Bifurcation: PPP hopeful for new Chitral district
The division was to be announced by the prime minister during a November 29 visit to Chitral.
PESHAWAR:
The Pakistan Peoples Party’s (PPP) Chitral leadership remains hopeful about the party’s plan to bifurcate the district, which is Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa’s (K-P) largest administrative unit.
The official announcement was to be made by Prime Minister Raja Pervaiz Ashraf in a public meeting at Booni, Mastuj, on November 29, but his visit was later cancelled.
PPP’s Chitral chapter proposed that Mastuj, the administrative capital, along with upper Chitral be converted into a new district.
“We were sure that the premier will accept our demand,” PPP Chitral president and K-P’s Minister for Population Welfare, Saleem Khan, told The Express Tribune. The PM’s visit will be rescheduled but it is not clear when it would take place, he added.
PPP Chitral Information Secretary Shah Murad Beg also hopes that the PM will make the announcement soon. The division has been a long-standing demand of the people of upper Chitral, Beg said.
A senior district administration official also supports separating upper Chitral. It will reduce public grievances and make the administrative process easy, the official said, adding that it is hard for people from remote and far-away areas to come to Chitral for every problem.
While talking about it might be easy, the bifurcation is not possible until a new census is carried out, he acknowledged.
A minister from upper Chitral, Ghulam Mohammad, said that he has submitted a resolution to this effect in the assembly. While also admitting that a new district cannot be made without a new census, he said that may be the government should treat this as a special case and relax the rules.
The government had announced to make Abasain division two years ago, but this too has not materialised, Mohammad added.
The PPP’s general secretary for Chitral, Advocate Hakim Khan, was not available for comments.
Published in The Express Tribune, December 2nd, 2012.
The Pakistan Peoples Party’s (PPP) Chitral leadership remains hopeful about the party’s plan to bifurcate the district, which is Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa’s (K-P) largest administrative unit.
The official announcement was to be made by Prime Minister Raja Pervaiz Ashraf in a public meeting at Booni, Mastuj, on November 29, but his visit was later cancelled.
PPP’s Chitral chapter proposed that Mastuj, the administrative capital, along with upper Chitral be converted into a new district.
“We were sure that the premier will accept our demand,” PPP Chitral president and K-P’s Minister for Population Welfare, Saleem Khan, told The Express Tribune. The PM’s visit will be rescheduled but it is not clear when it would take place, he added.
PPP Chitral Information Secretary Shah Murad Beg also hopes that the PM will make the announcement soon. The division has been a long-standing demand of the people of upper Chitral, Beg said.
A senior district administration official also supports separating upper Chitral. It will reduce public grievances and make the administrative process easy, the official said, adding that it is hard for people from remote and far-away areas to come to Chitral for every problem.
While talking about it might be easy, the bifurcation is not possible until a new census is carried out, he acknowledged.
A minister from upper Chitral, Ghulam Mohammad, said that he has submitted a resolution to this effect in the assembly. While also admitting that a new district cannot be made without a new census, he said that may be the government should treat this as a special case and relax the rules.
The government had announced to make Abasain division two years ago, but this too has not materialised, Mohammad added.
The PPP’s general secretary for Chitral, Advocate Hakim Khan, was not available for comments.
Published in The Express Tribune, December 2nd, 2012.