LANDI KOTAL (Khyber Agency), May 30: The Awami National Party’s provincial vice-president Imran Afridi has termed the agency councils powerless and demanded their replacement with elected bodies.

Speaking to party workers in Bara on Tuesday, Mr Afridi alleged that the councils had become a rubber stamp for the political administration. He said only an elected council could solve the problems of the tribal areas.

He termed the Fata Grand Alliance formed by councillors a brainchild of the bureaucracy.

He criticised the alliance’s demand for the continuation of the Frontier Crimes Regulation, insisting that a majority of the tribesmen were in favour of its abolition.

He opposed the alliance’s demand for a separate status for the tribal area and demanded the region’s integration into the NWFP. He said the merger would usher in an era of prosperity and development in the area.

Mr Afridi rejected President Pervez Musharraf’s proposal of renaming the NWFP as Khyber.

Lashing out at the demand for a federal ministry from the tribal senators, he said they were furthering their own interests.