Quetta - Demanding a separate status for Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata), Pashtunkhwa Milli Awami Party (PkMAP) Chairman Mehmood Khan Achakzai on Tuesday urged rulers to let people democratically decide their fate.
“If any step is taken without consent of the people of Fata to merge it with Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, it will have devastating repercussions for the country,” he warned.
Addressing a hurriedly called press conference at MPA hostel in Quetta, PkMAP chief said if rulers were serious to fix Fata issue, they must ask people of the area to make their future decision.
PkMAP chief was flanked by party lawmakers at the press conference.
Achakzai said Fata was an independent region and, in accordance with the constitution, everyone residing there, whether Pashtoon or Baloch, had an independent status. But, unfortunately, Wali Khan took into account only the Pashtoons for these areas.
He said that Fata and tribal people were not part of any country as they were living with an independent status since British rule.
The president of Pakistan should immediately revoke the Frontier Crimes Regulations (FCR) from Fata, demanded Achakzai.
“Administer Fata through an elected governor who – with the nod of his council – will hold meetings with the president of Pakistan,” said Achakzai presenting his plan to fix the issue.
Referring to Fata Reforms Committee Report’s first paragraph stating “Since Fata has turned into a hub of world terrorists, therefore, we are taking this decision,” Achakzai said it was itself a very dangerous allegation.
The PkMAP chief questioned that if people of the Fata were terrorists then why around one lac residents of the tribal belt were inducted in security institutions.
Achakzai urged rulers to make tribal people part of the process while taking any decision on Fata.
He went on to say that only four articles of the constitution of the country were applicable to Fata, but there were 280 articles of the constitution which were valid for rest of the country.
“Residents of Fata were targeted in thousands and to one assumption around 1200 tribal elites were gunned down one by one. A market in South Waziristan containing some7000 shops was bulldozed,” Achakzai claimed.
He asked the government to refrain from unarming people of the country particularly people of Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in such precarious circumstances where people were already at mercy of terrorists. “None of the killers of more than 2000 people was brought to book in the streets of Quetta, and if government further unarmed people in these circumstances, it will produce negative results,” claimed PkMAP chief.
“For God sake, don’t touch FATA issue for Pakistan’s integrity,” he maintained.
Talking about no-confidence motion moved against CM Sanaullah Zehri, PkMAP chief, whose party is a part of the provincial coalition setup, said that they would not only oppose this no-confidence motion against CM, but would also stand with coalition partner.
Mr Achakzai said if this motion was put for vote, the PkMAP will side with the ruling government and will try to foil this motion.
Achakzai also urged upon the movers of no-confidence motion not to play in the hands of undemocratic people.
PkMAP chief said that many other people in the country were also busy in plotting against democracy as they did not want the democratic setup to flourish in the country.
Commenting on Modal Town incident, he termed it an unpardonable crime, but claimed that the incident was being exaggerated.
“Why investigation into May 12 barbaric killing of Karachi citizens was not carried out,” Achakzai questioned and pledged that they would stand with justice.