PESHAWAR - Tribal women have voiced concern over the dropping of the Federally-Administered Tribal Areas Reforms Bill from the agenda of teh National Assembly’s session and demanded of the federal government to merge the tribal belt with the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa before the general elections 2018.
Addressing a news conference at Peshawar Press Club on Friday, Qabaili Khor chairperson Nosheen Jamal said that the federal government was not serious to bring reforms and change in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata).
She said that the tribal people had been deprived of their fundamental rights due to the imposition of the draconian Frontier Crime Regulation (FCR) in Fata. Nosheen also said that tribal women had been badly affected after their displacement from their respective tribal agencies in the wake of military operations.
She also expressed anguish over JUI-F chief Maulana Fazl Rahman and PkMAP head Mahmood Achakzai opposition to the merger of Fata with Khyber- Pakhtunkhwa and demanding to declare tribal region as a separate province. She said both leaders don’t want to end deprivation and darkness from tribal region, adding that merger of Fata with Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa was the only solution to end all the miseries of the tribal people.
The representative said the abolishment of FCR was inevitable to ensure all basic human rights along with constitutional rights to the people of Fata. She also demanded to put the tribal region on the path of development and progress by bringing it to the mainstream politics.
Nosheen expressed concern of the government proposed Riwaj Act, which she termed another shape of the FCR, which is going to enforce in tribal agencies.
She asked the federal government to remove all flaws from the proposed Fata reforms bill and urged upon political parties to unanimously endorse it to end the darkness from tribal region forever.
The Qabaili Khor chief demanded immediate merger of Fata with KP before the next the general elections in 2018.
She also demanded of the federal government to take proactive measures for early repatriation and rehabilitation of temporarily displaced persons, rehabilitation of education, health and road infrastructures in the militancy-hit tribal region.
