Khyber Union holds seminar

BARA: Khyber Union arranged a seminar at Bara Press Club for political parties and social activists on Monday.

Awami National Party’s former provincial vice-president Imran Afridi, Sadique Chiragh, PPP leader Hanan Afridi, PTI leader Abdul Ghani, PML-N’s Zahir Shah, Khyber Union president Haris Khan, Bazar Gul Afridi and others spoke on the occasion.

The speakers said that the tribal people had been facing a host of problems since the erstwhile Fata was merged into Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.They said the government should focus on the National Finance Commission (NFC) award, stop non-local people from occupying natural resources of tribal districts, resolve the boundary dispute between Khyber and Peshawar districts, allow non-custom paid vehicles in tribal districts like Malakand, restore the suspended Khassadars and Levies forces, and reconstruct the schools destroyed in militancy and other incidents. They demanded the government to resolve the issues, otherwise, the political parties and members of the civil society would launch protest against the government.

“Where is the ‘change’, when will the government fulfill the promise of Rs144 billion in the NFC award for tribal districts?,” questioned one of the speakers, adding that the government had failed in its promises with tribal people. “The tribal people expected that Fata would be developed soon after merger with Khyber Pakhtunkhwa but now different sectors including education and health are facing problems,” he added.