PESHAWAR - Activists of Fata Students Organisation on Sunday held a protest demonstration in Hangu to press for early implementation of the proposed reforms in Federally-Administered Tribal Areas, including merger of the tribal belt into Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa.
Scores of students of various educational institutions participated in the demo, calling upon the government to give up the delaying tactics in implementation of Fata reforms as recommended by the Sartaj Aziz-led committee.
Sartaj Aziz advises the Prime Minister on foreign affairs. The committee had been constituted by the former premier Mian Nawaz Sharif, which recommended a phased reforms’ process for ending lawlessness from Fata. For the purpose, the committee had recommended replacing the Frontier Crimes Regulations (FCR) with Rewaj Act and merging the tribal belt into KP in ten years, after bringing the areas at par with the KP during the period.
The protesting students were led by FSO President Shaukat Aziz. A rally was taken out from Hangu bazaar, which turned into a big gathering in front of Hangu Press Club after passing through different routes, where they were addressed by the student leaders.
Holding banners and placards inscribed with different slogans, the students asked the government to implement recommendations of the reforms’ committee. They also chanted slogans in favour of their demands.
They asked the government not to play in the hands of a few politicians who are opposing reforms in Fata. They alleged that the said leaders were against uplift and progress in tribal belt which needed to be brought to the mainstream politics.
The rally was also attended by tribal students from Kurram Agency, Orakzai Agency, North and South Waziristan agencies, Hangu and Kohat. They also chanted “Go FCR Go”.
In their speeches, tribal student leaders said that FCR, commonly termed as a black law, would not be tolerated any more. It is right time to repeal this law with the country’s regular laws, they demanded.
They alleged that a few political parties which had even no concern with Fata were doing politics in the name of the issues related to tribal people, adding that such parties were opposing Fata merger with KP to make a deal with the government and receive more benefits as well.
They demanded the federal government to make Fata part of KP before the general elections, besides allotting seats in the KP Assembly. Moreover, they also called for allocating three per cent share for tribal belt in the National Finance Commission (NFC) award. The government should also hold local bodies’ elections in tribal areas after its merger with KP, they urged.
They warned to go to the extreme if the government failed in implementing recommendation of its own committee, which the federal cabinet had too approved in March 2017.
