An intractable dispute

A boundary dispute between Gilgit-Baltistan and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa is threatening to deteriorate into violence

A boundary dispute between Gilgit-Baltistan and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa is threatening to once again deteriorate into violence. The dispute has been active for years and concerns a piece of land that is 8-km long (or 2.8km according to government sources) and is between the Harban tribe of Kohistan and the Thor tribe of Diamer. Both sides claim ownership and repeated attempts at arbitration — there have been four jirgas in an attempt to resolve the matter — have failed. The site of the dispute is also the site of the Diamer-Bhasha dam, one of the components of the future power infrastructure of the country.

People gathered on the Karakoram Highway on May 8 threatening to block the road completely if their demands were not met and elders of the Thor tribe staged a sit-in outside the deputy commissioner’s office in Chilas. Threats and counter-threats flew back and forth; travellers on the Karakoram Highway were threatened by armed men and there seems little prospect of an early resolution. This dispute is one of several that have dogged the Diamer-Bhasha dam from the outset. These range from the macro in that the location of the dam is in territory claimed by India since Partition as well as the type of dam to be built, whether it be for storage as well as generation or for generation only. The micro are the types of dispute of which the Thor/Harban conflict is emblematic and points to poor planning by successive governments that failed to do the detailed small-print work before going ahead with the project. A boundary commission report has been completed but the government is sitting on its release. The protesters have said that they will not accept the report if they do not find it in their favour and are saying that May 15 is the cut-off point, and if the matter is not resolved by then, armed clashes are a possibility. Yet another jirga is to be convened and we hope there is a resolution of the dispute soon. The devil, as ever, is in the detail.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 11^th, 2016.

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