ISLAMABAD, Nov 13: To create a consensus on the issue of tribal areas while keeping them in the mainstream of Pakistan, the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal (MMA) on Monday announced to hold an All Parties Conference (APC) titled “Protection of tribesmen conference” at Peshawar on November 19 this year.

The conference being organized by the provincial chapter of the MMA has invited all national political and religious leaders and tribal elders excluding government functionaries in a bid to create a consensus on handling of tribal areas while bringing them into the mainstream.

The announcement was made by NWFP MMA president Senator Maulana Nasib Gul, Secretary General Mushtaq Ahmed Khan, Tribal MNA Sahibzada Haroonur Rashid and J. I. Information Secretary Shahid Shamsi at a news conference.

MMA leaders strongly condemned the government’s blindly toeing US policies and deliberately creating a gulf between the settled and tribal areas to isolate tribesmen from the rest of the country.

They alleged that the rulers boast of becoming a frontline state in the war on terrorism which was in fact a war on Islam.

The MMA was trying to stop the path of terrorists and had helped the army in reaching out an agreement in Waziristan with the government by owning the US attack on the Bajaur seminary and then linking the Dargai suicide attack with Bajaur was becoming instrumental in promotion of terrorist activities unleashed at the behest of American forces.