Khyber: In a meeting held at Jamrud’s Bab-e-Khyber on Wednesday, tribal elders refused to merge the erstwhile tribal areas into Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
A large number of anti-merger protesters from Waziristan to Bajaur, organized under the banner of FATA Qaumi Jirgan, took part.
Chairman of FATA Qaumi Jirga Bismillah Khan Afridi and others were among those present at the event, who said that on May 31, 2018, the then government decided to merge the former tribal areas without the consent of the tribes.
The founder of the nation gave them the right to determine their own future, but then the ruler rejected the promise of Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah and imposed it.
Instead of providing relief, the merger has increased the woes of the united tribe and the lack of basic facilities has worsened the social condition of the tribe, he said.
They said that the tribes rejected the police and the Patwar system and the alien justice system introduced in the united tribal districts, that they could not do justice to their grievances and that the government did not promise them a three percent share in the NFC award. They noted that the 25,000 Casualties and Levies had not yet created a permanent force.
Participants supported the tribal resolution at a three-day workshop organized by the Mehsud tribe of South Waziristan in Peshawar.
The speaker said that the spirit to cancel the FCR and merge was to seize the minerals of the former tribal entity.
They asked the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court to constitute a larger bench on the writ petition against the merger order.
