KHYBER: Former tribal parliamentarians, who had earlier offered to mediate between warring tribes in the restive Kurram district, have stepped aside after formation of a government-backed jirga for the purpose a few days ago.

Convener of the 18-member group of former legislators, Hamidullah Jan Afridi told Dawn that it was against the essence and working of a jirga to constitute two such parallel bodies for one purpose.

He, however, said his group was always ready to help both the government and people of Kurram to find ways for a lasting peace in the region while capitalising on their experience of dealing with thorny tribal affairs and disputes.

“The chief minister was ready to officially notify our jirga with some of our colleagues expressing their willingness to proceed to Kurram, but then we decided against it as the tribal customs and traditions do not allow working of parallel jirgas on one issue,” he explained.

Mr Afridi further said working of parallel jirgas would convey a wrong message to the rival groups as they would look with suspicion to the group or members of a jirga who were not properly ‘owned’ by the government. “So we decided to pull back,” he added.

Another member of the group, Dr Ghazi Gulab Jamal, was, however, critical of a jirga formed by the proscribed Pashtun Tahaffuz Movement (PTM), while insisting that this again was against the established tribal customs and traditions. He said it was considered inappropriate that a jirga was formed without the backing and consent of local tribes, particularly the rival tribes or groups.

“Full government backing is essential for restoring lasting peace in Kurram and neutralising the warring groups, but the PTM jirga lacks this power,” he argued.

He said since the officially notified jirga had been working on Kurram peace since 2022, it was inappropriate for PTM to constitute a parallel jirga.DISPUTE CLAIMS LIFE: A land dispute claimed life of one person and injuries to two others in Sadukhel area of Landi Kotal on Friday.

The police said the injured were shifted to a hospital in Peshawar for treatment as their condition was not stable due to excessive bleeding.

They said they arrested two persons from rival groups.

CRACKDOWN: Landi Kotal grid station staff has launched a crackdown on double power connections in order to minimise overloading of certain feeders and to regulate loadshedding timing in the area.

The grid officials told a meeting here on Friday that these double connections obtained by influential people.

Local elders and youth had complained about increase in loadshedding with the onset of winter.

The officials insisted the ‘double source’ power connections was the main cause of increase in loadshedding, saying all such connections would be severed in a week.

They sought the district administration’s cooperation to smoothly complete the operation.

Published in Dawn, December 14th, 2024