BARA: The members of Fata Loya Jirga on Sunday asked the government to reverse the merger of the tribal districts into Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and honour the pledges made with the tribesmen about the region’s development.
The demand was made at a grand meeting of the tribal elders of the anti-merger movement arranged at the residence of the former member of the national assembly, Baz Gul Afridi.The office-bearers of the jirga and other elders including Malik Muhammad Hussain Afridi, Malik Bismillah Jan Afridi, Malik Khan Mar Jan Wazir, Malik Tamash Shalmani, Nawazada Fazal Kareem, Afrasiab Khan, Malik Shakeel Orakzai, Malik Younas, Lal Said, Bahadur Shah, Dr Turab, Malik Shakoor, Said Mir Shah and several tribal elders were present on the occasion.
The elders maintained that the erstwhile Fata was merged into KP without taking the tribal people and elders into confidence.They said the then chief justice of the Supreme Court had promised the formation of a larger bench at the apex court to hear the case filed against the merger.
“Fata merger is unlawful and we do not accept it,” Malik Bismillah Afridi said, adding that the tribal people were not taken into confidence over the issue.He revealed that the tribal people had demanded an amendment to the Frontier Crimes Regulation (FCR) and not merger of Fata into KP. “We want the restoration of the student scholarship, medical and engineering seats in colleges which used to be in vogue in the past,” Malik Bismillah Afridi said.
The speakers added that the KP could not pay the salaries to its own employees and that it was an injustice to the tribal people to merge the then Fata into a “backward” province. Malik Khan Mar Jan told the jirga the Fata merger deprived the tribal people of six Senate and as many National Assembly seats.
Citing the reasons for opposition to the merger, he explained that tribal people were unfamiliar with the court and police station culture and would resolve issues through a simple Jirga system and tribal customs and traditions. He said that federal and provincial governments were not using enough development funds in the merged districts.
Malik Muhammad Hussain maintained the tribesmen had been living through poverty and deprived of basic rights including education, health and jobs.Later, the Fata Loya Jirga passed a resolution that condemned the arrest of Malik Naseer Ahmed Kukikhel, a tribal elder, and demanded his release with honor as soon as possible.