PESHAWAR, April 2: The Fata Lawyers Forum on Wednesday hailed the prime minister’s announcement of repealing the Frontier Crimes Regulation and demanded that a special assembly should be established for the Federally Administered Tribal Areas on the pattern of provincial assemblies.

The forum suggested that the special assembly should be empowered to elect tribal senators and to vote in presidential elections.

“The government should implement reforms in Fata proposed by a committee headed by Justice (retired) Mian Mohammad Ajmal in 2006,” said Kareem Mehsud, president of the forum, at a press conference at the Peshawar Press Club.

Mr Mehsud, flanked by forum vice-president Wali Khan Afridi, general secretary Taj Mahal Afridi and others, said the FCR had become a symbol of tyranny and was a security risk for people in tribal regions. He alleged that it was a tool used by bureaucrats to exploit tribesmen for their own vested interests, instead of providing justice and security to the people.

Wali Khan said those supporting the FCR were tribesmen who had been receiving petty benefits from the bureaucracy and the tribal administration. He added that if supporters of the FCR could cite even a single positive provision in it they would stop opposing it.

He said that under the constitution, the judiciary should be separated from the executive, but in Fata political agents had been exercising numerous powers, including executive and judicial.

“Judiciary should be separated from the executive so that political agents could not misuse their authority,” said Taj Mahal Afridi. The FCR, he added, was a remnant of the colonial rulers who had introduced it to suppress freedom fighters and prolong their occupation of the subcontinent. He said any decision about the future of tribal people should be taken by the elected assembly and not by the president and the governor.

They called upon the government to end the army operation and withdraw troops from tribal areas. They said the issue of militancy should be addressed through negotiations and tribal traditions, instead of military operation.

They demanded a special package for developing infrastructure in Fata, especially improving health and education facilities.