By Zahiruddin
CHITRAL: The demand of the people of Lower Chitral to rename it as ‘Chitral’ and that of Upper Chitral to rename it as ‘Mastuj’ is gaining momentum day by day who contended that the new name will do away with the heritage and cultural entity whose preservation had been guaranteed in the constitution of the country.
The fraternity of lawyers is on the forefront to press for the demand who said that after the bifurcation of Chitral district in November last, one was named as Lower Chitral and the other Upper Chitral but both of these were not in line with the wishes of the people of respective areas.
In a letter addressed to the chief secretary, a senior counsel from Mastuj town Muhammad Yousuf has said that in 1895 A.D, when the English Army intruded into Chitral, it was a dominion of two princely states namely Chitral and Mastuj which were unified under a single command till 1947 when both were declared two districts of the state while at the time of merger in 1969, the two districts were again unified as Chitral district.
Rejecting the name of ‘Upper Chitral’, he has contended that the books of history, the folk lores and even folk songs carried the name of Mastuj making the residents sentimentally attached to it who wanted it revived while the new name has no description anywhere and will only create confusions.
He has said that the name of ‘Mastuj’ is a household name which was cemented further when the name of tehsil was also ‘Mastuj’ instead of ‘Upper Chitral’ while the attachment of the residents with it can be gauged from the fact that the team of polo and foot ball on tehsil level is presently named as ‘Mastuj team’ when they came to compete in the district tournaments.
The district bar association has recently passed a resolution demanding the renaming of ‘Lower Chitral’ district as ‘Chitral’ to save the government from replacing the old name from its records and like-wise, its people from going through the ordeal of changing their identity cards and other documents to incorporate the new name.
The senior counsel and member of KP Bar Council, Abdul Wali Khan Abid has said that retention of the ‘Chitral’ as the name of the newly carved out district is unavoidable on many grounds which ranging from academics to law, culture, history and administration.
Yet another Karachi-based counsel Barrister Fahad Sultan has asked the Chitral Lower deputy commissioner to approach the relevant quarters in the provincial government to make modification of the name of ‘Lower Chitral’ and retain the old name of ‘Chitral’.
In a letter to the DC (a copy available with Chitral Times ), Barrister Sultan has complained that the people of Chitral were proud of their heritage and culture and their feelings have been hurt beyond measure by the change of their beloved name ‘Chitral’ while as per article 28 of the constitution of the country, the preservation of language, script and culture has been guaranteed.
When the Lower Chitral DC Khurshid Alam Mehsud was contacted, he confirmed that the problem of the name of the new district persisted on people’s level to such an extent that it needed to be redressed before it gathers too much momentum.
He said that the letters received from different quarters including the lawyers’ ones have been sent to the Board of Revenue for further action while he was sure that the demand was genuine and there was no reason of their rejection from the relevant authorities.
