PESHAWAR: Women from different tribal regions have voiced their concern over dropping the Fata reforms bill from the agenda of National Assembly and demanded of the federal government to approve merger of the Federally Administered Tribal Areas with Khyber Pakhtunkhwa before 2018 general elections.

Speaking at a press conference at Peshawar Press Club on Friday, chairperson of Qabaili Khor (tribal sister) Nosheen Jamal said that the federal government was not serious about bringing true reforms in Fata.

She said that the tribal people had been kept deprived of fundamental rights in the presence of Frontier Crimes Regulation where the residents were unable to raise voice against injustices. The NGO head said that the tribal women had been affected after displacement from their respective tribal agencies in the wake of military operations.

Criticising Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Fazl chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman and Pakhtunkhwa Milli Awami Party chairman Mehmood Khan Achakzai for opposing the merger, she said that both these leaders did not want any positive change in the fate of tribal people. She said that merger was the only way to end miseries of tribal people.

Flanked by scores of women belonging to different tribal agencies, she said that abolition of FCR was essential to ensure provision of all basic rights to the people of Fata. She said that merger would put the tribal region on the path of development and progress.

Nosheen Jamal described the proposed Riwaj Act as another FCR and asked the federal government to remove all flaws from the proposed Fata reforms bill. She urged the political parties to unanimously endorse the reforms to end the darkness from the tribal region once and for all.

She asked the federal government to take measures for early repatriation of the displaced people and rehabilitation of infrastructure in the tribal region.

Published in Dawn, December 16th, 2017