Progress achieved in settling the Peshawar-Khyber boundary issue
KHYBER: The committee in charge of figuring out the British-era Missi Griffith demarcation line between Peshawar and Khyber, which was drawn between the two cities in 1912, and resolving the complicated land ownership issue between the Kukikhel tribe and the Peshawar district administration at the Regi Lalma Model Town on the outskirts of Peshawar, has made progress.
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Both the Khyber district administration and the Kukikhel elders on the committee agreed that the decades-long land dispute was making “positive progress” toward a solution.
Malik Naseer Ahmad, an elder from Kukikhel and a member of the seven-person core committee, told this reporter that the committee met several times after Peshawar Commissioner Riaz Mehsud put it together on October 28.
He said that his committee colleagues had shown the demarcation line drawn by British officer Missi Griffith of Peshawar in 1912 to mark the border between Peshawar and Khyber to officials from the Peshawar Development Authority (PDA) and the district administrations of both Peshawar and Khyber.
An old man from Kukikhel says that the PDA put disputed land in Regi model town without their permission.
Malik Naseer insisted, “We have decided in principle to take one step back if the official side also shows some flexibility in solving this long-standing issue.” He also said that a “conflict” was not in either side’s best interest.
He said that it was now up to the PDA to prove their “right” to the land in question, since they had put it in the Regi Lalma Model Town without the Kukikhel tribe’s permission.
Assistant Commissioner of Jamrud, Shakeel Utmankhel, was also optimistic that the problem would be solved because he said that both sides were willing to be flexible and work with each other.
He said that the “on-the-ground” records of the Kukikhel tribe and the PDA officials about the Missi Griffith line were different, but that the problem would be solved through talks between the two groups.
He said that he had made a report on the progress made so far during the committee meeting, which he would show to the Peshawar commissioner after talking about it with the Khyber deputy commissioner.
Before, the two sides went to court and fought over the issue. The Peshawar High Court said that the problem should be solved through negotiations while taking the land revenue records into account.
The Kukikhel elders wanted to be paid for the use of the land they owned together in Regi Lalma Model Town.
SCUFFLE AT TORKHAM: A taxi driver was hurt when the drivers and customs officers got into a fight at Torkham over the issue of road clearance.
It was also found out that, after one of their own, Khalwat Khan, was hurt, the customs officers fired into the air to get the taxi drivers to leave. He was then taken to the hospital in Landi Kotal.
The problem was solved when customs and police officials stepped in.
