Fata-KP merger issue: ANP says Achakzai dividing Pakhtuns

PESHAWAR: Awami National Party (ANP) secretary information Zahid Khan has said that point-scoring on the merger of Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata) with Khyber Pakhtunkhwa is an injustice to Pakhtuns.

Through a statement issued here on Wednesday, the ANP leader said that Pakhtunkhwa Milli Awami Party head Mehmood Khan Achakzai was supporting the federal government on the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) project and but opposing merger of Fata with Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. “He is either confused or has double standards,” the ANP leader said. He added that had the tribespeople were free earlier than why their affairs were being regulated through the political agent.

He alleged that Mehmood Khan Achakzai, who had been advocating a single unit for all Pakhtuns from Chitral to Bolan. was creating division among the Pakhtuns.

The ANP leader says that Pakhtunkhwa Milli Awami Party head was supporting the federal government to protect his brother’s governorship and other relatives’ senior positions in Balochistan. “It appears that Mehmood Khan has struck a deal in Punjab,” Zahid Khan claimed, adding that those who had no stakes in the Fata affairs had become the champion of rights of the tribespeople.

He said that Mehmood Khan and Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl head Maulana Fazlur Rehman were opposing Fata’s mainstreaming for their personal interests.