ISLAMABAD: Former interior minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan on Thursday called on Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi and sought immediate action against the protesters staging a sit-in near Faizabad for over a week.

He said the people of the twin cities of Rawalpindi and Islamabad had been facing severe problems because of the sit-in, adding that nobody should be allowed to resort to lawlessness and make the general public suffer at the busiest artery of Islamabad. He urged the government to take immediate steps to resolve the matter.

Chaudhry Nisar said that not only the people of adjoining areas, but also the entire country were suffering beca­use of the slow pace of work on the metro project at motorway.

He said there was a need not only to speed up the construction work, but also to provide the people with alternative routes to ease their problems.

This was the first meeting of Chaudhry Nisar with Mr Abbasi after the latter assumed the office of the prime minister.

The former interior minister had opposed his party leadership’s policy of confrontation with state institutions and reportedly refused to accept a portfolio in the cabinet of Mr Abbasi.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Abbasi said the federal and provincial governments were unanimously committed to mainstreaming Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata) and its merger with Khyber Pakhtunkhwa to ensure fast development of these areas, adds APP.

Talking to a delegation of the youth wings of different political parties of Fata, he said a high-level implementation committee on Fata reforms was ensuring speedy progress on constitutional, administrative and legal matters.

The delegation members said that all people and youth of Fata wanted mainstreaming of Fata on a fast-track basis and its immediate merger with KP.

Published in Dawn, November 17th, 2017