A jirga arranged by Awami National Party (ANP) here proposed integration of Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata) with Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P).
Convened amid tight security, the jirga appointed ANP’s provincial vice president Abdul Latif Afridi as head of a panel tasked to hold similar jirgas in different parts of the region to garner tribal leaders’ support on the issue.
Addressing the jirga, Afridi said that his party would continue the struggle to get rights of the tribal people restored.
Criticising the Frontier Crime Regulations (FCR), he said the FCR was not acceptable in any form to the people of Fata and the government instead of making amendments in the black law should restore fundamental rights of the people.
Afridi also accused bureaucracy of delaying reforms in FCR.
Pakhtuns living in K-P and Fata cannot remain divided and the ANP will fight for their rights, remarked the party’s provincial general secretary Arbab Tahir.
He termed the previous government of Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA) responsible for the growing insurgency in the region.
Published in The Express Tribune, March 5th, 2012.
COMMENTS (7)
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I am a Punjabi but still find the existence of a tribal belt in the 21st century an insult to the times. Good luck to ANP for trying to bring an end to tribal systems.
i think a seperate province will be more helpful for the people of fata. then there will be lot more development than if it merges with kp. either way anp will benefit for its votebank in pashtun areas.
@ullo: Because the people of FATA want to unite with their Pukhtun brothers and sisters of KPK once again, who were divided by the British Colonial Powers!
Why cant FATA be given a reasonable status of their own rather than merging them with KPK?
Great efforts by ANP for the unity of Pukhtuns. A big hand for these efforts and wish them best luck.
This title is misleading .. It's FATA's merger with KPK .. unless you want KPK to be merged with FATA under tribal system?
I was taken aback by the title: "Jirga proposes K-P’s merger with FATA" ??
But relieved to read the very first line: