Kolai-Palas notified as new district

MANSEHRA: The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI)-led provincial government has notified Kolai-Palas as a new district and Baffa-Pakhal as the fourth tehsil of Mansehra district.

“We turned dreams of locals into reality by declaring Kolai-Palas a district and Baffa-Pakhal a tehsil,” PTI lawmaker Zargul Khan told a gathering outside the Press Club in Mansehra here on Friday.

Zargul Khan earlier told a news conference that the provincial government under the Land Revenue Act 1967 had separated Kolai-Palas from Kohistan district to create a new district. He added that Baffa-Pakhal was upgraded into a new tehsil of Mansehra district.

“We will ensure the appointment of staff in the newly notified district and tehsil within the next two weeks as people of Kolai-Palas and Baffa have been awaiting and seeking the status of a new district and tehsil since long,” said Zargul Khan, who is political advisor to Chief Minister Pervez Khattak.

He added that there would be at least 15 union councils in the Baffa-Pakhal tehsil.

Zargul Khan, who was elected MPA from Palas constituency unopposed in a by-election following JUI-F lawmaker Maulana Asmatullah’s resignation, said that he was going to contest for the National Assembly seat from Kolai-Palas and rest of Kohistan in the coming election.

Meanwhile, people of Shinkiari have criticised the government’s move of giving a tehsil status to Baffa-Pakhal and said that they would never accept this decision.

“We want a separate tehsil of our own named Shinkiari. The PTI leadership had previously accepted our demand, but including Shinkiari in the new Baffa-Pakhal tehsil is unacceptable to us,” Saeed Sabir, the patron-in-chief of Shinkiari Tehsil Movement, told reporters.

He said that if the government couldn’t give the status of a tehsil to Shinkiari, it should remain a union council of Mansehra instead of making it a part of Baffa-Pakhal tehsil.