LOWER DIR: The elders of Nasradin Khel and Osakhel tribes led by former MNA Sahibzada Yaqub Khan held a meeting at Malikabad for taking up the issue of auctioning sand and gravel on the riverbed in parts of the district. The tribes’ elders and members of the Dir Qaumi Jirga from different areas attended the meeting. The participants informed the meeting about their suggestions.
Later a delegation of elders led by Sahibzada Yaqub Khan and chief of the Dir Qaumi Pasoon malik Jehan Alam Yousafzai met the newly posted deputy commissioner Lower Dir Wasil Khan at his office here the other day to resolve the issue of auctioning sand and gravel on the riverbed. The delegation also included chief of the Dir Qaumi Pasoon Malik Jehan Alam, former provincial minister Malik Jehan Zeb Khan, former MPA Malik Behram Khan, brigadier retired Saeedullah, advocate Javed Iqbal, Malik Aslam Pervez, Malik Muhammad Ayub and advocate Salim Khan.
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The elders informed the DC about the reservations of land owners regarding opening bids for sale of sand and gravel on the bed of Panjkora River. They said that flash floods had washed away their fertile agricultural lands on both sides of the river thus widening the riverbed. They said the National Engineering Services Pakistan (Nespak) had been tasked to initiate a survey for demarcation of the riverbed but it had failed to determine the limits of the river and other streams in the district. The tribal elders said the land owners wanted the district administration to resolve the matter peacefully. After listening to elders, the deputy commissioner Wasil Khan constituted a committee headed by the additional deputy commissioner Abdul Wali Khan and tasked it to look into the matter. Representatives of the land owners and officials of the minerals department would be members of the committee. The DC also assured that an FIR against a land owner Sher Shah registered by the minerals department would be reversed. He said the matter would be resolved however; no one would be allowed to take law into his hands.
