Fata MNAs extend support to Khursheed

ISLAMABAD: The PPP on Tuesday announced that it will join the Fata MNAs October 9 demonstration in Islamabad in support of their demand for merger of Fata with the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and other reforms to bring the tribal areas into the national mainstream.

Former president Asif Ali Zardari gave this assurance to the Fata MNAs who called on him at the Zardari House here.

During the meeting, the Fata legislators extended their support to Opposition Leader Syed Khursheed Shah in the National Assembly. Zardari said the PPP supported the demand for merger. “Keeping in view the administrative, social, cultural, linguistic, political and geographical conditions merger is the most logical and practical option,” he said. Zardari also supported the demand for extending the jurisdiction of PHC to Fata.

Zardari also called for changes in the present system that allows political agents to arbitrarily levy cess, taxes and ‘rahdari’ and called for replacing it with budgetary allocations to political agents for meeting their administrative expenses subject to audit by the Auditor General of Pakistan. The delegation led by MNAs Shahjee Gul Afridi, Haji Bismillah Khan, Nasir Khan and Bilal Rehman.