08 January 2005	Saturday	26 Ziqa'ad 1425

PESHAWAR, Jan 7: The Awami National Party (ANP) has demanded that the government should amend the Frontier Crimes Regulations (FCR) in line with the aspirations of the people of tribal areas.

The demand was made at a meeting of the Fata chapter of the ANP held at the party's central secretariat at the Bacha Khan Markaz on Friday. Besides reviewing the prevailing political situation in the region, the meeting observed that the people of tribal areas had been deprived of their basic rights and were being kept apart from each other.

The meeting pointed out that not all tribesmen were given equal status which had created a sense of deprivation among the local people. ANP's provincial president Begum Naseem Wali Khan, who presided over the meeting, said that tribal areas were geographically divided in such a manner that tribesmen could not communicate with each other or unite for their rights, said a press release.

Despite successive governments' policies to keep tribesmen from taking part in political activities, area people were actively engaged in the struggle for their political rights.

There was a need to reorganize the party and enhance its membership in tribal areas to make it more effective, party members from various agencies stressed. They also demanded that the FCR should be amended in consultation with tribesmen so that changes could be brought about according to their aspirations.

The FCR was a black law and all children, women and aged tribesmen arrested under the FCR should be released, the meeting demanded. The government should hold local body elections in tribal areas on the basis of adult franchise and tribesmen should be given due representation in the provincial assembly so that development projects could be executed in their areas under the supervision of their representatives, the press release said.