Mohmand tribes to hold grand jirga on June 25

SHABQADAR: Some tribes in Mohmand have decided to hold next week a grand jirga against the merger of the tribal areas with the settled areas, claiming that they were never consulted on the process nor was the promised referendum on the move ever held.

Tribes from Khwaizai and Baizai, living close to the Pakistan-Afghanistan border in Baizai, a sub-division of the Mohmand tribal district, held a grand Jirga on Tuesday at Bahai dag Baizai.



The jirga which was attended by a large number of tribesmen and was addressed by tribal elders Malak Ahmad of Khwaizai, Malak Nadir Manan from Koda Khel, Malak Sultan Atmar Khel and Malak Ziarat Gul.

The tribal elders rejected the merger of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa with the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata) and announced to launch an anti-merger campaign across the region from June 25. They said their campaign will last until the achieve their goal of a separate province.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 20^th, 2018.