Handing over forest to Wildlife Department opposed

MANSEHRA: A grand jirga attended largely by all five major tribes in Torghar on Sunday opposed handing over local forests to the Wildlife Department.

“Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government wants to occupy the natural resources owned by the local community for centuries. And we will never accept it and launch a street agitation against it,” Shahzamin Khan Azizwani, the chairmen of Dor Mera Tehsil Council, told reporters after a jirga.

The Jirga, which was held in Oghi and attended largely by elders of Hassanzai, Akazai, Nusratkhel, Basikhel and Madakheil, decided not to accept the government’s hold on community forests across the district.

“The government through a presidential order had given this erstwhile tribal belt of Mansehra status of a settled district in 2011, since then we have been facing such legal complications,” Azizwani said.

He said that the government had earlier attempted to declare the forests as protective ones which they challenged in the Abbottabad Circuit bench of the Peshawar High Court in 2014.“The provincial secretary of forests and environment visited Torghar a day earlier and announced to bring the forests under the Wildlife Department. This announcement has caused unrest among local tribesmen,” Azizwani said.