KHAR: The Fata Youth Organisation on Thursday announced that it would hold a sit-in in the federal capital on April 30 to force the government to implementing the proposed reforms in tribal areas.

FYO president Shaukat Aziz and senior vice-president Usman Mamondzai told reporters here that unnecessary delay in the implementation of the proposed Fata reforms by the federal government was absolutely unfair and unjustified.

They said reforms in the tribal areas were a longstanding demand of almost all Fata residents, who were sick of the prevalent colonial governance system.

The FYO leaders said the tribesmen had pinned high hopes in the PML-N government after it formed the Fata reforms committee but they were really disappointed when the government miserably failed to introduce the proposed reforms.

They said the government had made claims about the extension of the country’s all laws to the tribal region but they all turned out to be false.

Accompanied by other FYO leaders, including Khail Zaman, Najeebullah Hilal, Subhanullah, Mohammad Tayyab and Younas Khan, Mr Aziz said the undue delay in implementation of the proposed reforms caused serious unrest among Fata people, especially youths, who made 65 per cent of the local population.

FYO says tribals fed up with colonial system of governance

He said the current colonial system of governance had caused backwardness and poor socioeconomic conditions in the tribal region and that the FCR was a major hurdle to the people’s development and progress.

The FYO president said the undue delay in the implementation of Fata reforms showed that the PML-N government had no interest in the provision of basic rights to the people of tribal areas.

He accused the government of intentionally sabotaging the reforms package to keep the local residents deprived of basic rights.

Mr Aziz however said his organisation wouldn’t let the government put the proposed Fata reforms on the back burner and that it had decided to launch an effective movement to help tribesmen claim fundamental rights without delay.

“We have planned a massive campaign against the government over unnecessary delay in the implementation of proposed Fata reforms. A sit-in will be staged in Islamabad on April 30 to pressure the government to repeal the FCR and extend the country’s regular laws to tribal areas,” he said.

The FYO president said his organisation would organise a multiparty conference in Peshawar on April 25 to win the support of all political parties for the cause.

The other FYO leaders also flayed the federal government for ignoring tribal areas in development schemes and regretted that the PML-N government hadn’t launched even a single mega development project in Fata during the last four and a half years.

They also slammed the government for ignoring the development of Fata youths and demanded the establishment of at least one university in every tribal agency.

Published in Dawn, Aprill 13th, 2018