Lawmakers want status of division for Dir, Chitral

The News PESHAWAR: Lawmakers from Dir and Chitral districts have demanded of the government to accord division status to their area and divide Chitral into two districts. Addressing a joint news conference here Friday, Khyber Pukhtunkhwa Assembly members from Dir Upper district, Mohammad Anwar Khan and Badshah Saleh and lawmaker from Chitral Ghulam Mohammad said that Malakand division earlier comprised three former princely states of Swat, Dir and Chitral and two tribal agencies, Malakand and Bajaur. They said the division had been divided into seven districts including Swat Buner, Shangla, Chitral, Dir Upper, Dir Lower and Malakand Agency. “Its total area is 33,000 square kilometers, hence it constitutes almost half of the Khyber-Pukhtunkhwa province,” one of the lawmakers pointed out. They said due to the vastness of Malakand division and its large population, the people were faced with numerous problems. 

They demanded that Dir Upper, Dir Lower and Chitral should be separated from Malakand division and given the status of a separate division. They wanted the headquarters of the new division at Dir Khas, which also used to be the headquarters of the old Dir state. The also stressed need for further partition of Chitral into two districts, namely Chitral and Mastooj. They said that Chitral and Mastooj were separate districts during the rule of Mehtar-e-Chitral. They added that for improving the administration and facilitating the people Mastooj should be given the status of a separate district. 

To a question, Anwar Khan said they never supported the demand for a separate province comprising Malakand division. “We belong to Khyber Pukh-tunkhwa and will remain part of the province. We are thankful to the leadership of the ruling party for giving identity to the Pukhtun-dominated province as Khyber Pukhtunkhwa,” he stressed.