LAHORE - Jamaat-e-Islami and tribal leaders yesterday held a demonstration for Fata reforms in front of Lahore Press Club.
JI Secretary General Liaqat Baloch and leading tribal elders, addressing the demonstration, called upon Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi to grant fundamental rights to Fata people without further delay. They said that if the bill for FATA reforms is not presented in the National Assembly, it would be the biggest crime of former PM Nawaz Sharif, Shehbaz Sharif and Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi. They said that time was passing at a great speed and the tribal people were losing their patience.
Those who addressed were JI FATA chief Haji Sardar, Zarnoor Afridi, Maulana Abdul Hameed Khan, Maulana Waheed Gul, JI Khyber chief Mushtaq Ahmed Khan and Deputy Secretary General Hafiz Sajid Anwar. Baloch appealed to JUI-F chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman and Mehmud Khan Achakzai not to obstruct grant of basic rights to tribal people and respect their desire for merger with Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. He said that the bill for merger should be presented in the assembly forthwith as it would make it clear as to who was supporting it and who was against it.
He said that tribal people would take revenge on those who opposed the bill through their vote.
JI chief for Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Mushtaq Ahmed Khan said that British rulers had framed the FCR, which was an insult to humanity. However, he said, even after 70 years of independence, the Pakistani rulers had not thrown off this yoke of slavery from the tribal people.
JI FATA chief Haji Sardar Khan said that tribal areas spread over 27 thousand square kilometers were without basic human rights. He said that tribal people were the custodian of the country’s geographical and ideological borders but they were being looked down upon which was unfair.