Merger with Darband: Councillors of three UCs threaten to resign, protest

Say people are happy being part of Oghi tehsil and do not wish to be merged into another tehsil

MANSEHRA: Councillors of three different union councils have threatened to resign unless the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa government excludes their union councils from the newly created Darband Tehsil.

Sher Garh district council member Raifque Tanoli, UC Bandi Shungli district council member Syed Tahir Shah (who had won on a Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf ticket), UC Karori district council member Dr Wazir Muhammad, Tehsil Council member Hafiz Yunas, and others issued statements to the media on Friday saying that residents of union councils Shergarh, Bandi Shungli and Karori were happy with their inclusion in the Oghi Tehsil as opposed to the merger of their areas with the newly created Darband Tehsil.

They said that members of the district, tehsil, and village councils had been elected by their voters to protect their rights and fight for their demands.

They also alleged that Qaumi Watan Party MPA Haji Ibrar Hussain had cheated residents of these three union councils and intended to merge the areas in the new tehsil against their wishes.

The local body representatives asked the MPA and the provincial government to make the demarcation plan of the new tehsil public.

They warned that if their areas were merged forcibly, all local government members from these UCs and VCs would resign en masse and stage a protest against the provincial government.

The provincial government had announced that the new tehsil of Darband would Khanpur in Haripur, Lora in Abbottabad, Bafa and Darband in Mansehra and district lower Kohistan - now district Palas Kolai.

However, in these newly created tehsils and districts, residents were objecting to the way the provincial government was merging them together.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 25^th, 2017.