KH AR: The Oct 26 earthquake, which had badly hit the tribesmen of Bajaur Agency, also financially affected the pro-administration elders after the political administration canceled their monthly allowances for October, sources told Dawn here on Friday.

They said that the administration did not pay allowances to the tribal elders and other such people owing shortage of funds. The sources said that the money of the allowances was diverted to the earthquake relief activities in the region after the administration ran out of funds and it was left with no other source to overcome the situation.

According to the sources, besides earthquake relief activities, some funds were also spent during the prime minister and president`s visits to the agency in the wake of earthquake.

The tribal elders belonging to different areas confirmed the nonpayment of their allowances and said that they didn`t got the allowance for October.

A tribal elder told Dawn on condition of anonymity that he along with some other colleagues visited the local administration office to collect the monthly allowance two weeks ago, but the clerk told them that their allowances for October had been cancelled on the directives of senior of ficials. Some elders said that they were upset over the decision as the stipend was the sole source of their income.

However, other elders said that they were glad that their allowances had been spent on a noble cause of relief activities in the affected areas. They also called upon the government employees in the agency to allocate their one day salary for the quake victims. When contacted, an of ficial of the local administration said that the decision to cancel the allowances of elders had been taken on the orders of Bajaur Agency political agent following shortage of funds. However, he said that allowances for only one month had been stopped.Correspondent