Negotiations between the district administration and the Madakhel tribe of Torghar district are still ongoing after tribal elders drew up a set of conditions for the government to fulfil before farmers voluntarily destroy the poppy crop.
Chief among them is the creation of alternative sources of livelihood for the farmers. At a jirga held at Madakhel last week, tribal elders demanded the government to pay compensation to poppy growers for forgoing cultivation of their centuries-old cash crop.
Farmers had been warned of strict action if they failed to destroy the banned crop on their own.
They have asked the government to set up a tax-free zone in the area on the pattern of Gadoon Amazai – one of the largest poppy-growing areas in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) till the mid-1980s where an industrial estate was established. Locals were also given quotas for government jobs.
Elders of Madakhel tribe alleged that the administration has violated the 23-point agreement signed with the Hassanzai, Akazai and Madakhel tribes to change the status of Kala Dhaka, a former tribal area, into a settled district.
They regretted that the administration has violated nearly all the sections of the agreement and paid them below the market rate for land acquired for government building.
The agreement, they said, included the enforcement of Shariah on the pattern of Malakand and exemption of locals from police detention unless permitted by the jirga.
They urged the administration to honour its promises and avoid confrontation with tribesmen.
District Coordination Officer (DCO) Torghar Ziaul Haq, who attended the jirga, has promised the tribal elders to take up the matter with the provincial government. For his part, he urged the tribesmen to destroy the crop before it is uprooted by force.
Hazara Commissioner Khalid Khan Umerzai confirmed the development and vowed to take action against the farmers if they did not comply with the law.
Torghar District Police Officer (DPO) Naqeebullah Khan confirmed that his department had destroyed poppy on farms under its jurisdiction.
The police and levies destroyed the banned crop cultivated on land owned by 19 security officials from the Madakhel tribe, who were suspended by the provincial home department for the offence.
Revenue department officials, requesting their names be withheld, said the security officials had grown poppy on 100 kanals.
Khan said the district administration is in touch with the poppy growers to convince them to destroy the crop before they face legal action. The DPO expressed the hope the tribesmen would agree to the destruction of the crop.
According to Umerzai, the provincial government has announced a Rs4 billion development package for Torghar, which includes the construction of a road network, schools, colleges and water supply schemes.
The government has also announced Rs5 million in incentives for the poppy growers to cultivate alternative crops.
Spread over an area of 497 square kilometres, Torghar district is a remote and deprived area of Hazara.
The area remained under the direct control of the provincial government as a Provincially Administered Tribal Area till last year.
Published in The Express Tribune, April 3rd, 2012.
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