Protest planned: JUI-F vows to resist Fata merger with K-P

PESHAWAR: Vowing to resist merger of the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata) with Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) has decided to hold a public meeting in Islamabad on December 23.

The party’s Fata Supreme Council on Tuesday criticised an ongoing campaign for the merger of Fata with K-P and said such an imposed decision would be rejected. “The people of Fata should decide their own fate,” the council said, according to party spokesperson Abdul Jalil Jan.

The council decided in its meeting presided over by Mufti Abdul Shakoor that “Fata’s merger will be resisted at all levels”. The public meeting will be held at Faizabad.

It said the struggle for mainstreaming Fata would continue but its merger would be unacceptable and it should become a separate province.

The council invited all parties to participate in the protest and said the issue should be settled through dialogue rather than confrontation.

The JUI-F’s decision came at a time when the Jamaat-e-Islami was protesting against delay in Fata’s merger with K-P. Both parties had earlier announced that they had agreed to revive the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal in which they were allies. Initial cracks in the alliance became visible when JUI-S chief Maulana Samilul Haq announced that he was forming an electoral alliance with the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf.