LANDI KOTAL: The Fata Grand Alliance (FGA), a conglomerate of pro-government tribal elders, has threatened to seek help from Afghan government if reforms are made in the tribal system against their will.

Speaking at a meeting on Sunday, FGA leader Hamidullah Jan Afridi said a jirga of 500 tribal elders would be sent to Afghanistan to seek help in protecting the existing system from being ‘polluted’ in the name of reforms by the federal government.

He cautioned the alliance members that a conspiracy had been hatched to ditch the centuries-old system of tribal jirga by extending the writ of Supreme Court and high courts to tribal areas.

“We will never succumb to such coercive tactics by the so-called pro-reforms lobby and will resist every such move which was aimed at undermining the importance of existing tribal system,” he insisted.

Malak Khan Marjan, an elder from North Waziristan, suggested the holding of a grand public meeting in support of their demands and insisted that it was time that FGA sensitised all the stakeholders of Fata and the political parties to the design of overhauling the existing tribal system.

He was also critical of the boycott of the Fata Siyasi Ettehad during the visit of the reforms committee to Khyber Agency on April 4, and said the political parties had spoiled a golden opportunity to present their suggestions to the reforms body.

Published in Dawn, April 11th, 2016