IRIN
PAKISTAN: Tenants clamour for rights in quake-affected Allai
15 August 2007


BANA, 15 August 2007 (IRIN) - Atiq Khan, 55, is having what could be his 
last cup of tea for a very long time with his friends at the bazaar in 
Bana, headquarters of the remote, mountainous Allai area in Batagram 
District, over 250km from Islamabad.

Atiq's sons, both in their 20s, have already left the area with their 
families and now Atiq too is planning to follow them.

"My sons have small daughters. There are no schools for them in Allai 
beyond primary level. There are few means to earn a livelihood; our 
houses are no longer standing after the October 2005 earthquake - but 
most of all there is just no future here for people like us who are 
tenants," Atiq said.

Located in Pakistan's North West Frontier Province (NWFP), most of 
Allai's 150,000 inhabitants are tenants - tilling plots of land along 
steep mountainsides in exchange for permission from landlords to build a 
shelter on the land and to get a share of the food, often a small 
percentage of the produce grown on the land.

Ongoing disputes

The tensions between landlords and tenants quickly surfaced in many 
regions in the wake of the devastating earthquake that struck NWFP and 
Pakistani-administered Kashmir nearly two years ago - killing at least 
73,000 people and leaving some 3.5 million people homeless.

The first compensation amount of US$415 per tenant family, announced at 
the initial rehabilitation stages by the Pakistan government, was 
demanded by both - with tenants maintaining they had built the houses 
that collapsed and landlords saying they owned the land they stood on.

"The disputes are still continuing in many areas such as Shinkiari, 
Batal, the Siran Valley and elsewhere," explained Syed Aftab Ahmed of 
the Sarhad Rural Support Programme (SRSP), a government-supported 
organisation active in post-quake rebuilding across the NWFP.

In the wake of the disaster, many tenants had hoped the entry of dozens 
of non-governmental organisations (NGOs), international agencies and 
welfare groups into the rugged mountains of Allai - long considered 
inaccessible to outsiders because of their location and reputation for 
lawlessness - would play a role in breaking the hold of powerful 
landowners.

"We had thought we would be freed, that we would be given some land and 
allowed to live as citizens, not as subjects," said Amin-ur-Rehman, a 
student from Allai currently studying in the nearby city of Abbotabad.

Disputes over compensation

The hopes of local people were also initially raised when the first 
compensation amount of $415 was handed over to tenants who had lost 
homes. Those hopes were soon dashed when subsequent, larger installments 
of the government's compensation scheme were given to the landlords.

Justifying the decision, NWFP Information Minister Asif Iqbal Daudzai, 
said: "The formula rectified problems between tenants and farmers." He 
also said the interests of tenants "would be protected".

In Allai, the entire matter is exacerbated by the fact that the largest 
landowners in the area, the former princes who ruled the independent 
State of Allai until 1949, when it acceded to Pakistan, are desperate to 
retain their hold over the region and its people. They had feared this 
grip could be threatened by allocations made directly to tenants after 
the October 2005 quake.

"In a number of cases, the tenants just left after getting the first Rs 
25,000 ($415) as compensation for a house they did not own," Nawaz Khan 
Allai, one of the largest landlords of the region, whose family had 
ruled the state for decades, told IRIN, maintaining that tenants in the 
area were given "dignity" and "treated as family".

But most tenants disagree. Levels of dissatisfaction are high in the 
area, with thousands still living in temporary shelters, in part due to 
problems in constructing houses as per the design approved by the 
Pakistani authorities in the isolated hamlets of Allai.

Tenants said they were in most acute need of housing, since the affluent 
landlords had already rebuilt their own homes months ago. They alleged 
that, as such, the Khans had "no interest in helping the tenants".

Court ruling

"The High Court in Peshawar has now ruled that the compensation amount 
can be granted to tenants if they are able to produce a Land Ownership 
Certificate (LOC) or an NoC (No Objection Certificate) from the landlord 
who owns the land. This formula means the issue of who owns the land is 
at least clear," explained the SRSP's Aftab Ahmed.

Following attacks on the offices of several relief organisations, 
including the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent 
Societies and the UN Children's Fund, work has quite obviously slowed 
and many groups have withdrawn staff.

The problems of Allai highlight some of the complex social and economic 
issues which prevail in quake-hit areas as the second anniversary of the 
October 2005 quake draws closer.


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