MANSEHRA: The five main tribes of Torghar have moved the Abbottabad circuit bench of Peshawar High Court seeking ownership of the local forests in the district.

“We had taken up this issue with the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf and previous governments seeking ownership of the forests, but to no avail. Now, we have moved the court of law to get our rights,” Iqbal Khan Tarind, a local elder, told a jirga held in Judbah on Sunday.

He told the jirga that their panel of lawyers had submitted a writ petition with the Abbottabad circuit bench seeking the change of status of the local forests from reserves ones to the protected forests.

“These forests are owned by the local tribes, but the forest department is not permitting them even to chop trees for firewood and construction,” Mr Tarind said.

He said that the people of Torghar, which was given the status of a settled district through a presidential order in 2011 from a tribal belt of Mansehra district, were still without basic facilities.

Published in Dawn, December 20th, 2021