PESHAWAR: The Jamaat-i-Islami, Fata, on Friday announced it would stage a sit-in outside the Governor’s House in Peshawar from Feb 26 to Feb 28 against the federal government for using delaying tactics in merging the Federally Administered Tribal Areas with Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

JI Fata chief Sardar Khan told reporters at the Peshawar Press Club that the item of Fata reforms was deliberately dropped from the agenda of a recent federal cabinet meeting causing unrest among the people of the tribal region.

He said the federal government’s action was tantamount to keeping the people deprived of fundamental rights and facilities.

“We have decided to take a firm stand on the merger issue and will continue fighting until the federal government accepts and acts on the Fata people’s merger demand,” he said.

Leader Sardar Khan says unrest among locals as federal cabinet didn’t discuss region’s reforms

Mr Sardar Khan said his party would stage a sit-in for three days at a protest camp outside the Governor’s House in Peshawar from 10am to 4pm daily to press the federal government for immediately executing the proposed Fata reforms.

Flanked by JI tribal leaders Zarnoor Afridi, Shah Faisal Afridi, Shahjehan Afridi and Zahidullah Khan, Mr. Sardar Khan said Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and his cabinet was a major hurdle to Fata reforms and thus, hampering the development of local residents.

“Such a policy will deepen the sense of deprivation among Fata people. If this happens, only the federal government will be to blame,” he said.

The JI Fata chief said all fundamental rights of Fata people had been violated under the black law of Frontier Crimes Regulation.

He said ironically, the tribesmen didn’t have access to judicial system, while the provincial assembly couldn’t make laws for them.

Mr. Sardar Khan declared Fata an ‘open-air prison’ under the current circumstances and said the people of the region had been deliberately kept deprived of basic facilities.

He said health, education and road infrastructure was almost nonexistent in tribal areas.

The JI leader said the Fata Reforms Committee was formed in the wake of his party’s initiative for the mainstreaming of the region.

He said the committee had done a great job by visiting all tribal regions, seeking the opinion of the local residents and suggesting the region’s merger with KP but ironically, the federal government was deliberately delaying the execution of its recommendations.

Mr. Sardar Khan rejected the opinion of JUI-F chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman for holding referendum on the merger issue and said the work had already done by the reforms committee on the matter and therefore, there was no room for the holding of referendum.

He also criticised Pakhtunkhwa Milli Awami Party chairman Mehmood Khan Achakzai for opposing the Fata-KP merger saying the latter was not stakeholder in the matter.

“The ball is now in the court of the prime minister. We hope that the federal government will honour the opinion of the Fata people and decide about the Fata-KP merger at the earliest,” he said.

The JI leader said the party’s activists from Fata would ensure participation in the March 12 Islamabad sit-in on the issue.

“If the government doesn’t change its stand on Fata reforms, we will march on Islamabad in April,” he said.

Published in Dawn, February 26th, 2017