BAJAUR: Criticising both the federal and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa governments for not approving any mega development project for the tribal districts in the recently announced budgets, the Jamaat-i-Islami on Sunday announced that a large number of activists would participate in the party’s protest on June 23 in Peshawar for the rights of the merged districts.

JI Bajaur chief Sardar Khan made the announcement at a press conference here.

He claimed that the federal and provincial governments had failed to allocate sufficient uplift funds for the region in all the previous and the last budget.

Flanked by party leaders, including former MNA Sahibzada Haroon Rasheed, Maulana Waheed Gul, Qari Abul Majeed and others, Sardar Khan said allocation of meager funds for the tribal districts showed the centre and the province were not interested in development of the militancy-hit region.

He said the JI’s protest movement would go a long way in realising the rights of the merged districts in accordance with the 25th Constitutional Amendment.

Sardar Khan said after participating in the sit-in to be staged outside the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly on June 23, the participants would move to Islamabad to hold a protest demonstration outside the parliament building.

He said rallies would also be held in the districts headquarters across the merged districts. Sardar Khan alleged that the present government had ignored most of the agreements as per the 25th Constitutional Amendment.

The JI leader said allocation of three per cent share in the NFC award, Rs100 billion on an annual basis, establishment of one university in each tribal district, a medical college and recruitment of 40,000 police personnel in the tribal districts were among the measures to be taken under the constitutional amendment.

But, according to him, none of the promises had been met as yet by the PTI government during its three years tenure at the helm.

The JI district chief lashed out at the provincial government for not approving any model college in the tribal districts.

Published in Dawn, June 21st, 2021