ZAHEER ABBASI

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf Chairman Imran Khan said that merger of the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata) with Khyber Pakhtunkhwa was critical for the future of tribal people.

While addressing the sit-in of tribal Jirga over killing of Naqeebullah Masud, he stated that those who are opposing the merger are against the development of tribal areas because 72 percent people in tribal areas are living below the poverty line. He said that merger with KP was important for their representation in KP assembly as well as access to justice and for the development of their future generations. He said that he would take up with Chief of Army Staff the issues of tribal people including landmines issue.

PTI chief stated that he was against the decision of former military ruler General Pervez Musharraf (Retd) of sending army in the tribal areas and becoming US ally in the war.

Khan said that he was familiar with the tribal custom and also wrote a book on Fata and added that Musharraf would not had sent the army in the tribal area, if he had read history of British in the sub-continent. The drone attacks by the US in the tribal areas were a violation of human rights, he said while adding that because of his opposition from 2004 onward to the sending of Pakistani forces in the tribal areas, he was being dubbed as Taliban Khan.

PTI chief stated that demands of Jirga are justified and they being supported by the entire country on Naqeebullah case. He said that many people like Naqeebullah were killed in the Karachi and stated that if Rao Anwar is hiding in Islamabad, he will also help them to find him out.