PESHAWAR: The Qaumi Watan Party on Monday staged a rally outside the Governor’s House here against the delay in the implementation of Fata reforms, especially merger of tribal region with Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and ‘controversial’ population census results.

It also warned the launch of a march on Islamabad to claim the rights of Fata people.

QWP provincial chairman Sikandar Hayat Khan Sherpao led the rally on the Sher Shah Soori Road from the Peshawar Press Club to outside the Governor’s House.

The protesters held party flags, placards and banners inscribed with slogans for Fata-KP merger and against the population census results, shouted slogans against FCR and demanded the implementation of Fata reforms.

Stages rally in Peshawar against delay in Fata reforms and ‘controversial’ census results

Mr Sikandar said conspiracies were being hitched against the Fata- KP merger plan but his party won’t let them succeed.

He said if Fata’s merger with KP was further delayed, the QWP would hold protest rallies in all tribal agencies to mobilise the people to claim rights and would even march on Islamabad.

He demanded the Fata-KP merger before the 2018 elections saying the general polls should be held there to help the local residents elect their representatives of their free will.

“Those opposing the Fata-KP merger are not loyal to tribal areas and their people,” he said, adding that the short-term arrangements would not be a solution and instead, it would further complicate the issues facing the region.

The QWP leader said the tribal people had been the victims of terrorism and backwardness, which badly affected their socio-economic conditions and normal life.

“They (Fata people) have no representation in the provincial assembly or local bodies, where they can raise voice for their rights and are subjected to the British-era draconian laws, which need to be abolished. We will leave no stone unturned to secure the rights of tribal people,” he said.

Mr Sikandar also rejected the interim report of the 2017 national population census, especially the population of KP and tribal areas, which, he said, had been decreased.

“The federal government will have to rectify the mistakes in the census report as it has decreased the population of tribal and KP people,” he said.

The QWP leader said the party had time and again expressed reservations about the census process and recorded its protest when the relevant staff members were gathering data on plain papers with pencils, which had made the entire exercise controversial right from the beginning.

“The undermining of the population of the tribesmen is a sheer injustice, which will deprive them of the state resources and this is not acceptable to QWP,” he said.

He urged the federal government to rectify the alleged census anomalies to remove unrest among Pakhtuns.

QWP provincial general secretary Hashim Khan Babar and representatives of Fata Lawyers’ Forum were also present on the occasion.

Published in Dawn, September 12th, 2017