PESHAWAR: The Qaumi Watan Party has announced to hold protest rallies at the district headquarters across Khyber Pakhtunkhwa to push for implementation of the Fata reforms.

This was announced by QWP provincial chairman Sikandar Hayat Khan Sherpao while speaking at the party’s provincial executive committee meeting here on Sunday. He said the federal government was using delaying tactics to materialise its reforms plan which had caused serious unrest among the people of Fata.

Mr Sherpao said Pakhtuns had been suffering for the past many years on account of the war against terrorism and that it was duty of the rulers to accept their demands at the earliest.

He asked the party workers to mobilise the masses for the protest rallies to build pressure on the government to implement the Fata reforms, the main plank of which is the merger of the tribal region with KP.

The QWP provincial chief expressed reservations over the distribution of development schemes under the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor and said that Pakhtuns had been demanding construction of the western route but the federal government was not serious to heed their calls.

He said it was time the federal government compensated the militancy-hit KP province in the CPEC. He regretted that the entire focus of the multibillion dollar project was on Punjab.

Mr Sherpao said keeping Pakhtuns deprived of their due rights would further increase unrest among them, adding the constitution guaranteed equal rights to the citizens of all the regions of the country.

The meeting also reviewed the preparations for the functions to be held on the QWP’s foundation day in October. The office-bearers were asked to ensure participation of maximum number of workers in the main event.

The QWP’s other senior leaders also shared views on the occasion about various issues, including the party’s reorganisation, and seconded the decisions taken by the leadership in this regard.

Published in Dawn, September 18th, 2017