Friday, July 9, 2010

Three Years Parachinar

Three Years Parachinar

By Jabir Hussain Turi

08 July, 2010

Kurram agency was not only famous for of its scenic beauty and pacifist people, but it also stood out from rest of the tribal areas of Pakistan for its peace and the loyal people who always contributed for the prosperity of Pakistan. The residents of this region never imagined that one day they would be forced to leave their academic and religious books and carry tools of self defense and war. A place which was once quoted as a glimpse of heaven turned into a war ground. Go back 3 years into the past of this region and you will know about the situations and elements which brought the inevitable war. Thousands of people lost their precious lives and many more became homeless. The lively neighborhoods, became graveyards

If you could look back into the history of this region you will come to know that incidents of this nature occurred very rarely, as the Traditional Jirga (court/justice) System (comprised of tribal elders) always keenly took care of such matters. And the local administration also used to play a substantial role to exterminate elements that caused such. In past few years the peace situation of Pakistan has been seriously disturbed and its waves have propagated and found its way to the Kurram Agency. How? Well the radical elements came and hid themselves in the areas situated along the way to kurram agency and as a result this not only disturbed the peace situation in Parachinar but also separated this region from rest of the country, as the roads were permanently blocked, the people of this region started to live in isolation. They became aliens in their own country, moreover the people of Parachinar were forced to use the Afghanistan route for traveling to Pakistan and to get daily use commodities. How often do you get to hear about people having to travel to different countries first in order to travel to another place in their country? Inflation reached its peak, people got poorer, food and medicines became expensive, and the lives of the people became more and more miserable. In addition, scarcity of medical supplies also led its way to the hospitals. Hospitals ran out of basic instruments and medication. Furthermore, country's health department also put this region on the ignore and discriminate list, and it s on that list for the last 3 years, and the failure to rectify the medical problems of Kurram Agency is a testament of the government's ignoring attitude. It has been three years now, and the circumstances are getting much worse.

Much to agency's chagrin, the future of KURRAM Agency has been devastated as the children and youth of this region with willingness to study, can't get proper education. Lack of academic institutions and staff is leading the future of the youth towards a dead end. There is not a single person, group or a company who would want to render their services in this region because they are worried about their lives becoming vulnerable to unreliable situations, leaving schools, hospitals, public institutes and offices deserted. The financially lower classed families are the ones who have suffered the most and worst from this miserable situation, particularly those people who worked on daily wages. Most government services have bowed downed to the financial crisis due to the unavailability of funds. And the servants of the government departments working in Kurram agency have been deprived of their salaries for the last 2 years.

The government doesn't want to pull the wool over the issue and in order to hide its failure in peace making, it is declaring these issues as sectarian conflicts. The unwillingness of the political agent to face the media or to bring it to the front is more than enough to elucidate their failure. These critical situations are giving birth to a galore of crisis and issues, all can't be elaborated here but the most crucial issues are briefly discussed below.

• Due to the blockage of the only domestic route connecting to rest of the country, the people of Kurram agency got isolated from their own Pakistan.

• By using the international Afghanistan route the students, labours and the residents of other cities and countries faced a lot of troubles such as insecurity.

• The residents were and still are deprived of fool and medical supplies.

• The scarcity of staff and facilities in health, education and other depts. ruined many lives.

• The economic situation is completely destroyed as people were forced to buy basic necessities at an extremely high cost.

• Absence of telecommunication services pushed the people farther away back in time.

• It is sad to mention that in last three years, more than a thousand families were forced to leave their homes and move to other parts of the country, still there was and still no one who could hear their plea. The same people who proved their love for their country time and time again.

• The banks remain out of cash and post offices have stopped functioning. As a result the mailing service is ceased and everyone faces difficulties in sending and receiving drafts, credentials and necessary documents.

• Torr Ghar (Black Mountain) is becoming a hot zone, as most of the conflicts are initiated due to this land mark. The reason being, the political agencies and district administrations vilify it and don't want to accept its possession because it is gradually becoming a safe haven for terrorists and extremist elements.

• Day by day killings and abduction give birth to more and more tragedies. The people are psychologically depressed and have lost their meaning and purpose of life. Many are finding suicide as an easy way out (I must mention that by suicide I do not mean suicide bombing).

• There is no representation of FATA in the provincial assembly and the reinstatement of two MNAs in National assembly is something of no use as they show their keen concern on federal issues and are completely blind to their regional issues. These so called Members of National Assemble have muted their hearts and mouths towards resolving the matters of this affected region. One of them is parliamentary leader (Munir Orakzai).

• Still the media, which was supposed to be the only channel for conveying the cries of the affectees to the world is not giving it a proper coverage despite the circumstances of the people of this region have reached their worst.

• In 2008 a peace pact was signed and passed in Murree between the Government and leaders of opposition parties of the affected region. Despite the unanimous agreement on this peace resolution from both the parties, the government has once again failed to implement it. The point of concern is that both parties want to implement this pact but the Government hesitates to execute this mutual agreement.

Imagine a geographically significant part of Pakistan being left out like that! People were not even able to buy daily use commodities, the government overlooked the people of our region. May be they had something more important to take care of first, like planning load shedding schedules, settling their issues with the judiciary or maybe supporting the N-R-O. The children and the adults of this region have one question, which they want the Government to answer, is this what we deserve in return for our loyalty and patriotism? Are you going to let the conflicts consume innocent lives, till the whole region is colored red with blood?

 

source: http://www.countercurrents.org/turi080710.htm

 

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