Aftermath: Mohmand tribe opposes Fata, K-P merger

Announces a protest movement against the move

SHABQADAR: Mohmand tribal elders have rejected FATA-KP merger for which the 25^th Amendment was passed by both houses of parliament and the K-P Assembly.

The elders of Mohmand tribe expressed their defiance and called for a protest movement against the merger. They also condemned police action against tribal protesters in Peshawar. It was announced on Monday at a press conference held at Mohmand Press Club by elders of different tribes of Mohmand Safi and Uthman Khel.

Speaking on the occasion, Malik Ayaz Khan Haleemzai said the government has imposed the Fata-K-P merger in haste without seeking consent of the tribesmen.

He added that most of the tribal parliamentarians were against the merger, a fact acknowledged by the prime minister in his interview, and they did not take part in the proceedings of both the National Assembly and Senate.

“Our demand was creation of a separate province for Fata like that of South Punjab,” said Ayaz, lamenting that this demand was rejected by non-tribal leaders. “They imposed their own agenda upon us,” he said, adding that “we the free tribesmen will never allow ourselves to be subjugated by the K-P administration”.

Another tribal leader Malik Ziarat Gul Khwazai said “once when the Pak-Afghan border was not safe we the tribesmen living in the border areas fought against aggressors and saved the border at the high cost of our blood.”

He added that when the voice of ‘Pakistan Murdabad’ was raised by miscreants “we the tribesmen had raised the voice of ‘Pakistan Zindabad’ but now that the government has achieved its objective it imposed its decision upon us without even asking from us”.

Ziarat condemned the assault on tribal elders by police in Peshawar and said we will never accept police and its brutal action.
K-P police has shown its real face to the tribesmen, lamented Malik Jehanzeb Mohmand, who sustained injuries during the protest outside K-P assembly on Sunday.


The elders said they are consulting with other tribes in the tribal belt and will launch a mass protest movement against the merger. They said they are not against the reforms but the way government has put reforms of merger “in days upon us” shows the government attitude towards tribesmen.

This is the second such protest in the entire agency as on Saturday tribal elders in Ekka Ghund led by Malik Misal Khan had also protested against the merger, saying that the step has taken back the tribal identity as well as NA and Senate seats, federal government services, professional colleges quota and imposed taxes on the war-hit Fata before developing it.