May 21, 2002	Tuesday	Rabi-ul-Awwal 8,1423

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LANDI KOTAL, May 20: A political party “Qabail Jamhoori Party” was launched at Jamrud in Khyber Agency on Sunday with an aim to safeguarding the rights of the people of tribal areas.

The party was launched at the residence of its convener, Abdur Rahim Afridi. Apart from Khyber Agency, political activists form Mohmand, Bajaur, Kurram and Waziristan also attended the meeting.

Mr Afridi alleged that the main stream political parties had disappointed the tribal people. Never in the past, he pointed out, were the rights of the tribesmen recognized.

He said a cruel joke was done with the people of the Federally Administered Tribal Areas by showing a decrease in their population in every census carried out in the country. This was done in order to curtail the funds for developmental projects in FATA, he claimed.

Speaking on the occasion, Engineer Mohammad Zaman Dawar emphasized the need for efforts for making the tribal people politically aware as they were deliberately kept in the dark. He said the tribal people were never given fair participation in national affairs. Mr Dawar, who was also a member of the Tribal Reforms Committee, made it clear that a separate political party was the need of the hour and added that without political awareness they cannot achieve our goals.

Later, the meeting through various resolutions demanded of the governments of Pakistan and Afghanistan to lift the ban on the movement of tribesmen between the two countries.