Daily Times

Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chairman Imran Khan has said that he will soon meet Chief of Army Staff (COAS) General Qamar Javed Bajwa and discuss ways to end the suffering of the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata) people.

He made these remarks at a convention on Fata reforms held at the Khyber Pakthunkhwa CM House.

Khan said he would take a three-point agenda to the meeting: to reduce the numbers of security check posts, to clear the area of land mines and to expedite safe return of those forcibly disappeared from their homes. “People from several families are missing and their parents are worried about their whereabouts,” Khan said.

He vowed that his party would seek FATA’s merger with KP among its first decisions if it was elected into office in the upcoming elections.

He said those opposing the merger were doing so out of fear of PTI’s popularity in the region.

The PTI chairman promised that an extra Rs100 billion would be spent on the development of the tribal areas by his party’s government if elected into power.

“The people of Fata are very patriotic and they have given many sacrifices to maintain stability in the country,” he said, adding that the PTI had formed a committee for Fata reforms and the recommendations had been forwarded to the standing committee on reforms in Fata. He also vowed to hold local government elections in the tribal areas within three to five months after winning the 2018 election.

Published in Daily Times, April 12^th 2018.