No compromise on ownership of Shandur: KP chief minister
CHITRAL: There will be a joint ownership of the proposed national park to be set up in Handarap Shandur by the federal government. The area located in the jurisdiction of Chitral will remain under the possession of Chitral (KP government) even after the establishment of a national park spreading from Handarap village in Gilgit-Baltistan to the Shandur top in Chitral.
Mehmood KhanThis was stated by Chief Minister’s Special Assistant Wazirzada while talking to ChitralToday on Wednesday.
He said after it came to light that the federal government while issuing a list of 15 sites to be developed as national parks under its Protective Areas Initiative had shown Shandur as a part of Gilgit-Baltistan he spoke to the chief minister and brought the matter in his notice.
The blunder was first reported in ChitralToday after which social and political circles expressed their resentment and asked the government to clarify its position.
The chief minister told Wazirzada, who is a minority MPA from Chitral, that Shandur was a part of Chitral and hence a territory of the KP province and will remain so in the future.
He said the federal government might have mistakenly shown Shandur as a part of GB which would be rectified.
The chief minister said demarcation would be carried out in Shandur and the area lying in the limits of Chitral would be in the possession of Chitral and KP even after the establishment of the national park. He said there would be no compromise on the ownership of Shandur which was part of Chitral and hence in the territorial limits of KP province.–Muhkam Uddin Ayuni