In a first, Christians and Sikhs made tribal elders in Khyber

Four representatives of minority communities living in the Khyber Agency have been granted the status of ‘Lungi holder’ (tribal elder) by the Khyber Agency political administration, a report in the local media said on Saturday.
According to the report in Dawn, officials said that it was for the first time that minorities living in FATA were granted the status of tribal elders, thus formally merging the communities into the tribal society.
Those who were granted the status of ‘Lungi holder’, who in local parlays are referred as ‘Speen Rubay”, include All FATA Minorities Social Welfare Organisation Chairman Wilson Wazir, Jamrud church caretaker James Michael and two Sikhs, Gurmeet Singh and Narenjan Singh.
Terming the government decision historic, Wilson Wazir hoped that the move would end discrimination between local residents and the minority communities living in tribal areas. He said that under the rules of political administration, the four minorities’ Lungi holders were entitled to all the official perks and privileges along with having authority to stamp their attestation on all the important national documents, including those for computerised national identity card, domicile certificate and passport.
Wilson Wazir said that earlier members of the minorities’ community would approach the local tribal elders for attestation of national documents.
“In most such cases the local elders would either refuse attestation of our documents or would ask for gratification to do the needful,” he regretted and said the new arrangement would facilitate the acquisition of such documents without any hindrance.