KHAR, Nov 19: All Bajaur Political Parties Alliance (ABPPA) has decided to move Supreme Court of Pakistan for holding local government elections in Federally Administered Tribal Areas.

The decision was taken in a meeting of ABPPA held here on Tuesday with its president Maulana Abdur Rasheed in the chair. The meeting was addressed by Syed Akhunzada Chattan and Aurangezb Inqilabi of PPP, Haji Rahat Yousaf and Gul Kareem Khan of PML-N, Shah Naseer Khan and Abdul Manan Kakajee of ANP, Maulana Waheed Gul and Qari Abdul Majeed of JI, Gul Dad Khan and Dr Khalilur Rahman of PTI and Haji Said Badshah of PML-Q.

The participants of the meeting criticised federal government for not holding local government elections in Fata. They decided to file a petition in the Supreme Court on November 25 to seek local government elections in Fata.

They said that lack of constitutional rights and a proper justice system were main hurdles in the development of tribal areas.

“The people of tribal areas are also citizens of this country. They can’t make progress until constitutional rights, local government system and other facilities are provided to them,” the political leaders said.

They said that local government system was vital for providing basic and modern facilities to tribal people, who were deprived of their fundamental rights.

Talking to journalists after the meeting, Mr Rasheed said that the participants of the meeting decided to file a petition in the Supreme Court for holding local bodies’ elections in tribal areas.

“The purpose to file petition in the Supreme Court is to force the federal government to announce schedule for the local bodies’ elections in the tribal areas because the rulers are not ready to extended local government system to Fata,” he added.

The ABPPA president said that they would also take leaders of other tribal areas into confidence before filing petition in the Supreme Court.