Daily Times

KHYBER AGENCY: A youth conference was held in Jamrud to discuss abolition of Frontier Crime Regulation (FCR) and the merger of Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) into Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP), on Saturday.

The youth conference was organised by Member of National Assembly (MNA) Alhaj Shah Jee Gul Afridi and attended by Jamiat Ulema-e Islam (Sami-ul- Haq group) KP ameer Maulana Yousaf Shah, MNA Haji Nazir Khan, ex- FATA senator Abdurrehman Faqir, FATA Students Organization President Shaukat Aziz, local political and student leaders, elders and a large number of members of civil society.

Addressing the event, Shahjee Gul Afridi said that time had arrived to bring the tribal belt to the mainstream by eliminating centuries old draconian law – FCR – from FATA, and merge it into KP.

He maintained that the tribesmen rejected the ‘black law’ [FCR] and wanted to be ruled by the same laws imposed in other parts of the country.

“FATA deserves to be put on the way to progress and development as it has suffered a lot in war against terrorism for over a decade,” he said, adding that they were ready to strive for the rights of the oppressed tribesmen.

“Like other youth communities of the country, tribal youth wishes to be well-educated and to serve the country. For that purpose, merger of FATA with KP is needed,” he remarked.

He said that the FCR was the core cause of backwardness of the tribal areas and abolition of the ‘black law’ would remove the sense of deprivation among the tribesmen.

Other speakers including Haji Nazir Khan, Abdurrehman Faqir, Advocate Taj Mahal, Malik Nadeem Afridi, Qari Said Alam Shinwari and others vowed that their struggle would continue until the tribes get their basic rights.

Published in Daily Times, November 12^th 2017.