KHYBER: All Qabayal Loya Jirga staged a demonstration at the historic Bab-i-Khyber in Jamrud here on Sunday and urged the Supreme Court to constitute a larger bench to hear the petition filed by people of the erstwhile Fata who were opposed to its merger with Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

The participants also demanded immediate repeal of the 25th constitutional amendment through which former Fata was merged into Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

Speaking on the occasion, jirga chairman Malik Mohammad Hussain, coordinator Sardar Asghar, chief of Adamkhel Qaumi Tehreek Noor Zaman, Bazar Gul Afridi, Umar Qabayalistani, Asmatullah Kukikhel and Shamsullah Jawaki alleged that Fata merger was a foreign conspiracy which was imposed on the tribal people.

They claimed that important decisions about the fate of former Fata were made behind closed doors. They accused the KP government of unlawfully occupying the natural resources of former Fata.

Published in Dawn, November 14th, 2022