ISLAMABAD - Ameer Jamaat-i-Islami Senator Sirajul Haq yesterday said that in support of the FATA Political Alliance, his party along with other political parties would hold a rally at D-Chowk Islamabad to get tribal areas merged in Khyber-Pakhtunkhawa as proposed by the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) Parliamentarians.
Addressing a press conference along with the representatives of all political parties here, he said that the rally would support the move made by the FATA Parliamentarians on this score.
Thousands of people from all the eight tribal agencies would join the rally at which leaders from all political parties of the country would also be invited. He also demanded a special package for the uplift of the tribal areas.
Sirajul Haq said it was a high time that the tribal areas were brought into the national mainstream and the tribal people were also given the rights enjoyed by the people in the other parts of the country and they were freed from the colonial era oppressive FCR.
The JI chief saluted the FATA Political Alliance for demonstrating complete unity, remarkable prudence and unparallel unity for arriving at the decision for the inclusion of the Federally Administered Tribal Areas into Khyber-Pakhtunkhawa and putting forth their demand in the Parliament.
On the occasion, the JI chief was joined by FATA Political Alliance chief Akhudzada Chattan (PPPP), PTI’s Brig. Rtd Qayyum Sher, ANP’s Nisar Mehmand, JUI’s Zarnoor Afridi, and JI’s Sahibzada Haroon Rashid Abbasi.
Sirajul Haq said that the tribal people had always honoured their commitments made to the Quad e Azam Muhammad Ali Jinanh, and had offered huge sacrifices and even their blood, for the country. However, he said that for the last 69 years, the tribal people had been deprived of their civic and political rights and had been left far behind in the race for economic development.
He said that at present, the tribal areas had a political vacuum which must be filled, and added that the vacuum could be filled by merging the Federally Administered Tribal Areas into Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and giving it PATA like special status given to Malakand division.