BAJAUR/KHYBER/BANNU: Shahabuddin Khan, former lawmaker and a notable political and influential figure of Bajaur district, has refused to be part of the proposed 48-member Area Representative and Development Council (ARDC) for 12 districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, where an emergency has been declared.

Mr Khan, who is also senior vice-president of the ruling PML-N’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa chapter, made the announcement in a statement after the list of 48 ARDC members appeared on media outlets and social media on Saturday night.

“If anyone has suggested my name for the tribal council (ARDC), I am grateful to them, but I don’t want to be a member of the proposed council,” Mr Khan, whose name was included in the four-member list from Bajaur, said in a post shared on his social media account.

Mr Khan, who remained a two-time MNA from Bajaur, however, did not cite the reason for refusing to be part of the planned council, which will be headed by former Khyber Pakhtunkhwa governor Eng Shaukatullah Khan, who also belongs to Bajaur district.

Development Council members from Khyber express ignorance about their role

Meanwhile, Ittehad-i-Malkanan Bajaur, an alliance of elders, on Sunday rejected the ARDC, saying the alliance wasn’t consulted on the council’s formation.

A statement issued by its spokesperson, Malik Shaheen Khan, said: “We, Ittehad-i-Malkanan Bajaur, reject the council (ARDC) as we were not consulted on its formation.”

The statement alleged that instead of genuine tribal elders, people having political affiliations had been included in the council.

Also, in a statement, Muhammadi Shah, patron-in-chief of Qaumi Taroon, an association of elders of the Utmankhel tribe, claimed the tribe was not represented in the council from Bajaur.

Roles not defined

With limited clarity about the role and responsibilities of the newly-formed ARDC after the imposition of emergency in the designated 12 districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, members of the council in Khyber district expressed their ignorance about their role and responsibilities.

The five members selected from Khyber also expressed their lack of knowledge about the selection criteria for council members, with some of the local elders declining the offer when they were approached by the district administration.

Malak Zar Ahmad Shah, a Shinwari elder who refused to become a member of the council, told Dawn that he did not want to become a rubber stamp, as no information about the powers and functions of the council was shared with those who were approached by the authorities.

He said that looking at the composition of these councils in the designated districts, especially merged districts, most members were opposed to the merger of erstwhile Fata with Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, while now they had become part of the system which they had been opposing since 2018.

A Kukikhel jirga in Jamrud also expressed its reservations about the selection of council members and alleged that these so-called elders were not the genuine representatives of the people of merged districts.

Khyber Students Association, an organisation of students from Khyber at the University of Peshawar, too was apprehensive about the formation of the council and questioned the denial of representation to young leaders in the council.

Meanwhile, at least two members of the council from Jamrud and Landi Kotal told Dawn that they were yet to be given instructions about their role and responsibilities.

Malak Abdur Razzaq Afridi, an elder, however, told Dawn that the formation of the said council came under discussion at a meeting with the Peshawar Corps Commander a few days ago, with the top-ranking security official telling them that the tribal elders would soon be assigned important responsibilities.

He said that his personal understanding was that they would recommend new development schemes to the district administration and also ensure speedy completion of the ongoing schemes.

It was also learnt from sources in Bara that Sherin Afridi, a selected member of the council, was under pressure from the Awami National Party (ANP) to either quit the council or face a show-cause notice.

Meanwhile, former senator and ANP leader Haji Baz Mohammad Khan Advocate has denied agreeing to join the ARDC, questioning why his name was included despite his repeated refusals and the party’s clear policy on the matter.

In a statement issued in Bannu on Saturday, Mr Khan said he had also been nominated to the 11-member Advisory Council, but had declined to become a member of it.

Published in Dawn, October 19th, 2026