LANDI KOTAL: The wrangling among Bar Qambarkhel tribal elders of Bara and reservations of the political administration about its working have put the future of the recently formed traditional conflict resolution tribal body, Qaumi Sareshtha, in jeopardy.

The Bar Qambarkhel tribe formed a 165-member Sareshtha in January this year, selecting 50 elders each from Sheikhmalkhel, Dray Plaray and Wand Garee sub-tribes and 15 elders from Watarblchel sub-tribe.

Afridi tribal elders define Qaumi Sareshtha as a conflict resolution body, independent of any official influence and its members entirely selected by the tribesmen themselves.

Former MNA and Qamberkhel leader Hamidullah Jan Afrid told Dawn that names of the Bar Qambarkhel Sareshtha members were duly shared with the political administration and security ofñcials and the 165-member body was announced only after official approval.He said even the terms and conditions under which the Sareshtha was to function were also finalised with both government and security officials and that a written agreement to the effect was also signed in January this year.

The Bar Qambarkhel Sareshtha was bound to renounce contact or affiliation with outlawed militant groups, assist security forces in military operation if and when the need arises, hand over heavy and deadly weapons, and refrain from forming parallel administrative or judicial system.

Sources said things went wrong when a group of Sareshtha members snatched laptops from some youngsters in Bar Qambarkhel area on the pretext that `indecent material` was stored in them and that the same group raided some shops on the pretext that the owners were involved in narcotics business.

The Sareshtha members also fined shopl(eepers and laptop owners besides issuing them a stern reprimand against selling and using portable computers.

Quickly springing into action, the political administration arrested the relevant Sareshtha members for overstepping authority and demanded Bar Qambarkhel elders to reduce the body`s strength from 165 to 50.

Some Qambarkhel elders, including two former MNAs Abdul Latif Afridi and Hamidullah Jan Afridi, took serious exception to the arrest of Sareshthamembers and declared it an undue interference in the working of the conflict resolution body.

However, Political Agent Shahab Ali Shah defended the action saying Sareshtha couldn`t run parallel administration as it was clearly written in the agreement between the administration and Bar Qambarkhel tribe.

`We removed the names of some Sareshtha members as they overstepped their authority and violated the written agreement,` Shah said, adding that if the body was allowed to run parallel administration and form an independent judicial system, then the very purpose of the ongoing Khyber One operation in Bara won`t be achieved.

Sources said strife between sitting MNA Nasir Khan and former MNAs Latif Afridi and Hamidullah Jan over Sareshtha members was also a cause of imposition of some official restrictions on the working of Bar Qambarkhel Sareshtha.

They said MNA Nasir Khan and Awami National Party leader Imran Afridi supported the formation of a small Sareshtha with no role for former members of banned militant groups.

When contacted, Imran Afridi said Sareshtha members were not authorised to impose a radical agenda on tribes while imposing strict restrictions on the use of personal belongings like mobile phones and computers.

`We cannot and shall not ban independent thinking of Qambarkhel residents,` he said.

Hamidullah Jan Afridi however advocated independent functioning of Qaumi Sareshtha and said the political administration couldn`t dictate its terms to the tribal body, which had to its credit resolution of many tribal feuds without external interference.

He said prevention of immorality and keeping of a close watch on un-Islamic and immoral practices was always the basic job of theAfridi Sareshtha.

Political Agent Shahab Ali Shah insisted that his administration firmly believed in the strengthening of Qaumi Sareshtha and the positive and constructive role of tribal elders in cleansing the tribal society of all socialills.

Murad Saqi, whose name was removed from Sareshtha, said he was not satisfied with the official stand over the worl
He said the entire Qambarkhel tribe was not happy with official interference in the functioning of Sareshtha.

`Arm-twisting by the political administration will jeopardise the formation of Sareshthas by other Bara tribes,` he said.