PESHAWAR: All Fata Students Forum on Sunday alleged that JUI-F chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman was working on an agenda of someone else to keep the tribal people deprived of their due rights and urged the federal government to ensure merger of the Federally Administered Tribal Areas with Khyber Pakhtunkhwa at the earliest.

Speaking at a press conference at Peshawar Press Club, the forum chairman Farhad Ali said that the JUI-F’s recent convention on Fata issues had failed as majority of the participants belonged to settled districts who had nothing to do with the merger issue.

Mr Ali was flanked by Insaf Students Federation president Akhtar Gul, Islami Jamiat Talba focal person Waseem Haider, Khyber Youth Forum’s Aamir Afridi and Kuram Students Organisation president Mohammad Saleem.

He appreciated MNAs Shah Jee Gul, Shahabuddin and Sajid Turi and Senator Sajjad Turi for their efforts for the Fata-KP merger. He said that the students of Fata were determined to continue their struggle for implementation of the reforms.

The forum decided that it would intensify the ongoing struggle for merger of the tribal region with KP province. It proposed that a new committee should be constituted to expedite the reforms process in the tribal region.

Mr Ali said that the political leaders were creating hurdles to the reform process for their vested interests, which was unacceptable to them. He said that JUI-F could not deceive the youth in the name of religion anymore.

He said that the JUI-F chief belonged to a settled district and had nothing to do with the tribal regions. He asked the Fata lawmakers to join hands for resolution of the problems being faced by the tribal people. He demanded of the government to scrap FCR and give three per cent share in NFC award to Fata.

Published in Dawn, October 15th, 2017