The Awami National Party (ANP) has decided to hold a Grand Tribal Conference after Eidul Fitr to discuss the problems of Fata, particularly in the context of the ongoing military operation against foreign militants and their local hosts in the region.
The ANP Additional Secretary General, Afrasiyab Khattak, announced this here in a press conference at Peshawar Press Club (PPC) on Wednesday.
Members of the ANP Committee on Fata Affairs, Abdul Latif Afridi, Shahabuddin Khan and Mohammed Imran Afridi flanked him.
The ANP leader said the preparations have already been started, adding prominent figures from tribal belt, including ulema, elders and public opinion makers would attend the conference.
He said they wanted to hold the conference shortly, as engagements for the local government polls and the holy month of Ramzan could delay it.
Khattak, who is also a former chairman of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP), said the whole world was looking towards the Fata in general and South Waziristan in particular where a so-called operation against foreign militants and their local hosts was going on.
He said that 53 operations had been carried out in the area, which had claimed a lot of precious lives from both sides. However, he said the recent spell of the killing of tribal elders had brought about a dangerous situation.
In this connection, he particularly mentioned the killings of the prominent tribal elders like Malik Faridullah Khan, a former federal minister, Malik Mirza Alam Khan and others.
"The affects of the operation in South Waziristan have spread throughout the country and rumours of the extension of the operation to other areas of the tribal belt is further deteriorating the atmosphere," he said.
Despite the fact that the Political Parties Act had been extended to tribal areas, and political activities are banned, but the military has arrived to launch operation in the area.
He said that all matters relating to Fata were connected with the provincial government, but it has no say in the affairs as they have no representation in the provincial legislature.
He further said those basic human rights, which were guaranteed in the constitution under articles 8 to 28 have not been implemented, and the tribesmen have no access to these rights.
Similarly, he said that the tribal belt also did not have the local government system, saying that a drama of the Agency Councils had been staged, which have no powers.
For a change in the lives of the tribesmen, he called for the extension of the new district government system to tribal areas.
The ANP activist said his party considered the tribal belt as an integral part of the Pukhtoonkhwa (NWFP) and would not remain aloof from the problems of the region. Therefore, he said they were arranging the conference to discuss the issues.
Replying to a query, he said they would continue their struggle for the rights of the tribesmen like their stand on Kalabagh Dam, provincial autonomy and the renaming of the province as Pukhtoonkhwa. He rejected the NWFP Governor's constituted Fata Reforms Committee and termed it a lollypop for the tribesmen.
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