KP, Fata merger :Jamaat’s long march on Islamabad begins today

PESHAWAR: The Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) is going to begin its long march today from Khyber Agency towards parliament in Islamabad to force the federal government to merge the tribal areas with Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

The JI leaders and workers will gather at Bab-e-Khyber at Jamrud tehsil in Khyber Agency where they will stage a sit-in and hold a rally. The convoy will start marching from Bab-e-Khyber towards Islamabad via Peshawar. The sit-ins will be held at over a dozen places from Khyber Agency to Peshawar during the long march. The final sit-in will be staged outside parliament and it would continue for three days after which the future line of action will be announced.

The JI had announced long march towards Islamabad last month. Its ally in the KP government, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, has also hinted at staging rallies to protest the delay in merging Fata with KP.

“The announcement to abolish the Frontier Crimes Regulation (FCR) next week is vague. The federal government should clearly announce the merger of Fata with KP. It made the claims many times in the past but withdrew from its promises at the eleventh hour moment,” Mushtaq Ahmad, the provincial chief of the JI told media persons on Saturday while briefing them on the long march.

He welcomed the government’s decision of abolishing the FCR and termed it a victory of the JI. However, he continued that the JI would still hold the long march so the government didn’t backtrack like past.

“We will start our long march from Khyber Agency after a sit-in there. Our long march is peaceful and we hope the government will not create any hurdle in our way,” said the JI provincial amir.

He added the leaders of other political parties had been invited to the sit-in and long march as the politicians were united over the immediate merger of Fata with KP. The JI leader added his party would convert the long march into celebrations if the federal government announced the merger of the tribal areas with KP.

“We want the government to abolish the FCR, merge Fata with KP immediately and announce a special package of Rs1,000 billion for developmental projects in the hitherto neglected tribal areas,” said Mushtaq Ahmad.