PESHAWAR, Feb 24: Speakers at a seminar on Thursday asked the federal government to extend the devolution plan to the Federally Administered Tribal Areas so that tribesmen could elect their representatives and get rid of the Frontier Crime Regulation 'which curbed basic human rights'.

NWFP's Senior Minister Sirajul Haq, Jamaat-i-Islami senator Professor Ibrahim, Haroon Rashid, MNA, and others spoke at the seminar organized by the JI on 'Restoration of basic human rights in Fata'.

The speakers said that Fata was part of Pakistan and tribesmen enjoyed equal rights like people living in other parts citizens of the country but they were deprived of basic human rights under the FCR.

The senior minister demanded equal rights for the Fata people which, he said, was possible through the implementation of the devolution plan in Fata and holding of the local bodies elections there.

He urged the provincial governor to hold the local bodies elections in Fata. Prof Ibrahim, who is also a naib amir of the Jamaat, regretted that the government had gone back on it announcement of holding local bodies election and implementing the devolution plan in Fata.