Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: Jamiat Ulama-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) protested throughout the tribal areas on Thursday against the media coverage given by several radio stations to the merger of FATA with Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP).

In his telephonic conversation with Daily Times, JUI-F FATA President Mufti Abdul Shakoor said his party’s FATA units had been directed to hold demonstrations in the tribal areas and the Frontier Regions (FRs) to register protest against the “partial reporting” by radio channels.

“We plan to hold more rallies in front of press clubs in all the seven tribal regions and FRs to set the effigies of Radio Mashaal or Radio Free Europe, Deewa Radio or Voice of America (VoA) and Radio Azadi (Radio Free Europe) to register our protest against their malicious campaign against our security institutions and their biased reporting of merging FATA with KP,” he added.

He said the series of protests had been launched. “The first protest was held on Thursday in Jamrud, the headquarters of Khyber Agency. The last one would be organised in DI Khan on November 26 to inform people against the ‘nefarious designs’ of those radio channels,” he said.

Dozens of protesters marched from Khyber Press Club to Baba-e-Khyber and chanted slogans against Deewa and Mashaal Radios.

Speaking to protesters, JUI-F local leader Mufti Ijaz said that the transmission of the the radios stations was biased.

He demanded that security institutions should take notice of these radio stations.

Ayub Jan Sirhindi, the general secretary of Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists (PFUJ), said that no one could stop others from holding peaceful demonstration.

“It is the right of people to hold protests. However, the protests should be peaceful,” Sirhindi said.

When contacted for comments, Sailab Mehsud, a reporter for Radio Mashaal and former president Tribal Union of Journalists (TUJ), said that that move would only serve to divide the people of this region the way they were divided on the issue of FATA’s future status.

“The people of FATA have matchless regard for their religion and they should not be divided on religious lines. I ask JUI-F to come and sit with us to resolve the issue amicably,” Mehsud added.