Row over district headquarters: Administration refuses to oblige protesting residents

MANSEHRA: Deputy Commissioner Kolai-Palas have refused to leave Sair Ghaziabad and asked the protesting tribesmen to end their sit-in that has created problems for the people of Kolai-Palas and other adjoining districts.

“I have no power to change the status of the district headquarters. However, I can communicate your demands to the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government,” Tariq Khan, the deputy commissioner, told elders of Kolai on Sunday.

The tribesmen from Kolai have staged a sit-in, demanding the authorities to withdraw the notification declaring Sair Ghaziabad as the district headquarters.

The protesters have been staging a sit-in at the Palas Bridge and have cut off Kolai-Palas with the rest of the province. They raised slogans in support of their demands and against the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government.

The talks between the district administration and the protesters from Kolai suffered a setback and ended without any success as Deputy Commissioner Tariq Khan made it clear that district administration and police would not leave Sair Ghaziabad the district headquarters of the Kolai-Palas.

“The district police officer and I would communicate your demands to the commissioner and deputy inspector general of police Hazara and they would communicate it to the provincial government,” he said.

Former chief minister Pervez Khattak had declared Batara as the district headquarters of Kolai-Palas in 2017 but the incumbent Chief Minister Mahmood Khan de-notified it in 2019.

The move prompted the local people to stage a protest.