The historic Swat is part of the Provincially Administered Tribal Areas (PATA) of the Khyber Pukhtunkhwa province of Pakistan. The ownership of forests in Swat has a direct link with land ownership and were owned by the dawtar landowners; but in some cases also by the serai landowners, where they held hills.

In 1915, Swat state came into being and in 1917 Miangul Abdul Wadud alias Bacha Sahib was installed its king. After consolidating his position, he gave attention to the forestry sector and as a major step declared the deodar trees and later all forests as state owned, allocating a share in the sale proceeds of the trees harvested for commercial sale as royalty to the concerned landowners/right-holders.

Although the concerned landowners considered themselves the rightful owners of the forests, they remained content at receiving the share in the sale proceeds alongwith enjoying other rights. They continued the transaction of selling and purchasing shares in the forests: testament to their having been the owners of the forests.

In 1969, Swat state was dissolved by the Pakistan government, and was later made part of the North-West Frontier Province now Khyber Pukhtunkhwa. In pursuance of Regulation No. 122, dated 11 April 1972, the forests of the former Swat state areas were declared the provincial government property[1], but “subject to payment of fifteen percent of their income as royalty to the local right holders”[2].

The government not only unilaterally declared the forests property of the provincial government without seeking agreement or consent from the people concerned, but imposed other restrictions later on, which also were deliberate attempts to wash away the idea of the forests being formerly owned of the landowners.

A significant and latest attempt was made in the North-West Frontier Province Forest Ordinance 2002[3],and the North-West Frontier Province Protected Forest Management Rules 2005[4], wherein the concerned people or forest owners, as they claim and consider themselves to be, are mentioned ‘right holders’ and ‘concessionists’. And instead of ‘royalty’, for the share of the people concerned in the sale proceeds, ‘seigniorage fee’ has been used. Whereas the definition of ‘right holder’ state that it “means a person who does not have proprietary rights over forest…”[5] However, despite these legal changes, the concerned landowners still consider themselves to be the rightful owners of the forests.

This paper deals with the crucial point of the forest ownership in Swat District—both the area that was part of the former Swat state, and Kalam which was not part of Swat State but is part of the district—contested by the provincial government and the people concerned.

[1]Chief Martial Law Administrator, Pakistan, Regulation No. 122, 11 April 1972, in Gul Wali Khan, Manual of Land Reforms (Peshawar: NWFP Land Commission, 1979), p. 128, and Notification, No. 10/16-SOTA-II/72/1521, dated 15 September 1972, Home, Tribal Affairs and Local Government Department, Govt. of NWFP, Extraordinary, Registered No. p. 111, Government Gazette, NWFP.

[2] Notification, No. 10/16-SOTA-II/72/1521, dated 15 September 1972, Home, Tribal Affairs and Local Government Department, Govt. of NWFP, Extraordinary, Registered No. p. 111, Government Gazette, NWFP.

[3] Notification, No. Legis: 1(6)/99-II/4525, dated 10 June 2002, Law Department, Govt. of NWFP, Extraordinary, Registered No. P. 111, Government Gazette, NWFP, The North-West Frontier Province Forest Ordinance, 2002 (NWFP Ordinance No. XIX of 2002).

[4] Notification, No. SO(Tech)ED/V-105/2004/Vol:VII, dated Peshawar 23 April 2005, Environment Department, Govt. of NWFP, North-West Frontier Province Protected Forest Management Rules, 2005.