Differences among the parliamentarians of the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata) and the Fata Lawyers Forum emerged on Saturday over seeking representation of tribal areas in the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) assembly or to demand a separate province.
The demand for making Fata a separate province was put forward in a jirga or a public hearing, convened by the Fata Grand Alliance, a representative forum of tribal elders, parliamentarians, lawyers, students and business community at the federal lodge Peshawar.
“The Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Assembly resolution of seeking representation of Fata members in the provincial assembly is a conspiracy for creating Greater Pakhtunistan,” Fata MNA Hameedullah Jan Afridi said vowing to oppose the move at all available forums.
However, Ijaz Momand, the president of the Fata Lawyers Forum, spoke in favour of the assembly resolution and pointed out, “The resolution does not seek merging of Fata into K-P, but to break the prevailing status quo in the region.”
He demanded extending the jurisdiction of the Supreme Court and High Court to tribal regions, abolishing the newly constituted Frontier Crimes Regulation tribunal, and deletion of clause (7) of Article 247 of the Constitution, which violates the fundamental rights of the citizens of the area.
The patron-in-chief of the Fata Grand Alliance Malik Khan Marjan, while talking to the media, lashed out at the Awami National Party-led provincial government for double standards. He said the provincial government is busy in making a deal on a Hazara province and in return wants to get the entire tribal area.
“The Provincial and National Assembly do not have mandate to legislate about issues relating to Fata. Only the President of Pakistan can make such legislations.
“If the government wants to know the will of the people, we are ready for a referendum to show the will of the people of Fata,” Martjan said. In spite of a disagreement on many issues, the Fata Grand Alliance Jirga agreed that no legislation should be made without the consent of the people of Fata.
Published in The Express Tribune, May 20th, 2012.
COMMENTS (4)
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Fata will become a province,keep it up Afridi we tribals stands beside you time is over non tribals can not make tribals fool any more.
keeping the view of the participant that FATA can not make its own province so being a tribal i would not be agree with them . because Fata is in the position to have its own Assembly , Governor and MPAs as well as its constitutional status is also as fifth unit of pakistan.we believe that who so ever is talking about the merging and giving MPAs seats in the province so i think it is the first step towards pukhtenistan which is Anti- pakistan Movement which is over in Daud era .now it is the time to take stand for FATA province for the better future of tribal es . and if any body want to discus in detail so they can email me on shah_ir2007@yahoo.com.
Keeping in view the geographical location of FATA it can never become an independant province, so better idea is to make it a part of KPK. this will help improve the law and order condition in KPK and will also give equal rights and opportunities to FATA people
It should be a part of KPK because if in future Baloch areas of Baluchistan go out of Pakistan or becomes a separate province , then it will be easier for Pashtun areas of Baluchistan to become part of KPK instead of creating another province for themselves !!!!!!!!!!!! Thereby dividing the already divided pashtun nation into more parts. So it is better for FATA to be part of KPK. There are alos the factors of educational, health facilities and economic infrastructure issues that compelleds FATA to become part of Pashtunkhwa. And as far as the views of Hamidullah Jan Afridi are concerned , it should not be given any attention and got serious because this trend of calling someone a traitor has lost its significant for the past so many years but it seem that the said Mr have not yet realized it.