Bajaur - Rejecting the merger of tribal districts with Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, the tribal elders of Bajaur tribal district have asked the government to reverse the decision and restore the earlier status of erstwhile FATA. They threatened to launch a movement if their demand was not accepted immediately.
The tribal elders made the call during a grand jirga (meeting) of Bajaur Qaumi Ittihad (Bajaur National Alliance) held at a local hotel in Khar Town on Monday. Scores of prominent tribal elders and landlords of Tharkani and Utmankhail tribes, the two main clans of the district, attended the gathering, the first such impressive meeting of the anti-merger people since the merger of erstwhile FATA into KP in May 2018.
Chief of Mamound tribe Malik Muhammad Ayaz Khan, Malik Sultanzeb, Malik Muhammad Akbar, Malik Nawaz Khan, Malik Muhammad Shah, Malik Faqir Khan, Malik Shaheen Khan, Malik Tahseel Khan, Malik Abdul Nasar Khan and Malik Hifzur Rahman were among the key participants of the meeting who highlighted the drawbacks of the integration of erstwhile FATA with the KP province.
The participants of the jirga, who mostly had remained the top beneficiaries of the then political administration system and strong supporters of the repealed Frontier Crimes Regulation (FCR), strongly rejected “the so-called integration of tribal districts with province.” They claimed “The process had been enforced in the region by the government totally unconstitutionally and forcibly. We believe that the integration of tribal districts with the province was nothing else but a conspiracy against the millions of innocent and peaceful residents of the region in the name of so-called development hence we are not ready to tolerate the unconstitutional and by forced merger of FATA with KP any more at any cost.”
They urged the government to reverse the integration of tribal districts with the province and restore the status of the former FATA with immediate effect. It was also decided in the jirga to launch a massive protest movement if the government didn’t accept their demand of restoration of status of farmer FATA instantly.
