JI demands uplift package for Fata, merger with KP

PESHAWAR: Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) provincial head Mushtaq Ahmad said on Wednesday that the people of the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata) have been deprived of basic and democratic rights for the last seven decades.

Addressing a gathering of students at Nishtar Hall here, he rejected the Frontier Crimes Regulation (FCR), saying it was a black law. Apart from others, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf member of the provincial assembly Shaukat Yousafzai, senior journalist Rahimullah Yusufzai, Jamal Wazir and others addressed the function.

Mushtaq Ahmad asked the government to announce Rs1,000 billion uplift package for the tribal areas, merge the Fata with the KP, set up women university, a medical college and an engineering university for the tribesmen and hold local bodies elections there.

“If no solid steps were taken for the merger of the Fata with KP and uplift of the tribal areas, we will have no other option but to march on Islamabad,” he said. The JI leader said that a handful of people opposed the merger of Fata with KP and supported the FCR. He urged the students to work for the development of Pakistan as they were an asset to the country.