Centre urged to honour pledges on Fata-KP merger

PESHAWAR: Qaumi Watan Party (QWP) head Aftab Sherpao on Saturday asked the federal government to honour the pledges made with the tribal people at the time of merging the former Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata) into Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

He was speaking at a seminar titled “Fata Merger Current Situation and the Way Forward” at Watan Kor, the party secretariat here.

Wali Khan Afridi Advocate, senior journalists Ismail Khan and Saleem Safi, Shams Mohmand, Ibrahim Shinwari, retired bureaucrat Ali Begum, former acting Inspector General of Police Akhtar Ali Shah, former MNAs Shahabuddin Khan and Shahjee Gul, Dr Sarfaraz of Area Study Centre, University of Peshawar, Sarhad Chamber of Commerce and Industry former president Zahid Shinwari, Said Alam Mehsud and others spoke on the occasion.

Aftab Sherpao said the government was dragging its feet over the implementation of Fata reforms. He demanded the government to convene the meeting of the National Finance Commission award to allocate funds for the merged districts.

He said the local government election and the election for the provincial assembly seats for tribal districts should be held forthwith to give representative to the tribal people.

The QWP leader added that quotas should be allocated for the tribal districts in education institutions and government jobs for the time being. He said the local youth should be recruited to maintain security in the tribal districts.

He demanded that Levies personnel should be trained at the police academy in Hangu to enhance their capacities. He said regular courts should be set up in the tribal districts as per the decision of Peshawar High Court to provide justice to the people.

He demanded the Task Force on tribal areas’ merger with Khyber Pakhtunkhwa should be abolished as it was using delaying tactics to implement the Fata reforms.

He also sought the abolition of the Fata Secretariat, arguing that Fata had been merged into Khyber Pakhtunkhwa so there was no need for it.

The government should install industries in the tribal districts to provide job opportunities to the people, he said and deplored that China-Pakistan Economic Corridor did not have a single project for the tribal districts.

He also demanded that steps should be taken to get the tribal women involved in the political process.

He said the provincial government should appoint people from the tribal districts as advisors to expedite the merger process.

The federal government, Aftab Sherpao said, should immediately release Rs100 billion it announced for the tribal areas for the next 10 years. He said the prevailing situation in the wake of the Fata’s merger with the province would take a turn for the worse if the grievances of the people were not addressed.

The QWP chief urged the political parties to unite on a single platform to make sure the merger process could be completed in letter and spirit. He noted that people from the tribal districts faced discrimination in other parts of the country particularly in Punjab.