Daily Times

The All Qabail Loya Jirga on Tuesday threatened to block Pak-Afghan Highway from next Friday in a protest against merger of tribal districts in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

The protesting camp of the tribal people against merger of FATA areas continued for the second day at By-pass in Jamrud tehsil of Khyber district wherein tribal elders and representatives of anti-FATA merger movement were present.

Tribal elders including Malik Muhammad Hussain Afridi, Sardar Asghar Afridi, Daud Qabailistani, Malik Abdul Zahir Kokikhel, Dilbar Khan, Afrasiyab Afridi, Sher Bahadur Afridi while addressing the protesting camp said the FATA merger was against the will of the tribal people that was unacceptable. Our resources and minerals were occupied and illegal taxes being collected from the area.

The speakers said through the FATA merger the number of National Assembly and Senate seats has been lessened adding that FATA area must be given a status of the province according to their customs and traditions.

They said under a planned policy, the tribal people were being deprived of their due rights and made underprivileged adding this discrimination will not be accepted.

Sardar Asghar Khan Afridi said the Supreme Court has constituted a larger bench to decide about the merger of FATA areas and demanded that court proceedings in this regard should be completed on urgent basis for a verdict according to the wishes of tribal people.