RECORDER REPORT

PESHAWAR: Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) Fata has announced to hold a long march to Islamabad against the delay in merger of tribal region with Khyber Pakhtunkhwa from December 10.

Speaking at a news conference at press club on Monday, JI Fata President, Sardar Khan said that the long march would start from the historic Bab-e-Khyber in Jamrud and end at the Parliament House in Islamabad. They said that apart from top leadership of the Jamaat-e-Islami, large number of tribesmen would also participate in the long march.

He said the delay in merger of Federally Administered Tribal Areas with Khyber Pakhtunkhwa was tantamount to keep deprive people of tribal region from their all due rights.

“We twice held protest sit-ins in front of the Governor House in Peshawar for Fata’s merger. The KP governor pledged on both the occasions that he would expedite the merger process but the federal government is not serious in implementing the recommendations of the reforms committee.

The government is deliberately delaying the implementation process only to appease its allies, Sardar Khan remarked.

Flanked by JI Fata Acting General Secretary, Hassan Shinwari and Deputy Secretary General, Sultan Akbar and others, Sardar Khan criticised the elected representatives from Fata for their failure to raise voice for rights of tribal people

He said the abolishment of the Frontier Crime Regulations (FCR) Act is inevitable to ensure all fundamental rights to people of tribal agencies.

He said the JI long march led by provincial President, Mushtaq Ahmad Khan and other tribal leaders to Islamabad will start from Bab-e-Khyber on Dec 10. He said the party workers will join the rally in Pabbi, Nowshera, Jehangira.

He said rallies will be held at Attock and Faizabad, later the demonstrators will further proceed to Islamabad to hold a sit-in in D-chowk.

The JI leader said that they would also invite leaders and workers of other political parties to join the long march.

Sardar Khan said the government should implement the report of the six-member committee that recommended the merger of tribal areas with the province. The JI leader said the committee had presented its report in 2016, while the federal cabinet too approved it but it had been put in the cold storage to please “few” people.