The Jamaat-e-Islami has submitted a resolution in the provincial assembly to keep the Shandur valley part of Upper Chitral district.
The resolution was submitted by Jamat-e-Islami (JI) lawmaker Inyatullah Khan in the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) Assembly against a move to make Upper Chitral’s Shandur Valley a part of the disputed territory of Gilgit-Baltistan (G-B). The resolution stated that the 17-kilometre-long valley is part of the Upper Chitral district which is proved by several documents.
It further stated that in July this year, the Gilgit-Baltistan (GB) administration on the direction of the federal government declared the Shandur Valley as a part of the Handarap area to make it a national park.
The JI leader said that land records from 1914 of the British era and Pakistan’s land revenue department records of 1948 to 1959, the valley was shown in possession of Chitral.
The 1975 land commission report also notified that the valley belongs to Upper Chitral, he added.
The resolution stressed upon the provincial government to request the federal government not to include the Shandur Valley as part of the Handarap National Park.
The JI lawmaker added that the people of K-P reject the federal government’s plan.
In July this year, Prime Minister Imran Khan had inaugurated the “Protected Areas Initiative Project” under which 15 national parks will be set up in the country under the umbrella of Green Pakistan Programme (GPP).
In this regard, an official list of the proposed sites selected for setting up national parks has been notified. In that list, Shandur is shown as part of G-B.
Published in The Express Tribune, September 29th, 2020.
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