KHAR: Leaders of All Bajaur Political Parties Alliance on Tuesday slammed the federal government for delaying the Fata reforms and announced to expedite their struggle for swift mainstreaming of tribal areas.

They made the announcement at a meeting held here with the alliance’s president Abdul Manan in the chair.

The meeting was attended by leaders and representatives of political and religious parties.

Besides, a number of student leaders and rights activists were in attendance.

The participants criticised the PML-N-led federal government for unnecessary delay in implementation of the Fata reforms, adding the government did not seem serious about fulfilling its commitment with the people of Fata.

They said delay in introducing Fata reforms had badly disappointed the people of tribal areas.

The participants were of the view that repealing the colonial FCR and introducing country’s regular laws in the tribal areas had been the longstanding demand of the tribesmen as the FRC was a big obstacle to socio-economic development of the region.

However, they lamented that the government had delayed the reforms process only to appease a handful of elements, who had no influence in the tribal areas.

Without naming anyone, the participants said those who had made the reforms package controversial were the enemies of development and prosperity of the tribesmen.

They noted that delay in implementation of reforms had damaged the reputation of the federal government in the eyes of the tribal people.

The participants vowed to continue their efforts to get the reforms implemented in Fata.

The meeting decided that the alliance would start a decisive movement against the federal government if the reforms bill was not presented in the upcoming session of the National Assembly.

They also decided to organise public meetings across the agency to create awareness among the people about the importance of reforms.

Published in Dawn, January 10th, 2018