PESHAWAR: Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Fazl Fata chapter has announced it will launch a campaign against the proposed merger of the tribal region with Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

Head of the JUI Fata Mufti Abdul Shakoor told reporters here on Tuesday that the protest movement against the merger plan would begin from Bajaur on January 8.

He said rallies would be taken out in Khar, Bajaur’s administrative headquarters.

“According to the schedule, the rallies will be organised in Khyber Agency on Jan 15, Mohmand on Jan 29 and Kurram Agency on Feb 5. We will oppose the proposed merger at every forum,” he said.

The JUI-F leader said his party had opposed the Sartaj Aziz committee’s report on Fata reforms in the lower house of parliament and that majority of Fata parliamentarians had categorically stated that they had never made any demand for the Fata-KP merger.

He invited the Fata Political Alliance to hold talks with his party on the issue.

The alliance comprising several political parties is in favour of the merger of Fata with KP.

Abdul Shakoor said the Sartaj Aziz committee had violated its mandate as it was tasked to suggest recommendations for the political mainstreaming of Fata.

He urged the federal government to focus on the return of internally displaced persons to their homes in Fata, rehabilitation of militancy-affected people, and the reconstruction of infrastructure instead of creating controversies.

Published in Dawn, December 28th, 2016