Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: The All Parties Conference (APC) of Awami National Party (ANP) on Thursday called for constitutional merger of FATA into Khyber Pakhtunkhwa so that the tribal area’s people could get representation in the provincial assembly in the 2018 elections.

However, Jamiat Ulema Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) leader Fazlur Rehman and Pakhtunkhwa Milli Awami Party (Pk-MAP) disagreed with the idea of the merger.

The ANP organized an all parties’ conference on FATA reforms, which was attended by different political party leaders, including opposition leader Syed Khurshid Shah, Fazlur Rehman, Mehmood Khan Achakzai, Asfandyar Wali Khan, FATA MPs, MQM and QWP representatives.

The joint declaration issued after the APC demanded of the supported constitutional and democratic rights of the people of FATA and demanded of the government to take administrative, financial and legal measures for the merger of FATA with Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, so that the tribesmen could elect their representatives to the provincial assembly in the 2018 general elections.

The conference called for avoiding delaying tactics in merger of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and warned that if the merger was further delayed the participating parties would not hesitate from taking any step for implementation of FATA reforms.

The APC demanded of the government merge the FATA with Khyber Pakhtunkhwa constitutionally so that it became part of the province. The APC also demanded of the government to abolish the Frontier Crimes Regulation (FCR) and extend the jurisdiction of the Peshawar high court to FATA. The APC asked the government to constitutional, legal and democratic rights to the people of FATA. The APC also called for 10-year development plan for FATA. The APC also demanded representation of FATA in provincial assembly.

The strange thing about the APC was that Fazl and Achakzai expressed disagreement with the declaration. Opposition Leader in National Assembly Khursheed Shah said that all parties joining hands for the reforms in FATA was a welcome move and the majority wanted merger of FATA into KP.

Published in Daily Times, September 15^th 2017.