KHYBER: Former federal minister from Khyber tribal district Hameedullah Jan Afridi on Tuesday joined Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam Fazl (JUI-F).

Sources said that JUI-F chief Mulana Fazlur Rehman and his brother Mulana Attaur Rehman along with senior members of the party central council held a meeting with Mr Afridi in Islamabad on Monday and extended him formal invitation to join their party which he accepted.

Talking to Dawn, Mr Afridi said that the main reason of his joining JUI-F was the commonality about their stance about merger of Fata with Khyber Pakhtunhwa.

“I had in recent past vehemently opposed the merger of erstwhile Fata with Khyber Pakhtunkhwa single handedly with almost no support from any of the sitting parliamentarians from the tribal districts,” he said. He added that JUI-F too opposed the merger so he joined the party to plead the case of tribal people.

Mr Afridi remained independent throughout his career as parliamentarian from Khyber since 2003 when he was first elected to Senate on reserved seats for erstwhile Fata.

He won the 2008 general elections from one of the two National Assembly seats from Khyber and was made federal minister for environment the next year.

“I now have the platform of one of the country’s major political party from where I will contest the anti-merger case along with trying to win the constitutional rights for the deprived people of erstwhile Fata,” Mr Afridi told Dawn.

Meanwhile, a police patrolling party narrowly escaped an attack in Shahkas locality of Jamrud on Tuesday.

Jamrud SHO Muslim Khan said that a motorcyclist opened fire on a police party but missed the target. The police, he said, retaliated and also chased the attacker.

Police later claimed to have arrested the main culprit Ishaq, an Afghan national, along with one of his accomplices Shakirullah during a search operation. Both the arrested persons were shifted to Jamrud lockup for interrogation.

Published in Dawn, November 11th, 2020