Mahsud elders warn of boycotting anti-polio drive

WANA: A jirga of elders from the Mahsud tribe on Friday threatened to boycott the anti-polio vaccination drive and discontinue cooperating with the district administration if the authorities continued to ignore the local notables.

Malik Iqbal Mahsud, Malik Noor Khan Mahsud, Malik Janan Mahsud, Malik Kiramatullah Mahsud, Malik Siraj Mahsud and others attended the jirga held at the jirga hall of deputy commissioner of South Waziristan.

Speaking at the jirga, the elders said the district administration had sidelined them after the merger of ex-Fata with Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. They said that their rights had been snatched from them. The elders complained that Rs10 billion was spent on non-feasible projects instead of spending the money through the workers of the political parties with the consultation of the local tribal elders.

The projects, they said, did not benefit the local population. They said that four to five phases of the Accelerated Implementation Programme (AIP) had been completed in the rest of the tribal districts while South Waziristan could not see the start of even the first phase of the project.

The elders alleged that non-locals hailing from Peshawar, Swat and other districts were recruited for positions in the Health Department in the tribal districts under the AIP. Setting a deadline for the district administration, they warned of boycotting the anti-polio drive if their demands were not met by September 12.