PESHAWAR, Sept 21: The All Fata Agency Councillors’ Alliance has asked the government to introduce reforms in tribal areas. “We are in office for the last one year, but the government is not paying heed to Fata’s problems. Bureaucracy is creating hurdles for councillors,” Sardar Ali Jan Mehsud, chairman of the alliance, told a news conference on Wednesday.

He said the alliance at its meeting on Tuesday had decided to seek a meeting with President Gen Pervez Musharraf after Ramazan to apprise him of their problems.

He recalled that last year President Musharraf had assured councillors of his support. The president, he added, had pledged that all assistance would be extended to them to make the Fata reform programme a success.

“The president had also hinted that all development projects in Fata would be executed through councillors to end economic, political and social deprivation of tribal areas and bring them to mainstream,” he said.

However, he deplored, even after the passage of one year, councillors had not been delegated any power and the reform process had not moved ahead.

The alliance chairman said that bureaucracy was the main hurdle in the way of reform. Funds allocated for health and education projects went into the pockets of bureaucrats while problems and grievances of tribal areas kept on multiplying, he added.

“There is no judicial system and officials in tribal agencies can lay hands to anybody,” he said, adding that the Frontier Crime Regulation had made lives of tribal people miserable. Pakistan had been an independent state for the past 58 years, but areas in Fata were yet to get independence, he pointed out.

He demanded of President Musharraf to do away with the Fata secretariat, saying its officials were involved in corruption.

CANDIDATE WITHDRAWS: The nominee of the Pakistan Muslim League, Mohammad Intikhab Khan, withdrew his cadidature for the post of Peshawar district nazim on Wednesday.