ABSTRACT

After the 25th constitutional Amendment of Pakistan in 2018, seven tribal agencies amalgamated into the province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP). Due to the lack of a formal court system, postmerger land conflicts between different tribes and sub tribes have resulted in a variety of legal challenges, intensifying the already fragile situation in the tribal areas. Prior to the merger, the Jirga system, which was derived from centuries-old norms and traditions, was the means by which the tribal people settled their land disputes. The merger abolished the legal basis for the informal legal system, which is replaced by the Alternate Dispute Resolution (ADR). However, because of bureaucratic nominations, the ADR process is not seen by the people as a merit-based justice system. Following the merger, there have been several land disputes in North Waziristan based on who owns the land, which has caused the various tribes and sub tribes in an ongoing tribal conflict. The research question highlights that “How has legal pluralism led to unresolved conflict among locals?” Using the theoretical framework of legal pluralism, the objective of the research is to determine that how in the post-merger context, legal plurality has impacted and created problems in land disputes cases particularly in North Waziristan?