Tribal elders ask govt to complete bifurcation process

WANA: The tribal elders have asked the government to complete the bifurcation process of South Waziristan to facilitate the local population.

Talking to reporters, they said all the offices of the Lower South Waziristan district should be shifted to Wana, and provided with funds. It may be mentioned that the previous provincial government of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf had formally approved the bifurcation of South Waziristan into two districts in April, 2022.

The two districts were named Upper and Lower South Waziristan respectively. However, despite the official notification issued on September 13, 2022 the district of Lower South Waziristan is still deprived of its rights.

Due to the slow bifurcation process, the local people are facing problems, said Awami National Party (ANP) leader Noor Zaman Wazir, and a group of tribal elders.

The ANP leader said that South Waziristan was bifurcated into two districts but the offices of Lower South Waziristan district were still located in the district.

He said the offices of the departments of Lower South Waziristan should be relocated to Wana to facilitate the people. He said the local people were facing a host of problems due to the fact that the offices were not located in Wana.

He said the deputy commissioner of Lower South Waziristan had been appointed, but he did not have access to development funds and other resources. Sources say that the heads of some departments had been appointed in Lower South Waziristan, but they cannot work due to lack of offices while the staff of the District Account Office were sitting 160-km away in Tank district.