A JIRGA held recently to decide the future strategy to compel the government to end the century-old deprivations of widely stretched Dubair Valley unanimously proclaimed a decree to resume its two months-long sit-in, staged at the local hydropower project earlier this year.

Although the jirga was largely attended by elders and charged youngsters, who strongly raised their voices to continue their peaceful struggle against deprivations that led to some heart-wrenching incidents.

They recalled how four men were swept away one after the another by the raging stream in front of their eyes while awaiting rescue on a rock surrounded by gushing floodwater in Sangai village of Dubair Valley in August 2022.

That floodwater, coupled with the opening of the spillways of the Dubair hydropower dam, not only swallowed four local youngsters in that widely condemned and horrible tragedy but also washed away the riverside road, connecting Dubair and Ranowalia with Karakoram Highway.

“Who would come to rescue us as we staged a sit-in for two long months for our rights to seek reconstruction of the 22-kilometre Dubair-Ranowali road? We were booked under anti-terrorism laws,” Malik Salaudden Khan, a local elder, said.

He said the people of Dubair and rest of Lower Kohistan continued to suffer human and financial losses during every monsoon season.

He said that three people were killed and scores of others received injuries during the season’s first spell of rains earlier this month. He added that passengers, including women and children, truckers and motorists, remained stranded on Karakoram Highway for three consecutive days.

The elder said that passengers travelling through Karakoram Highway to Gilgit-Baltistan and rest of the country should be provided with a safer journey by widening and reconstructing the strategically important artery, as it accommodated all traffic between Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Gilgit-Baltistan. Mansehra-Naran-Jalkhad Road, which passes through Kaghan Valley and remains blocked in the winter season.

“We wrapped up, or rather suspended, our sit-in after local MNA and chairman of Wapda parliamentary committee in National Assembly Mohammad Idrees approached the jirga and assured us that tenders for Dubair-Ranowali road would be completed within 45 days, but nothing has happened so far,” he said.

Another jirga member said that as water swelled in the local stream or spillways of the Dubair Khawar power dam in summer, students couldn’t go to school and people couldn’t even transport essential goods and food items for weeks.

The chairman of Dubair village council, Juma Shah Jallali, who is among the 49 protesters booked under Section 7 of Anti-Terrorism Act, 1997, told the jirga that they were not only facing legal action but were also confronted with a damages lawsuit worth Rs360 million.

“The protesters are also being blamed falsely for diverting the stream watercourse and suspending power generation from the dam during the entire sit-in period, inflicting financial losses to the national exchequer,” he said.

Mr Jallali said that although Wapda had released Rs500 million and acquired around 700 kanals of land for blacktopping Dubair-Ranowali road, the project was yet to materialise, forcing locals to continue travelling only in four-wheel-drive vehicles along the dangerous, washed-away track.

“This jirga should also approach relevant departments for reconstruction of schools and health facilities, which were also swept away during the same floods in 2022, depriving locals of education and healthcare facilities,” said Mr Jallali.

The jirga concluded with a final decree to resume sit-in, divert the stream water and halt electricity generation after Eid if the district administration failed to initiate execution of Dubair-Ranowali road for which land was already acquired with Rs500 million released by Wapda.

The deputy commissioner of Lower Kohistan, Tariq Mehmood, also held a meeting with elders of Dubair jirga and assured it that district administration was making efforts to complete the tendering process and begin execution of the road project swiftly.

“The conditions laid down in the 2022 agreement signed by the chairman of Wapda in the presence of Federal Minister Amir Muqam in 2022 are binding on us. That is why Hazara commissioner has directed relevant departments to complete process for execution of the road project, for which land has already been acquired,” he told jirga members.

Mr Mehmood also informed the jirga that district administration was working to address issues related to schools, healthcare and roads faced not only by the people of Dubair and Ranowali but also by the rest of the district.

“A team led by the additional deputy commissioner has also visited Dubair Valley and reviewed the reopening of the artery washed away in the 2022 floods. The district administration will keep the track operational until the 22-km Dubair-Ranowali road is fully blacktopped,” he said.

Published in Dawn, June 8th, 2026