Protest procession: Locals oppose merger of Chajiyan village council in Khanpur Tehsil

Jirga rejects govt move, will continue protest

HARIPUR: Dozens of villagers on Tuesday demonstrated against the merger of Chajiyan village council in the newly-announced Khanpur Tehsil. They took out a procession and threatened to continue their protest unless the planned merger of their VC was cancelled.

Local government representatives from different villages in the VC called a grand jirga in Haripur on Monday to discuss the geographical limits of the newly-announced tehsil.

VC Naib Nazim Matloob Khan, Nazim Muhammad Pervez, Malik Ashraf and others expressed their concern over the government’s decision to make their VC part of the new Tehsil and added that Khanpur was 26 km away from their area, while Haripur Tehsil suited them for day-to-day legal and administrative issues.

The jirga decided not to allow the government to go ahead with its plan and threatened to continue its protest.

On Tuesday, local government representatives and villagers took out a procession and reached the office of the Haripur deputy commissioner and had a meeting with him. The protesters apprised the DC of their concerns and future problems and demanded that Chajiyan VC should not be detached from Haripur Tehsil.

DC Taslim Khan assured them that the issue would be addressed.

In a recent visit, K-P Chief Minister Pervez Khattak had announced to upgrade Khanpur town to tehsil level, increasing the numbers of tehsils in Haripur to three.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 26^th, 2016.