Regi Lalma Township: Tribesmen ask govt to halt project

Koki Khel elders say land belongs to them, urge negotiations.

PESHAWAR: Koki Khel elders from Khyber Agency, affiliated with the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), asked the government to stop development work on Regi Lalma Township and resolve a dispute over the land with the tribespeople who own it.

“The disputed land—around 20,000 kanals—is the property of Koki Khel tribesmen,” claimed PTI Fata senior leader Shahzad Afridi. “There is apparently a Maffi-Grift line in Regi Lalma which was drawn out in 1912,” he told journalists at Peshawar Press Club on Monday.



Maffi, he said, was a former political agent of Khyber Agency, while Gritt was the Peshawar commissioner in 1912. The two demarcated the land by constructing a wall to settle the dispute between the people of Peshawar and of Jamrud in Khyber Agency.

“Work continues despite the fact that documented proof of 1912 is available with the tribesmen and the current Khyber Agency political agent, along with a court stay order against development till resolution of the land dispute.” Afridi termed the acceleration of work by Peshawar Development Authority (PDA) as an injustice with tribespeople.

Afridi said in the 70s, the then governor of the former North West Frontier Province Naseerullah Babar had also accepted the Maffi-Grift line.

The PTI leader from Khyber Agency alleged the PDA was trying to displace tribesmen from their own lands in the name of Regi Lalma Township. He added thousands of tribesmen had been living on the land for decades and would not even be able to afford property in Fata if evicted, due to abject poverty.

Accompanied by party workers from Khyber Agency, he slammed their elected representatives, saying none of the MNAs raised a voice nor took up the matter with the government to reach an amicable solution.

The protesters appealed to PTI Chairperson Imran Khan, Chief Minister Pervez Khattak and Minister for Local Government Inayatullah Khan to avoid evicting tribesmen from their own lands. They warned of sit-ins outside the PTI chief’s Bani Gala residence if they were displaced.

“We are ready to negotiate with the K-P government over the empty land, but refuse to discuss vacating the 13,000 kanals on which homes are built,” said Afridi.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 17^th, 2015.