PESHAWAR: The Jamaat-i-Islami, Fata, it would stage a sit-in outside the Governor\u2019s House in Peshawar from Feb 26 to Feb 28 against the federal government for using delaying tactics in merging the Federally Administered Tribal Areas with Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
\nJI Fata chief Sardar Khan told reporters at the Peshawar Press Club that the item of Fata reforms was deliberately dropped from the agenda of a recent federal cabinet meeting causing unrest among the people of the tribal region.
\nHe said the federal government\u2019s action was tantamount to keeping the people deprived of fundamental rights and facilities.
\n\u201cWe have decided to take a firm stand on the merger issue and will continue fighting until the federal government accepts and acts on the Fata people\u2019s merger demand,\u201d he said.
\nLeader Sardar Khan says unrest among locals as federal cabinet didn\u2019t discuss region\u2019s reforms
\nMrSardar Khan said his party would stage a sit-in for three days at a protest camp outside the Governor\u2019s House in Peshawar from 10am to 4pm daily to press the federal government for immediately executing the proposed Fata reforms.
\nFlanked by JI tribal leaders ZarnoorAfridi, Shah Faisal Afridi, ShahjehanAfridi and Zahidullah Khan, Mr. Sardar Khan said Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and his cabinet was a major hurdle to Fata reforms and thus, hampering the development of local residents.
\n\u201cSuch a policy will deepen the sense of deprivation among Fata people. If this happens, only the federal government will be to blame,\u201d he said.
\nThe JI Fata chief said all fundamental rights of Fata people had been violated under the black law of Frontier Crimes Regulation.
\nHe said ironically, the tribesmen didn\u2019t have access to judicial system, while the provincial assembly couldn\u2019t make laws for them.
\nMr. Sardar Khan declared Fata an \u2018open-air prison\u2019 under the current circumstances and said the people of the region had been deliberately kept deprived of basic facilities.
\nHe said health, education and road infrastructure was almost nonexistent in tribal areas.
\nThe JI leader said the Fata Reforms Committee was formed in the wake of his party\u2019s initiative for the mainstreaming of the region.
\nHe said the committee had done a great job by visiting all tribal regions, seeking the opinion of the local residents and suggesting the region\u2019s merger with KP but ironically, the federal government was deliberately delaying the execution of its recommendations.
\nMr. Sardar Khan rejected the opinion of JUI-F chief MaulanaFazlurRehman for holding referendum on the merger issue and said the work had already done by the reforms committee on the matter and therefore, there was no room for the holding of referendum.
\nHe also criticisedPakhtunkhwaMilliAwami Party chairman Mehmood Khan Achakzai for opposing the Fata-KP merger saying the latter was not stakeholder in the matter.
\n\u201cThe ball is now in the court of the prime minister. We hope that the federal government will honour the opinion of the Fata people and decide about the Fata-KP merger at the earliest,\u201d he said.
\nThe JI leader said the party\u2019s activists from Fata would ensure participation in the March 12 Islamabad sit-in on the issue.
\n\u201cIf the government doesn\u2019t change its stand on Fata reforms, we will march on Islamabad in April,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
PESHAWAR: The Jamaat-i-Islami, Fata, it would stage a sit-in outside the Governor\u2019s House in Peshawar from Feb 26 to Feb 28 against the federal government for using delaying tactics in merging the Federally Administered Tribal Areas with Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. JI Fata chief Sardar Khan told reporters at the Peshawar Press Club that the item of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-13245","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-peshawar"},"yoast_head":"\n