PESHAWAR: Students belonging to tribal agencies on Wednesday demanded of the federal government to abolish the Frontier Crime Regulation (FCR) in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas and merge it with Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

Carrying banners and placards inscribed with different slogans in favour of their demands, the students held a demonstration at Sher Shah Suri Road outside the Peshawar Press Club.

Talking to mediapersons, office-bearers of All Qabail Students Union said that tribesmen had been ignored for the past several decades and denied basic rights. They said that abolition of FCR was the need of the hour as it was imposed by the then Britain rulers on Fata for suppressing the tribesmen.

They demanded merger of Fata with KP and increase in seats for the tribal students in various colleges and universities. They also urged the relevant authorities to facilitate the students in admission who could not submit their forms due to problems in communication to their localities.

They asked the government to establish a cadet and medical college in each of the seven agencies of Fata, immediately restore annual scholarship for tribal students and reconstruct all the destroyed schools in the tribal belt.

Meanwhile, Pakhtun Students Federation (PkSF), Bara, staged a protest outside the political agent’s office here. PkSF local president Abid Afridi and its general secretary Adnan Afridi led the protesters.

The students demanded of the government to increase seats in government colleges in Kohi Sher Haider and Speen Dhand and the higher secondary school of Bara tehsil. They said that because of the limited number of seats in these institutions many students were denied admission in the current session.

They said that most of the students had not obtained good marks in their SSC examinations owing to closure of educational institutions and imposition of curfew in the area.

They students demanded of the political administration to provide them relief and accommodate them by approving second shift classes in the local colleges and schools. They also urged the government to take tangible steps for provision of facilities to students in educational institutions of the agency.

Published in Dawn, September 8th, 2016