PESHAWAR, June 26: Parliamentarians from the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata) on Tuesday boycotted a grand jirga which was addressed by President Pervez Musharraf at the Governor’s House.

“We boycotted the function because of indifferent attitude of the governor, federal government and establishment towards Fata parliamentarians,” said Pir Noorul Haq Qadri, MNA from the Khyber Agency.

All 20 MNAs and senators were invited to the jirga of elders from seven agencies and six frontier regions. However, they unanimously boycotted the function in protest, which according to sources, had embarrassed the government.

Mr Qadri accused the federal government and Governor Ali Mohammad Jan Aurakzai of ignoring the Fata parliamentarians and not taking them into confidence on various vital issues, including decisions regarding army operations.

“Situation in the tribal region is very crucial and Governor Aurakzai should take people’s representatives into confidence on security issues and annual development programmes for the area,” he maintained.

He said that US bombings on Waziristan and other areas of the tribal region had created complications and such a situation had put the MNAs from Fata in an awkward position. He alleged that the bureaucracy had adopted an inappropriate attitude towards the Fata parliamentarians.