Maulana Fazlur Rahman says Fata’s merger multiplied local people issues

TANK: Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) head Maulana Fazlur Rahman said on Wednesday that the ex-Fata was merged with Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in haste.

“The former tribal areas were merged with the province under international pressure and considering the desires of the powers that be,” he said while talking to reporters at the party secretariat in Tank district.

Former senator Saleh Shah, Member National Assembly Asad Mahmood, Member Provincial Assembly Mahmood Khan Bhittani, JUI-F leader Shamsul Zaman Shams and others were also present.

Maulana Fazlur Rahman said the government had pledged to give Rs100 billion to the merged districts for the next 10 years, but it had not provided any funds thus far. The JUI-F leader said the government also suspended the perks and privileges of the tribal elders. “The people of the tribal districts have been passing through a difficult phase since the merger,” he remarked. He said that the Action in (Aid of Civil Power) which was first implemented in the ex-Fata had been extended to the entire Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

“We don’t know whether the Fata was merged into KP or the province has been absorbed into Fata,” he added. He likened merger of Fata with KP to abolition of Article 370 by the Indian government to end the special status of occupied Kashmir. “The way India abolished the special status of Kashmir, the federal government scrapped the Article 247 of the Constitution,” he alleged. He said government had not honoured pledges about merger and was dragging its feet to facilitate local population.