JUI-F, PTI workers protest planned Fata merger

LANDIKOTAL: Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf members in Landikotal tehsil staged a protest rally and rejected the proposed merger of Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata) with Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

The demonstrators, led by JUI-F Fata general secretary Mufti Muhammad Ejaz and PTI Landikotal leader Muhammad Zakaria Shinwari, marched from Bacha Khan Chowk and later gathered in front of Landikotal Press Club while holding the parties' flags.

The protesters chanted slogans against those political parties which wanted to merge Fata with Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. They termed some political leaders and Fata members of the Parliament as traitors and accused them to play a secrete game allegedly sponsored by the United States.

Mufti Muhammad Ejaz said: "The tribal people should decide own future and Fata people's decision should be respected," said Mufti Ejaz. He threatened if any decision was taken against their wishes, they would launch a countrywide agitation against the government and it might result in another movement.

Zakaria Shinwari said they supported Imran Khan but had own opinion on their future.

He said not only in Landikotal but also a large number of the PTI workers across Fata and Frontier Regions (FRs) had rejected Fata's proposed merger with KP. He said they had scheduled a meeting with Imran Khan in the coming week to convince him of the drawbacks of the proposed merger.

Zakaria said alongside his struggle as political party leader, he supported his elders and other Fata residents for their future. The PTI leader said that they would participate in the JUI-F convened long march and sit-in on December 30 in Islamabad.