05 January 2004	Monday	12 Ziqa'ad 1424

LANDI KOTAL (Khyber Agency), Jan 4: The Khyber Agency's chapter of the Awami National Party has demanded resignation of the provincial governor. In a meeting of the party's Fata working committee, held in Bara on Saturday, the participants accused the governor of not fulfilling his promise of holding local government elections in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas.

The governor being administrative head of tribal areas, was serving the interests of bureaucracy instead of the tribal people, they alleged. The acting president of Khyber Agency's chapter of the ANP, Khalid Shinwari, asked the federal government to extend Political Parties Act to the tribal areas to create political awareness among the tribesmen.

Khalid Shinwari said the introduction of reforms in the tribal society was inevitable. The tribal population, he said, was still living under the draconian law of the Frontier Crimes Regulation. The meeting through a resolution condemned the prolonged loadshedding of electricity in the Khyber Agency.