LOWER DIR: JUI-F leader and former federal minister Maulana Asad Mehmood, son of the party’s chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman, on Sunday alleged that the current provincial and federal administrations were operating at the behest of the establishment and were not ‘real’ representatives of people.

Addressing a Khatm-i-Nabuwat conference at Dir sports stadium in Upper Dir as chief guest, Maulana Asad said the inability of a chief minister to even appoint a deputy commissioner in his own district was not democracy but “an extreme form of slavery”.

He alleged that today’s rulers were strengthening a servile system that had persisted for the last 70 years and said the JUI-F had always opposed such subjugation.

Provincial general secretary Senator Maulana Attaul Haq Darvish, provincial deputy chief Mufti Fazal Ghafoor and deputy chief Abdul Haseeb Haqqani also spoke at the event.

“Thinkers of Islam such as Maulana Mufti Mahmood sacrificed their governments to protect the Constitution, democracy and national dignity; they never compromised on principles,” he said, referring to the legacy of the party’s past leadership.

He added that the JUI-F had consistently challenged governments that ruled by force rather than popular mandate and vowed that the party’s struggle would continue.

Speaking about recent political developments, Maulana Asad said that despite alleged rigging in the 2018 elections the public had stood by the JUI (F) and that in 2024 the party’s candidates and clerics had faced attacks and threats, but had not been cowed. He declared the JUI-F would deliver the final blow to the present rulers.”

LAND DISPUTE:An old land dispute between residents of Jabgai and Gharah reportedlyled to gunfire in the area here the other day, causing panic among locals and students on their way to schools and colleges. However, no injuries were reported.

Elders of Gharah later marched to the office of the district police officer (DPO) Lower Dir, alleging that despite prior complaints they were denied a meeting rather they were insulted when the jirga elders protested outside the DPO office.

They said a 2013 settlement, based on an earlier Supreme Court decision and a local jirga award had apportioned 1,400 kanals to people of Jabgai, 900 to people of Gharah and 66 kanals to the state.

They alleged that people from Jabgai opened fire when heavy machinery began making an approach road over a section of state land.

Separately, on Sunday the elders of the Utmankhel tribe in Jabgai rejected the charge of firing and vowed to resist any forced road through their “fertile ancestral land”.

They accused the Timergara assistant commissioner of siding with Gharah elders to impose a road without consent.

They claimed a 1972 Supreme Court verdict and decades-old boundary settlements had upheld their ownership, saying Gharah elders were witnesses to the past land sale deeds.

Leaders of the district bar, political figures and JUI elders appealed for calm and announced that a joint jirga would meet the deputy commissioner and the DPO today (Monday) to seek a negotiated settlement.

Published in Dawn, October 27th, 2025