Identity crisis: Will Arabistan’s real administration please stand up?

Former tribal area stuck between a rock and a hard place as quake victims suffer without relief.

SHABQADAR: As the Charsadda district government and Mohmand Agency administration wrap their heads around whose responsibility it is to provide disaster relief to the area, quake victims refused polio vaccination in Arabistan of Korona Hafiz Kor in Ekka Ghund.

The residents said they had been overlooked in the earthquake surveys by Mohmand and Charsadda authorities.



Local elder Haji Arabistan and Haji Chak blamed both administrations for neglecting them in the earthquake survey and other relief efforts. He said both the agency and district administrations were on the same page on the polio campaign, but preferred to wash their hands clean of providing other facilities to his area.

Authorities are still deciding over which one of them has to take responsibility, he said. The elder added agency officials say the area falls under the district administration and vice versa. He said none of the administrations had visited despite repeated requests.

Back and forth

The area was part of Mohmand Agency’s lower subdivision of Ekka Ghund till 1998. However, it was later handed over to Charsadda when the government established a police check post there. At the same time, Arabistan continued to benefit from the agency administration till 2011 when it was completely handed over to Charsadda district through a notification.



As a result, its 40 schools, two basic health units and three water supply schemes were officially handed over to Charsadda. Arabistan became part of the 25 villages in the Korana Hafiz Kor area on the border of Mohmand Agency and Charsadda. However, officials at all these facilities were still receiving their salaries through the Mohmand Agency political administration.

Meanwhile, the political administration also vaccinated local children against polio till recently; a fact confirmed by an agency official in Ghallanai.

“However, now the area falls under the Charsadda district administration and the children are vaccinated by the district authority.”

When contacted, a health department official in Charsadda confirmed the refusal of parents in Arabistan. He said locals demanded that the district administration live up to its promise and provide compensation to the earthquake victims. They warned that none of the children will take a drop of vaccine unless the demands of the quake-affected people were met.

Officials said that they had informed the district authorities and now a plan would be made to immunise the remaining children on the last day of the current drive which is on Saturday (today).

The official said 270,000 children in Charsadda would be immunised in this campaign.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 19^th, 2015.