Fata youth demand merger with KP

PESHAWAR: Speakers at a seminar on Tuesday urged the federal government to abolish the centauries-old Frontier Crimes Regulation (FCR) and merge the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata) into Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

The demands were made during a day-long seminar held at the Peshawar Press Club. The Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) Fata Youth Wing had organised the seminar titled ‘Youth Against FCR.’

JI Fata chief Sardar Khan, general secretary Muhammad Rafique, JI Fata Youth Wing chief Shah Jehan Afridi and a large number of youth attended the event. The speakers said the world had changed and awareness created among the people about their rights but lamented that a draconian law FCR was still enforced in Fata.

They said the people around the globe turned to democracy but the tribespeople in Pakistan were being denied their rights for centuries. The British-era law benefited only a handful of people while the majority of the tribespeople were deprived of their basic human rights, he added.

They said Fata was ignored in terms of development work and suppressed by FCR.The speakers added that the merger of Fata into Khyber Pakhtunkhwa would address the sense of deprivation of the tribespeople and bring tribal areas into the mainstream.

They endorsed the recommendations of the Fata Reforms Committee formed by Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to propose reforms for Fata and demanded merger of tribal areas with Khyber Pakhtunkhwa before the 2018 general election.