Landi Kotal areas.

Also, designs of land record complex and service delivery centres have been finalised and shared with the Fata Infrastructure Project.

Published in Dawn, November 28th, 2021