KHYBER: The elected councillors from three tehsils of Khyber have decided to launch a joint protest campaign if their demand for empowerment and release of funds is not accepted by government.

In a meeting held at Jamrud Press Club on Monday, councillors from Jamrud, Bara and Landi Kotal expressed reservations about the continuous delay in provision of development funds to them despite a lapse of more than 15 months since they were elected.

They reminded the relevant authorities that local government system in the newly-merged districts was one of the main demands of the people of those regions prior to the passage of the 25th Amendment.

They said that the federal government had reneged on most of the promises it had made with the people of tribal districts at the time of merger of erstwhile Fata with Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, depriving them of their basic constitutional rights.

The participants of the meeting accused the federal government of neglecting tribal districts in the new federal budget and demanded of the provincial caretaker government to allocate special development funds to the local government representatives.

The councillors also demanded establishment of offices at the neighbourhood and village council level alongside provision of necessary paraphernalia for the offices.

They threatened to start a joint protest campaign in all tribal districts if their demands were not met prior to the passage of the provincial budget.

Published in Dawn, June 13th, 2023