Swat jirga wants thousands of stranded people back to Kalam

MINGORA: The Pakhtunkhwa Amn Jirga, Swat chapter, on Monday, asked the government to take practical steps for the safe return of thousands of Kalam residents presently stranded in different parts of the country.

Briefing the media-persons at the Swat Press Club, Pakhtunkhwa Amn Jirga, Swat chapter, president Malik Ghulam Ali, a former nazim and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf local leader Malik Muhammad Iqbal, Swat Youth Wing chairman, Anwar Sarfaraz, spokesperson for Amn Jirga, Gohar Ali Pakhtunyar, and others said thousands of residents of Kalam had been stranded in other parts of the country. They said the poor labourers and workers along with their families were facing hunger and starvation due to the lockdown across the country owing to coronavirus pandemic.

They alleged that the government was neither providing them food items or financial help nor taking any steps to bring them back to the native towns in the Swat district. They claimed that over 60,000 labourers and workers from Kalam, Utrar and elsewhere in Swat district were virtually stranded in Punjab, Sindh and Balochistan provinces, but neither the federal government nor the respective provincial governments included them in the relief package.

The speakers termed it an injustice with the poor labourers to deprive them of relief package. “Though there is no work because of lockdown in the country, the poor labourers are facing multiple problems, including shortage of food items, financial constraints and living in rented homes,” a member of the jirga complained.

The jirga members appealed to Chief Minister Mahmood Khan to order the relevant authorities to collect data of such residents of Swat stranded in other parts of the country and take immediate steps for their safe return to home towns.