Chitral: His Highness Fateh ul Mulk Ali Nasir, the crown prince and eldest son of Saiful Mulk Nasir, the last ruler of Katoor dynasty (1570-1969) of the former state of Chitral, was formally installed as Mehtar of Chitral in a graceful ceremony held at Chitral Fort here on Thursday.
The traditional Mahraka accepted his formal investiture as the successor of his father in a ceremony largely attended by elders of the areas including Chairman National Assembly’s Standing Committee on Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan, Shahzada Muhiuddin MNA, Raja of Yasin Raja Jallaluddin, Nawab of Amb Nawab Sallahuddin, Pir Sahib of Goldur, Imam of Shahi Masjid, President Aga Khan regional Council for lower Chitral Dr. Mir Afzal Tajik , and many other dignitaries.
At the conclusion of the ceremony, hundreds of Chitralis seconded the decision by offering tradition of Baiyat to the new Mehtar.
Chitral, a district of Malakand Division of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, has been a princely state till 1969, when the then military dictator abolished the state and merged it fully with Islamic Republic of Pakistan under the provisional constitutional order (PCO) he promulgated after staging a coup. The state had been ruled by Katoors dynasty from 1570 to 1969, when it was fully merged into Pakistan.
Born on November 27, 1983 the new Mehtar went to University of Buckingham UK, from where he received an LLB degree and and LLM from University of Miami USA.
When asked about the significance of the coronation ceremony in wake of the fact that the state has long been abolished in 1969, a renowned intellectual, writer and columnist of the area, Dr Inayatullah Faizi, says that though the coronation is symbolic in nature but it has significance for three major reasons.
“In sub continent, all major families, tribes or dynasties are headed by a chief notwithstanding the fact whether there is legal or constitutional cover.
The second reason is that during Afghan war in 1919, then Mehtar was granted the title of His Highness by Queen Elizabeth and the title is hereditary, he explained. Dr Faizi maintained that in 1969 when the state was fully merged with Pakistan, the government of Pakistan had signed an agreement with the then ruler of the state, according to it they ruling family is entitled to certain perks, privileges and other entitlements and the government needed someone from the family to deal with for extending the privileges to the family, that is why the coronation is important.
About the ceremony Dr Faizi said that it was largely attended by elders and representatives of different tribes and families from across the district and was a truly a representative gathering of major tribes of the area.
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