Elders reject merger of Fata with KP

BARA: A jirga of tribal elders from Khyber Agency on Sunday rejected the merger of tribal areas into Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and said Fata should be made separate province.

Speaking at the jirga in Hayatabad in Peshawar, the elders said that tribal people had rendered tremendous sacrifices for restoration peace. “Now the government is ignoring our sacrifices,” said one of the elders.

The elders including former federal minister Malik Waris Khan Afridi, Malik Khan Marjan, Malik Khalid Khan, Malik Duran Gul, Malik Abdul Raziq, Malik Salahuddin, Malik Nadir and others spoke on the occasion.

They said the tribal people do not want
Fata’s merger into the province and they wanted to make a Fata council or separate province in the tribal belt.

The elders stated the four parliamentarians could not decide the fate of the all Fata residents and they would not accept their decision on behalf of all tribal people.

They said Fata should have a council to make
legislation according to social, political situation
and traditions of the tribal region.

The elders said that the president of Pakistan had signed an agreement in 2012 that any decision taken without consent of tribal people was not acceptable to the government.

They warned that the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa
governor should step
down, otherwise, the tribesmen would start a campaign for removal of the governor.

Also, they added that the founder of the Pakistan Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah had visited the tribal belt and told the tribal elders that any decision about Fata would be taken with consent of the tribal people.