CHITRAL: Members and representatives of the Joint Forest Management Committee (JFMC) Chitral on Thursday said the deputy commissioner’s new initiative to give shares to women in the forest royalty would lead to ‘widespread violence in Chitral besides bringing disrespect to the purdah-observing women of the forest areas.”
A couple of days ago, the deputy commissioner office announced that a team of officials headed by a revenue officer had started a survey in the southern parts of Chitral to give women shares in the royalty of forest.
It said the survey had been started on the special direction of KP Chief Secretary Azam Khan. The survey has been launched to ensure that women members of each and every family getting forest royalty were given their share in the money in accordance with the injunctions of Islam.
But speaking at a press conference in Chitral on Thursday, members of the JFMC rejected the new initiative of the government and said it was a move against the purdah-observing women of Chitral. They said the deputy commissioner would be responsible for consequences of such a move.
Those who spoke at the press conference included member District Council Sher Muhammad, Haji Anzar Gul, nazim Sher Muhammad, Saifullah and Malik Sher Zamin. They said the forest royalty had always been distributed among the beneficiaries through the JFMC constituted under a notification issued by the government. Now bypassing the notification, the DC has started a survey through his own staff which would never be acceptable to the forest owners and other beneficiaries.
They were of the view that the royalty of forest was always distributed among the communities on the basis of the number of family members. As members of the JFMC belonged to the local communities and knew well the number of each family, involving government employees from other areas in the system would not only create resentment among the beneficiaries but would also led to flaws in the process.
They claimed that women members of the communities were also getting benefit from the royalty and the DC’s claim that a number of women had approached him seeking shares in the royalty was baseless.They said the deputy commissioner should withdraw his decision and stop the survey otherwise he would be responsible for its consequences. —Muhkam Uddin Ayuni