Fata: Jamaat demands implementation of recommendations

Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) has warned to launch a long march from Peshawar to Islamabad if the federal government doesn't implement the recommendations of Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) Reforms Committee. Addressing a press conference here on Monday, Emir JI KP Mushtaq Ahmad Khan said that as per the recommendations of the FATA Reforms Committee, the federal government should merge FATA with Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KPK) province, besides ending the Frontier Crimes Regulations (FCR) laws in the tribal belt. He said that the long march will start from Khyber Pass and culminate in the federal capital. Voicing reservations on recent national census, the JI called for a review of the statistics pertaining to the tribal areas.
He said that apart from the JI, ruling party in KP Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), main opposition party in the Parliament Pakistan People Party (PPP), former KP ruling party Awami National Party (ANP) and other political parties have also backed the merger of FATA with KP. He said that the long march will not only be attended by JI activists but the party will invite other parties to take part in the national cause, adding that the government should approve the recommendations in the next meeting of National Assembly otherwise the JI along with other parties will launch the long march on December 10 and stage a sit-in in front of the Prime Minister's House against the delay in the implementation of FATA reforms package.
The JI KP chapter Emir said that the march would enter the democratic struggle of tribal people into a decisive march soon, adding that it was actually an attempt to disgrace the committee and the Cabinet members as they both had approved the recommendations some months back. The federal government was delaying the process of implementation on FATA reforms package just for nothing. This step-motherly attitude compelled the JI to call for a march on Islamabad as time has come to give all fundamental rights to dwellers of the ever-neglected areas of the country.
It is unacceptable to further tolerate the delaying tactics of the federal government; he said adding that about 10 million tribesmen have been kept deprived of their basic rights, while just a few individuals are living luxurious lives. The federal government has been responsible for all these injustices meted out to tribesmen since long, he alleged. Though a committee constituted by the government to bring FATA in the mainstream had proposed in its recommendations that tribal areas should be made part of the KP. This proposal had already been approved by the Federal Cabinet in March this year, but since then there has been a complete silence on the part of the federal government to go ahead regarding implementing the reforms package, he said.
While expressing reservations on national census, he said that as per rough estimates, the population of FATA is over 10 million which is not reflecting by the census; therefore, the government should review it. The forthcoming general elections are coming nearer day by day but the federal government has yet to approve giving representation to FATA in the KP Assembly, he said. This process should be expedited so that the tribal people can also have provincial lawmakers in the province.