PESHAWAR: Despite the renewed efforts by Peshawar Development Authority to settle and focus on the longstanding issues bedeviling Regi Model Town, its skeptical residents say the measures were too little and too late.

Since 1990 when the Regi Model Town was established, the PDA officials and provincial government have struggled to retrieve a major portion of the land occupied by the Kokikhel Afridi tribe of Khyber district that adjoins the sprawling township.

The government had acquired 36, 000 kanals of land - divided into five zones – to cope with the ever-increasing demand for housing in the metropolis.

The Kokikhels, however, soon sprang into action and disputed the PDA’s claim over zone II and V, leading to theprotracted negotiations,which failed to resolve the issue.

PDA chief claims efforts underway for uplift of area

The Kukikhels dispute the Mayfith-Grifth Line drawn by the British in 1912 that separates Khyber and Peshawar districts.

The PDA officials maintain that the Kokikhel tribe has crossed the Mayfith-Grifth Line and encroached land on the Peshawar area and has occupied major portion of the land acquired for the township.

Since then, the successive governments made futile attempts to resolve the dispute between the Kokikhel and PDA, affecting hundreds of plot owners in the two disputed zones for nearly thirty years with no outcome in sight.

Bu this is not the only issue haunting the residents, who complain that the PDA had also failed to provide basic facilities in the township.

“Being oversees my colleagues and I invested in Regi Model Town considering it a secure investment as it was a government-owned scheme and got plot in Zone IV,” a Pakistani engineer working in Qatar told Dawn.

“I spent millions to construct a house. “Upon return, I was astonished to see the lack of basic facilities,” he said.

He deplored that his efforts to convey grievances to finance minister Taimur Jhagra, who represents the constituency, and adviser to the chief minister on information Kamran Bangash fell on deaf ears.

There were no streets roads, no mosques, no street lights and no children parks, he complained

President resident society Regi Model Town Sadeeq Akbar pointed out that roads in zones III and IV, constructed years ago, were in dilapidated condition and had not been rehabilitated.

He added that in those zones, one of the major issues was the choking of sewerage line for the last few years causing the flooding of houses by rainwater.

Akbar also charged that the PDA had failed to establish a separate power grid station for the Regi Model Town which had been connected to other feeders, he said.

During rain and storm, residents of the town faced hours-long power cuts, he said.

Similarly, he said, electricity poles had not been installed in major areas of the undisputed zones, which had compelled the residents to connect their houses with electric transformers located 300 to 400 meters away

“We are provided gas at Regasified Liquefied Natural Gas (RLNG) tariff with a price 10 times higher as compare to the price of the natural gas,” he said.

However, director of the Building Control Agency, Regi Model Town, Farooq Hayat told Dawn that land in sectors C and D of Zone I was retrieved from Kokikhel tribe recently following successful dialogue.

He said the negotiation with tribesmen was in progress and hoped that dispute on rest of the land would be amicably resolved.

“Tube wells and other infrastructure have already been constructed in the retrieved sectors,” he said.

PDA director general Ammara Khan told Dawn that she had focused her attention on the development of the Regi Model Town after assuming the office in Feb.

She said the chief minister had tasked the commissioner and deputy commissioners Peshawar and Khyber with sitting with the Kokikhel tribe to resolve the issue over the demarcation of Mayfith-Grifth Line.

Regarding roads in undisputed zones, the DG said PC-I for the carpeted roads had already been approved and tendering exercise would be carried out in a couple of days.

She also said the Pesco had agreed to establish a separate grid station for the township in the next three months.

Published in Dawn, April 28th, 2021