JUI-F chief suggests referendum on Fata status

PESHAWAR: Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman said on Monday that a referendum should be held in the tribal areas to know the opinion of people about the reforms and possible merger of Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata) into Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

Addressing a news conference here at provincial secretariat of his party, he said the JUI-F was not against reforms in Fata but it was of the view that no decision should be imposed on the tribal people about the future status of their areas.

“We respect the recommendations of the Fata Reforms Committee but there should be an option for holding a referendum to seek the opinion of the tribal people about the future status of Fata,” he argued.

The JUI-F chief said the referendum must be fair and transparent and the tribal people should be asked whether they wanted merger with Khyber Pakhtunkhwa or an independent province or preferred the old system.

Maulana Fazlur Rehman said resettlement of the dislocated tribespeople in their native areas was a must before holding a referendum as thousands of them were still displaced. He said like other parts of the country the population of Fata had doubled since the last census in 1998 and it should be therefore provided due share as per its present population.

The JUI-F chief said the Fata Reforms Committee had not shared its recommendations with any political party and it was his democratic and constitutional right to present his opinion in the Parliament.

“I did not directly oppose the merger of Fata into Khyber Pakhtunkhwa but recommended that free and fair referendum should be held before imposing any decision on the tribal people,” he recalled.  He added that some political parties and groups were misguiding the general masses about the JUI-F stance on the issue.

About the PTI-led Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government’s stand on China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) and its western route, the JUI-F chief said the provincial government, particularly Chief Minister Pervez Khattak, had not taken the issue of western route seriously and had changed his stance from time to time.

“The provincial government has not been interested in the CPEC since the beginning. Instead of raising this issue with the federal government, it wasted its energy on protests and sit-ins,” he pointed out.

The JUI-F chief added that construction work on Hakla-Dera Ismail. Khan Road was a solid proof of the existence of CPEC in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, particularly the southern districts. “The provincial government should consider southern districts as part of the province as these would benefit from the CPEC,” he remarked.

Maulana Fazlur Rehman said that like previous protest rallies and sit-ins of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, the protest call of Imran Khan on October 30 would also be a failure as the people of Pakistan had rejected the politics of confrontation and agitation. “Instead of promoting the culture of agitation, Imran Khan should focus on the development of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa whose people had voted for a change,” he added.