The Torkham protest

During the past weeks, local people have been continually blocking the Torkham highway that links Pakistan with Afghanistan, demanding that the authorities fulfill their commitment of granting incentives in return for land that the locals have provided for construction of a border terminal.

In January, the Khugakhel tribe – a sub tribe of the Shinwari tribe in Landikotal – started a protest when the government announced the resumption of the Pakistan-Afghan Friendship Bus service.

In an effort to curb these protests, the local administration imposed Section 3 of Maintenance of Public Order (3 MPO). However, hundreds of protestors blocked the highway last Sunday when the authorities arrested Jamiat Ulama-e-Islam (JUI) senior deputy ameer for former tribal areas Mufti Ijaz Shinwari.

Shinwari is also a tribal elder and one of the nine council members who were negotiating with the authorities about the lease and other issues.

Talking to Bol News, JUI secretary information in Khyber tribal district Qari Muhammad Saeed said the issue was specific to the Khugakhel sub tribe that resides in Landikotal, Torkham and also across the border in Afghanistan.

“The authorities have violated every agreement with the tribal council. It is very unfortunate that one way or the other, the agreed upon conditions of the agreement are violated or changed without the consent of the elders representing the Khugakhel tribe,” Saeed claimed.

The protesters briefly called off their protest late on Tuesday and on Wednesday to allow commuters upon the request of the authorities and a jirga led by the JUI-F provincial deputy president Maulana Amanullah Haqqani as the two sides discussed the release of Mufti Ijaz Shinwari. However, despite several deadlines, the detained leader was not released till late Friday afternoon.

“We are allowing all types of vehicles on the road now. However, our people are still protesting on the roadside and if our tribal and religious leader is not released and the MPO orders are not taken back, we will be forced to completely block the road for all traffic, including vehicles transporting all sorts of goods to Afghanistan,” Qari Saeed added.

It was in 2015 that the National Logistics Cell (NLC) planned to construct a terminal at Torkham in order to streamline the cross-border transportation between Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Initially, the NLC asked for 300 kanals of land that belonged to the Khugakhel tribe. This demand for land was in addition to the 132 kanal land already leased by the government of Pakistan.

However, the tribal elders claim that the NLC took control of more area than was agreed upon.

“The tribal council agreed on leasing 300 kanals of land for a sum of Rs66,666 per kanal per year. Besides this, we also agreed on the formula of vehicle toll tax distribution among the tribe, the NLC and the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR),” said Tajuddin Shinwari, a member of the negotiating council.

Each vehicle crossing the terminal pays a toll tax of Rs2,500.  According to the Khugakhel tribe, the authorities had agreed to pay Rs600 per vehicle to the tribe as a royalty for their leased land. However, the tribal elders allege that the authorities backed off from their original commitment of 2015 when they changed the conditions in 2016.

“It was agreed in 2015 that the same sharing formula will be implemented each time the toll tax is increased but a year later in 2016, the NLC brought in a new condition that wanted us to accept only Rs600 per vehicle for the next 99 years without any increase. Successful negotiations led to agreement on a 15% increase in collections from toll tax for the Khugakhel people,” Tajuddin said. One of the reasons behind the conflict was the absence of the master plan for the proposed terminal that has been under construction for the past six years. The protesting tribesmen claim that instead of the initially agreed 300 kanals, the NLC was in possession of some 726 kanals of land.

“Apart from the land leased from the tribe, another 224 kanals belonging to individuals were also leased by the authorities for a sum of Rs2 crore per annum. But that is a separate settlement between the authorities and the individual land owners,” said Israr Shinwari, a tribal elder and social worker.

After months of negotiations in 2021, the two sides agreed on new terms on July 13 as five of the nine members signed the deal with the authorities and the NLC.

These new terms included agreement on same lease payments for the newly acquired additional land to the existing 300 kanal belonging to the tribe. But aggrieved tribesmen once again started complaining about the alleged changes to the agreement.

The Khugakhel tribesmen allege that the authorities had agreed to give them access to data regarding toll tax of every vehicle, something which Malak Masal Khan, one of the five signatories of the agreement in 2021, claims is not practical.

“The authorities had agreed to provide data at the end of each day regarding the number of vehicles crossing the terminal and the amount of toll collected. However, the tribesmen now want to have a copy of each transaction just like other stakeholders; the NLC, the FBR and the truckers,” Masal said.

He added that the Khugakhels have let go their demand for the inclusion of their representative on the arbitration committee formed for solving any issues that might surface in the future.

“This demand too was impractical as none of the members – the deputy commissioner Khyber, the district police officer (DPO), and the commandant Frontier Corps (FC) – are stakeholders while the tribesmen are stakeholders and giving them representation would make more issues as other stakeholders might demand the same,” Masal said. The protesters complain about the governments’ plans for reinitiating the Pakistan-Afghan Friendship Bus service that had failed when first launched fifteen years ago in March 2006.

The government has plans to introduce the service with 80 buses – 40 buses on each side – to facilitate passengers between Peshawar and Jalalabad.

“The construction of massive walls right in front of the bustling market near the Torkham border because of the terminal has effectively closed over a thousand shops, hotels and private offices.

“Public and goods transport is the only remaining profitable profession for our people and the government wants to kill that too with the friendship bus service,” Israr Shinwari argued.

The cross-border movement of Afghans into Pakistan has reduced to 3,000 to 3,500 persons per day compared to over 15,000 before the Taliban came into power.

Similarly, a registered 11,000 daily wagers hailing from Khyber tribal district and other nearby areas would travel to Afghanistan for earning their livelihood by working in factories in Afghanistan.